Category Archives: 5 minutes 5 questions with

5 Minutes, 5 Questions With M.G. Hardie, author of EveryDay Life

JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
M.G. Hardie, author of EveryDay Life
(Lumina Press)

mg hardie headshot everydaylife - book cover

(click on the pictures to see this book on Amazon)

Within this Rhythm and Blues world, L is a young African-American man living in a one bedroom apartment in one of the many long forgotten ghettos of America. He struggles with drug use, gang violence and the usual bitchassness of his friends. During bouts of persistent assholeism, no subject from spankings to war is off limits for these four friends.

At a moment’s notice, these friends delve into a convoluted, yet endearing game of The Dozens. L was once a promising athlete that is now relegated to the ghetto after being unjustly prosecuted. He is no longer satisfied with his lot in life and decides to makes some life-altering changes after much soul-searching, unwarranted police stops and the shiftless nature of his urban comrades.

Follow L and his friends as they expound on their views of life, love and society in a Hip-Hop nation. You know the sort of things that happen in EveryDay Life. Prepare for a book so Hip-Hop you can almost hear the bass thump!

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write EveryDay Life?

M.G. Hardie: It can’t be denied that African-American Literature has drawn more people into reading than the Reading Is Fundamental program. I just wanted readers to be able to see real experiences through my words. I wanted people to see beyond my made up adjectives and coined words. My goal was to convey powerful messages, not by the end of the book, but throughout the book by words and phrases. My whole life has been about making it through the night to get to brighter days. We all have had those dark moments in life, and they are not even remotely funny. However, years later when you look back on those events they become very funny such is EveryDay Life.

JP: What sets EveryDay Life apart from other urban fiction novels?

MH: My book EveryDay Life itself is a contradiction. I asked myself why does a Stage Play have to be fiction? Am I expected to do what everyone else is doing? It is hard to stay true to that game when you are breaking age-old literary conventions. When you do something new there will always be resistance. But like Kanye West said in Finer Things “I’m inspired when people don’t like me.” It is a historic time in America. It is truly a time for change, a time to do something new. Some people just won’t get it, while most others will. I think that is a testament to the duality I placed on each page. I could have written a Fiction book, but that would have been too easy. What I came up with in EveryDay Life, aside from the shear non-sense, is humor with thought-provoking side effects.

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to EveryDay Life getting out to the public?

MH: Enjoy what you do so it won’t seem like a job. For me, Diligence and Faith worked for me. I have children, so I had to try and work out a regular schedule to sit down and write. I wrote EveryDay Life not expecting anything really, so EveryDay Life has already exceeded expectations. Actually I was speaking to a youth about the process of writing my book and how I had to change to get out of the gloomy times in my life. Afterwards his mother came up to me. She really thanked me for talking to him. Needless to say I was deeply moved.

JP: As an author, what is your writing process?

MH: Writing for me simply began as the result of a bad memory. In 2006 after I graduated from college, I just began writing. I wrote every day. I wrote feelings, thoughts, and conversations from certain times in my life. After about 12,000 words, I let someone who didn’t like me read it. When they couldn’t stop laughing, my mind was made up on getting it published.

JP: How long did it take for you to start and finish EveryDay Life?

MH: A lifetime. It took me about three months to finish. It underwent about ten revisions until it was in the publisher’s hands.

JP: What’s next for M.G. Hardie?

MH: Right now I am looking at record and stage production companies that want something new and never done before like this Hip-Hop Stage Play. I am also looking forward with EveryDay Life to appear on screens small and large. I am already exploring a possible follow-up to EveryDay Life.

www.myspace.com/mghardie

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P.S.S. If you want to be feature in a 5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… series, email me at joeyDOTpinkneyATgmailDOTcom or myspace.com/joeyreviews

5 Minutes, 5 Questions With Sherredah Barnes, author of Fighting the Battles of My Life

JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Sherredah Barnes, author of
Fighting the Battles of My Life

(Greenehouse Media)


Sherredah Barnes is a survivor. Now she wants to help save young girls and women from abusive relationships before it’s too late. In this true life story entitled Fighting the Battles of My Life, learn how one woman overcame abusive relationships, extreme poverty, renewed her self-esteem, raised nine children and ultimately found Christ. Sherredah candidly shares her past experience in order to help those who have walked in her shoes and are still trying to find a way out.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Fighting the Battles of My Life?

Sherredah Barnes: My struggles in life inspired me to write my life story. I wanted to inspire and to motivate women that have been in abusive relationships. I wanted to let them know that there is a way out. I have battled abuse, poverty, addiction, rejection, and a wounded heart, but I found my way. I found myself because I endured the battles.

JP: What sets Fighting the Battles of My Life apart from other novels in its genre?

SB: This book covers all types of life crises and challenges. Many books on the topic only states one or two life struggles that the authors may have faced in their lives. Fighting The Battles Of My Life tells you how the author was able to defeat all of her adversities that came along with being abused and other trials and tribulations. This book is a wake up call for any man or woman who is fighting their own battles and is seeking some hope and direction for a better life.

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to Fighting the Battles of My Life getting out to the public?

SB: Will power, determination, faith, prayer, endurance, hard work, and the fact that I remained focused.

JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish Fighting the Battles of My Life?

SB: I’m inspired to write about my life experiences. I’m only 35 years old, but I fell like I have lived the life of an 80-year-old woman. I’m also inspired to write about my dreams, and it would go from there. I was instructed by God to write my life story in December of 06, and I finished in December of 07.

JP: What’s next for Sherredah Barnes?

SB: I’m currently working on the sequel to Fighting The Battles Of My Life, which will be out late 09. I have about 25 book ideas, so I don’t know were to start. But I thank God for the gift of writing. Because of Him all of this is possible. I’m very interested in writing a Christian Romance Novel.

http://twitter.com/author73

http://www.myspace.com/sherredah73

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5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Dedra Muhammad, author of Making Mary

JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Dedra Muhammad, author of Making Mary
(Rising South Literacy School)

Making Mary provides keen observation of the human condition. The story, based in actual fact and masterfully told, has two major settings: 1920s Escambia County, Florida, and Pontiac, Michigan.

It is both a romance novel and a chronicle of the social conditions of a “dead” people, told from the point of view of an omniscient narrator who is steeped in understanding of human and social cycles, especially as they relate to familial struggles.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the inspiration to write Making Mary?

Dedra Muhammad: I never aspired to be a writer. Still today, my mother continues to caution me that I should be sure to read more than I write and listen more than I talk.

Back in the 80’s, I learned some interesting facts about my great grandparents. I became inspired to learn more. When I did, I wanted the story told. I realized the story would benefit people worldwide, yet it would never be told unless I learned how to write it myself.

Some of the history revealed may be considered shameful to many. Therefore, this history had purposely been swept under the rug. Even I struggled with how I could tell the story and leave my family out of it. This delayed the publication of Making Mary for years.

JP: What sets Making Mary apart from any other love story regardless of time, race and gender?

DM: Making Mary is outwardly guised as a breathtaking love story. The love triad serves to navigate the sensibilities of the reader. The reader is compelled to fall in love with the characters. In fact, the passion readers possess for the extraordinarily well-developed characters gives the other themes unimaginable strength.

Making Mary can be called the greatest love story ever because readers have probably never experienced the character depth in other stories. How can one fall in love with someone they don’t truly know?

How Stella got her Groove Back, though entertaining, pales in comparison to the ardor and profundity present in Making Mary. This is not to subtract from the former. It is to suggest that readers are more privy to the whys in Making Mary. Readers are hence propelled to find solutions to their own every day struggles since they can identify with the seemingly most vicious villains in Making Mary or that part of self we tend to hide from others.

The Best Man can be considered a love story. Making Mary is more than a love story. A story of love is told, and that story happens to be the most heart wrenching story I’ve ever read in my life. Yet to describe it as a love story alone would be misleading. Making Mary is like The Secret in the sense that there is a crystal clear connect when a reader is engaged in the story. I know right away if one has thumbed through it versus reading it. Some book club representatives have thumbed through it and went so far as to write reviews based on skimming.

To make it plain, I sometimes describe Making Mary as a love story to capture the attention of readers who are accustomed to a particular genre. Making Mary is thus quite palatable to those who like Zane, Eric Jerome Dickey, and Terri McMillan. Nonetheless, she can sit on any book shelf next to the likes of the great Richard Wright, Zora Neal Hurston, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and Langston Hughes, and all would be in good company.

Jane Eyre is a riveting love story, if you will. Nonetheless the history and themes are so powerful that it is considered required reading in plenty of honors literature courses. Though entertaining, Waiting to Exhale is not the type of literature I would expect my English professor would have the class discuss as a group. Terri McMillan obviously did not mean it for that purpose.

Some critics have stated that Making Mary should be considered required reading in an array of fields. They have not made this claim because it is considered merely the most compelling love story of all times. What is noteworthy by God’s Grace is that Making Mary appeals to a wide audience. This “love story” has captured the hearts of incarcerated males, females with doctorates, single mothers with a high school education, guys who typically read urban fiction, Harvard English graduates, male Caucasian teachers, working class Caucasian women, and many more.

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that led to Making Mary getting out to the public?

DM: I cannot say I have been satisfactorily successful in getting Making Mary out to the public. When Making Mary was published in 2005, one newspaper editor refused to consider it for review. He said, “To be honest with you (based on the cover), this looks like another story about a man beating up on his wife or girlfriend.” With that being said, I drifted into a fearful shell and marketing ceased. Eventually, there was a spattering of book signings and speaking engagements which equaled rekindled enthusiasm.

During a tour in Detroit, after an October domestic violence awareness month campaign, I faced that one guy (or girl) beating up on his/her lover is one too many, and victims are so because they are silent. Here again, Making Mary isn’t a story about violence, but that is one of the themes. Since violence is one of the issues that was swept under my family’s rug, it has been easy to sweep away the marketing efforts. Today, since Making Mary has been described as a masterpiece, it is incumbent upon me to now learn how to do a better job marketing.

There are challenges I face. The fact that my last name is Muhammad and my book has a spiritual title, many reviewers may turn away. Therefore, I have decided to use a grass root technique. I plan to do my best to put the book in the hands of the common people and let word of mouth be a major marketing tool for me.

JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take you to start and finish Making Mary?

DM: It took quite some time to write Making Mary due to the fact that in the midst of writing, I went on a sabbatical. As I developed emotionally and spiritually, I had to reevaluate my words and even stop for months at a time to pray about if I was going in the right direction. In essay writing and in general, I find it important to always start with the end in mind.

JP: What’s next for Dedra Muhammad?

DM: I have a few surprises. I am trying to establish my self-discipline to ensure that some things I see in my mind’s eye can come into fruition. And even though I eventually want to do another novel, if it pleases God, it is very important that I stay focused on the marketing of my current “critically acclaimed” masterpiece.

http://www.makingmary.com
http://www.myspace.com/makingmary
http://www.myspace.com/dedra_muhammad

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