JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Roxanne Fredd, editor of If the Drugs Don’t Get U the Lifestyle Will
(R2R Store Publisher)
The main characters are Booker T and his wifey Tweet. Together, yet separately, they tell a tale of murders plus life with and without the uses of drugs.
Booker T is a serious, murdering, drug-selling, nightclub-owning pimp with his own cold words told from prison. Tweet, his wife, talks of how she felt being left at home alone while Booker T held it down on the streets and after he went off to prison. Tweet tells the story of the five other men that went off to prison one at a time before Booker T.
Obsessively driven and hell-bent on revenge, Tweet lives to kill a man she nicknamed the Marked Man because he set Booker T and the other five man up to take the fall. While Tweet tracks him down, she is plagued with visions of her own ugly, drug-filled days.
Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write If the Drugs Don’t Get U the Lifestyle Will?
Roxanne Fredd: This story started out as To Kill A Snake. My husband Booker T and I collaborated to create a heart-felt story about the downside to being a drug-pusher or drug-user. The story line did not match that title, so I changed it.
JP: If the Drugs Don’t Get U the Lifestyle Will digs deep into the lives and deaths caused by drug addiction. Whom do you plan to help with such a book?
RF: First off, my book may come off as some of the many others Urban Fiction titles: drugs, sex and revenge. However, If the Drugs Don’t Get U the Lifestyle Will is so much more than that. On the outside, the average person sees a drug-user walking the streets. They have hopes of selling their bodies, whether male or female, for the dope.
But what happens after the dope are gone? Past actions eat at their spirit. There is much self-hate that causes them to do such anything to get that little bit of stuff. This book illuminates that vicious cycle and shows the dead-end road of using drugs on a daily basis.
I pray it will help the ones thinking of trying drugs as something fun to do. I also think of the many people coming out of drug treatment thinking, “Now that I no longer use dope, I can sell it.” That is a big ass joke. A kid can’t sell candy nor can a monkey sell bananas. Why? I hold eleven years clean from the use of dope and alcohol (And yes, alcohol is a drug, too.)
As I have traveled this clean and sober road, I have gone into correction facilities to talk to the men and women doing serious time. I tried to help them see that addiction is not just about the dope one puts into their body. It is about the actions one takes with the dope. It’s about the need to feel that getting that feeling one more time with aid of the dope. I have built friendships and seen many people fall for some of the dumbest shit.
JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to If the Drugs Don’t Get U the Lifestyle Will getting out to the public?
RF: I never stop asking questions or asking for help with the things I do not know how to do. I’m on a life journey of learning everything I can, even at age 56. My no-down-time law helped me get my last book Gas Card out to the world. So if it works, why fix it?
JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take you to start and finish If the Drugs Don’t Get U the Lifestyle Will?
RF: It all starts inside of my head then moves onto pieces of paper. Big pieces, little pieces, what ever is at hand. I write stuff down and collect them all until it is time I can start to put them altogether. Joey, I have a number of other works in motion, therefore, I’m constantly jumping back and forth from one to the other along.
I also write for the magazine Going Bonkers and traveling as motivation speaker. I think it will be safe to say that it took me two years to write this particular book. My true hindrance has been need of an editor for my work. As a Dyslexic, I have to work twice as hard on writing and pay extra attention to dotting my Is and crossing my Ts.
JP: What’s next for Roxanne Fredd?
RF: Finish up my other writings along with trying my hand as a playwright. I’m turning my first book Gas Card into a stage-play. I have friends that write plays who will walk me through that process, so wish me the best.
http://www.myspace.com/authorroxannefredd
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