Category Archives: urban lit

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5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Ms. Pantha Jones, author of Respect My Gangsta Fully Loaded

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JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Ms. Pantha Jones, author of Respect My Gantsta Fully Loaded
(TaKeOver Publishing, LLC)

For Sorrow Sanae’ Hunter (affectionately known as Panther) life has designated struggle and death as her permanent shadows. The product of her mother’s infidelity, the stage is set from birth for the abuse and neglect Sorrow will have to endure.

If not for the love of her two brothers ,she would surely perish in the bowels of the streets. And when the circumstances of their mother’s reckless doped-up behavior led the brothers to drugs and murder, Sorrow (unknowingly to them) becomes their willing protégé.

They taught her how to hustle, protect herself, and most importantly, to make the world respect her gangsta.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Respect My Gangsta Fully Loaded?

Ms. Pantha Jones: I wanted to tell a story about how someone’s childhood can affect how they love, how they deal with others, what paths they will choose to take in life and how they see themselves. I wanted to show how their childhood affects how much respect they will demand from people and how much they respect themselves.

In this day and age, a lot of young women don’t have that self-respect nor do they demand it. Respect My Gangsta is also about a Continue reading 5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Ms. Pantha Jones, author of Respect My Gangsta Fully Loaded →

5 minutes 5 questions with, african american author, african american authors, african american book, african american books, amazon.com, interview, urban lit

5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Allysha Hamber, author of Unloveable Bitch: A Hoe is Born

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JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Allysha Hamber, editor of Unloveable Bitch: A Hoe is Born
(CreateSpace)

Meet Dream, a young, bright eyed girl growing up in the slums of St. Louis. Unlike most girls in her neighborhood, Dream has the luxury of growing up with something most of her friends don’t have, a father. But when tragedy strikes her life at the age of eight, Dream’s perfect world comes crashing down around her.

Soon, she finds herself thrown into a life of horror and pain. Forced from the only home she’s ever known, she learns the hard way that the only thing she has of value is her body and the only way she can survive is to use it. With a vicous pimp on her heels and no where to run, Dream is forced to adapt to a life on the streets in one of the worlds most dangerous cities.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Unlovable Bitch?

Allysha Hamber: Unlovable Bitch was the hardest book I’ve written to date because it’s personal. The first six chapters are my life as a child and my own personal trials and tribulations. I wanted to reach women and young girls all over in a way that they could understand. I wanted to let them know they were not alone…

JP: What sets Unlovable Bitch apart from other novels in its genre?

AH: It’s real. It’s spoken from my heart and from my own experiences. I couldn’t bring the real and raw emotion if I hadn’t gone through it. That’s what makes it connect to the readers the raw emotions.

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

AH: I push it and try to advertise alot on my own. I’m a firm believer in “you get out what you put in.” So whether it’s mass emails or airtime on the radio, I do whatever I can to get my book out there.

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

AH: I really don’t have a specific writing process. It comes to me in spurts. When it flows, it flows and I take full advantage of it. When it’s not there, I don’t try to force it because it won’t be genuine. I just go with the flow.

It took me about a month to write Unlovable Bitch once I started and that was because it was inside me for so long. It was yearning to come out.

JP: What’s next for Allysha Hamber?

AH: Unlovable Part II and Mika Avenue. My clothing line, PHEM is schdule for release Spring of 2010, and I’m setting my sights on screen writing The NorthSide Clit into a movie.

More about Allysha Hamber:

Allysha began her writing career behind the walls of a Federal Prison.  It was inside the solitude of the institution, that Allysha began sharing her past of emotional, physical and sexual abuse with the women of the institution.  It was her fellow inmates that both encouraged and inspired Allysha to share her testimony with the world through writing.

Allysha began writing plays of both raw and uncut abuse stories for her fellow inmates to perform.  The reviews were so intense and demanding, in 2002, the Camp Administrator authorized Allysha and an inmate production crew to perform a play for the Warden, staff and their families and outside guests, the first in the facility’s history.

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5 minutes 5 questions with, african american author, african american authors, african american book, african american books, amazon.com, street lit, urban fiction, urban lit

5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Ben, author of Up The Way

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JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Ben, author of Up The Way
(DC Bookdiva Publications)

(Three of the first ten people to comment on Ben’s author interview will win a FREE copy of Up The Way from JoeyPinkney.com)

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Up The Way?

Ben: The idea to write the story started as more of a challenge by a friend who I was incarcerated with. My inspiration was based on my previous experiences. A lot of it was loosely based on things that I witnessed while there.

JP: Many readers fantasize about prison culture without truly realizing the corrupt nature. What does Up The Way show about “belly of the beast” that has not been seen?

B: I believe that my book exposes the realities of what actually is taking place in most of the prisons today. It deals with corruption at the hands of the inmates, employees and our government. It also deals with homosexuality issues that affect our community.

Many individuals believe that prison life does not affect them because they are not in prison. However, most inmates will come home. There are issues that I deal with in the novel that directly affect us as a race from homosexuality to community unity.

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to Up The Way getting out to the public?

B: I first believed in my self. I wanted to change my reality and start to focus on myself as a man, for me first and my family second. I wanted to change my life and focus on recreating myself and my legacy. Writing was my outlet in prison and has been a my passion since grade school.

I wrote Up The Way as a form or entertainment for my fellow inmate friends and myself to laugh to keep from crying about the conditions we were in. I used the novel for entertainment and to also bring awareness to social issues within our community.

I shopped the book to several publishers who were not interested because my manuscript was not typed along with an outline of several other books that I was in the process of writing. We worked via mail and brief phone conversations to bring the project to completion, distributing over 1,000 copies in our first day of publication.

JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish Up The Way?

Ben: There is no formula. I have a wild and vivid imagination, so it comes with ease. The actual book took me about three weeks to write.

JP: What’s next for Ben?

Ben: I plan to expand into several other genres. I am currently working on an erotica series, a children’s book and a motivational/self help read.

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