JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… (The Soul of a Man Edition)
Jarold Imes, author of “I Used To Love H.E.R.”
(Peace In The Storm Publishing)
About “I Used To Love H.E.R.”: Calvin Rice must find a way to move on after learning that the love of his life has had an affair and is leaving him for another man. Will he stay true to his faith in God or will he succumb to the temptation of the flesh to get revenge.
Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write “I Used to Love H.E.R.”?
Jarold Imes: I have been wanting to write a book about “The Street Disciples Ministry” and its members ever since I got saved five years ago. I feel like this was an assignment from The Lord, and I have been blessed to see some books and some of the short stories about the members come to light. This story allowed me to focus on a character many of my readers love and oft times, love to hate.
Calvin is one of my most unique characters because he’s made appearances in several of my teen novels, most notably Worth Fighting 4 and Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number. He is also finally getting his own teen book called Nothing Is 4 Nothing.
“I Used to Love H. E. R.” allowed me to explore his life as an adult, especially given the situation he found himself in at the end of Worth Fighting 4. I also wanted to tackle the subject of love and divorce from a male’s point of view.
Most importantly, I cover divorce from a spiritual point of view. I feel like every time a divorce happens, the male’s voice is always silenced or the male is made into some evil monster. Men are never shown to be victims of infidelity, abuse and other domestic issues; even though it happens more times than we want to admit. I wanted to show his frustrations and vulnerability.
JP: What has been your personal experience in being a part of The Soul of a Man Anthology?
JI: I have been blessed to be part of both The Soul of a Man and its predecessor The Triumph of My Soul. I got joy in being able to tithe my talent and my time to write stories that give glory to Him and show real people struggling with real issues and their faith and how He pulls them through.
Being part of these anthologies have also motivated me to write my first Christian fiction novel and given me a platform in which to share my God given talents and to write more spiritual based fiction in not just in my Christian fiction works, but in all the genres I write in.
JP: What is your most memorable moment of The Soul of a Man in terms of what has been expressed of you by someone who has had a chance to read this book?
JI: I’m always asked if Calvin is going to get his own book or if he is going to have other opportunities to tell his story. The short answer to the question is yes, he will. A lot of readers who enjoyed the story liked the fact that I tackled divorce from a man’s point of view and the conflict he had with getting a divorce and his faith.
JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish “I Used to Love H.E.R.”?
JI: As I’ve grown as an author, I find that I am apt to apply different writing processes to different novels, depending on the genre I’m writing at the time. Outlining and doing story boarding works for some of the novels I write. For others, I have a vision or a sequence of dreams, and I write down what I see and hear. I’ve written down outlines I haven’t touched in years, and I have taken chapters, thoughts, opinions I’ve written years ago and found ways to improve and incorporate them in other bodies of work.
Short stories that are 2,000 to 15,000 words are usually written off the top of my head and completed in a few days to a week. With “I Used to Love H.E.R.”, this story was written in two parts. The first four chapters were written in three days and submitted first, and the second four chapters were written in a week about a month or so after wards. So my story was actually two submissions (thank you, Elissa).
JP: What is next for Jarold Imes?
JI: I’m looking to take my literary career in a different direction. I’ve spent most of the last four years publishing and promoting young adult books and Christian fiction. I still want to do that, but I have interests outside of these genres that I have begun actively exploring as well.
Right now, I’m working on two books that will most likely be the very last Jarold Imes teen novels, The Thing About Love and Nothing 4 Thing. Most of my Jarold Imes teen novels deal with social issues and are primarily geared to young men.
I am currently working on a set of teen books under a pseudonym that will be geared to both male and female readers. At this moment, I am not one hundred percent sure what the new name will be that I will write under. My street themed Christian fiction titles are being republished under the pseudonym Isaiah David Paul.
As I am finishing Street Disciples, which will contain my story “I Used to Love H.E.R”. I am also redoing parts of He Changed The Game, so I can release a new version with new and expanded chapters. I hope to start seeing my Christian fiction work back on the market late 2011 or early 2012.
http://www.isaiahdavidpaul.com/ – My Website/Blog for my faith based works.
http://www.ourteenvoices.com/ – My Young Adult Literary Blog
http://www.abednegosfree.com/ – My publishing house where I publish young adult and contemporary adult fiction of many genres.
http://www.myspace.com/jaroldimes
http://www.myspace.com/isaiahdavidpaul
http://www.facebook.com/jaroldimes
http://www.facebook.com/isaiahdavidpaul
http://www.twitter.com/ourteenvoices
http://www.twitter.com/jaroldimes
http://www.twitter.com/isaiahdavidpaul
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