The Next Big Thing

I was tagged by poet, novelist, and Harlem Renaissance scholar Hans Ostrom to participate in a self interview / game called "The Next Big Thing." It's designed to get you to share information about your current writing project. Hans's answers are especially great. Here are mine:

QUESTIONS:

What is the working title of the book?

"How to Leave the Midwest"

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The idea came several years ago as I thought about the father of a childhood friend. He was a backup singer with Motown who remained in Detroit after the company relocated to Los Angeles. I started thinking about that transition for him and for our community in general. As I started revising the first draft, other themes emerged like migration, escape, and what it means to move within a black body.

What genre does your book fall under?

Literary. Possibly thriller. Literary thriller- is that a genre?

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Jimmy: Don Cheadle

Igrid:  Tracey Heggins

Rome:  Laz Alonso

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Fearful of the changes happening in their neighborhood in 1979-1981, three residents of a Detroit suburb conspire to bring Motown back at any cost.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

The first draft was completed within months, and I'm happy that very few people have suffered through that reading! The revisions have taken years and have coincided with the birth of my children and my own relocation to various cities.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I'm inspired by black women writers who have gotten their stories down over the years. Those women are my inspiration.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Harry Houdini makes an appearance. Also Prince and former Detroit Mayor, Coleman  A.Young. 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I plan  to send out queries to literary agents.

Writers I Admire: Edwidge

My sketch of Edwidge Danticat. I did it sometime last year.

"This was Once All Underwater"

That's what Paul and I kept saying to friends while we drove around Sedona recently. The city is 4500 feet above sea level, but if you ever take a guided tour of the famous red rocks, you'll learn that it was "once all underwater," and that you're walking in a prehistoric seabed. The gradations in the rock are supposed to be evidence of the water as it receded over time.

All I know is Sedona is one of my favorite places on earth, followed by Paris. The scale of the place, like the Grand Canyon, is mind boggling. I'm trying to carry the bigness and three-dimensionality of Sedona around with me because everything looks so small and insignificant in comparison. In other words, it was a good vacation.

The photo is courtesy of Daily Venture.

Quotes: Ron Carlson

I've been reading Ron Carlson stories this week and loving every minute of it. Here's an excerpt from the story, "A Kind of Flying":

"It's quiet in the store today. I can count sparrows on the wire across the road. My advice! She smiled yesterday when I told her. Just get married. Have a friend sing your favorite song at the wedding. Marriage, she said, what is it? Well, I said, it's not life on a cake. It's a bird taking your head in his beak and you walk the sky. It's marriage. Sometimes it pinches like a bird's mouth, but it's definitely flying, it's definitely a kind of flying."

--from Plan B for the Middle Class. Copyright Ron Carlson 1992.

More Inspiration

Breath of Life (www.kalamu.com/bol) has an inspirational mixtape for the week of November 2nd that features music by Kirk Franklin, Chrissie Hynde, Grace Jones, Erykah Badu, Jhelisa, Meshell Ndegeocello, Ani DiFranco, Concha Buika, Nina Simone and more.

Medicine for Melancholy...and Writers Block

This movie just came out on Netflix and it's lovely. It reminded me of Love Jones because the couple is urban, artsy and black, but it's much different. Very subtle and smart. I've been inspired to write --

Quote of the Day

“To live for art, is to live a life of questioning. And if you believe, as I do, that to live for art demands that every other part of life be moved towards one end, then the question, 'How shall I live?' is fierce."

––Jeanette Winterson/Art Objects

What Water Means in the Desert

It's rained two nights in a row in Phoenix. It was dramatic rain, part of the monsoon season, complete with high winds and lightning. I've been away for a week but there was evidence of recent storms here as I pulled into my neighborhood Sunday evening. A couple of trees had torn branches. One jacaranda had simply snapped at the base of its trunk. I hate the damage done to the trees, but in general I like this weather. I think most people like the change from our usual sun and drought.

I thought about the lure of water last week in Sedona as I watched people jump from a cliff into frigid creek water. The water was so cold it left you breathless. There were more rocks than there was water, but you would have thought that we were at the beach. Hundreds of people stood around on the rocks waiting to jump from the cliff or to ride a shallow current that was as narrow as a playground slide.

Water. Everyone is drawn to it but it takes on added significance in the desert. When I'm riding the rail to work, there is a palpable energy that passes through the train when it crosses over Tempe Town Lake. People become calm. If you look east as the train crosses, the sun creates an illusion that the lake is a big body of water like an ocean. When the water abruptly ends, I'm reminded that it isn't an ocean but part of an intricate, man-made canal systen started by Hohokam Indians.

Water blesses, cleanses, nourishes. Last night when the storm subsided and there was only rain, I saw five of my neighbors standing outside, no umbrellas, just talking and enjoing the raindrops.

When I first moved here, a couple of my high school students told me that it was a crime in Arizona to refuse drinking water to someone who asks for it. I've heard this legend repeated by other people, but I'm not sure that it is true. Snopes.com has looked into it as well without much luck. Anyway, I like the legend. It says so much about our desert culture.

I'm working on a story that has water as the main theme and image. I wrote the first draft ten years ago; it was a first person narrative, a "voice from the water" that frankly spooked me. I've returned to it now and I'm enjoying thinking about my fears of water. Water as a violent natural force. Water as the home of predators. Water as the home of captured prey.

A Valentine for DJs

Music inspires me to write more than any other art form. Good music opens portals into new worlds, new neighborhoods; it gives me ideas. It lifts my spirit. A recent poem that I wrote happened after I listened to Skee-Lo's "I Wish" circa 1995 (I wish I was a little bit taller/I wish I was a baller/ I wish I had a girl who looked good, I would call her) and carried that lyric/image "I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat" around with me all day.

I depend on those who really know and follow music to introduce me to new songs and artists. That doesn't happen by listening to commercial radio, which is cool, but not inspirational. I like DJs who can hit a groove and play ten songs back-to-back that take you someplace other than where you are. The Electrifying Mojo was one such DJ back in the day in Detroit. He'd play an hour's worth of Prince. He played Kraftwerk, Thomas Dolby and turned us all out. There's no wonder that techno music, which revolves around a cult of DJ personality, originated in Detroit.

So I was thrilled to get an email yesterday from Garth Trinidad who is now blogging and is back on KCRW in Los Angeles which streams his "Chocolate City" show on the internet. Garth is one of those DJs who always introduces you to new sounds and artists. He does what isn't expected.

A shout to a few other DJs who have influenced me over the years: DJ Namdi and his Afro-Dicia show on KPFK; Peter J. Harris' Inspiration House which was also on KPFK and which blended good music with poets reading their work; James P., my former student who made incredible mixtapes and had a deep knowledge of music to be so young. Happy Valentine's Day. I hope you all are still inspiring folks with music.