Q & A with Dee S. White

Q: Why do you write?

A: As a child I wrote to keep an account of the good things I’d never want to forget;
As a teen I wrote as a silent cry for help;
As a young adult I wrote the things I hoped one day to forget;
As a thirty-something woman I wrote for clarity, catharsis and peace;
Now I write for the pure joy of expression with the hope that with every word I share I might prevent someone from going where I’ve been.

Q: What led you to write Age is Just a Number?

A: I believe the following excerpt answers that question quite nicely:

Meet Divine: female, thirty-seven, slaphappy, young at heart, self-employed; an online newbie, living in New York. She is fresh out of a long-term relationship and has completed the two-year mandatory wound-licking I-hate-men mourning period. Unfortunately for Divine, someone neglected to inform her that dating has been upgraded to new millennium level. But maybe she shouldn’t worry … hemlines aren’t the only things that have gone up.

Thirty-somethings are premium dating material now … at least for the twenty-year-olds … Divine’s experiences are the basis for the serial memoir I call Age Is Just a Number, a lens through which to view the world of online dating.

Since the year 2003, I’ve logged much time online—chatting, emailing and IMing. In that time, I’ve probably spoken with over three hundred people, male and female, and I’ve realized something:

I’ve realized that there are many Divines in the world. They come in all shapes, sizes, ethnicities and financial brackets, drawn together by a commonality, a deep-seated loneliness or hunger for something—and by the generally accepted idea that the solution is in finding a mate.

This recounting, although entertaining, is intended to acknowledge that such a need exists, affirm the validity of that need, share the pain, caution the naïve, and pose the question that maybe … just maybe … the accepted solution ought to be an ongoing relationship with God.
This blook is the first volume of the serial memoir: Age is Just a Number: Adventures in Online Dating.

Welcome to my world!

Peace,
Dee

Q: There are many online dating books out there, what makes Age is Just a Number different?

A: Age is Just a Number entertains, affirms, unifies and makes one think. It also acknowledges the fact that not only is there a huge population online of lonely folks, a lot of them deal with abuse, obesity, mental illness and many other ailments which are largely unaddressed or untreated. Included in the back portion of AIJAN is not only the usual book related resource section, but also an additional section with numbers, addresses and URL’s to hotlines and organizations that can assist abuse, rape, incest sufferers/survivors and those with mental illnesses.

Interview: A Good Book Bookstore

Hi Julie,

Thanks for taking the time to share news from "A Good Book."

About A Good Book:

RZBR: I know the address of your store is quite prominent on your site (great new design btw), however in your own words--give us a feel of your store location?

AGB: Well, the store is located at the corner of a busy 4-way intersection in a quaint downtown-like shopping area of a small community called Woodlawn Village. The store sits between an old fashioned bakery and pharmacy that have both been her for over 20 years.

RZBR: What prompted your choice of location and how long have you been in that location?

AGB: I grew up in this community and the building which had been vacant for over 3 years was perfect. The owner said she was waiting for the right type of business that complimented the community. I opened my doors on March 18, 2006.

RZBR: Of all the occupations available--what would you say was the primary factor in your choice to be the proprietor of a bookstore?

AGB: I have been a loan officer for over 4 years and the ingnorance I often faced by individuals wanting to purchase a home made me want to help people educate themselves about finances and personal growth.

RZBR: I've learned from experience that anything worthwhile I wanted to accomplish was accompanied by trials and tribulations before I arrived at the
triumphs. What would you say was your most trying moment and how did you
overcome it?

AGB: My most trying moment was obtaining the funds to open my bookstore. Being in the mortgage field, learning to invest in real estate and knowing how to have and maintain good credit which I learned through READING helped me overcome this obstacle. I own several rental properties and was able to refinance and use equity from one of my properties to personally fund the business. I never took out any loans from the bank and I don't have any debts under my store.

RZBR: On the other hand--what was your most triumphant moment?

AGB: I got the idea to open my store in November 2005 and in a matter of 4 months I opened my store on march 18, 2006. I knew nothing about the bookselling industry. One day I will write a book ... "How I Opened a Book store in 4 Months".

About Your Customers:

RZBR: What is your store's target audience?

AGB: Anyone who wishes to improve themselves spiritually, financially and personally through the power of reading.

RZBR: In your experience what seems to best attract your customers?

• Book cover?
• Content?
• Price?
• Book placement?

AGB: The appearance of the store. Patrons always compliment on how good the store smells (I burn incense and oils), how nice and clean and how serene it is. (I always try to play some type of smoothing music-jazz, etc).

RZBR: Do you note a hesitance in your customers to purchase self-published books?

A: Rarely. I have a section specifically for local self-published authors who have actually walked into my store and asked me to carry their books. People shop this section just like any other section.

RZBR: Where do you note more growth? With your customers in person? or via your Web site?

A: I am in the process of tweeking my website so that I can produce more sales with it. It is a challenge that I will hopefully soon overcome.

A Word to Authors:

RZBR: What do you look for in choosing a title to be carried in your store or Web
site?

AGB: Well, I am not very picky on what type of literature I carry. I believe that every person has a story and that you can learn something from reading any book.

RZBR: Are you more conservative in your choices for your store vs your Web site? Why or why not?

AGB: No, the same titles I carry in-store will be available on the website.

RZBR: What pleases or displeases you most about the growth of urban fiction?

AGB: What pleases me is that more people--more importantly, our people are beginning to read which is a long way from before. What displeases me is that sometimes our urban fiction titles can make it seem ok to be called a bitch, be a drug dealer, stripper, sex fiend, etc.

RZBR: From the viewpoint of the storeowner, if there was one piece of advice you'd give a prospective author, what would it be?

AGB: Write from your heart, believe in your book and treat it like a sure enough business venture. I had one author tell me, "my book is the new drug and I gotta get this product on the streets".

AGB: Thanks for having me.

RZBR: Thanks for consenting to share.

AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS ACKERMAN

Q: Tell us a bit about Chris Ackerman, the person and Chris Ackerman the author.

A: Well, let's see ... it's interesting that you phrase the question that way because for a long time it actually seemed like the person and the author were two distinct components. Aside from a couple minor deviations in the path, I pretty much took the traditional course of pursuing education and then employment but the author I always suppressed kept struggling to emerge. I remember reading a few novels and, with all the arrogance of youth, scoffing and telling myself I could write one far better. Nothing materialized in spite of a couple half-hearted attempts during university, so I let it go. Then one freezing cold, lonely, dark, and jet-lagged night while on law school exchange in Copenhagen, the author burst forward and I took my first real shot at writing something for a wide audience.

Since then, Chris Ackerman the person has abandoned the traditional approach to earning a living and become indistinguishable from Chris Ackerman the author. At least in my own eyes!

Q: Tell us about Poogle the Discoverer.

A: It's actually pretty strange how Poogle came to be. I had struggled with writing a full length novel and decided it would be a good idea to start with something of a little more modest length and complexity. As a kid I was an avid reader and (still to this day) big fan of cartoons so the natural course seemed to be to create characters and a world that reflected that ... it would be a good trial run. A lot of the characters are amalgams of people I know, or knew, especially from that time in Denmark studying law.

Poogle is a platypus, an animal I always thought to be one of the most unique in the world and if you've ever seen pictures of baby ones you'll see why I figured it to be perfect for the story. It is an action/adventure tale with a ton of twists and turns that each reveal a little more of a tragic history the characters all have in common.

The more I wrote the more into the story I got and the more I strove to emulate the quality of the books and movies that really stood out for me: Charlotte's Web, Bambi, The Lion King, The Bunjee Venture ... I wanted to create characters that kids could really identify with, flaws and all.

I also think it's important that with all the laughs and fun, the story actually offers something more, something uplifting, some lessons ... but without being preachy about it.

Q: You mentioned that it is being used at a local school as part of their
literacy program. How did that come about?

A: Oh, it was pretty perfect timing that a close friend of mine from university was a substitute teacher at this school when a large influx of government funding allowed it to add several new programs. He was offered the position of creating a curriculum and heading up a literacy program for students in grades 3-6 who were either struggling or disinterested. He had read Poogle and mentioned it to his principal. He agreed it would be perfect for the program and subsequently purchased a classroom set for the program.

I was also invited in to meet the students and talk a little bit about the book, its creation, the characters ... and the sequel! It was more than encouraging to see a room full of kids who were that into the book.

Q: What did you find to be the most challenging aspect of being a self-published author?

A: By far the most challenging part is making people aware that the book exists. I have complete confidence that Poogle is a book anyone would thoroughly enjoy reading, the difficulty is being the little guy trying to promote a book in a market where the competition is so well
bankrolled!

Q: What do you know about the process that you wished you'd known before?

A: I was pretty realistic about it from the beginning, but I think I probably could have started networking and researching some of the avenues for advertising and so on, a little earlier. Getting reviews, that type of thing. I felt it necessary to have a tangible product, the actual
printed, bound and illustrated book, in hand before pursuing or looking into those things.

Q: What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring children's author?

A: Be patient, and don't expect to quit your day job right away! Sales are great and help offset the out of pocket expenses, but if you don't value hearing glowing reviews and getting positive feedback more then you will be disappointed.

Q: What do you forsee in your writing future?

A: I am currently finishing that elusive first full length novel for an adult audience and have mapped out the sequel for Poogle the Discoverer...should be done by the fall, right around the time Disney will decide to make Poogle into an animated feature. See, I can advise aspiring writers to be realistic and grounded, but anyone who writes fiction has to have one foot in fantasy land!

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D.S. White writes creative non-fiction, and has just completed her first blook (book based on a blog). She is the founder of Dee411 a website with links to articles and resources for victims of abuse and rape and resources for sufferers of bipolar disorder. She has lived in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Maryland, New York and now resides in Pennsylvania. Dee receives email at dee @ deeswhite.com. (Remove spaces)

A Conversation with Joseph C. Phillips, author of HE TALK LIKE A WHITE BOY

Question: He Talk Like a White Boy! Where does the title come from?

Answer: I took the title from an experience I had in Junior High School. I was in an accelerated English Class and in the beginning of the year I answered a question. A black girl from across the room raised her hand and said, “He talk like a white boy!” That was one of those signpost moments in life when everything from that moment forward is different. The way I spoke—my diction, lack of regionalism etc. would shadow me in everything I did. As I grew older “talking like a white boy” would influence every aspect of my life, from dating to roles as an actor. Ultimately, the title points to this crazy notion that there is an authentic way to speak and by extension an authentic way to think. Now of course I am not so much accused as speaking like a white boy as I am of thinking like a white boy.

Question: What did you hope to accomplish by writing this book?

Answer: I really hope my book can inspire dialogue and get people talking and thinking about moving beyond labels, beyond race. I would like to get people talking again about how to raise our children, honor our wives and husbands, how we love god, love our country and how we define ourselves as individuals and as Americans.Honestly I didn’t start out to write a book. I love talking to people and sharing ideas and wanted to do more of that…speaking in front of groups and that sort of thing. I have always believed that when you see successful people you ask them what they did to find success, so one day after cutting some commentary for Tavis Smiley I sat down with him and asked what he did to reach his level of success.

The first thing he told me to do was write a book. He laid down the gauntlet. He didn’t believe I could or would do it. To make a long story short I completed my manuscript, a publisher picked it up and once that happened I began the process of writing a real book.

Question: What is the book about?

Answer: The short answer is: the book is a collection of essays that seeks to explore how the Old School values of family, faith and freedom have shaped my identity and how they have shaped black identity and our American identity. The longer answer is that the book is about me. In the book I tell my story. I talk about my marriage, my career, raising kids, my faith, the love I have for my country and the love I have for black people. Some of the book is funny, some of it poignant, some political, but all of it is a good read.over…

Question: What was the most difficult part of the book to write?

Answer: Without a doubt my faith was the most difficult. Faith is I think the shortest chapter in the book. I struggle with my faith and I struggled with writing about it. I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ but like most people I have fears, jealousies, insecurities…I get depressed, angry, disappointed. It is very difficult for me to reconcile that with my belief in the almighty and in scripture, and to make sense of it.Still I would say it is also the most important chapter of the book because faith is the anchor for everything else I do in my life. How I raise my children, how I conduct my marriage, my patriotism and my identity are all anchored by my belief in a God that loves families and loves freedom.

Question: How did the guy from “The Cosby Show” get to be such a conservative?

Answer: I will admit to being a conservative so long as I get to define what that means. If by conservative you mean one who wants to conserve the founding principles of this nation—god given rights to life, liberty and private property, the equality of all men and a limited government that receives its just powers by the consent of the governed then I am a conservative. If you mean a man that believes in the sanctity of marriage, the importance of men raising their sons and honoring their wives; if you mean someone that believes freedom and virtue are inextricably tied then yes I am a conservative. If you mean something you scrape from the bottom of your shoe I respectfully decline. What I am talking about are values. The values I talk about in the book—the conservative values—are values taught me by my parents, both life long democrats and liberals. I do not advocate now anything that I did not learn from them. This suggests to me that values are bridges. Most Americans agree with the founding principles. Most Americans agree with the values of marriage and family, of faith and freedom. We spend a lot of time talking about the things that divide and not about what binds us together.

Question: What links blacks together—race or class?

Answer: If I had to choose one I would say class. But again I think the real answer—the more liberating answer—is values. It is values that bind us together as communities and as a nation. One of the things I love about America is that people become Americans not through ethnicity or religion, but by virtue of adopting a set of values and principles. We may focus on race and class, but it is values that make our families strong, our communities strong and our nation strong. What I find fascinating is that when you put values aside and begin to focus on race you most always quickly move to class. When one says I want to befriend or know black folks (or white) just any black folks won’t do. One wants to know authentic black people and that almost always leads to discrimination based on class.

Question: Is being black skin color or a state of mind?

Answer: Obviously it is a bit of both. Clearly the darker your skin pigmentation the more you are identified as black. However, skin color often has little to do with culture. So, just as the colors of American cultural blackness cover the spectrum from white to blue black so too does the “Black state of mind.” What I am rejecting is a dogma that says black is only this list of things—this list of sounds, of wants, desires and experiences. I am rejecting a notion that there is a limit on what blackness can be and more importantly that there are some who are anointed to decide what those limits should be. Free men are able to define themselves as they wish. You can be whatever you want to be—create yourself and recreate yourself as often as your time, energy, creativity and resources allow. In other words I am a black man. This is how I speak. This is how I think. As the kids say, “This is how I roll!” Therefore, this must be within the spectrum of black thought and speech. It is authentic because I am a free man in a free society at liberty to create myself. It is authentic because it is of my creation.

Question: You write about black authenticity. Why should a white person buy a book by a middle class black guy?

Answer: I think mine is a story that we don’t hear very often because it is not seen as an authentic black experience. We need to disabuse ourselves of that thinking. More significantly, the arc of the book is about the universal values of family, faith and freedom. White people with families will recognize themselves in the struggle with faith, the joys of fatherhood and the enigma of marriage. White folks love their country and believe it or not also struggle with notions of identity. This is not a black book. As I have traveled the country speaking to groups and sharing my story and my ideas, people of all different races have responded not just intellectually, but emotionally. Here I am speaking, sometimes very personally about my life as a black man, a husband and father, conservative etc. and white folks were saying to me: “you were telling my story.” It is through the specific that stories become universal. And I can’t stress it enough that values transcend race.

Question: Aren’t there differences between conservatives and liberals?

Answer: Sure. There are some very fundamental philosophical differences. All of us do not share the same vision of the world. Political differences have been a part of American life from the very beginning. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams didn’t speak to each other for years. But their disagreement was on the role of government not on our basic values. Like everyone else, when I hear folks on television talking about things I disagree with I would like to toss something at the set. What I am suggesting is that we begin from a values framework. That is to say a framework that doesn’t assume, for instance, that conservatives want to see little children die in the streets. It is a notion that says we are all concerned about the poor, the elderly and national security. Absolutely we will have debates about the best way to address these issues. Democracy demands debate and sometimes heated debate. Let’s look first to where we agree and begin to build bridges to those places where we disagree. Otherwise you have a lot of broken television sets and not much progress.

Question: Has being a conservative hurt you in liberal Hollywood?

Answer: To my knowledge I have not lost a job because of anything I have published. In fact I am always surprised when people make a point to tell me that they are reading me or hearing me on the radio. Of course often they make a point to tell me that they don’t agree with me, but what is significant to me is that they go out of their way to let me know that they are following what I am doing. Part of that is simply that show people love to see other show people doing something. It’s one of the things I love about show people. The other thing it tells me is that there is something I am saying that is resonating across party lines. It tells me that family, faith and freedom mean something to people. I anticipate a similar reception to the book.Last summer I was at the national black theatre festival and the number of people who commented that they were reading my column and listening to my commentary on NPR was amazing. I knew that many of them didn’t share my political ideology, but my peers went out of their way to say, “Hey, I read you every week.” Later, at the inaugural fund raising ball for the African American Museum more people pulled me to the side to talk about my column then they did to talk about “The Cosby Show.”

Question: Do you foresee politics in your future?

Answer: I have considered it. In fact at one time I was looking at a race for the California state assembly. Ultimately it proved not to be the right race at the right time. Honestly, I enjoy writing and speaking much more than I enjoy learning the intricacies of state or federal tax policy. That stuff will make your eyes roll into the back of your head. I also appreciate that as a politician you have to compromise and you are constantly raising money. I haven’t ruled out politics, but what I am doing now is a lot of fun.

To schedule an interview, please contact:

Seta Bedrossian, Publicist
Running Press
215-567-5080, ext. 234
seta.bedrossian@perseusbooks.com

AN INTERVIEW WITH KIM MCLARIN

Q: Tell us about Jump At The Sun.

A: Jump at the Sun is a novel of motherhood. It is also a novel of race, of love and sacrifice, of isolating suburban life and the continuing legacy of slavery, of generational change and the price of living the dream for which our parents fought and several other things, but primarily it’s a novel of motherhood. It is not a sentimental one. Many of the thoughts Grace things about being a mother would not make it to the inside of a Hallmark greeting card.

Q: Is the novel a reflection of your own thoughts and feelings about motherhood?

A: Well, I could try to deny that, but no one would believe me. So I’ll just say yes – but with a big caveat. As I tell my writing students, fiction is not life, it’s the essence of life. It’s life distilled. So, yes, my protagonist and I share some things and some thoughts and feelings. Absolutely. But no, she’s not me. The reason I write fiction, as opposed to memoir, is to try to push beyond myself, to write outward from my own experience toward a more universal one. That’s the beauty of fiction.

Q: What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of being a mother?

A: It would be easier to say what’s not challenging about being a mother. Loving my children is not difficult for me; they are amazing, complex, complete little creatures who have bulldozed their way into my heart and taken it over. Praising them when they do something terrific isn’t hard for me, or grinning like a fool when they say something smart, or even pushing them to do more for themselves, to become more independent. What’s challenging is being consistent and consistently patient and understanding and present, being always beyond myself. Being a writer demands a lot of time inside one’s own head, one’s own experience of the world. Being a mother demands just the opposite. I find it very, very challenging to reconcile those twin demands. But when my kids were younger, what I found most challenging was the bizarre isolation of stay-at-home motherhood. No doubt about it – it is unhealthy and unnatural to lock a grown woman in a house with only kids for company all day, every day.

Q: In the novel, Grace wonders if all mothers go through what she’s going through. Do you think they do?

A: When I began this novel, deep, as I was, in the hormone funk of my own early childbearing and child raising years, I thought so. I thought all women felt what I was feeling – the crushing boredom and suffocation and bewilderment and dissatisfaction and anger and yes, resentment at finding myself trapped in a house interacting with toddlers all day. I thought all those happy-mommy women at the park, those types you see babbling nonstop and giddily interacting with their kids as if the stream of nonsense coming out of some one-year-old’s mouth was the most fascinating conversation they had ever had – I thought those women were either faking or delusional. Nuts. But as I came out of it, as I talked to other women and read essays by writers I admire who are also mothers – Anne Tyler, Alice Walker, Grace Paley – I realized that it really was an individual thing. Anne Tyler wrote an essay about how she really, truly did not mind when she had to put aside her work – herself – to scrape peanut butter off the wall or wipe a nose or even clean the litter box. And when you’re a writer, putting aside may mean losing forever, btu she never minded. So I realized mothers vary, just as women do. A rather obvious epiphany but then they are usually the most powerful ones. Do I think I’m the only woman who has never looked at her kids and wanted to run the other way – no. Bud do I think all women feel that way – not necessarily. Some women seem to be born to it, just in the same way some people are born with an ear for music or great vocal chords, a knack for dance, with an artistic eye or the potential for great mathematical skill. If I took up voice lessons and practiced for six hours every day for a couple of years I could learn to carry a tune but I would still never be never be Marian Anderson. It’s just not there.

Q: The novel is grounded in Grace’s struggle, which is contemporary. But the narrative moves back and forth through time to also illuminate both her mother’s story and her grandmother’s. Do you worry about what your grandmother or mother might think of the grandmother and mother characters?

A: Well, my grandmother has passed, but I do sometimes wonder what she might make, not only of this book, but of my writing in general. Though she lived until I was in my mid-twenties I regret to say I did not know her well. Mostly that’s my fault. In my late teens and early twenties, when I might have made the push toward connection with her, I was, like many folks, incredibly self-centered. I paid lip service to family obligations but in reality I was focused on one person and one person only – me. Before that, when I was a child and would have been interested and open and eager for her engagement in my life, she was busy with her own. Adults of my grandmother’s and mother’s generations did not, as a rule, engage with children, at least the ones I knew. They fed us and bathed us and sheltered us and sent us to school and church and once those needs were met they forgot about you. They had bigger fish to fry: jobs, mortgages, unhappy relationships. They didn’t find children that terribly interesting. Now, of course, we’ve swung to the opposite extreme, many of us, ordering our lives around our children, intent not only in parenting but in befriending our kids, interacting with them as though they were adults in smaller clothes. The trick is to find a middle path.

Q: What about your mother? Will she read the book and what might her reaction be?

A: My mother is a courageous and determined woman who lives in California and who may well cut me out of the will after reading this book. She did, in fact, give up a tremendous, a heartbreaking chunk of herself to raise me and my four siblings. And it cost her. I try to honor that sacrifice by recognizing it and by trying to make sense of it, the way all art tries to make sense of the human condition. I also know that if I make different choices it is largely because I have different options, and that I have those options in part because of what she did.

Q: So our mothers could not have it all –

A. Especially if they were black and especially if they were poor and denied an education.

Q. Yes. But what about contemporary woman. Can we have it all?

A: Beats me. I suppose it really depends on one’s definition of “all”. Women of my generation can certainly have children and careers and relationships; I know a lot of women doing it and some doing it well. I don’t know any doing it easily. Or without cost. But that’s life.

Q: What about your children? What’s it like to try to write honestly about mothering knowing that your children will probably read those thoughts some day?

A: My kids were still babies as I wrote, still demanding “Good Night, Moon” every evening, so that concern was not one I carried while I was struggling with this book. I’m glad I didn’t. But now that my daughter has learned to read and my son is learning, I realize that it’s true: someday they will probably want to pick up mommy’s book and see what’s inside. And they might wonder if some of the more raw thoughts Grace has about being a mother are ones I shared. Again, it’s an interesting dilemma, even more so than creating characters around other family relationships because one’s other relations, as much as you love and are loyal to them, are adults. But your kids are your kids, forever. And isn’t it a mother’s duty to protect her children from pain if she can? So if what you’re writing might some day cause pain, do you not write it? No right answer, of course. For me, I guess the answer is to write from love and empathy and not from pettiness or childishness or vengefulness or whatever, and to be as rigorous with my own self-reflection as in my view of the world. Then hope for the best. The other route is to be enormously successful; then nobody cares as long as you buy them a car.

Q. Will you write more books about mothering or family relationships?

A. Never say never. But right now I’m feeling done with that. I’d like to move on to something completely and utterly foreign to my life, to some wild story of adventure and mayhem perhaps.