Guest blog post by Margaret Johnson-Hodge

FYI, Good story in today's NY Times about black writers.


This week, we have a guest blog from Margaret Johnson-Hodge, author of Red Light, Green Light. Everything below is from her.


As a young girl, there were a few things I knew for certain. I knew my father was named Jesse and my mother was named Alma. I knew I was the youngest of three children and that I was named after my grandmother. And I knew that I would stay black and die (an old black saying). But I didn’t know that one day I would become a writer and I certainly didn’t know that when I did, my stories would be limited because of the color of my skin. When I became a “National Bestselling” author, I found out my stories were only ‘suited’ for a black audience. I wasn’t told this directly, but it was shouted to me by the places that the publisher sent me to on book tour and the type of ‘media coverage’ I received. I was able to secure mention in Ebony and Essence, but never made it to “People Magazine” I did a ton of book signings in black areas, but the ‘white’ ones were too far and few between. While I appreciated and understood being featured prominently within the black community, by my seventh book, I was hungry for something other, something more. I dreamed of being on “The Today Show”, but would have settled for “Good Day Atlanta”, but it never happened. The closest thing I got was community cable TV.


When I moved south, my world widened and I made all types of friends. I became best friends with Tara, an Irish-Italian, and fast friends with Liz, a white woman who had been born in Iowa. I also got to know a few of my white neighbors. They all bought my books and read them because they knew me personally. These white people were buying my books, reading them and enjoying them. But my publishers had convinced me that they were the ‘exception’. That only black people really read ‘Margaret Johnson-Hodge.’

So you could imagine my surprise and delight when recently I attended a book club meeting held in my honor and there, in the room, sat an older white woman who had not only read my book, but loved it. I tried not to stare at her, but I found my eyes looking her over closely, tying to determine how it came to be? How had she, an older white woman, not only found my book, but managed to ‘love it?’ Did she know that she wasn’t supposed to, that my books were for black folks only? And more importantly, were there more like her out there, somewhere?

The answer—Yes—came to me swiftly. I did have White readers and probably Asian readers, Hispanic readers and readers on the planet Mars. After years of being told it wasn’t it so, I now know that I do. This has become my newest ‘certainty’ in life. It is my goal to make it yours too…

Black authors live and in person!

Some friends and I had the opportunity to meet Heidi Durrow and Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant when they visited Denver last week. Unfortunately, I spent a quick minute with Heidi before I had to dash to my own book club event and didn't get pictures! But I did get pictures of Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant's visit.

Not many authors get tours from their publishers these days and fewer still can afford to send themselves around the country. So when they do show up at a book store in your city, please collect a friend or two and go out and support them. For writers, attending signings is a great opportunity to ask questions about craft and the biz.

Besides asking at your bookstore, looking in the paper and checking the website of your favorite authors to see if they're coming to your city, you can also meet authors at conferences and book festivals. Here are just a few opportunities to meet some of your favorites or learn about writers new to you:

The National Black Book Festival is May 21-23 in Houston.
NAACP Authors' Pavilion at the NAACP conference is July 10-15 in Kansas City, MO.
The California Book Club Summit is September 9-12 in San Ramon.
The Congressional Black Caucus hosts its Authors Pavilion September 15-18 in Washington, DC.

I'm heading to the Virginia Festival of the Book this weekend where I'll be on panels with Heidi, Adam Bradley, Major Jackson and others. Look for pictures next week!

Authors, if you're on tour and want to let readers know about your dates, feel free to leave it in the comments.

Meet: J.D. Mason, author of TAKE YOUR PLEASURE WHERE YOU FIND IT

J.D. Mason is a friend of mine. We've both lived in Colorado forever, but we didn't meet until she read about me in Essence Magazine and emailed me. Proving that writers need to get out of the house more! Especially me.

So, full disclosure. She's my friend, but I'm hosting her here because she's a good writer. If you like women's fiction, I really do encourage you to check her out. Publisher's Weekly raved about her latest saying, "The day of reckoning is unavoidable for all four women in this fast-moving and fascinating look at friendship, the repercussions of keeping secrets, and the power of forgiveness."

White Readers Meet Black Authors: Tell us about your latest novel.

J.D. Mason: Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It is about three friends, who, growing up, were closer than sisters. Renetta, Phyllis and Freddie had each other’s backs, and if one of them had a problem, all of them had a problem and they all took care of it, together. During their senior year in high school, they faced the most horrendous challenge they’d ever encountered, and it took its toll on their friendship. As a result, they each went their separate ways. Thirty years later, they see each other at their high school reunion and are forced to finally come to terms with what happened back then, to each other and, most importantly, to themselves.

WRMBA: How would you describe your body of work? Your themes, tone, style? Why do you write about the topics you write about?

JDM: I’m all about the “thought-provoking-ism”. I don’t think that’s a word (Ha), but that’s what I strive for when writing stories. I want to give people something that sticks with them after they close the book. I want to give them characters that challenge their emotions, and storylines that leave them with a sense of, “hmmm…I never quite thought of it that way” or “I never would’ve looked at it like that.”

I don’t know how to describe my style of writing, but I know that I have one, and when I look back through my books, I see it, and I feel it when I read through a few chapters. Readers that like my books like my style. And then there are those who don’t like it at all. I sure wish they did, though. LOL

I choose topics that fuel conversations, opinions, and debates. I choose topics far removed from my own life because it challenges me as a writer and as a person, to think outside myself and consider how other people’s points of view can be different from my own. That’s the fun part. That’s the growing part for me.

WRMBA: What's your goal(s) as a writer? Do you set out to educate? entertain? illuminate?

JDM: I’m an entertainer, first and foremost. And I love being an entertainer. If I could sing, dance, or act, I would, but as it turns out, I write. When I was a kid, I used to entertain myself for hours, making up stories with my dolls and I loved it. Now I get to do it for other people and I am just giddy when I write a story that people enjoy reading. I don’t set out to necessarily educate, but if it happens, then that’s icing on the cake. I do know that have an underlying goal to illuminate; to shine light on a situation or a type of character, or an attitude about something that maybe readers didn’t quite expect, but can appreciate by the end of the book.

WRMBA: You self-published first, right? How was that experience different from being published? Would you ever consider self-publishing again?

JDM: I was clueless the first time I self published and it was definitely not for the sheepish, but I’ve learned a great deal since then. It takes a lot of effort, time, energy and devotion to being a good business person, and the work involved with running your own publishing business can definitely overshadow the writing aspect. I don’t know if I’d ever be good at self publishing, because I’m not a good business woman. There, I admitted it. And the reason I love having a publisher is because I can spend more time focusing on the writing part. But if I couldn’t land another contract from a publisher, and if I weren’t ready to give up being a writer, yes. I’d publish myself again in a heartbeat.

WRMBA: What's next for you?

JDM: I’ve just finished up the very last book in the One Day I Saw A Black King series, called Somebody Pick Up My Pieces, and I finally feel confident that this one is definitely the end of these wonderful characters. I feel a bit saddened by it, but also, I know that it’s time to finally say goodbye—on a good note.

I’ve also just turned in my very first science fiction novel to my editor. It’s the first in a brand new series I’m working on, and I am very excited to see how this adventure works out. If it does well, I’ll probably continue writing in that genre, but if it doesn’t, well…that’ll be the end of that and I can at least say I gave it a shot.

My teenage daughter recently helped me to map out a story idea for a sci-fi/fantasy young adult novel, which I think I’ll seriously consider shopping in the very near future. First I’ll have to search my soul, and be honest with myself about whether or not I can actually pull something like that off. I typically can’t relate to anyone under the age of 37 1/2, but we’ll see.

And finally, I’ve started my first book in a new series about a prominent black family in the south that will encompass the kinds of issues and dilemma’s prominent families tend to have. The family has a rich history, tons of relatives and money, and lots of shenanigans to fill volumes, and I’m looking forward rolling up my sleeves and to getting down to the nitty gritty of telling these people’s stories. The first book in the series is called Beautiful, Dirty, Rich. My editor came up with the title, and I just fell in love with it.

WRMBA: What's the best book (or whose the best writer) that not enough people know about?

JDM: Sandra Jackson-Opoku is, to me, one of the most brilliant and talented writers and under-appreciated writers that I have ever read. I think she only has two works of fiction out: The River Where Blood is Born and Hot Johnny and the Women Who Loved Him, and I loved them both. She has a way of mixing contemporary drama with African folklore and black American history in a way that is absolute magic to me, and it takes a real wordsmith to weave it all together the way she does.

Meet: Jabari Asim, author of A TASTE OF HONEY

Note: The winners of Uptown are Dani and Ellie. Congratulations ladies!


Count on me to do things backwards. I'm starting out Women's History Month with a profile of a male author. But I'm actually excited because this blog is a little too female-oriented. I try to keep a balance. But just so's you knows: not everybody I approach wants to be profiled or is interested in online promotion. Anyway, I am thrilled to introduce you to Jabari Asim. You gotta love a guy who wrote Who's Toes are Those AND The N Word!

He is also editor-in-chief of The Crisis—the magazine of the NAACP—and former editor at and frequent contributor to the Washington Post. His writing has appeared on Salon.com and in Essence, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

His answers here sealed my interest in his latest work, a collection of interlocking short stories. Please read our Q&A and then go get the book. It's out today! Pick it up at your local indie, if you're lucky enough to still have one. Or you can get it everywhere: at Barnes and Noble or Borders or Amazon.


White Readers Meet Black Authors: Describe your work for someone unfamiliar with it. You've done nonfiction, fiction and children's books, right? Wow! What's your writing style like? What subjects/themes do you explore?

Jabari Asim: I’ve done three nonfiction books for adults, all of which address themes of race and American culture in some way. Not Guilty, an anthology I edited in 2000, collected the thoughts of a select group of black male intellectuals on matters of law and justice. That book was inspired by the 1999 acquittal of the police officers who shot Amadou Diallo to death. I followed that with The N Word, which traced the epithet through American popular culture from roughly 1619 to 2007. I wanted to explore the relationship between language and white supremacy and also look at the effect of racist ideas on blacks, whites and other Americans. What Obama Means attempts to look at ways in which our popular culture (books, movies, newspapers, music, sports, etc.) prepared for us a moment in which we could even take seriously the idea of a black presidential candidacy. (Check out his interview with Stephen Colbert.)

My first children’s book, The Road to Freedom, was a novel for middle-schoolers about a boy and his father trying to reunite their family after Emancipation. I’ve also done a picture book called Daddy Goes To Work, in which a little African-American girl accompanies her father to his job, and four board books for babies. My most popular book is called Whose Toes Are Those? Many people don’t connect it with the man who wrote The N Word, which occasionally leads to some amusing encounters.

A Taste Of Honey, my latest, is fiction written for an adult audience. Set in a small Midwestern city in the sixties, it looks at the effect of social and political change on a somewhat insular black community.

I strive for the qualities Edmund Wilson once called for in good writing: cleanliness, precision, ease and force. Like most writers, my success rate varies. I’m fond of lyricism because I started out as a poet. As I’ve progressed, I’ve worked increasingly toward a leaner, simpler aesthetic. I’m not there yet. As for subjects/themes, everything I write—and I do mean everything—is inevitably shaped by my experiences as a husband and father. Those are the only things I wanted to be even more than I wanted to be a writer, and I’ve been fortunate to experience both.

WRMBA: I'm curious, why did you choose interrelated short stories instead of a novel?

JA: I originally started writing the stories as a diversion while working on The N Word. That book took me six years and often required immersing myself in some depressing, hateful stuff. A Taste Of Honey allowed me to cleanse my palate if you will, while exercising my writing muscles. Janet Hill, who was then an editor at Doubleday, purchased the book based on a few of the stories. The idea of linking the stories emerged during conversations with her.

WRMBA: People ask me this question a lot, so I will pass it on: What was it like transitioning from nonfiction to fiction? Will you continue writing both?

I don’t really consider myself as someone who transitioned from nonfiction to fiction. My first appearances in major publications were short stories. I had one in In The Tradition, a 1992 anthology of young black writers edited by Kevin Powell and Ras Baraka, and another in Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America, edited by Herb Boyd and Robert Allen. The nonfiction actually came a little later. I’m committed to continuing to do both while dipping my toes into poetry every once in a while.

WRMBA: What's your goal(s) as a writer? Do you set out to educate? entertain? illuminate?

JA: I do feel an obligation to inform when I write, although the information I convey can be as simple as “this is how it was” or “this is how a particular group of people lived at a certain point in time.” In A Taste of Honey, for example, I wanted to examine black love (I’m very much a romantic) as I have often perceived it. My parents have been happily married for more than 60 years, and I’ve been ecstatically married for almost 25. That may be why I tried occasionally to function as a fly on the wall in A Taste Of Honey, providing intimate glimpses of domestic life both happy and horrific. For me, the larger motive also reflected a desire to offer snapshots of black family life in an urban community during the dawn of the civil rights revolution. Of course, no reader is going to stick around long enough to glean any lessons if the material isn’t entertaining. I tried to leaven my stories with humor wherever possible.

WRMBA: What's next for you?

JA: I’m at work on a couple of nonfiction projects that are too shapeless to describe in detail yet. I have a picture-book under contract with Little Brown. I’m also working on a novel that again looks at black romantic love during a specific historical period. I suppose I will always focus on love in some fashion.

WRMBA: Where can people find you online?

JA: I blog at Amazon.com and Goodreads.com, and folks can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

WRMBA: What's the best book (or whose the best writer) that not enough people know about?

A wonderful question. My answer is a tie: Mat Johnson and Ricardo Cortez Cruz. Both are terrific writers with unique styles.

House business

I have a big post on Tuesday, a Q&A with Jabari Asim, author of A Taste of Honey. In the meantime, a few things to get caught up on:

Just posted a poll over on the right. Check it out. I recently received an email from a white woman who said she feels like black people glare at her when she ventures over to look at African American fiction. I really need to know if this is true for some of y'all or if the myriad people who report this phenomenon are projecting their own discomfort. If the poll's answers aren't nuanced enough or if you have something else to say on the matter, please leave a comment or email me.

Don't forget tomorrow is the last day to enter the giveaway for a copy of Uptown! See below if you haven't entered.

Heidi Durrow's novel was reviewed in the Sunday NY Times!

What Mother Never Told Me by Donna Hill just pubbed. This great book trailer gives a little insight into the book. If you like mother-daughter stories, heads up! Authors like Jennifer Weiner can do very well with stories that feature one black character (I really enjoyed Little Earthquakes and am not trying to put it down by mentioning it here). I hope Donna's book can do the same.



Congratulations to the 2010 winners of the Black Caucus of the American Library Awards and to winners in the literary categories of the 2010 NAACP Image Awards!

Bernice McFadden's got a great offer for book bloggers. Get a copy of her latest novel and get a chance to win $50!

I am so thrilled I also have to report that "Sins of the Mother" did really, really well. Thanks to everybody who blogged, Facebooked and tweeted about it!

Remember, I'm always posting links on the White Readers Meet Black Authors Facebook page. If you want news, you don't need to wait till Tuesdays.

Book giveaway!

Donna and Virginia are giving away 2 copies of their latest novel Uptown! What you have to do to win: Link to their guest post below and leave a comment letting me know. You have until 5 pm MST Monday, March 1. Winners will be announced Tuesday, March 2 the day of the release!

Guest post by authors Donna Grant and Virginia Deberry

The dynamic duo (as I like to call them) discuss ideas in this guest post. Readers, you should enjoy getting a little insight into the writer's craft. And writers, you should take notes. Everything below is by Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant. I'm really excited that Virginia and Donna will be kicking off their book tour for Uptown in Denver at the Tattered Cover on March 12!

IDEAS ‘R US

A question we are asked all the time, maybe second only to, “How do you write TOGETHER?” is “Where do you get your ideas?” We suspect ours come from the same place most writers mine for story—EVERYWHERE. Inspiration can begin with a conversation overheard in line at the supermarket, observing a couple in a restaurant, recalling a childhood experience, watching a news story where you know there’s another side—maybe even three or four that are not being told. Wherever you have people interacting, or not interacting, the potential for plot lines and characters exists. Everyday circumstances become a jumping off point and when we leap we don’t always know where we’ll land. Often not where we expected.

We enjoy stretching ourselves in our writing—working a new muscle group. So we aim to do a little of that in every book. For example, What Doesn’t Kill You, our last novel, was our first attempt at writing in first person. We had a ball and will undoubtedly do it again—hopefully with Tee. Readers got Thomasina Hodges, our heroine, and she has much more to say. And although we didn’t plan it—we started writing What Doesn’t Kill You back in 2005—Tee’s economic woes ended up being ripped-from-the-headlines current—like those “straight from the news to your TV screen” episodes of Law & Order, only we added humor instead of guns and handcuffs.

Ideas come from letting ourselves slow down, inhale the air around us—to really pay attention and absorb life. During our twenty year writing partnership we have both started many a conversation with, “What if. . .” It’s the signal for the other one to start listening and opening up to the possibilities. So when we were what-iffing our next book into existence, we knew we wanted the story to have the kind of immediacy we brought to WDKY, but to also have a twist, elements that stretched us.

Ultimately, our subject found us. We heard the hissing of the air rushing out of the real estate bubble—delinquent mortgages, foreclosures, speculation, bankrupt developers—the news was inescapable. Whether you live in a big city, like Donna or in the ‘burbs, like Virginia, the fallout has affected lots of us. But in New York City, before the fizzle, Harlem properties, old and new, were especially hot. We couldn’t pickup the real estate section of the Times without some kind of story about the residential market north of Central Park. These stories, however, were fraught with controversy because Harlem has held a seminal place in our history and cultural heritage since the turn of the twentieth century as a Mecca for African Americans. Now the population uptown is changing fast, too fast for some, not fast enough for others. Who were the people involved in this real estate revolution in Harlem and where did they come from? What did these changes mean for long time residents and building owners? Who would benefit? Who would profit? Who would lose?

In some ways the idea is the easy part, but that’s not what makes a story memorable. Our experience is that readers get attached to characters who make them care and situations that keep them needing to know what happens next. How would we make a story that was as big as New York, also be the intimate saga of a family? So we let all of our questions lead us to early sketches of a story centered around a family real estate business which was rooted in Harlem. We had started fleshing out characters when we realized we already knew these people. We met the Dixons in Better Than I Know Myself. The cold, manipulative Dwight and the overbearing King made a strong impression with readers. They were juicy for us to write back then and we realized that the moment for their story was now. So this time the men came first, definitely a new approach for us.

We knew Dwight needed a foil—a female character with Dixon family history. We had already introduced his favorite Aunt Forestina, when we met Dwight and King. That gave us the opportunity to bring her daughter, Avery, into the picture. Then we needed to figure out how Dwight could be so close to his aunt, but make no reference to his cousin. Sounded like a family secret—maybe a scandal that caused a rift and resulted in Avery’s estrangement. This was getting juicy. And because we needed someone who would recognize how Avery had changed through the years, she needed an old friend, to challenge her, to bring her out, even when that was uncomfortable. Straight talking Alicia showed up to fill that role.

Situation can lead to character or vice versa, but once the plot and the people are in place, we take some time to really get to know who we’re dealing with—give them history, personality, quirks. We start to know the way they speak, and why. Both Avery and Dwight are complex, personalities. What you see on the outside, even the way they perceive themselves, is not necessarily who they really are. Getting at all those layers was a little like excavation, but it helped us bring their past into their current situation. The story in Uptown takes place in a matter of months, but what goes down in the course of those few short months, was years in the making.

Often our ideas lead us to circumstances we don’t know first hand. Whether it’s the doll business in Gotta Keep on Tryin’ or the cosmetics industry in What Doesn’t Kill You, we always research our background subject. In the case of Uptown, that was Manhattan real estate development, and we don’t have an uncle in the biz, so we gathered as much info as we could. Thanks to the internet, it’s much easier now than it was back when we were researching the railroad and airline industries and Swedish immigrants, for our first novel, Exposures.

Once we start to write, our original kernel of an idea has gone through many transformations—sometimes we look at our first story notes and they crack us up because so much has changed. There are always alterations that happen as we write too. In the case of Uptown, last year’s bank and brokerage firm meltdowns occurred as we were working and kept us scrambling to stay current. But it was also an indication that the story was right where we wanted it to be.

After eight months hunkered down, we emerged from the writing cave with a manuscript! Then came the holding our breath period—waiting to hear what our agent and editor thought of Uptown. Both of them gave it thumbs way up, and so far the reviews have been good—great even, which had been comforting—until now. Tuesday, March 2, the pub date for the next book, our seventh “What If,” that’s the real test. We have this sense of accomplishment, and feeling of terror with every book release, and this time is no different. And experience tells us next time won’t be either, but that hasn’t stopped us from starting on the next idea.

Virginia and Donna can be found online at: DeBerryandGrant, Facebook, Twitter and on their blog Twomindsfull.