Keep this weekend in mind for next year or, better yet, contact Jan
Faulkner at the Oakland museum and offer your support.
Terris McMahan Grimes, author of double Anthony Award winner, SOMEBODY ELSE'S CHILD, and BLOOD WILL TELL interviews her agent and friend, Divas editor, Jacqueline Turner Banks.
Q: Your company, Banks Communications, is entering the publishing field this year with ReGeJe Press. With all your years as a writer and literary agent, you know how much work is involved in publishing, why take on that kind of hassle?
A: Your absolutely right when you call it a hassle. We had no idea what we were taking on when we decided to do this. We knew we had to do everything ourselves, but we didn't realize how much was involved in everything.
But I'm enjoying it. When the uncorrected proofs for MAID IN THE SHADE came back I got a sense of satisfaction that was even greater than the joy I felt when I held my first novel that was published by Houghton Mifflin. We're doing this because of some of the trends we've seen in publishing. Big houses are gobbling up each other, becoming even bigger, and consolidating their lists. As a result, the two or three slots assigned to books by and about African Americans from two or three houses. have become 2 or 3 slots from one huge publisher. What I'm saying is roughly 9 slots (from 2-3 publishers) have become 3 from one publisher. I doubt if anybody in the business will admit this is happening, but I've seen it. And, surprisingly enough, this is coming at a time when statistics prove that our readership and buying power has never been greater. We believe the time to moan and groan about what's not being done for us is over (if it ever existed). If we want to see our books in the marketplace it's our responsibility to put them there.
Q: Who's "we?"
A: My husband, Reginald, is the Publisher. My title is still writer/literary agent.
Q: How many books do you expect to publish?
A: Six this year, three on the spring list and three on our fall list.
Q: All mysteries?
A: No. As you know, I love mysteries, and ReGeJe Press will probably be top heavy in that genre, but our taste and lists will be eclectic. We have a mystery, a contemporary romance, and a thriller on the Spring list. We have a juvenile mystery, a horror and one I can't quite classify yet on the Fall list.
Q: All fiction?
A: This year, yes, but next year could be all nonfiction. Like I said, we have varied taste.
Q: Will all your writers and characters be African Americans?
A: No, but our books will always be of interest to African Americans. I'm not sure what that means because our taste is as broad as the general public's. I'm sure more than two-thirds of the books in my house are by and about white people.
The horror novel that's coming out on the Fall list is by a white brother and sister writing team. It's called THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW and it's wonderful. One of their main characters is black, but I'm sure I would have wanted to publish this novel even if he wasn't. We will publish the kind of things we like to read.
Q: Tell me about Ruby.
A: Ruby Gordon is the main character in my mystery, MAID IN THE SHADE. I had more fun writing Ruby's character than any of my other characters. She has some mental problems, that she doesn't get into, but we know they're there. She says and does the kind of things I wish I had the nerve to do.
Q: She's a maid, right?
A: Yes, Ruby is a self employed cleaning woman. Some friends have questioned that, but I don't have a problem with it. If it's not politically correct to have a black maid--too bad. Like me, most of my friends have college degrees, but most of us also have a mother or grandmother, who at one time, worked hard cleaning somebody else's house. It's honest work and there's no shame in an honest dollar.
Q: You know she's going to be compared to Barbara Neely's Blanch.
A: I hope so. I love Barbara Neely's Blanch novels. Her latest one came out recently and I can't wait to read Blanch Cleans Up. Blanch and Ruby are as different as any other two amateur sleuths out there. I think the two women would like each other if they ever met. And when you think about it, of all the occupations in the world, surely there's room for two black maids!
Q: I understand you got a Publishers Weekly review. How did you pull that off?
A: I have no idea. I must be living right. It was in the March 23, issue. It said, (Ruby is) "possessed of a quirky good humor delightfully expressed, Ruby herself is the main attraction..."
I'm happy to say, "they got it." Ruby is the main attraction, there's a mystery but I think it's more of a character study about this funny, crazy, lady from Tennessee.
Q: Last question, are you seeking manuscripts?
A: My goodness, No. I have enough manuscripts to read to take me into the next millennium.
ReGeJe Press website http://www.angelfire.com/mi/regejepress
* * *
Maggie Anderson
N. Xavier Arnold
Nikki Baker
Jacqueline Turner Banks
Eleanor Taylor Bland
Patricia E. Canterbury
Charlotte Carter
Evelyn Coleman
Nora DeLoach
Grace F. Edwards
Terris McMahan Grimes
Shirley Hailstock
Yolanda Joe
Shelby Lewis
Gloria Mallette
Penny Mickelbury
Barbara Neely
Judith Smith-Levin
Valerie Wilson Wesley
Chassie West
I'll be at the Chester Himes Conference, and I'm doing some signings for The Hoodoo Man. I just completed something called Book Talk. Here are the particulars. It's up and running and it's 24 hours.
Dial 818/788-9722 Code:#4310 and hear me talk about The Hoodoo Man.
This will be running for the next 6 weeks and perhaps beyond.
They are advertising it in the Sunday LA Times, LA Daily News
and the New
York Times Book Review. It can run from 1 to 6 months.
I'm also the featured Spotlight Interview on Murder On The Internet
from
Randomhouse.Com. Go to www.randomhouse.com click on newsletters and
then click on Murder On The Internet. They also ran an interview with me
last month, but it wasn't as detailed as the new one. So I'm in two places
for March and for April.
Here's what reviewer Harriet Klausner writes about The Hoodoo Man:
Judith Smith-Levin is a powerful writer whose hypnotic prose will mesmerize
readers into believing in the power of
voodoo. THE HOODOO MAN stars a fascinating female protagonist,
who happens to be a black woman in a position
of authority in a predominately white town
The chicken jumped the pond because she's no dumb bunny. Charlotte Carter
is the author of Rhode Island Red a wonderful mystery set in New York,
When Charlotte's agent was ready to market the novel, none of the New York
publishers were biting. They "jumped the pond," and sold the novel to the
English publisher, Serpent's Tail. The reviews were great and the American
publishers came calling. Duh! Charolotte's next novel Coq Au Vin
is coming out in January 1999 from Warner. The Warner mass market edition
of Rhode Island Red will be issued at the end of this year, but no need
to wait, order the Serpent Tail trade paper now. You won't be disappointed
Her main character, Nanette is a French speaking, sax-playing sister with
a group of strange friends and a dead man in her apartment. Charlotte informs
us that a French and German translation will be available soon too.
A special thank you to Valerie Daniels for including a banner about Divas on African American Mystery website
Also, Valerie sends the following names of new writers and their titles and the websites of some old favorites:
Effective this weekend, her website will have a new address:
http://www.aamystery.com.
*AFRICAN AMERICAN MYSTERY PAGE http://www.aamystery.com
*AFRICAN AMERICAN MYSTERY AUTHORS (list compiled by Paula L. Woods)
http://www.bookbrowser.com/Diverse/AfroAmerMyst.html
AUTHORS
*EVELYN COLEMAN http://www.mindspring.com/~evelyncoleman/
*NORA DELOACH http://members.aol.com/ndelo66635
*ARLENE GAUSE-JACKSON http://www.angelfire.com/ar/HowlingAgainstWind/
*TERRIS MCMAHAN GRIMES http://vme.net/dvm/sister-sleuth/
*JUDITH SMITH-LEVIN http://members.aol.com/StarDuvall
*VALERIE WILSON WESLEY http://www.tamarahayle.com
*CHASSIE WEST http://www.softaid.net/bobwest/chassie1.html
An one page article in the April 27, 1998 issue of Time magazine about two new mystery writers, Pamela Thomas-Graham and Margaret Cuthbert.
Pamela is a three degree Harvard alumnus and a management consultant. Her first novel is set at Harvard and titled A DARKER SHADE OF CRIMSON. Her heroine is a flirtatious economics professor who finds the body of a black dean and becomes the amatuer sleuth on the case.
Margaret, a Stanford graduate and an ob-gyn, writes about a doctor who tries to stop a killer that is targeting unborn babies in her novel, THE SILENT CRADLE. Pocket Books reportedly paid Margaret two million dollars for a two book contract. YOU GO GIRL!
If Gary Hardwick, author of Cold Medina and Double Dead, ever gets to your favorite bookstore don't miss an opportunity to hear this brother speak. Gary is the Excutive Producer of the television sitcom IN THE HOUSE. His insider take on Black Hollywood is fascinating.
(Editors Note) In Gary's second novel, Double Dead, there's a romantic
tread that is one of the best I've ever read. Quite often suspense novels
include romances that are downright silly. How many of us are going to
be on the prowl for a new lover while we're trying to save our lives? Gary
has figured out a way to make this work well. Check it out.
Arlene Gause-Jackson
(editor's note- I discovered this sister on Valerie's web page. I'm
looking forward to reading her novel This question was posed on her web
page)
Should medical practitioners be held liable for failed medical
implant devices? Are there always emotional consequences when one goes against societal norms? Will Lenore Hanson murder Dr. Gleeson? If she murders him will she get away with it? HOWLING AGAINST THE WIND inspects the medical implant device controversy.
Guy Johnson, Standing at the Scratch Line (Random House);
Terris McMahan Grimes, Somebody Else's Child and Blood Will Tell, (Signet);
John Ridley, Love is a Racket (Knopf);
Jacqueline Turner Banks, Maid in the Shade (Regeje Press);
Paula Woods, Inner City Blues, (W.W. Norton)
(Editors note with all due modesty this was the best panel I've ever
heard. It's the first time I've ever wanted to rush right out and buy each
novel.)
See you in the Summer
