Your least favorite aspects of writing?
The time is takes to complete the entire piece; the first draft. If someone has championed or spearheaded the ability to lift the ideas from my head, instantaneously filling hundreds of pages with those thoughts, where I can begin the magical process of editing, please have the inventor of the blessed device contact me as soon as humanly possible.
Who are some of your favorite authors/books?
Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo (Unabridged)
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Terry McMillian’s Disappearing Acts
What are you reading right now?
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
If you could have a dinner party and invite five authors — dead or alive — who would they be and what would you serve them?
Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Tony Morrison, Jane Austen and James Baldwin. In addition to some culinary masterpiece, I’d serve up scintillating conversation centering around sharing our inspirations and lessons learned as we put pen to paper to tell stories only we could tell in our unique voices.
What is a book that you wish you could say that you had written and why?
I’ve never read a book where I thought 'I wish I wrote that.' There have been, however, literary pieces that left me reflecting on the message long after I’d finished reading the last word. Those books became a part of me and slightly altered the way I view things.
What is the greatest piece of advice (for writing and/or just living) that you have heard?
'If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.' ~ Toni Morrison
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