All About Us follows a young woman living in the height of the Jim Crow era as she and her siblings fight seemingly endless obstacles in search of a brighter future. What was the idea, or spark, that first set off the need to write this book?

As flight attendants, we often had nice layovers in New Orleans. It was 1995. I flew with a co-worker who was from Yazoo City, Mississippi, a place I had never heard of. My co-worker asked that I ride the three-hour drive with her to visit relatives. Upon entering the city, I was surprised. I could see how downtrodden the area was. Yazoo City’s downtown is a place with colorful dilapidated buildings surrounded by poor areas. I knew growing up that my family, like many other black families, was poor. However, the city was shocking.

The residents were poor, poorer, and poorest. I witnessed families without running water and electricity. Sagging tin roofs appeared to be the norm. Thick plastic used as makeshift barriers for windows and doors. Houses without indoor plumbing. The need for infrastructure was visible.

This was a wake-up call for me to write a story about poor blacks. Of course, I knew I would insert in this story a few experiences of my own growing up poor, as well as friends and neighbors I once lived around. I knew I had a story to tell and blending other’s experiences with my own would, maybe just maybe make a great novel.

What was your approach to writing the interactions between Caiti and her siblings?

Realizing that siblings play an important role in the development of social skills, I wanted to incorporate pretend-play interactions between younger and older siblings. I felt this could teach empathy, sharing, and cooperation between the characters.

It was important that nonverbal interactions be established early on. I did not want too many speaking interactions with the younger siblings until later in the story. After making that decision, I decided to showcase the younger siblings by taking their personalities, and rather than have dialogue, their physical mannerisms would lead mostly until they were a little bit older.

There is a lot of time and care spent with descriptions and building the setting and tone of the story. Was this out of necessity to develop the depth of the story, or was it something that happened naturally as you were writing?

Definitely a necessity. Giving vivid descriptions was an attempt to make the reader feel as if they were right there with the characters, walking their walk and experiencing their pain, joy, and their surroundings.

What is the next novel you are working on, and when will that be available?

Tainted Money, how it ruins lives, relationships, and at times murder, is about a young male Venezuelan, named Vincent, in the United States illegally. He meets Riley and falls in love with her. Months later in a convenience store, he purchased a lottery ticket and won two million dollars. Apprehensive about having anyone cash his ticket was wearing him down.

He finally selects Riley as the one person he could trust with the winnings. He would often think of the things his winnings could mean for him. He would hire an attorney to help him obtain legal status in the USA. Start his own business and perhaps purchase a house and marry Riley.

Riley cashed in the ticket and disappeared. After a few days, he set out to find her. He visits the places they had ventured together. He sought out her friends and relatives and they all claimed to have no knowledge of her whereabouts. He was becoming angrier and angrier at Riley. Why and how could she do this to him?

It now becomes a manhunt for Riley who was skilled with firearms. Although Vincent was not one who was interested in firearms. He had migrated from a country where guns were laid out like your favorite coffee mug.

It soon becomes a cat-and-mouse game. The one thing Vincent was good at was a slingshot. It had saved him and Rico, his traveling buddy, from a brutal attack as they made their way through the dangerous jungles of Venezuela.

Stay tuned, the book will be out in the summer of 2024.

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