We are nearing the end of our E-Book Reading Challenge, with only 3 chats left. It’s been quite a challenge to keep up with all the chats & books, so I want to thank all of you for participating. And, a special thanks to the authors who donated their books and joined us for our Black Book Chats.
Today we are chatting with QB Wells from noon until about 8PM EST, so please pop in throughout the day and share your thoughts with us on the book, his writing, or even how Blackface, his debut title came about.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
To protect his mother, sixteen year-old Clinton Ray a.k.a Black must run away from home. Forced to mingle with the worst elements and circumstances in urban life, Black bumps into Face, Penny and Zero, who together chase the American Dream. Inevitably, their experiences provoke Black to reassess his friendships, his lifestyle and his own aspirations.
In his journey of self-discovery, Black must learn to survive on the streets of Chicago, reevaluate his life decisions, or perish in the chaos of life.
AUTHOR BIO
Q.B. Wells is a publisher, author, and editor of www.UrbaniaMag.com. His debut Blackface: A Novel is available online and at bookstores. Visit him @ www.ArtOfficialMedia.com.
THE AUTHOR SPEAKS
“When I attended undergrad I took a class “Urban Images in Film and Media”. I learned about the history of film/media and the representation of African Americans in films/media starting with “A Birth of A Nation”. In short, I was intrigued by stereotypes. Specifically, blackface because of the way the image was used to reinforce the popular opinion of whites about African Americans.
Blackface: A Novel was fueled by personal situations that occurred in my experience with life and school. My peers in graduate school did not understand the characters’ motivations of the short stories I wrote. They said the stories were “good” but in an effort not to discuss the content.
I grew up in a gang culture, but because of the death and incarceration of my friends and family, I chose to write about other ideas. I did not want the other students to think I was the guy from the other neighborhood. Nor, did I want to reflect on the past.
The instructor offered little to no advice. He provided feedback for the other students. I was the only colored spot in the room and the situation was frustrating. I didn’t talk much in class and I really thought I would have been received better if I tap danced, performed in blackface or smiled all the time.
To add to the matter, the instructor could give me no concrete information about the publishing process. I spent most of my time researching AA publishing and discovered that I needed a specific audience.
In high school, the lack of African American characters in books caused me to dislike reading. Although I could relate to the plots, I related books to nerds and white people. If black characters were present, they weren’t like anyone that I knew.
There were two types of blackface minstrels. One show was geared toward the popular audience. The other were shows geared toward the black audience. Therefore, I decided to write a book that AA youth could relate to. I disregarded the other stories geared toward my graduate school classmates.
At the end of the semester, I wrote Blackface.”
WEBSITES
www.ArtOfficialMedia.com
www.urbanbooksandmedia.blogspot.com
www.UrbaniaMag.com
Welcome, welcome everyone! Thanks again for joining us. Q. B. Wells will be in and out to hang with us today and while this is a book discussion, I want to make sure we pay special attention to “the author speaks” portion above. HOW FASCINATING!
Q.B, please start off telling us more about you and no one sentence answers either.
-Tee
(BTW, I’m celebrating my 10-Year anniversary today, sooooooo I’ll be in and out too.)
Thank you for having me. I am a publisher, author and educator. I teach writing courses at a local university. I’m an advocate for literature and the arts. My first love is film. I started writing because most films I viewed were derived from books. I’ll will continue to write until I find a book relevant enough to be filmed.
QB, I really like the “why you wrote it” behind Blackface and find it interesting that even so far in your academic journey, you still encountered these types of issues. What type of feedback did the instructor give others in the class and did he say anything at all regarding your work? Can you be more specific on the projects you did, too?
-Tee
Tee,
In our writing workshops we discussed plot, description, pacing and voice. In detail, we’d discuss what “worked” and the elements that led to a dominate impression. The instructor had favorites and we spent a considerable amount of time discussing the students the instructor felt best suited for publication. One student was offered a full-time position at the end of the semester with no prior teaching experience.
My work usually was followed by silence and stairs. The instructor wouldn’t talk about the characters but would talk about if the action / plot. He questioned whether the situation was realistic.
One short story I wrote, “A Hole in the Wall” was about a high school teen (Black) that falls in love with the school slut. Several of the teen’s friends interact and have sexual intercourse with the one girl.
Black feelings are hurt because he really likes the girl. He finds out about the group sex and decides to hurt those involved. He finds a gun. He goes to the school and shoots several of the students in the classroom.
The school slut happened to be white. All the boys were black. In retrospect, perhaps the situation was too much for the audience. 95% of the class was white and most were women. Another student, an African American female, broke out in laughter.
I didn’t know what to say. Although the instructor thought the image and situation was unreal. The image and the situation couldn’t have been realer to me! In my experience, a white girl that desired black guys was not uncommon. Getting a gun was not uncommon. As a class we never discussed why I wrote what I did.
The main character morphed into Black, one of the main characters in Blackface: A Novel.
Another story, “The White City” depicted a white businessman and pedophile that stalked on kids in the hood at the train station. This too, was real to me. None of the character’s motivations were discussed. My critiques were the shortest.
The instructor discouraged my writing because he didn’t like what I wrote about. He would not advise me for a thesis. I don’t want to think the situation was personal because I did have people of other cultures that I bonded with.
Wow, this is unbelievable. So sad to hear it happened this way, but glad to see it sparked the desire to write your book. I haven’t finished it yet (sorry), but really want to hope he simply didn’t know how to deal with the cultural difference. The White City sounds like it could morph into a full-length book too; throw a few “suspense” aspects in it and set things off with a little something different than what we see in books today. Oh wait…I was making the sicko a serial killer. Sorry, I got carried away and all…lol.
But, back to what we were saying… I’m glad you continued to write and moved forward with the book and your publishing company. Our stories need to be told…all stories.
Thanks Tee. I agree that all our stories need to be told.
Of course, it was personal. They can’t relate to your experiences, and we’ll spend the rest of our lives craving that validation if we continue to insist on it without moving on. I’m glad you chose to move on…or have you? I had similar experiences in college. I went to DePaul University: white, catholic, money-school. MInorities made up less than 3% of the entire student body when I attended (some umpteen many years ago). I admit that it took me years to get past the blatant discrimination I suffered.
Fortunately and unfortunately, these experiences shape us into passionate, but volatile writers. We tend to write shocking subjects, not only because we lived them (I lived in Chicago’s Jane Adams’ projects and my sisters and nephews were in gangs…some still are. I know what it feels like to have to dive to the floor while your windows are being shot out), but because we understand deep-seated, powerful emotions.
I can’t wait to read your work. Kudos to you.
D.J. McLaurin,
It is unfortunate that you experienced a similar situation at Depaul University. The most branded universities seem to go under the radar when discussing discrimination and the climate of the culture.
For some time, I held some resentment. I paid no less for my education and felt slighted that I felt my needs were not being met.
I had to move on and continue writing. In my mind, I didn’t have a choice. I never sought the validation of the instructor or school, but I did look for validation from my peers. After I talked about the book with peers and teens, they enjoyed it. I was more compelled to publish because I felt that the young men wouldn’t feel demonized when reading. In fact, they might enjoy it, read another book or write a book themselves.
I too find this situation to be sad. But I’m so glad that you moved on to tell our stories. Even in my rural upbringing, stories like yours happen. But, this is something that white america don’t seem to want to acknowledge.
And I must also add, that I was having problems getting my 14-year-old son to read, particularly in his eight grade english class. I discovered that it wasn’t because he couldn’t read what was assigned, it was he didn’t like it. His teacher worked to find things he would read and we stumbled on the fact that he likes to read about African American people, be it fiction or nonfiction. He could identify with the characters better than he could in certain books. I’ll always remember one thing he said, “mom, these people in this book don’t talk or act like us.” So once we adjusted his reading to include more books by and about black people, he reads more now. So from this aspect, I applaud you on moving and telling our stories.
-Brenda
Brenda,
I’m so glad that it was important enough to you to find something your son liked to read. Many teachers and parents write teenage males off and conclude black males don’t like to read. The real truth is that there is not enough things to read that don’t have the old traditional “slave” narrative or civil rights talk. There are contemporary works, but few deal. Some teachers only deal with the “classics” that aren’t classic to a teenager.
Q.B.,
You are so right about the classics. But I think we were lucky to have a teacher that wasn’t willing to give up either. She basically changed the type of books she had the class read which also helped to get some of the other males in the class interested enough to read and discuss the books.
-Brenda
QB, a few questions for you as we wait on others to get here before actually discussing the book:
- While in graduate school, you decided not to write about your life growing up. But, then your debut novel is street fiction. Why didn’t you decide to steer away from it? Or did you think the coming-of-age story would be so universal that the genre would take second stage?
Tee,
In graduate school, I attended to learn to write. As an undergrad I learned how to manage media (magazines/newsletters), but didn’t know how to write. I had a desire, but I didn’t know what to write. After reading more about writing and listening to the instructor, I learned to write what I knew.
I knew the street. I knew what it was like to be a young man involved with gangs.
I thought that the coming-of-age story would speak to the younger males and inform mothers of the issues that could occur with their sons.
As I researched the genre, I didn’t see any stories that dealt with blackness as a conflict / problem. Therefore, the anger / image associated with the young black male was something I thought I needed to write about.
Kudos to you, QB! Once I’ve completed this, I will definitely share my thoughts and apologize for not getting it done in time for the chat.
Hey QB! Welcome
Tell us about the challenges you face as being an author AND a publisher.
What kinds of books do you publish?
.-= Candace K. Cottrell´s last blog ..Getting everything set up =-.
Hi Candace!
The challenge of the author and publisher is multitasking, lack of resources and time management. There are so many things to complete the book. Writing, editing, cover design, page layout and everything else involved in production. Then, you have the marketing, publicity and distribution. God forbid you run into one of the book scams.
The longer I’ve been involved with publishing, the better resources and freelancers have come into my world. Therefore, I’m doing my best to produce quality books – one at a time.
Art Official Media publishes books that depict aspects of the city. Each book we publish depicts a distinct consequence of living in the city. I find that the city always have interesting stories.
For some time, I thought no other countries had cities like the U.S! Publishing books and reading authors manuscripts from around the globe helped me see a bigger picture.
Hi Q.B.,
I’m enjoying your discussion here today and thanks for joining us.
I do have a question…what are book scams?
-Brenda
Brenda,
Book scams are my way of describing the book predators that offer publicity, editing and other services that are not effective. Many times, an author can pay for a service and not get their moneys worth. Like an editor who takes the money upfront and does not edit. Or a publicist that takes a retainer but never does the work. A bad encounter with the latter types can stress an author.
Book scams is right then. It is so sad that we treat one another like this. This is terrible.
-Brenda
Hi, Q.B., and welcome! I want to know if you mean it literally that you’ll “continue to write until you find a book relevant enough to be filmed”? Should you find such a book from another author, you would drop your pen? Likewise, should you crank out a gem you consider worthy to be filmed, would that end your writing career? As a writer, I can’t imagine this.
I’m very interested in reading your work, especially considering your being a teacher of writing. Magnificient!
Thank you D.J McLaurin for your kind words.
You are so right! I was not being literal.
I would never give up the pen. I have too much writing to compete and most that has not been published. I plan to write until I can no longer use my hands or voice.
When I was in graduate school, I had the goal to write five books before 35 and have another 10 books under contract. My comments were based on my goals set.
But, If I sell a book to a film producer or one of the authors published under my publishing house has a book filmed, I can’t stop writing. I enjoy reading and writing too much. in my heart, the film is only a professional validation and the ultimate marketing tool to sell the story/books.
If I did sell something, I would slow on writing novels and concentrate more on essays and short stories. Short story writing, nonfiction and essays are more joyful for me to write.
Great to hear!
I cant wait to read your book. I am sorry I wasnt able to get here before now. Thanks for chatting with us today.
Thank you so much for having me. I enjoyed chatting today. I look forward to chatting again.
Awww wow I missed it?? I was so busy reading. Well just in case the author is still here….this book was absolutely fascinating. It even scared me a little. I’m was born and raised in Evanston and I loved on the northside (by the Thorndale EL) for 13 years so the refernces to it were very mind blowing. I knew a lot of ‘moes’ and ‘ancients’ in that area.