I started out writing
a story called Mayor Fox’s Diamond Day. (Yeah, it’s a stupid title but I was 10
at the time.) From there I went on to make my own homemade comic/book hybrids
using loose leaf paper and Elmer’s glue. My first hardcover was an accounting
book I copied all my loose leaf stories into.
Fast forward 30 years
later and now I’m publishing my own paperbacks and eBooks under the SJS DIRECT
imprint.
I’ve come a long way
in 30 years. How did I get here?
In my late teens I
came to understand the value of Black people controlling their own image in the
media. During the crack epidemic of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s I watched
as the mainstream media presented crack cocaine not as a national issue affecting
everyone in America, but as an inner-city issue for Black people. The
Crackhead, usually a nappy headed Black male in raggedy clothes was presented
as a terrifying boogeyman everyone needed to be scared of. And the Drug dealer
was presented by the media as a savage, ruthless killer who enjoyed killing his
own people in drive by shootings.
Not many knew that
the news media had just repackaged the Crackhead as the coon caricature in a
brand new package. Nor did they understand that the dope dealers they saw in
the news was just the Black Brute in a shiny new wrapper. I had no
understanding of what a coon or a Brute was at 17, but I knew that these
negative images needed to be countered. And seeing how Black people were being
presented in a negative light, I dedicated myself at the age of 17 towards
writing positive stories about the Black experience.
Seeing the constant
niggerization of Black people during the Crack Epidemic in incidents like the
Central Park jogger case, The Rodney King case, and the Brian Watkins case, I
wanted to tell the stories of the Black people who were decent, hardworking
people like myself and my family. Parents who worked jobs. Kids who went to
school and got good grades. Kids who aspired to go to college and get jobs. Kids
who never touched a drug or even thought of getting involved with the dope man
and his crew. People I knew.
I grew up in a family
dedicated towards academic excellence where education was considered a
priority. I wanted to get the story of people like myself out there and share
them with the other young brothers and sisters who could relate to the stories
I wanted to tell.
Back in the 1990’s I
originally planned to present my stories as comic books. It was my lifelong
dream to be a comic book writer. Back then, I thought the best way to inspire
young Black boys and girls was through giving them a comic book featuring
African-American characters.
Unfortunately, that’s
not what God Intended. The Comic book industry collapsed back in 1993, and
after I graduated college in 1994, I found myself being forced to pursue a new
dream when I was unable to find full-time work.
With the comic book
industry in ruins and the job market a brick wall, I became a novelist instead.
It took close to a decade for me to hone my skills as a writer and learn how to
write a novel. It took close to a year after that to learn the process of how
to submit a book to a publisher. And after I finished my first novel, I soon
learned about the painful process of rejection.
I got a lot of Nos
from the big publishers and literary agents in the 1ate 1990’s. Many liked my
writing but couldn’t find a way to market it. At the time I was pushing The
Changing Soul, a story for Black men in a time where books for Black women like
Waiting to Exhale were dominating the Book market. And I was Pushing Isis, an
African-American fantasy book in a time when Black speculative fiction was in
its infancy.
But I still believed
there was a market for positive stories about the Black experience. So when
Print-on-demand publishing became affordable in 2002, I invested $200 of my
last $600 from my savings into publishing Isis. It would have been John Haynes’
first story The Changing Soul, but that story had way too many glitches in it.
Turns out that was
the best investment I made in my life. Isis wasn’t a blockbuster hit, but it
did open a lot of doors for me. The royalties from that book, as small as they
were gave me hope and kept me afloat during a long period of unemployment.
I kept writing and I
kept honing my skills over the past decade learning how to write screenplays,
teleplays, blogs, and non-fiction. By 2009, I was ready to start my own
publishing imprint SJS DIRECT. In the past five years SJS DIRECT titles have
gotten critical acclaim and books like A Recipe for $ucce$$, All About Marilyn,
The Temptation of John Haynes, All About Nikki, The Isis series and The Thetas
have found small audiences. I still don’t have that best-seller yet, but I
believe if I keep persevering I soon will.
I don’t know what the
next 30 years will bring for me. I’m hoping I have that breakthrough book. But
what I’m really hoping is that brothers and sisters will get inspired by my
writing and start embracing the more positive images of themselves. It would
put a smile on my face if I were to see life in the Black community start
imitating art I present in my writing.
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