Nostrand Avenue
1.
What really
inspired you to write your book, to force you from taking an idea or experience
and conveying it into a book?
Nostrand
Avenue first began as a short story called “Thursday” that was published in an
anthology called Brooklyn Noir back
in the early 2000s. A few years ago I
decided to return to the character, Kango and, in a way, discovered that I’d
been writing his story in bits and pieces for a number of years. So, I decided to finish what I started. And when I did it was an introspective
journey that pushed me to take a look at not only my personal life but also
decisions I’d made on a lot of different levels in my career.
2.
What is it about
and whom do you believe is your targeted reader?
I
would say Nostrand Avenue sits at the intersection of a Walter Mosley novel and
the Harry Potter series. It’s a story
that takes place in an alternate world where human beings have energy auras
that are classified by different numbers.
These auras allow people to do different things, whether it’s
manipulating matter, reading minds or locating people at a moment’s notice,
etc.
Kango
Watts, the main character, is a consultant for the underworld who plans crimes
that go off without a hitch. He’s a 7- aura
type, which makes him very hard to harm or kill. But as a young man he was a little too flashy
with his gifts and made some enemies in the Brooklyn neighborhoods where he lived,
which forced him to leave New York after only being there a few years. 15 years later, while he’s living in DC, his
old friend and yoga teacher comes to see him to hire him for a job to steal an
antique Bible, which takes him to London and then back to Brooklyn, where old
enemies are waiting for him.
3.
What do you hope
will be the everlasting thoughts for readers who finish your book? What should
remain with them long after putting it down?
The Afrofuturism
movement is at its height in 2018. I
grew as a comic book and sci-fi fan in the ‘80s and ‘90s and I very rarely got
to read and see people of color as main characters in the genre. It’s a miracle to me that Black Panther is
not a billion-dollar franchise or that a show like Terence Nance’s “Random Acts
of Flyness” is on HBO every week. Since
I have a reputation as a crime writer, I wanted to create a world where fantasy
and sci fi readers might feel just as at home in my work as traditional
following. One reader described Nostrand
Avenue as Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of
Blood and Bone with a lot of sex.
It’s also been compared to The
Akata Witch series. I think there’s
a lot in this book for every type of fiction reader. There’s love and sex, crime and retribution
as well as introspection on religion, African mysticism and yoga. Nostrand Avenue is really unique.
4.
What advice or
words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers?
Writing
is a craft. It’s something you have to
study, practice and devote yourself to like any other art. It isn’t about image and it’s best when it
doesn’t aim to copy the work that anyone else is doing. You don’t write novels for the money. It gets harder and hard to make a living as a
creative writer, though there are many opportunities in content creation. The true reward comes in the impact you can
have on readers’ lives and the world as a whole. The paycheck for that is priceless!
5.
What trends in the
book world do you see and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading?
I
think publishing is trying to find new models to sustain itself. In a world where there are TV shows on every
platform it gets harder and harder to get people to read for fun who weren’t
born with or developed a love for it.
But when the right words hit the air in front an audience they become
far more than just ink on the page.
I
think what you may see more of his audiobooks moving into the virtual reality
sphere and the return of the short story as a promotional medium. Once you have people attention it’s easier to
get their patronage. So it’s all about
making them see.
6.
What great
challenges did you have in writing your book?
This
was the first time when I made the decision to intentionally travel very close
to my personal “home”. Maybe it was a
40-something crisis, but I needed to remind myself that I still had a lot of
say to my readers. But in doing that I had to not only look back at my past,
but also where I was in my present. Sorting through your own baggage on paper in
front of the whole world can be super complicated. And as I learned the hard way, readers can
internalize what you fictionalize as exact copies of realities, when that is
rarely the case. Perspective is everything.
7.
If people can only
buy one book this month, why should it be yours?
One
of the things that I’m best as it as a writer is finding humor in
everything. Though it deals with
violence, heartbreak and death, Nostrand Avenue is a love letter to the human
experience and learning from your mistakes.
Whether it’s being on an all-night bender in the five-boroughs, to
beating yourself up over a relationship gone bad, or getting your head back in
the game after a long hiatus, everyone has stood somewhere on Kango’s road at
least once. They might not make the same
choices that he does they’ve stood in his shoes whether old or young, gay or
straight, Caucasian or of color.
About the author: Kenji Jasper’s work has appeared
in Essence®, Vibe, The Source, on National Public Radio
and in many other publications. The author of the memoir The House on
Childress Street, and the novels Seeking Salamanca Mitchell, Dakota
Grand, and Dark, he is a Morehouse College graduate. He lives
in Los Angeles. For more info, please see: www.KensingtonBooks.com
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