Tiana, what inspired you to take up writing?
I have been writing since I was a
young girl and learned how to write. I was drawing and writing, making up
stories in my head with colorful characters and ‘inappropriate’ love scenes for
someone my age, lol. My mother had an old typewriter from when she was in
college in the early 80’s, and she’d let me use it to type out my stories. I had
folders and folders of poems and stories squirreled away in my bedroom.
What do you love most about being a Storyteller?
I love the ability to literally
create worlds and people. I thought initially, I’d be ‘making them’ do what I
want, like playing with dolls, but quickly learned that is not how it was going
to work. More times than not, my characters tell ME what they are going to do.
I simply ‘set them up’ and they do the rest. I also love entertaining people as
well as giving information they may be able to use, simultaneously. I enjoy
interacting with readers about what I’ve written. It’s just a joy to disappear
inside of myself, live with ‘people’ I created and then present them to others.
I never get tired of it.
What did you do before you became a writer?
I worked as a Marketing Director in
corporate America. I got sick of the rat race. I was tired of meetings, etc. My
creativity was being stifled, but, I had to pay the bills. Then I got an
opportunity to work from home for another company. I did that for awhile and
while I was taking care of my then infant son, for stress relief, I began
writing late at night. I never stopped writing, I just wrote less but I found
myself needing an outlet. So, I spent the nights painting, drawing and writing
and the writing took over more and more of my nightly routine until I looked
down and saw I had literally written two books without knowing it. I cut and
pasted and excerpt one late night online, a friend of mine saw it--he was
already a published author (I didn’t know it though – he and I had fallen out
of contact.) and he had me call him immediately to talk to me about my writing
and the rest was history.
What do you enjoy doing besides writing?
Well, as alluded to, painting and
sketching. I also enjoy cooking and spending time with my family and friends.
If you could change one thing about the world
what would it be? Why?
I would have people automatically
have to treat people kindly until their behavior warranted otherwise. We live
in a very self-absorbed, cruel world and people sometimes don’t seem to care
how their words and actions negatively affect others and sometimes, they in
fact know, and because they are so powerless in their own lives, they thrive
off of hurting others in other to feel important and get attention. I would
have that sort of behavior stop and I am certain it would stop or at least
greatly minimize larger social issues and problems - such as unnecessary wars,
intolerance, etc.
My biggest challenge in writing The Scarlet Omen and the rest of the trilogy was keeping all the characters in my head alive and present throughout all three books. Please tell us a little about your latest
release and the challenges you faced writing it.
My latest release, “Saved and
SAINTified”, is the from a series in which the main character/Hero is a
sex-therapist, author and ‘in your face’ advocate of interracial relationships,
particularly those involving black women and Rainbeau/non-black men. The first
two books in the series, “The Naughty Sins of a Saint” and “When Saint Goes
Marching In”, delve into who he is, how he met his Goddess/wife, ‘Xenia’ and
the trials and tribulations they’ve had to overcome vocationally as well as
their relationship. This third release focuses more on Saint’s past, and how he
came to be the man he is today as well as a new problem with a wayward relative
across the globe who wishes nothing short of his and his new child’s death.
One of the challenges I had while writing this, is knowing that I had to go
deeper into the paranormal of Saint’s life. I have some readers/fans who do not
enjoy paranormal – but it came down to an artistic choice in which I had no
choice. The main character needed to address this further, and after all, he is
psychic with special abilities. I would have done himself and his ‘world’ a
great disservice by not addressing it. I knew I was taking a chance, but at the
end of the day, I have to be true to the characters.
Another challenge was one of the
scenes involving a man that he grew up with. It was very gritty,
heart-wrenching scene, and it was painful to write because I was fully aware
that people like ‘Bomb’, really do exist and it was emotional for me, as a
writer, to paint a picture of this side character’s world. He was an
intelligent, Puerto-Rican gang member from a world that was lost – yet his mind
was still ‘there’ – back in a time where heroine, fighting and basic survival
were a way of life in the urban scene of the south Bronx, circa 1979-1982. This
was such an important part of how Saint became the man he is today, it too, had
to be addressed. Even though this is essentially a romance story and about
family, Saint needed to tell his story much deeper – to go inside of himself
and expose to the readers the how and why of his basic being.
Finally, the other challenge was
the length of the story. I did not realize I had written over 700 pages. Please
do not ask me how I didn’t know, lol, I truly didn’t until I received the
manuscript back from my editor. I had two choices – split the story in half and
sell it as a part I and part II, or deliver it whole, causing some people
either annoyance or gratitude. I went with the latter, because the story was
meant to be read as a whole, so that is what I decided to move forward with.
What are the three most important things an author
should possess? Why?
1. Time - You have to make time to write. Even if you
are not on a schedule, if you are not writing, even in your ‘spare’ time, you
won’t be able to develop your craft better. This is one of those things where
you truly have to do it a lot to get better in your chosen genre(s).
2. A willingness to grow and learn throughout
their writing career – The book(s) you write right now, won’t be the same as
the ones you write ten years from now. That is how it should be. This is not to
say those first two-three books won’t be good, but if you have readers and
fans, they will see you getting better. They may not like everything you write,
matter of fact, I am sure of this – but they won’t be able to see that you have
severely declined, as far as your skills, if you are open to learning and
getting better.
3. Drive - Talent, willingness and time is not enough.
You have to be driven to do it. You have to think about writing when you are
not currently sitting at your keyboard or gripping your notebook. The things
that you love and completely enjoy, you think about a lot. It needs to be your
boy or girlfriend – that you are madly in love with. If you don’t feel that way
about writing, then it means you may need to reevaluate what you truly want to
do career wise. It can’t be a hobby. It can start as a hobby, but it can never
stay that way – it must be a full-time relationship. The drive is what will get
the writer over that hump regarding the pitfalls, delays etc. and it will allow
the ‘wake-up’ call to transpire, the growth to transform them so they can reach
it from the start of the manuscript, until they can see it in print and hold a
hard-bound copy in their hands. (or kindle/nook) etc.
What do you want readers to feel after reading
your novels?
I want my readers to have truly
been enveloped in the world they read about. I want them to get angry, to
laugh, and sometimes cry. I want them to have been entertained and possibly
even enlightened. If it is a love story, I want them to be aroused and possibly
even want to be the heroine or hero. I want the gamut of human emotions to have
run. I don’t always write characters that are lovable at the beginning –
because not all human beings are friendly, at ease, strong and aggressive. But
I do want my characters to show evolution, and sometimes it is done subtly,
sometimes on a much grander scale – but that that to me, is capturing the human
divinity in a character that was 2-deminensiola, and is now fleshed out, almost
palpable to the touch.
Any words of wisdom:
Stay true to your vision and your
craft. Appreciate and acknowledge your readers and fans, and ask them to
participate in dialogue but do not write what
others want you to write, if that is not what is in your heart. If you do, you
no longer have written your story,
you’ve written theirs. You are the writer, and not everyone will fawn over your
work – but at the end of the day, if you wrote what was in your heart, and did
the best you could at that time, so that within itself is golden. Peer pressure
is MFer, lol, but do not become her concubine. Don’t be pimped out by public
opinion – be true to YOU.
Thanks so much, Tiana. Readers, please go to the links below to see what else Tiana is up to.
twitter.com/TianaLaveen
