This Thursday and every Thursday Hopeful Heartbreakers hosts Talk To Me Thursday and our featured author was Kema B. In her live discussion she answered my questions, and a few of the readers questions so we could get to know her and her work a little better. Scroll down and see what she had to say. Don’t forget to check out her work and leave a review!
1. Are you a full-time or part-time author? How does that affect your writing?
I'm a part-time author right now, hopefully one day I will be able to get to the point of being a full time author. I wouldn't say that being a part-time author necessarily affects my writing more like my sleep and reading schedule lol. I really miss reading for real because my TBR is looking ridiculous. Honestly, It's just a matter of prioritizing and sticking to my writing schedule and I'm definitely working on doing that.
2. What kind(s) of writing do you do?
This is always the hardest question for me because I write African-American contemporary romance/women's fiction but there is always going to be some "urban' elements laced in there too but it's not urban fiction, I'll leave that up to my faves. I'll tell you what I told my publisher, which is I write love stories with some n****s thrown in here and there.
3. What’s the biggest thing that people think they know about your genre that isn’t so?
I feel like people have the perception that if you write contemporary romance you have to use flowery language to describe sex and body parts. Your leads have to be respectable, personality wise, their jobs and the way they talk, you know the code-switching we're forced to do in the professional world. The women should be virgins and waiting for their one true love to come and that's not my thing. If you don't then it's immediately considered Urban. Contemporary means in the present and in my present I've seen black love not always being respectable and pretty, but raw and gritty and I want to show black love in all its variations.
4. Is there anything about the writing life you think is misunderstood by the public?
It's not easy to write a book, it takes dedication, discipline and a thick skin and I'll leave it at that ;)
5. How many books have you written?
I've written three books. Two that's available now and a super short and sexy summer novella that will be out in July.
6. If someone is brand new to your work, what book do you think they should start with?
They should definitely start with Valentine's Kiss. My books will all be stand-alones but they are a part of an overall family series and Valentine's Kiss basically gives you an introduction to all the families so it's best to start there.
7. What’s the title of your most recent book? ,
The Goddess of My Heart it's available now on Amazon and pretty dope if I do say so myself.
8. How did you come up with the title of the book?
When I came up with the name of the characters while writing Valentine's Kiss it came to me. The heroine is named after the love goddess so I knew I wanted the lead character to feel like she owned his heart but mishandles it at the same time. Goddesses are not pure as some people perceive them to be and when you meet Venus you'll see that both her name and the title fits.
9. What’s the back of the book summary?
“Sometimes you have to end before you can begin...”
What was supposed to be one of the happiest days of Nasir Carter’s life turns into a nightmare when a devastating secret rocks his world. Armed with information from an unlikely ally, he walks away from the woman who owned his heart since he was fifteen-years-old, Venus Aphrodite Day.
Venus was unprepared to handle the love Nasir offered her at such a young age and made a series of bad decisions that left her jilted and buried under the weight of her lies. Years later, a chance reunion reveals an even bigger secret, and the pair find themselves at a crossroads between the thin line of love and hate.
With so much stacked against them, including outside forces determined to keep them apart, will Nasir close the book on their love story for good? Or will Venus be able to prove that she can give him the love he deserves and remain the Goddess of His Heart?
10. Tell us about the main characters.
Nasir is an actor and he is very black and white, he had an extremely toxic childhood that he had to bear the brunt of being the oldest of four. He doesn't do well with shades of gray and Venus is all gray. She is one of four as well, very introverted and sort've a loner unless she doesn't want to be. Her sister and Nas both have dominant personalities and she doesn't really know her place in the world yet, only the one behind the lens of her camera. They are both very complex and I learned a lot while writing them and I hope folks enjoy reading about them as much as I did writing them.
