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Urban Reviews: Can you tell us what your latest book The
Pledge is all about?
Chandra Sparks Taylor: The Pledge is the story of a sixteen-year-old virgin’s journey to
loving herself.
Urban Reviews: Considering this is a teen novel, where do you draw your ideas for
this storyline and your other teen fiction novel Spin It Like This?
Chandra Sparks Taylor: My ideas for the storyline for The Pledge, Spin It Like That, and
my other young adult novels come from real-life experiences I had as
a teenager as well as from observing young adults now.
Urban Reviews: Has your love of writing been with you from an early age, or did you
just decide to jump into it at a later age?
Chandra Sparks Taylor: I have been writing since I was a little girl. I wanted to write
stories for the African-American YA market before it even existed.
When I was in high school, my mom asked me what I wanted to do with
my life, and I told her I wanted to be a writer. She told me writers
didn’t make any money, and I needed to find a career to fall back
on, so I majored in journalism because that was the closest I could
get to writing, but the writing was too structured for me. I ended
up taking a class in copyediting, and I found I absolutely loved it,
and God opened the doors for me to follow that career path, so
that’s where my focus has been for years. After I had my daughter in
2004, I realized I had never fulfilled my childhood dream of writing
a book, so I challenged myself to write one before my daughter
turned a year old. I’ve been writing every since.
Urban Reviews: You also provide editing services to other
writers. What type of classes, education, and experience does
it take to be a serious editor?
Chandra Sparks Taylor: To be a
"serious" editor, I strongly recommend having a good
grasp of the English language. I think a journalism background is
helpful because it teaches you to dig beneath the surface and to ask
tough questions. There are also copyediting classes available
online—ed2go.com has a good one—that are helpful. The most important
thing to do though is to actually edit. When I first started, I
would mark up whatever I was reading and I edited projects for free
or for very little money, and it gave me experience I don’t think I
would have gotten otherwise.
Urban Reviews: Also noted on your site is the fact that you do ghost writing.
Without disclosing too much, how many projects have you ghostwritten
for? Has it been a lucrative business for you?
Chandra Sparks Taylor: I’ve ghostwritten several projects in a variety of genres. It’s a
decent side income, but you have to be flexible because although
you’re writing the manuscript, ultimately, it’s not your work and
you don’t have the flexibility to change things as you would with
your own projects.
Urban Reviews: With so many duties, do you ever get to read for pleasure? If so,
do you have any favorite authors?
Chandra Sparks Taylor: I don’t get to read for pleasure as much as I would like.
Actually, these days, most of my "reading" is limited to audiobooks.
I don’t really have a favorite author, although I like James
Patterson’s Alex Cross series as well as several Christian fiction
authors.
Urban Reviews: What can readers look forward to from Chandra Sparks Taylor in the
future?
Chandra Sparks Taylor: I just finished up my next project, which is the second novel in
my Worth the Wait series. It will be published sometime next year.
Urban Reviews: What has been your most challenging obstacle to overcome in the book
business?
Chandra Sparks Taylor: The most challenging obstacle to overcome in the book business is
developing a thick skin. Whether I’m editing or writing, everyone is
not going to like my work, and I’ve had to learn to be okay with
that and commit myself to doing the best job of which I’m capable.
Urban Reviews: What do you ultimately want to accomplish as a writer and/or editor?
Chandra Sparks Taylor: My ultimate goal as a writer is to always give readers a real
message to which they can relate and apply to the reality of their
lives. I also want to make sure that with everything I write, I give
God the glory and that I am bringing others to him.
Urban Reviews: Is there anything else you would like to share with us about you or
your books?
Chandra Sparks Taylor: The one thing I want to share with readers is how much I love
God, and how humbled I am that he has allowed my childhood dream to
come true. No matter how crazy your dream may seem, never give up
hope that through God all things are possible. Never give up on your
dreams. I’m living proof they come true.
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