Urban-Reviews.com - Inside Out with Erick S. Gray

Urban Reviews: Tell our readers about your latest novel It’s Like Candy.
Erick S. Gray: It's Like Candy is about two sisters, River and Starr who both leave home at an early age after a lifetime of emotional, physically, and sexual abuse at the hands of their drug addicted mother, Sheryl. River leaves when she’s sixteen, and Starr when she’s fourteen. River joins a stick-up crew, robbing tricks, drug-dealers and pimps after setting them up for the score. But her cohorts have a secret of their own that she doesn’t even know about.

Starr is working for a pimp name Rome by the times she’s 16. And after one of her dates assaults her and beats her down in a motel room, she meets a woman in the hospital who wants to help her change her life for the better. But Starr has seen so much bad, so much negativity and abuse in her young life, that her heart is too hardened for any change that may do her good.

And then there’s Eric and his cousin Yung Slim. Yung Slim is out of jail on parole after doing seven years for murder, and he’s looking to reclaim the streets for himself and make even on some old grudges. Yung Slim and Rome go to war, and Eric gets way in over his head as he's torn between his love for River, his ties to his cousin, and the lure of the streets. Things begin to heat up and different worlds collide as sisters separated for so many years try to reunite. But there's so much violence in the streets of South Jamaica, Queens.

Urban Reviews: What inspired you to write this particular storyline?
Erick S. Gray: I felt that it was time. I wanted a story that was raw, real to life, without it being sugarcoated. I’ve seen that kind of world, seen so much with these ladies that it’s sad, and some are out there turning tricks as young as twelve and thirteen. One girl once told me that her pimp still put her out on the track when she had a high fever of 102, and she was passing out throughout the night. And she ended up in the hospital and almost dying. I’ve witnessed girls who were eight and nine months pregnant, but they were still out there tricking and trying to make money. It’s ugly, but sometimes we wanna turn our heads from it, because it doesn’t affect us directly. I read a lot and there are many urban stories out there, some good, and some bad. I didn’t want the same old plot with sex, drugs, money and murder; even though there’s a lot of violence and sex in this book…the story is very deep, so much in-depth with abuse in the house hold and how real and bad it can get for some girls who don’t come up in a Huxtable/Cosby household.

It’s a book about struggle, forgiveness, redemption and reality. Some scenes are really graphic and disturbing, but I needed to paint a picture to my readers about how hard life can get. I wanted the readers to feel these two sisters pain, their hardship—and with River and Starr, they went through it. But at the end of the book, they had to let go in order for them to move on.

Urban Reviews: One of the main characters in this novel name Eric chose to go down a very different path in his life than his cousin. Without giving too much of the book away, why did you decide to go in that direction with this character?
Erick S. Gray: With Eric, I wanted to show that just because they may be in the streets doing what they do that their hearts may not always be in it. Everyone that’s out there hustling, or in gangs or whatever could be coerced into it. Eric grew up around that lifestyle and been through the ugly since he was young. He seen family members murdered and locked up, so he was kinda turned off by it. But his cousin was the cowboy who wanted control of everything and tried to keep Eric in play. But sometimes love can change a man for the better.

Urban Reviews: Any upcoming projects?
Erick S. Gray: Where do I begin? I have so many. I just recently finished an anthology called Flexin & Sexin with K’wan, Anna J, and Brittani Williams. I also just did a short story for Noire. I tried getting down with G-Unit books, but things didn’t work out, so I moved on. Also, my partners and I will be putting out Streets of New York Volume 2 & 3 soon. But I’ve been busy with so much that it can be overwhelming. But I love what I do and wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

Urban Reviews: How did you get into the business?
Erick S. Gray: I got started by accident, or maybe it was fate. I’ve been writing for over ten years now, and read hundreds of books and novels. I met Carl Weber in 98 when he owned a bookstore on Jamaica Avenue and I used to ask him what’s a good book to read. But we became cool, and I gave him my first book to read. He was with an up-and-coming publishing company callled Black Print at the time. But to make it short, they loved the book and wanted to sign me to the company and I never looked back.

Urban Reviews: What’s the best advice an author or someone in the literary industry has given you?
Erick S. Gray: Have fun doing what you do and also take care of it on the business end.

Urban Reviews: What is your overall impression of the book industry? Did you think it would be this competitive?
Erick S. Gray: I feel that the book industry is definitely a step up for our generation, and is helping many black men and women escape from the streets and poverty that many fall victim to. I feel that this genre is doing for us, what rap did for a generation in the early eighties—creating jobs, finances, and helping many of us become entrepreneurs. I feel like rap, we are being heard to, through another voice though, the literary voice—and because of us, young people are starting to read again, and can relate to some of the stories being told in books. Now some may say that this genre is negative and glorifies drug-dealing, sex, and many other things. But my personal opinion, it tells the truth about a world that many Americans try to ignore and where so many of us live and come from, and are trying to escape from. And sometimes a book is one way of being heard, no matter how harsh and vulgar the language or content.

But I also feel that many major publishing companies have their hands in too many cookie jars and are taking the fun out of this genre. It’s competitive because some or many authors are only out there trying to cash out on a big advance. Some books are being rushed out there trying to be the next True to the Game or Coldest Winter Ever. But for me, I have consistency with my books, every year I’m dropping one or two novels to keep my name flowing, and buzzing. This is how I express myself, and this is my career.

Urban Reviews: Who are some of your favorite authors or books?
Erick S. Gray: My favorite authors are James Patterson, K’wan, Michael Baisden, and myself! ~LOL~. But the books that I truly love are Cat and Mouse as well as Roses are Red by James Patterson, The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah, Monster written by ex-Crip gang banger Sanyika Shakur, The Ville, The Maintenance Man by Michael Baisden, Makes Me Wanna Holla by Nathan McCall, and Paper Chasers by Mark Anthony.

Urban Reviews: What advice would you give to the aspiring authors out there?
Erick S. Gray: My advice to aspiring authors out there are to love what you do, know what you do, and believe in what you do. Have fun and be humble. And write what you know. I see some authors that wanna write our kind of genre because it’s popular now, but can’t because they don’t know the hood or that type of lifestyle. They are just used to contemporary fiction or relationship books. Don’t jump into doing something because it’s popular. You should continue being yourself and success will follow.

Urban Reviews: Name one thing that the world does not know about Erick S. Gray-the person?
Erick S. Gray: I’m a avid reader and a movie fanatic.