Urban Reviews: Can you tell
us what your debut book RAW is all about?
Shay: RAW is about a 19-year-old girl,
Chastity Jones, who's been out on her own since she was 16 --
because her father killed her mother, and she ran away from
foster care after being raped. She and her best friend start
stripping at a club, but there she meets a mysterious man
named Legend. He takes her under his wing, and teaches her how
to carry herself with class while still doing her thing, and
soon she's hanging with the big dawgs -- men are buying
jewelry, paying the rent on her condo, and even buying her
cars. She falls in love with Legend, but he simply treats her
like a little sister. Then she meets dope kingpin Hunter,
Legends's millionaire cousin, and the two hit it off. But when
Legend finds out he hits the roof. Suddenly bodies
mysteriously start piling up, and no one is quite sure why.
And Chastity has to use all her street smarts to make sure she
comes out the game alive.
Urban Reviews: Where did
the storyline for this novel come from?
Shay: Some of it came from events that
have happened in my own life, and some from my imagination.
Urban Reviews: As a new
author, what are your literary aspirations?
Shay: I'm not sure yet. As you know, Shay
is a pseudonym, and I haven't told my family yet that I wrote
a book because I know they would be shocked because of some of
the explicit content. I didn't know that Raw was going
to be as successful as it has been, and now I'm considering
sticking around in the literary business and maybe making
writing a career. Of course, I still have to figure out how to
tell my mother!
Urban Reviews: What
things did you do to help prepare yourself for the book
business?
Shay: Actually, I've had family members
who've been published, so I kind of grew up around the
business, so I can't really say that I did a lot of research
or anything.
Urban Reviews: Can you
describe the day you found out your book was being published?
Shay: I'm a college student, and I was on
summer break when I wrote Raw and my agent started
shopping it around, so I was back in school when I found out.
My agent called me, and I wanted to scream and shout for joy,
but I couldn't because I was around a bunch of people who
didn't know I wrote a book. I had to wait until I got into my
car and then I just started whooping and hollering for joy.
Urban Reviews: What has
been your biggest fear about the release of your novel or the
book industry itself?
Shay: I didn't have any fear about the
book industry, but I was nervous about whether people would
like my book. So far the reviews have been pretty good, and
the sales have been outstanding, so I'm feeling pretty cool
about everything right about now.
Urban Reviews: Do you
have any ideas or planned projects for the future?
Shay: Well, I just completed my second
novel, Licks, which should be coming out this summer.
It's about two girls who vic dudes (Licks) in order to obtain
the finer things in life. I'm now working on Too Raw,
which is a sequel to Raw, and that should be ready to
come out this Fall.
Urban Reviews: What
things are you doing to promote your novel to the world?
Shay: I've been sending out emails and
doing things over the Internet, but my publisher, Karen E.
Quinones Miller, who runs Oshun Publishing Company and is also
a bestselling author has been doing a lot of promoting,
hitting book events and such. I'm still limited since I'm
doing the anonymous thing.
Urban Reviews: Do you
have any favorite authors or books that you enjoy reading?
Shay: I love Deja King, Zane, and Noire.
And I like a lot of the old time books about Harlem (my
hometown!) like Manchild in the Promised Land and
Daddy Was A Number Runner.
Urban Reviews: Is there
anything else you would like to share with us about you or
your books?
Shay: Just that I'm very happy that so
many people seem to be enjoying Raw, and I hope not to
let them down with my future books. And I'd like to thank
everyone so much for their support. |
