Interview-20 questions with Steve Barnes and Tananarive Due

Steve Barnes and Tananarive Due are two of the more interesting and successful writers of speculative fiction, horror, fantasy and sci-fi working today. They also happen to be married to each other. Barnes and Due occasionally write together, which sounds as if it must be the coolest thing since sliced bread. One of their latest joint creations is the just released Devil's Wake  which is a zombie novel, primarily but not exclusively aimed at the young adult market.

Barnes in particular has been an influence on my own blogging style. Barnes can be a very inspirational and uplifting writer. He seems to almost practice a relentless positivity. Due has written one of the freshest and most imaginative adaptations of vampirism and immortality this side of True Blood or Brian Lumley. If you haven't read Due's My Soul to Keep, you are missing out.  I've written before of my enjoyment of both Barnes' Lion's Blood series and the Barnes/Due Tennyson Hardwick series. Due has received an NAACP image award as well as an American Book Award. Barnes has written screenplays for works as diverse as Stargate SG-1 and The Outer Limits. One of these days I need to get around to reviewing Barnes' Blood Brothers, one of his earlier and darker novels. Barnes and Due are not only authors but each have numerous other skills, talents and interests including but not limited to martial arts, yoga, civil rights, journalism, teaching, life coaching and personal development. They each inspire you to kick things up a notch in your life and let go of your fears. A great thing about blogging is that you get to interact with quite talented people that you would otherwise never meet.

I thought you might be interested in reading an Urban Politico interview with the nation's hardest working husband and wife writing team. They were gracious enough to take time out of some extremely busy schedules to answer some questions for our readers. Thanks to Steve and Tananarive for their time. And now without further ado here's the interview with Steve Barnes and Tananarive Due. I hope you enjoy it.

The Urban Politico: Tell us about Devil’s Wake. Give us a short description-characters, plot, etc.

Steve Barnes: Devil's Wake is basically a story of survival, friendship and romance set against the background of the Zombie Apocalypse.

The Urban Politico: Why zombies and why now?

Tananarive Due: We have both always loved zombies.  Years ago, we came up with a zombie premise for our first short story collaboration, “Danger Word,” which appeared in Brandon Massey’s Dark Dreams anthology. We always intended to write a novel set in that world entitled Devil's Wake—but first it took a detour as a television pitch (no chance against the show “Jericho,” which had a similar small-town-after-the-fall feel to it) before reappearing in a novel form.

Steve Barnes: The horror field has always spoken to current fears. Zombies are just the latest in a long line. That said, they represent alienation, consumerism, immigration, depersonalization, and the terror of a changing world. That's a great grab-bag of emotional imagery to play with.

The Urban Politico: Devil’s Wake is first in a series, correct? Do you know how long the series will be?

Steve Barnes: As long as both we and readers are engaged. I can clearly see a point where the current story resolves, but as with all things in life, that just opens new doors and possibilities.

The Urban Politico: How has the world of speculative fiction and horror changed since you each started?

Tananarive Due: In terms of being a black author of speculative fiction, the biggest change for me has been the lost sense of cohesion after Octavia E. Butler passed away in 2006.  There are new, strong writers in the field, like Nnedi Okorafor, but it has been too long since we gathered as a group to share experiences and identify ourselves as a part of a thriving niche.  I miss that heightened sense of community.  (I hope to change that during my time as Cosby Chair in the Humanities at Spelman College.) 

Aside from that, I think most “genre” fiction was in the midst of a growth spurt when I started publishing in the mid-1990s.  I was embraced by the horror field right away, but my primary audience was black women—and many of them heard about me through the independent black bookstores like Marcus Books in Oakland.  Now, I think horror, science fiction and African-American book publishers are in the midst of leaner times overall. The horror field has grown vampire weary, as I learned when my publisher didn’t want to use the word blood in my latest African Immortals book, My Soul to Take, which I originally wanted to call Blood Prophecy. 

But everything is cyclical.  Our original idea for Devil’s Wake preceded the zombie book trend and AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” but we are appearing in the thick of it.  Sometimes good timing is accidental.

Steve Barnes: The images have gone more mainstream.

The Urban Politico: When did you each know you were going to be a professional writer? Was there a singular event?

Tananarive Due: I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was four, literally—but in some ways, I really don’t feel that I knew I would be a professional writer until I sold my first novel, The Between.  At the time, I had been working at the Miami Herald for five or six years, writing in my spare time.  I felt very confident after college and graduate school, where I’d made creative leaps and seen myself develop a professional prose style for pages at a time, but I didn’t know if I would ever make a professional sale for publication until my agent called me to let me know that HarperCollins had made an offer on my first novel.  Just two weeks before, I’d had a piece of fiction rejected by a local college literary magazine, so I tell writers all the time that you don’t know how close or far you are sometimes—you just have to keep writing.

Steve Barnes: My third year in college. I entered a writing contest, the winner to read his story to an alumni group. I won, and as I read the story, watching their faces, I realized that this was the greatest love of my life. I dropped out of college and went to work.

The Urban Politico: How has the internet and associated phenomena such as Facebook and illegal file sharing helped or hurt your business model?

Tananarive Due: I don’t yet have any personal knowledge of illegal file sharing having an impact on my work. But a recent book-signing in Atlanta was a testament to the power of Facebook and social media—when we asked which members of the audience had heard about our signing through Facebook, nearly everyone present raised their hands.

Steve Barnes: It sure scares the industry. Epublishing is great for those with a good relationship with the left side of their brains.

The Urban Politico: What’s one thing (and it might be different) that you wish readers or would be writers knew about writing?

Tananarive Due: I don’t think there is enough respect in general for the time it takes to write consistently good fiction. Too many people think they will master writing overnight, or that they are as good as they will ever be.

Steve Barnes: That it is amazingly hard and insecure...and you should only do it if any other choice is harder still, emotionally.

The Urban Politico: Have you ever felt pressure (external or internal) to write more or even solely Caucasian protagonists? If so how have you dealt with that?

Tananarive Due: No editor has ever asked me to write a novel with a white protagonist, although I certainly understand that to do so might widen my appeal.  Or would it?  I know I write my best work when my characters are different versions of myself—and while I have certainly written non-black characters, I was so stamped by an upbringing by civil rights activists in a newly-integrated Southern neighborhood that racial issues tend to provide a subtle underpinning to my themes and events.  Do I believe that my books would have won more crossover readers if my characters were white?  Perhaps, if I had found the right themes to sustain my creative interest.  But my hope is to find more universal appeal by writing more truthfully about the deeply personal—so my main protagonists are always likely to represent a racial metaphor of some kind even if they’re not black. 

Steve Barnes: Sure. In a perfect world, I would have written fewer white characters--but I have this odd compulsion to eat.  

The Urban Politico: What’s it like working with another writer when you are also married to them? Do your writing styles complement each other? Do you take turns writing chapters and/or edit each other’s work?

Tananarive Due: I had never collaborated in fiction before I met Steve, and it isn’t always a comfortable process for me. I characterize collaboration as twice the work and half the power, so a project really has to jump out as a collaboration before I would choose anything above writing solo.  Steve is beautiful to collaborate with because he’s so strong with plot and structure, and can think so quickly on his feet.  At our best, we can create a kind of jazz riffing that feels nearly as spontaneous as solo writing—but with twice the brain power.  At worst, we might argue over plot or execution.  No matter how much you talk it out, sometimes the vision you discussed looks very different when the other writer puts it on paper.

           

We never sit over each other’s shoulders. I write the first drafts for the Tennyson Hardwick mystery novels (South By Southeast comes out September 18th) and Steve writes first drafts on the Devil's Wake novels.

Steve Barnes: We plan the stories together, and then one or the other of us writes the first draft.

The Urban Politico: I like reading each of your works because I know that the black man/woman isn’t automatically going to die first and won’t be a stereotype. Why is that still so common in some fiction?

Tananarive Due: I truly think there is a deep longing in our social fabric for a time of “happiness” when there was a permanent, loyal domestic class, or the myth of that time, which leads to Sacrificial Negro imagery. Aside from that, it’s a cheap way for filmmakers to show “Danger ahead!” without having to kill off one of the white characters—like Loss Lite.

Steve Barnes: Because human beings are hierarchical, and place themselves higher on the hierarchy than they place others. So characters die in the approximate order of perceived value or audience discomfort. Ugly implication, but there you are. If blacks were in charge, you'd see white guys dying nobly to protect their black friends, sob sob.

The Urban Politico: Hollywood and black drama-changing for the better? What can the black (or any) audience do to help that along?

Tananarive Due: First, audiences have to support quality films in droves. There is little that black audiences can do to coax white filmgoers to join them, but if the projects don’t get the support from the black audience, that could be the end of that particular artistic conversation for the next five or ten years.  I’m an enthusiastic supporter of Sundance winner Ava DuVernay, who is writing, directing and producing her dramas from black life—stories about people who happen to be black, not stereotypical “black people” of the popular cinema.  Her film Middle of Nowhere opens in October, and I’m looking forward to it! 

Steve Barnes: Yes, it is. But what I'm waiting for is for black actors to get love scenes in major films. So far, that's a guarantee of box office death. White audiences just avoid that like the plague.

The Urban Politico: Who are some of your top influences as far as other writers? Who are some up and coming writers you think people should know about?

Tananarive Due: My earliest influences were probably Judy Blume, Stephen King and Toni Morrison.  There are too many great writers out there to name, but readers who like my work should definitely try Nnedi Okorafor and Nalo Hopkinson, if they haven’t already.

Steve Barnes: I love the classics: Shakespeare and Aristotle. And modern classics and masters: Stephen King, Robert Heinlein, John D. MacDonald, Octavia Butler, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard and Ian Fleming. I admire Nnedi Okorafor.

The Urban Politico: Is there still a distinction between literary and commercial work? Do you self-consciously try to write in one style or another at a given time?

Tananarive Due: I really loathe the categories of “literary” and “commercial,” and I think too many writers cripple themselves artistically by swearing too much by one identity or the other.  I try to write well-written page-turners.  I want them to sell, so I hope they’re commercial—but I want the quality to stand the test of time, so I hope they’re literary.

Steve Barnes: Literary writing references the body of previous literature. Commercial fiction is more concerned with story telling. I'm a story teller.

The Urban Politico: Steve, you used a phrase once which really struck me. You wrote of “sacrificing your melanin on the altar of your testosterone”. Can you explain what that means?

Steve Barnes: Sure. In order to find images of vigorous masculinity, I read books with heroes like Tarzan, Conan, James Bond, and Mike Hammer. All either excluded black people, or depicted them as basically sub-human. 

The Urban Politico: Steve, Lion’s Blood and Zulu Heart are made into movies. Who plays Kai? Aidan O’Dere? Nandi? Lamiya? Will we see a Zulu Heart sequel?

Steve Barnes: I honestly don't know about casting. There are more African-featured actors in the field these days, from Idris Elba to Djimon Hansou.

The Urban Politico: Tananarive, does teaching help make you a better writer?

Tananarive Due: I’m having to learn again how to juggle a full-time job with my writing, but overall I do think teaching can make writers better simply because it reminds us of how hard we have worked, and still must work, to pursue our dream.  Working with learning writers makes that quest feel fresh again.

The Urban Politico: You both do so many different things. Simultaneously!! What’s the secret? How do you stay balanced?

Tananarive Due: Believe it or not, I don’t believe I’m a great multi-tasker, so it takes constant practice. I exercise, I meditate, make to-do lists, and play a lot of Angry Birds in spare moments.

Steve Barnes: The work is something I do, not who I am.The trick is to continue to associate with your true self, what part from which the action and creativity arises.

The Urban Politico: If you were going to recommend one of your books to someone who wasn’t familiar with your work, which book would that be and why?

Tananarive Due: I think My Soul to Keep has really emerged as a reader favorite.  It’s more ambitious novel than my first, The Between, and it spawned three sequels—so that’s usually the first book I recommend. 

Steve Barnes: Lion's Blood.

The Urban Politico: Roughly how long does it take you to create a novel from concept to final edit?

Tananarive Due: I generally write a novel in one or two years, depending on how many other projects I’m juggling.

Steve Barnes: Roughly a year, but stretched across about four years--I have multiple projects going at once.

The Urban Politico: Are there some other future projects or plans that you can share with us now?

Tananarive Due: My next project will be a screenplay.  But I’m adhering to the sage writing advice that says not to talk about the project—just write it. This one, I fear, has had far too much talking and not nearly enough writing.  I haven’t written a screenplay in a long time, and I’m ready to jump back in.

Steve Barnes: Yes, I have a movie project I'm not quite ready to talk about. Please keep your fingers crossed!

Tananarive Due blogs at
http://tananarivedue.blogspot.com/
http://www.tananarivedue.com/ 
http://tananarivedue.wordpress.com/

Steven Barnes blogs at http://darkush.blogspot.com/ and helps people bring about positive change in their lives at http://www.diamondhour.com/. He also hosts a regular podcast which discusses personal improvement, growth and how to apply transformative techniques to your own life.
Each writer also maintains an extremely active presence on Facebook.

Interview-20 Questions with Debra Devi

I haven't yet done a music post on blues giants Howling Wolf and Little Milton in part because there's just too much to write about them. I'm not quite ready to write something short enough for a blog post. The Mighty Wolf definitely deserves a post all by himself. He was called "The soul of man" and was he ever. So while I was reading about Howling Wolf's recently deceased guitarist, the famed Hubert Sumlin, I was delighted to discover someone else who not only knew a great deal about Hubert Sumlin but had interviewed him for a book detailing the African-American roots of blues and larger African influences on American language and culture.

Every Saturday I  inflict upon share with you my various impressions on music, film or literature. For a change of pace I thought it would be fun to feature an interview with someone who is already a successful professional musician and published author. That's a somewhat rare combination and one which I thought was interesting.


Debra Devi is a musician and the author of the award winning book The Language of The Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu. This book is not only a collection of interviews with famous musicians such as Little Milton Campbell, Hubert Sumlin, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Bonnie Raitt, Dr. John, Jimmie Vaughn and others but also an "anecdotal dictionary" of blues terminology. Since most blues terminology comes from African or African-American sources this book discusses more than music but please read the interview with Debra after the break.

Debra Devi

The Urban Politico: There are a lot of modern blues and rock musicians that are interested in aping culture and music but couldn’t care less in understanding where it came from. You are different. So what got you interested in documenting and transmitting the African-American blues cultural meanings?

      Debra Devi: Thanks! I’ve loved the blues from my first exposure to it at a Koko Taylor concert in Milwaukee when I was 17. Son Seals was playing guitar and I literally flew out of my chair onto the dance floor. I had never danced before. Met my first boyfriend that night, too.   

      When I was working for Blues Revue magazine as an associate editor, I realized that a lot of us blues fans bandy about words like mojo and hoodie – but do we really know what they mean? Or where they are from?  I started keeping a list of terms from blues songs like killing floor, juke, hoosegow etc. When I was up to 100, I realized maybe I should write a book. 

The Urban Politico:  When you were interviewing these musical giants for your book did you have any preconceptions going in that were altered after you completed your interviews?

Debra Devi: I was unprepared for their generosity.  Everyone I spoke to gave so much time and attention to my questions. I interviewed elder blues legends like Robert Jr. Lockwood, Henry Gray, Hubert Sumlin,  “Little” Milton Campbell Jr., Alvin “Red” Tyler, Mardi Gras Indian Chief Howard “Smiley” Ricks, and Jody Williams. I also talked at length with prominent crossover artists like Dr. John, Bonnie Raitt and Jimmie Vaughan and Robben Ford. Most of the managers of the older blues artists were not interested in arranging interviews because being in my book wasn't going to sell albums. 

Luckily, one day there was a press conference at the Lincoln Center Barnes and Noble for a big blues concert that night in NYC. Sitting along one wall, in a receiving line, were many of the artists I had been trying to interview. I got in the autograph line. As I moved down the line, I was able to explain this project directly to Hubert Sumlin, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Milton Campbell and other blues legends. I walked out with a dozen home phone numbers.  They wanted to be involved in documenting the history of the blues. 

The Urban Politico: Were you surprised by the amount of African links to American culture and especially blues music that you found?

      Debra Devi: Yes.

The Urban Politico:  What do you think is the most important thing that blues fans (and for that matter non-blues fans or just people interested in African-American culture) can learn from your book?

Debra Devi: The Africans brought here as slaves had incredibly strong aesthetic, ethical and cultural values that not only withstood the shock of their forced transplantation to the New World, but actually transformed and invigorated it.  I had no idea that so much African language has seeped into American English. Just a few examples: jam, jazz, jiffy, boo boo, rock, to dig something, banana, yam, funk, hip, hobo, chick. 

So many African religious concepts, too – to be cool, to have soul – have become part of our uniquely American culture.  Equally important are the aesthetic values and devices from African music that survived in the blues, which in turn birthed jazz and rock ‘n’ roll.  African musicians of the slavery era were actually more advanced in the use of polyphonic, contrapuntal rhythms than their European peers were. While European composers explored harmonic complexity, Africans focused on rhythmic complexity, in part because African languages were tonal, so drums could be used to “talk.”  

Although their drums, songs, and languages were outlawed in the colonies, African slaves held fast to the remarkable rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic features of their music. They continued to employ vibrato, tremolo, overtones, and hoarse-voiced and shouting African vocal techniques to convey many shades of meaning. Over time they mingled all these features and techniques with the work songs they created and with the European hymns and folk songs they heard to create the blues. 

Why is this not taught in our schools? We learn about the Dutch, English and other groups that came here. Why don’t our children learn about the tribes from which most of the slaves came, or the richness of African culture and language, and that Africa’s influence is what has made this country uniquely American? How is this not American history equally worthy of being taught alongside the Revolutionary War? 

If my book can encourage people to explore those questions, I’ll feel I have made some small contribution. 

The Urban Politico: Did your book grow in the telling? Was it much more detailed than you expected it to be?

Debra Devi: Lord, yes! I never imagined I’d wind up with 385 footnotes.

Little Milton

The Urban Politico: One of your interview subjects was Little Milton.  He had a voice which could be described as operatic. Any tricks he passed on to you about vocal projection? I am in awe at the control he had both vocally and instrumentally.

Debra Devi: I wish I had thought to ask him for some vocal coaching; he was indeed a very fine singer. I saw him in his seventies perform live and his voice was still so rich and deep. He was a top-notch bandleader, too.

The Urban Politico: Hubert Sumlin often described Howling Wolf as a stern taskmaster, musically speaking. Can you imagine working for someone like that? Or do you ever see yourself in that light?

Debra Devi: I think Hubert Sumlin recognized and respected Wolf’s mastery. I also enjoy working with masters who drive me to be better.  I’m pretty exacting but I’m lucky to work with such great players in my band that I rarely have to crack the whip. I have to work hard to keep up with them! 

The Urban Politico:  If there is one thing you would want non-musicians to know about being a musician what would it be? Same question for non-writers and writers.

Debra Devi: Find your own voice.

The Urban Politico: How does the songwriting process work for you? Do you sit down and determine to write a song and then write one or do you need a stroke of inspiration?

Debra Devi: I usually write a song because I have a strong feeling I can’t express in words. I play my guitar until I hit upon something that expresses that feeling. The lyrics come later. I wrote “Get Free” after I came home from (Zen Guitar author) Phil Sudo’s memorial service, for example. 

I do sometimes also sit down determined to write a song.  If artists only wait for inspiration to strike, they’ll be waiting a long time. 

The Urban Politico: Where do you see modern blues and/or blues-rock headed at a time where pop, electronica, rap and country seem to be commercially dominant?

Debra Devi: I have been encouraged by the popularity of artists like Cee Lo Green, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Joe Bonamassa and Jack White, who have strong blues vibes. I noticed that at the Grammys this year there was more real singing and more real musicians on the stage. I think we’re seeing a backlash against overly processed music. Listeners are flocking to soul again!  At the same time, like Bonnie Raitt said when I interviewed her: “Why don’t we hear B.B. King on the radio?” Good question.  

The Urban Politico: How long have you been playing guitar? Was that your first instrument?

Debra Devi: I started off playing acoustic guitar, which I never found that satisfying. Once I got ahold of an electric guitar I was hooked. To me, it’s like singing through my fingers. I’ve been playing long enough to hope to get to play a lot longer. 

The Urban Politico: Who are some of your influences musically?

Debra Devi:  The Doppler effect, love, breathing, feedback, sex, car horns, cats yowling, pain, rain, thunder, wind, heartbreak, Om.  Freddie King, Son Seals, Jimmy Page, Dave Navarro, Chrissie Hynde, The Sex Pistols, Bonnie Raitt, Prince, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, Chris Spedding, Brian Robertson. 

The Urban Politico: Unfortunately even today there are a fair amount of people who get intimidated by the guitar and think you have to be a certain gender or race to play it. It’s just an instrument, like any other. Any advice for fledgling guitarists? Especially women guitarists?

Debra Devi: Don’t be afraid to make unattractive faces! I look like a puffer fish when I’m soloing. My advice is to go to blues jams, get in a band– start playing with other people, start playing original songs, start performing. Dare to suck! That’s how you get good. You should always play with people better than you.   

Playing guitar is not that tough. It doesn’t require massive physical strength or tons of testosterone. The main issue for women is socialization to look pretty above all else, and to avoid expressing certain strong emotions. As my mother said when I asked her if I could play electric guitar when I was fifteen, “It’s just not ladylike!” 

Playing electric guitar is a great way for women to plug into their personal power and to get comfortable being loud.  

The Urban Politico: Do you read music? Are you deep into musical theory? Do you think these things are critical for musicians starting out?

Debra Devi: I don’t read music and never had the patience to learn theory.  I wanted to play so bad that I just picked up the guitar and got started.  I play mostly by ear, which can slow me down some. But I also trust my ear more than my brain, so sometimes I think maybe it’s OK to play by ear.  

I do love jazz and would love to be able to hang better with my jazz-playing friends, so at some point I’m going to dig in and learn a few things.  I think it can be very helpful to learn to read music and to study theory, so long as you don’t let your brain override your ear.

Sumlin and The Wolf

The Urban Politico: Hubert Sumlin famously preferred to play without a pick. Some other guitarists like Marc Knopfler, Albert Collins and John Lee Hooker also usually eschewed picks. What’s your preference and why?

Debra Devi: I dig picks. I use a Jim Dunlop 1MM. I sneak my fingers in there sometimes for a little hybrid, but there’s something fierce about a pick attack that works for me.

The Urban Politico: I see that you endorse Fender guitars so I’m guessing you like the single-coil sound? If so, why is that? 

Debra Devi: I do like the single-coil sound, but I also routed out the back pickup of my Strat and put a humbucker in there. And I added jumbo frets. I like different sounds for different moments. 

The Urban Politico: Do you prefer standard tuning for much of your music or do you ever play in alternate tunings?

Debra Devi:  On the Get Free album, I used Drop D on “Demon in the Sack” and “When It Comes Down,” and DADGAD on “Love That Lasts.” I love alternate tunings. I find them very inspiring for songwriting. Soloing in them is pretty fun, too! 

The Urban Politico: What is more important to you: your writing or your music? Do you see yourself continuing to pursue both paths simultaneously? Does one feed into the other?

Debra Devi: Right now I’m more focused on music, but I’m sure a book idea will torture me into writing it at some point. Writing is very isolating, but music gets me out of the house and hanging with other people. The two balance each other out nicely in my life.

The Urban Politico: On your album “Get Free” is “Howl at the Moon” an Ellen McIlwaine cover? She's been mentioned around these parts before as someone people should know about. 

Debra Devi: Actually, I wrote the “Howl at the Moon” on my Get Free album. I’m not familiar with Ellen McIlwaine, but I’ll check her out!

The Urban Politico: The best blues performances have often been live. Why is that?

Debra Devi: As I say in the book, “The defining experience of Vodou--possession--is the source for the idea in the blues (and later, in rock ’n’ roll) that the musician’s highest attainment is to connect with the soul beyond the body and the mind, and be so possessed by this connection that it animates and drives the artist’s performance.” It’s easier to get there live!

The Urban Politico: Thanks so much for your time, Debra!

Debra Devi: Thank you, great questions!

Learn more about Debra's music and writing at http://www.devi-rock.com/
Debra is a former associate editor of Blues Revue and has also written for Rolling Stone, Guitar World and The Village Voice, among other publications. 
When It Comes Down (Live)
Guitar Solo (live)