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Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Malik's Bookshow, bringing the world together with books, culture and community.
Hi, my name is Malik, your host of Malik's Book Show. Well, well, well, we had a phenomenal week.
I was so exhausted traveling back and forth from the East to the West, but I had to get back to the event that we hosted at the Bowen Hill the hit Story Baldwin Hills Prinshaw Plaza. We hosted the sixteenth anniversary of the lam Park Village Book Fair. This is our second year working with the Lamur Park Village Book Fair. It's hosted phenomenal book fairs over the last
sixteen years. I mean Cynthia ExHAM, who's the executive chief executive of the Lamur Park Village Book Fair, has done an incredible job in bringing so many published authors to our community. Now, this is the first time since the pandemic that we had it in person event and hitting up our headline is three time Emmy nominated actor and director producer and author Eric Lesaal who's the ambassador this year for the twenty twenty three Lamur Park Village Book Fair.
We also headlining.
Co headlining with him is award winning actor and author ol Mar Epps. That's right, we had the old Mar Epps and Eric Lesaal headlining the sixteenth annual Park Village Book Fair and it was incredible.
It was phenomenal.
It was so electric, passionate, it was so much information it was the community came out in large numbers.
We hosted it at the historic ball.
On Hills Greenshaw Plaza November eleventh, twenty twenty three.
It was all day event.
It kicked off with our first headliner and our ambassador, Eric lesau who wrote a three books serie that.
Kicked off with the Laws of the Privaty, The Laws.
Of Wrath, and the Laws of Annihilation, which just was released in October twenty twenty three.
So that was the featured book at the book festival.
Moderating the conversation with Eric Lica is the mystery writer Gary Phillips, a local favorite who wrote a lot of books. Also he's a screenwriter and he's known throughout the circle of the industry. Now, this wasn't a fiery electric I mean, the community came out in large numbers and showed support for this year's Lamart Park Village Book Fair, hosted by Malite Books. We were incredibly blessed to see how the
community responded and came out in book signings, conversation. We gave away one hundred and twenty five books to the community because we want to elevate literacy and give voice.
To the voiceless. This was an incredible event.
You're for it, I mean, and it brings a high I feel blessed to be in partnership with the Lamark Park Village Book Fair. They have been hosting the events for sixteen years and I had always wanted to be part of their organization and to work with them closely and to help curate authors, book signings and programming for our community. And the pandemic hit and things kind of got shut down and as a result, I continue my vision to work with Cynthia axem Over at the Lahmert Park Village Book.
Fair and woila.
You know, last year we didn't do it in person event, but we did a virtual event and the virtual was boom. We had Tabitha Brown, Terry Crews, the Mother of Black Hollywood, Jennifer Lewis all featured at our virtual Lamert Park Village book Fair last year. Virtual was one thing, in person is another, and we had some challenges to bring back the Lahmert Park Village in person, but we overcame it.
We had timing chinalenges, funding challenges and talented challenges, but we pulled together and made it happen and got two headliners, Omar Epps and earth Lisa, both are in the industry of acting, writing, producing, directing. The've won awards and they headlining our twenty twenty three Lavert Park Village book Fair, and it was a home run hit. I got so much content from the event that I'm only gonna feature Ericlesith on this episode. The following week, I'll bring Omar
Epps content. This was a beautiful event, a community event, and you know, this is the Police Bookshelf bringing the world together with books, culture and community.
This was a community event and so.
I was able to just amass a great amount of content that I can feature. I personally wasn't able to interview Ericles South, but that's okay because Gary Filer mystery roter Gary Phillips did, and so we're gonna bring some of that conversation.
But for those.
Inspiring writers, script writers, book writers, Hey, I think you can find this very useful conversation.
I almost forgot, almost forgot to mention.
That I have a segment by Time of the Brown, who is promoting the Feeding Health Day as well as her new book, I Did a New Thing thirty Days of Living Free. Now that book is slated to come out in January thirty with Elite Books. It's doing a pre order campaign so you can order the book and it's going to be signed exclusively by Time of the Brown and Malik Books is going to be the provider who sends in his shipping and package it.
So hey support this pre order.
Campaign that we're doing and with Tamatha Brown, and it's called I Did a New Thing thirty Days of Living Free. Now, let me tell you this. It takes thirty days to break a habit. It takes thirty days to renew your mind. It takes thirty days to make the ultimate change in paradigm shift.
In your behavior and in your mind.
So she did a new thing in thirty days and she talking about that in this new book, and I know that it's going to be viable and useful for Malie's Bookshelved audience as well as anybody who's looking to change their life, elevate their life, and make a difference in their life. So peep out that segment on this episode as well and enjoy the conversation with Eric Leasal at the sixteenth anniversary of the Lemurt Park Village Book Fair hosted by Malik Books.
Enjoy this segment.
Author screenwriter Gary Phillips in conversation with three time Emmy nominated actor, director, producer and author. Eric Let's sob Enjoy this conversation.
So coming from the world of visual film, TV.
Network versus table, Uh, there's always these notions of violence and what do you show where you don't show right? And in a book, like I said, you know, you got all the real estate in the world to create the visual imagery that you want to create or not write.
Certain things have happened off stage or whatever. So is do you think about that in the sense of, you know, when you're writing these scenes and the scene is gonna be rugged in this bloody whatever it is, do you worry is this too much or is it not enough?
I go, I go in, I go in, and and so, yes, there are very violent scenes.
That is a part of the storytelling.
And I think, you know, my books in some ways they have these sort.
Of parable esque feels to them.
And so because like I said, my first inspiration was based on characters from the Bible, and obviously the Bible is very violent and or has its place, has lots of fun. So so I come from I come from that place. It's my goal to Someone once said that I do violence and lyricism in equal measure, and so I yes, I go in deep.
But I think a lot of times it's really cool.
Some of the best compliments I've had was people go, oh my god, this is violent. I can't read this at night, but I can't stop reading it during the day.
Okay, we got you, you know what I mean. Like, that's all I try not to now.
I think as the books progress, I definitely try not to do gratuitive I try not to do anything. I tried not to do gratuitous action. I try not to do Gratudi's violence. Gratuitis sex, I tried. So my violence is plot driven. So if you look at the movie Seven. That was a violent movie, but that was his sermon.
His sermon was that. So my quote.
Unquote sermon, particularly in the first book, where a character is very similar to the villain in Seven, he's preaching a sermon and his sermon is bloody.
His sermon is violent.
But then there's a balance because there's also a beautiful love story in the book. So I try to balance and sort without compromising either of those. And some people say, listen, I don't really particularly like thrillers, but I love yours because he got this love story. So I just try to be true to whatever I'm writing. The first book, Laws of Depravity, I read an article and I was inspired by an article. I didn't know this at the time,
but all of Jesus's disciples were boom murder. So it's not in the Bible, but all of his disciples, and it was more than just the twelve that we know about. There is what's called the lesser and the Greater disciples. And so Jesus rode with about I think, I don't know, thirty two thirty six people. So all of them beheaded, crucified, torn limb from limb. They were, they were, they were they died savage ways in such brutality.
I read that article and I and I was intrigued, and.
This is my first is before I was even thinking of right and I just thought to myself, Wow, it would be really cool to come up with a modern day serial killer who kills clergy in the same manner that Jesus's disciples. So that so I had the plots before I had I Not only did I have the plot, I had my antagonist before I had my protagonists. So once I I was like, Oh, this guy has to be this.
He has to get that. And then I was like, hold on, hold on, who's going to carry you through this?
So then I created my protagonists and then that, and then I was like, okay, we got two of them, and then well, what about a third one I wanted. I wanted the presence and the perspective of a theme of a strong female.
I didn't want to just do two men.
I also made a point of making sure that my first book did not feature the perspective of an African American, because I have an African American protagonist. I started with the Irish Italian protagonists first because I didn't want to be reduced to I don't you know, we have to choose our adjectives. I don't want to be known as, oh, he's a good black writer. I want to be known as he's a good writer who happens to be Bay
And so I didn't want people to pigeonhole me. I didn't want publishers and industry too, So I purposely focused on that. So I got to I got plot, I got antagonists, I got protagonists.
And then who's going to be the protagonist, is going to lead.
Us through this first book, who's going to be the protagonists on this second.
Book, etc. So I go back and forth. I come strong. I come from a strong place of character, just as an actor, you know what I mean.
So the second book focuses a little bit more on our African American protagonist whose father was a big time gangster who's now legitimate, but some of the horrible things that his father did come back to haunt him, so
that's his personal abovement. The third book, Laws of Annihilation, which was just released, focuses more on the Jewish FBI agent, and she is in the first chapter diagnosed with terminal cancer, and as she's dealing with that, there are two rabbis that are brutally murdered in a synagogue, so it becomes a hate crime. And so so you have basically a Jewish FBI agent leading up the investigation of hate crimes
towards towards the Jewish community. At the same time, uh, someone is kidnapping African Americans and uh and killing them as well. So it's really and then there's a lot of tension between the Jewish community and the African American community. But the third book really explores our FBI's perspective of a Jewish FBI agent working alongside our two other heroes investigating crimes that personally affect her because of course she's Jewish.
Yeah, so keep it fresh, how do you? I mean?
So on one hand, like for instance, there you know there sometimes when the late great Robert Parker wrote the spicture novel Spincer and Crime, right, a whole series of these books. Some were good, some were and and but then you know, you get a lot of hopefully that you get a lot of readers, you get a lot of fans, and so then is the trap, Well, I want to really do something with this character. I really
want to take this character in this direction. But can I do that and keep the fan base or do I worry about anything naming the fan base or don't you know you just kind of go where the characters go. Yeah.
I also, I think I write as much for me as I write for readers. And what I mean by that is I try to keep it honest. So I don't want to turn this into because a lot of times you'll take a series and it will overstay its wealth because now you're writing fifty books and you're writing twenty five books. I don't get me wrong, I aspire to be that prolific a writer, but at the same time, it becomes a machine. So more than likely, once I reach book number five, more than likely that's the end
of this particular series. What I'm doing is I create these interesting characters. I may do spin offs so you have a familiarity. Even maybe some of our protagonists may may pop in, but it won't be the same because I've done Now that I've done the third book, I basically told the story of each protagonist. So I don't want it to now just be okay, we got to
just solve the case. Yeah, now, listen, you know, if you're so blessed to have a machine behind you and your publisher is like, oh you better get behind you, or they show you a royalty sheet and you're like, let.
Me rethink that.
So, I mean, you know, right now, I like to I like to think that I'm gonna keep it.
Pure and I'm gonna you know.
But the truth is, as long as I'm inspired and I feel like I'm doing original storytelling, then yes, if I can, if I can find a way to do book six and seven and keep it fresh feel original, absolutely, But I think when it starts feeling a little like, okay, we're just turning out books now, which can you know, be very profitable. But ideally I would like to think that I'm going to.
Keep it fresh, all right, So I don't outline.
I I mean, every every writer has their own style. My style is to really just turn things over in my head, live with them for a while, start with
a really cool idea. Once I start writing, then I get inspired to do something else and and so it's it's a it's an interesting journey because sometimes you have to wait for the book gods to inspire you, and sometimes you know, so I've just never been organized enough to do the index cards and to that works for a lot of people, you know, and listen, writing a book is hard, however, you get to do it, do it, and there is no one way. So I just I just I think, I think, I think, and then I
start writing. Then I started leaning to if a character starts speaking to me, and a lot of times a character can kind of announce their importance, like all of a sudden, you'll start going, wow, this this character is really interesting. I want to explore this part if I want to explore their past, So I start doing that. So so I'm a much more of a I guess, a spontaneous writer. And I'm not saying and I'm not bragging about that, because I admire people that can do
the structural stuff that just doesn't work for me. So and I you know, I read different types of writers and everyone everyone does it differently, and so I.
Just this, this works for my voice. Okay.
So now we actually do have a few minutes left, and so I like to throw it over to the audience.
Surely there must be some questions for I think you have one question.
Are all three of your books interrelated or are they separate from each other?
It's a great question. I actually did it as both. Each book can be read as a.
Standalone, but of course it's a series, so it's better read, uh you know, as as that.
Because there are a lot of really.
Interesting twists, and so even if even reading them in order also helps because there'll be a big twist at the end of the first book, and if you read, if you start on the third book, you will already know what I'm.
Starting the second book, but pushing up the shop. Yes, they can't be read as standalones. Uh, you know, so you've enjoyed anyone, you want to thank you, Sir.
Get a road boss to have a counsel to her, cause he's doing a great stop.
This is far Eric was south, so.
I mean kind of the city of Lot Saderson, the tenth District and a big old fan. I I just wanna say that your contribution to literacy is really important, and I wanna thank you for sharing your talents on the screen and by pen. It's so important, not only in this community to come and have a conversation about your thoughts, you know it.
It's really interesting to hear hear poor.
Owl and you and that that's a art itself. It's it's almost I have a son who's a rapper, you know, and you know a rapper.
Your kid's a rapper. But he started.
Poetry at twelve years old, and you have a flashlight and his little book under his m under this uh black, and he'd be writing and I'd go in there and I was like, what do you what.
Are you doing? I think it's some black boy?
And what was that?
It was?
It was his art coming out of him, and that's exactly what you're doing. So I'm so proud to you the whole.
Hello there, happy world leaguing day. You look, did you know that it is World begon day? Y'all don't have vegan. It has been over six years for me, Honey, I can't believe it.
Some days I'd be.
Like, dang, it has really been over six years. Twenty seventeen of August, I did a thirty day Began challenge and never went back. It became my whole life, Hney, trying something new, and it not only changed my life but saved my life. And so I get excited about this day as a reminder for myself, like, man, something so small, it's just to change how I ate for thirty days really changed my whole life. But yeah, so
it is world bigon day. Look y'all know, I got beading cookbook in case anybody needed cooking.
From the spirit.
But also just talking about doing something new that I did. You know, when I did the Begon challenge, I wrote a new book, of course, called I Did a New Thing. And it's not just about my thirty day began challenge. It's just about a challenge I started going back in twenty fourteen where I would take thirty days and try to do something new every day to see how it made me feel like, you know, we're my hair a
different way. Maybe go to a place I've never been before, you know, if you've never been to a play, go to a play versus going to a movie, taking a walk in a new neighborhood, just doing something new and seeing how it shifts inside of you.
Right.
And so I did it again right recently, and I wrote about it, and I wanted to share with y'all. And my hope is that it encourages all of us to try something new.
Right.
And the other thing that I do, which is not a new thing, is supporting my local bookstores especially my black owned bookstores, so Elik Books and rep Books would have the first signed book play copies a right, So I'm sending each of those our locations five hundred book places that I'm signing for the new books, so you can pre order those now. You can click the link of my bideo and go ahead and pre order because
the book comes out in January. But if you go ahead then you can pre order now you can be one of the first to get to sign a copy.
Okay.
So AnyWho again, happy world, begon day. I hope and pray that everybody's having the most amazing day. Okay, but even if you ain't, don't.
Go messing up. Nobody else is here. Very good. Pre order my book oh very.
Soon, and I mean very soon, like maybe in a week or two, I'll be announcing the book to us, So stay tuned, okay, I'll see y'all later.
Love y'all.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to Malik's Bookshelf with topics on the shelf are books, culture, and community.
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