Special Thursday Edition of TUESDAY TALKS

 SPOTLIGHT AUTHOR:  JULIUS THOMPSON

Before we start talking about your books, tell us a little bit about yourself: 

       I grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York and attended Bushwick High School. The sixties in Brooklyn was an era that had a personality, a feel, and a life-force that changed a generation. I felt this energy and experienced these fires of social change.

     After high school, I spent the next four years riding the "A" train to Harlem, in upper Manhattan, to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from the City College of New York. At CCNY, which was located just a few blocks from the famous Apollo Theater, Wednesday afternoons was hard on the undergraduates. The matinee performances of the major R&B groups of the times were more tempting than attending a boring college lecture. Most of the time I succumbed to the temptation, but still earned a college degree from one of the best universities in the country.

       At CCNY, literature instructors like Prof. Thomas Tashiro, fueled the fire in him to become a writer!  Brooklyn, New York and attended

            The journey to compose a trilogy began in 1995. The fourteen year fictional journey of character Andy Michael Pilgrim from Brooklyn, to Philadelphia and finally Atlanta is now complete. In this pilgrimage, readers experience places that are filled with hopes, dreams, challenges and fears that make us human.
          The novels that make up the trilogy are A Brownstone in Brooklyn which was published in 2001, Philly Style and Philly Profile in 2007 and Ghost of Atlanta which will be published in January 2011.

           I received the Georgia Author of the Year nomination for Philly Style and Philly Profile, from the Georgia Writers Association, in 2007.
        I’m writing his fourth novel, Purple Phantoms, which is a story about the haunting of a mythical high school basketball team.

           I’m currently a Creative Writing/Publishing Instructor at Atlanta’s Evening at Emory’s Writers Studio.

Would you describe yourself as an introvert or an extrovert?

I am an introvert. I made myself get in front of an audience to talk about my books. Now, I’m very comfortable talking about my novels.

Do you have any pets? 

Yes, I have a lhasa apso mix and her name is Spice Monie…she is a doll!

What are your favorite books to read?

Jane austen: pride and priejucie,

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

Walter Mosely: Devein in a blue Dress

Sue Henry: Degrees of Separation.

Zora Neal Hurston: Their Eyes were watching God

Williams Sheakespeare: Macbeth

Where is the most unique place you have traveled?

My family took a cross country tour during the seventies. We traveled from Brooklyn New York through Canada and down to North Dakota , Idaho and into Washington and down the pacific highway into Los Angeles. We took the southern route through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, New Orleans, Atlanta and back up the east coast to New York City.

In Idaho, we stopped in a small town and people ran out of stores, barber shops and cafes looking at at us and pointing, I guess they thought the Jeffersons had come to Idaho. You didn’t see many blacks in Idaho during the seventies.

Aside from your successes in the writing industry, what in your life has given you the greatest sense of accomplishment?

I’m a high school Language Arts Teacher and working with young people, seeing their development, is a fantastic feeling.

How many books have you written and how many of those are published? 

A Brownstone in Brooklyn

Philly Style and Philly Profile

Do you have one particular genre that all your books fall under (i.e. suspense, romance, etc.)  or do you write in many different genres?

I love writing Mainstream novels, because it gives me the versatility to challenge any topic.

How much character and plot detailing do you plan out before you begin writing a novel, or are you a “pantser” (fly by the seat of your pants) .  Plausible and complex characters are crucial to successful storytelling. This entails not only the protagonist, but the antagonist and a carnival of minor characters.  How do you get to know your Characters?

You must create a character resume for your protagonist, antagonist and a few of your minor characters.  I spend a great deal of time developing character resumes.

      

Prior to becoming a published author, how many rejections did you receive?  How did you handle the rejections?  I received over 100 rejections. With each rejection I felt I was one step closer to finding that great publisher match. I kept positive knowing it was just a matter of time before I would find that publisher.

How and when do you write? Do you keep yourself on a schedule or do you work while the muse is with you?   I’m a night writer. I don’t wake up until after 10 PM. This is hard on me since I have to up early for work. I’ve adjusted and work as much as I can before I know I have to get up and go to work.

If you have a new release coming out, tell us about it. 

In The Ghost of Atlanta, Andy Michael Pilgrim faces demons from his youth that haunted his life. These are the ghosts in the crawl spaces of his life; some are real and some supernatural.

After landing a job with The Atlanta Defender, Andy returns home and visits the place where he finally faces remembrances of his deceased abusive father. While walking around the grounds, he meets his mysterious cousin, Joe Boy, and finds out that the property is going to be sold by unscrupulous cousins.

While Andy fights this battle, he must confront the personal demon of a possible drug addiction, breaking the color barrier at the south’s largest newspaper, The Atlanta Defender, meeting his old girl friend and fighting the lingering effects of segregation in small-town Georgia life.

As the story unwinds, all these forces push Andy toward the breaking point, where he almost quits on life. Malevolent mortal deeds are committed and Andy could be next in line.

"The Ghost of Atlanta" is, overall, a superbly written book. 5 stars! ~Readers Favorite

If you could give one piece of advice to writers trying to get published, what would that advice be?

“Never, ever give up”

What's up next for you and your writing?
Purple Phantoms: The haunting of a high school basketball team. I will explore the use of second person.

I was a high school basketball coach in Georgia and I saw some athletes die…I always wondered what would happen if they could come back and have a second chance.

Anything else you'd like to share with my blog readers?

I would like to share what my high school English teacher, Ms. Egin, told me when I asked her did I have what it takes to be a writer. She looked me straight in the eye and said: “Do It.” I’ve never looked back.

I would tell your readers, “Do It.”

Follow their writing dream 

Where can we read more about you and your work?

My websites:

www.jtwrites.com

www.ghostofatlanta.com

http://www.authorsden.com/visit/author.asp?authorid=138087

 Thank you, Julius, for sharing your work.  I wish you great success in your writing endeavors.