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DA CREW PODCAST SEASON 1_ EPISODE #142_HOST BLAQUE DIAMOND · DA CREW Podcast

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have seen their credits course sor Basic Black After Dawn, our loop podcast show
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with your host, Black Damn. Hey everyone, this this Black Diamond from
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the Crew Network and you're listening to Basic Black After Dark podcasts to show that
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meets you where you are and gives you what you ask for. Historical fiction
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is the most prevalent among fictional genres. Basically, historical fiction is any story
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which happened in the past that includes the real characteristics of period together with the
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makeup characteristics and characters or events. Now, genuine historical fiction is oriented on
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realism in all its plot aspects, and the plot thickens with my guests.
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V W. Jeffrey. He was born in Georgetown, Guyana, and he
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is here in the United States taking it by storm with his new novel Zia.
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Please welcome b W. Jeffrey. Thank you Black Diamon. You know
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more than honored to be on your show. Thank you so much for coming
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and willing to talk about your book. Zaia is your debut novel, and
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I was taken back by the photo. It reminds me of an Aztec temple's
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sacred site where they worship the gods. Just reading the title would make a
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reader want to know more. Was that intentional or is the intention within the
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chapters? Oh? No, that was very intentional. Yes, I'm an
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author, but I'm also a businessman, and just like anything in life,
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you have to capture the audiences, capture your audience. And you know,
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I'm a minimalist, you know, I believe some is best and I wanted
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my character to be recognized by something other than just a face. And I
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wanted because I don't want people to see what he look like. You know,
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I have some image on the front of my book cover. You know,
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I felt that would spoil the fun of people's imagination. So I just
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I came up with the image of that Z, you know, the even
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though it's gold, it's a dirty gold that's brus and has a lot of
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you know, as you can see damage to it to show that I'll attack
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and his desire, you know, doesn't live a simple life. That Z
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is powerful, whether anybody realize it or not. I look at it.
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I stare at it. I copied it to move it around and I said,
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no matter, I'm looking at it. It's powerful. And I said,
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God, why did he do this? What made him want to put
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just the Z there? Because I said, you just you can't go wrong
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with that Z. But I fell in love with it, and I was
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like, Wow, it's just it means so much. If you're into history,
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for one, you know, you start for me that Z. You
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know, you're absolutely right you it's no face to it, so it does
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take you to the imagination. And what I want to do is you have
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a trailer, and I want to show a little clip of your trailer so
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people can know what we're talking about. I'm going to watch the trailer again.
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Oh cool, h m. You see what I mean? I hope
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that would be saying what I see. You see that just like you said,
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it's a little dirty, but it's perfect. It's perfect. It's a
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perfect dirty If that makes you think it perfect, yeah, it's you know,
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it's It was really a big decision because I believe in being unconventional,
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and you know, one of the critics you you know I've heard, is
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you know you need an image and images of what sells. But I feel
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you can't be afraid to experiment. And you know, you see some of
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the biggest brands have just a symbol to it, you know, like whenever
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see wheneverone sees that back, they know it's Batman. You know, when
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you see you know, certain symbols, you know it's a certain car without
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seeing the name. So I wanted something that was simple, you know,
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something that when people see it, you know, and as I just came
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out winning goals and people see that symbol and that's it. They was like,
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oh, it's that Zire again. To me, it's not too much
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and it's not too little. It's just it's just right. It's just right
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the way it is. And you said it was intentional, and I agree
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with you it had to be, because I woun't think anybody else could have
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just did it. But I think that you were absolutely right. As a
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new author, what has really surprised you about the writing process? The writing
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process is extremely, extremely difficult. There's no way to eromanticize it, you
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know. And I guess for me it's interesting because I I'm not I'm not
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a natural writer, you know, I have people know people who they grew
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up writing poems and short stories and do all these things. I was never
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that person. You know. I could sit down and do math problems all
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day, but actually actually to write a five page college paper, you're pulling
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teeth for me to do that. So it really it's a lot of work.
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And I was, well, what so surprised me is how much I
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wrote. I was afraid that I wouldn't write much because historically, you know,
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whenever I wrote papers, I tended to you know, underwrite, so
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if it was twenty pages, I would just meet the twenty page minimum and
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I couldn't get any more. But yeah, with this book, I was
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amazed at how much was flowing from from my fingertips. And that caught me
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off. God, And even when I look at the book to this day,
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I just keep saying, wait, I wrote this book. It's still
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I must have been in a trend, you know, like most people like
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in a trans for like ten years and they're like, wait a minute,
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where have I been for the past ten years. That's what it feels like
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when I'm reading these characters, the dialogue, and I'm just still thinking,
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this is what I wrote, you know, to write this book off and
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on. It took me. The process started, well, the book started.
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The idea started about what was twenty twenty three, I'd say, about
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six or seven years ago, where I actually, yeah, I actually had
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a book that I was working on before Zire and I was ready to like,
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you know, to you know, to I wrote a draft shoulder to
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someone. It was you know, criticized heavily, you know, constructively,
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and I was gonna make changes. But someone told me I didn't want to
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go with this book because the main character it wasn't a black man. There's
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nothing wrong with that, but I just felt that I wanted a different character.
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I wanted a black man who was different, who was strong, but
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it human and I are strong and they're humans, so don't don't try to
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take that away from us, you know, being at women and we're looking
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at that. But in literature, I wanted someone new, you know,
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someone that someone that you've never seen before, that you've never seen before,
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who did something totally different and and I've thought of and I always liked history.
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I'm a big history buff. And I said, you know, and
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I remember from the days, you know, the eighties, nineties, and
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people spoke about revolution going on and so forth. And I said, you
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know what if you had a guy who started a war, okay, an
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actual war, not just talk, but had an army in Florida war,
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because you know, I always hear about, you know, blacks fighting in
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other people's armies, you know, the Continental Army in America, World War
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two, Vietnam. They fight for other people. You know, you hear
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about that a lot, but never someone like possessing their own army. I
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mean, there's some examples in history, in modern history, within the past
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couple of hundred years, but it's not very prevalent. And I wanted someone
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who who not only for the war, but started a war, who went
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on the offensive, which would which would be a difference. And I and
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so that got me going, and I said, okay, that's that's not
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bad. And I asked around and I looked around and there was nothing like
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that, and I said, okay, I got something here. And since
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that time, everything just flowed from Zaire. Yeah, the characters, the
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time period. And it took some time because the Stoga fiction. One of
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the things to me is that I had to study history, I had to
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study warfare, you know, just for it. You know, in your
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experience, what is the one thing that you find most difficult about writing?
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The most difficult thing about writing is, let me see, it's really trying
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to give each character the right attention. You know, there's something in cinema
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called screen time, and in writing, I call it page time. And
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in a book like Zire it was more because Zia is an ensemble book.
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I mean, he's the main guy, and everyone said, yes, he's
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the main but there's tons of other characters because it's a war and so you
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have army, so you have other characters in the book as well, and
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to keep that balance and keep the focus still on your main character is quite
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a challenge because even for me as a writer, when you create, when
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you have other characters, sometimes you get lost in other characters. And you
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know, you felt you fall in love writing the dialogue and you're like,
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oh yeah, but it's Zius to the guy, and you have to keep
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Zaia the main guy even with other characters, because because sometimes you see,
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because Alex I watched a lot of movies, one of the things I hate
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in movies is when the protagonist gets taken over by other characters and gets put
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in the background. And even if somebody, I guess is in love love
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with having different characters in books, it says your different characters. Yes,
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it's just unbelievable. This this book. Has writing books changed your life?
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Yes, I know you are a businessman, but has writing books changed your
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life in any way? Well, yes it has one. It gave me
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I'm not gonna lie. It gives you a new It gave me a new
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sense of confidence because I actually have content. Wow, So you know the
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business, Si, It's part of my business DRJ Media. So I'm not
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just an author, but I have a media company. And one of my
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advantches is that publishing. I've been reading about that. We're going to definitely
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talk about that. Your book is in the historical African fiction genre. Why
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didn't you choose that genre or didn't just fall into place? It just fell
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in the place because I wanted to see realistic, you know, I didn't
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I want to seem like this is happening but it's not. I don't want
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to, Oh, this something that's happened in some other universe, you know,
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where people can see this as if wow, this really did happen,
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you know, as they're reading it. Because there's characters in it who are
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real I'm not going to give names, but they are characters who are real
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characters in the book, you know, to give you that sense of realism.
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It took place after the Revolutionary War, and so that plays a big
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part in the development of the characters, and I feel and again it's all
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about just giving that that sense of authenticity. And so that's why I wanted
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to do I didn't want to make it like too fictional where it has no
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relation, because I wanted to relate to this. Where did you get your
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information and your ideas? From? To right Zion? I'll be honest,
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I came up with jire on my own. I mean everyone's asked me that,
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like, how'd you come up with this? I say, I mean
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to be honest, I the idea of it came up, like I said,
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from you know, eighties and nineties. You know, there was a
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lot of you can call it what's that, you know, the what's that
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I'm blanking out on the name centric effrocentric movement that was around black times.
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And you've heard that, and you remember in music and media you heard all
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the talk of revolution. You know, that was the age of you know,
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drugs, just talking about it. Yeah. Still, I don't remember
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how the eighties was. Eighties was it was pretty bad, you know,
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you know, with that it was something to reckon with. We have somebody
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asking why that title Zion? Took my question till because I was going to
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ask that, why that title Zion? Why that titles are? Look,
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if someone's going to raise your war in America, they needed they need a
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unique name anymore. Yeah, So I said, you know, I can't
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name this guy Peter or you know, Jonathan. It doesn't carry that weight,
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that sense of strength, that sense of dominance. So I needed something
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strong. And the one thing that I've always had a creative mindset. I
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mean, I didn't grow up in the arts, but I always I could
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create. Even as a kid, I made my own comic strips just for
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fun, you know, crude, but I always would do that. So
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when I I came, I thought about and I thought about it, and
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someone it just boom this desire and I felt surprised. If you don't be
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someplace, standing in some place you see a whole bunch of people naming their
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children's sire. Because I'll be proud of that. When that happens. I'll
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be proud. You should be. Some writers say they have writer's block.
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Does writing energize you or does it exhaust you? It exhausts It is very
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exhausting. It is so exhausting to write two pages. I mean you feel
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like you feel like your bench person two into something pounds just to write two
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pages. And that was part of the struggle of writers when you get to
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certain scenes, like action scenes. Action scenes are just like they're difficult to
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direct in movies, they're difficult to write in novels because there's a certain pace.
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You have to write at a certain pace, which means the senses have
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to be a certain structure. They can't be too long. Basicly, you
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have to get the audience feel like they're in the action, and to be
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that descriptive can be difficult, and some seems that will And what'd you say.
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I'm just I'm just falling love with the whole thing. And I'm sitting
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there just imagining, sire, if you had to pick any celebrity I'm going
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to watch. I'm going to go on to TMZ and all this stuff tomorrow
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and see everyone and see the rumors so and so playsire people have asked people
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have asked me this, and if if the listeners can have suggestions after I
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say something, you know what they think. I felt the person closest tosire
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would probably be just what I know now, probably Hershaw Ali. Oh wow,
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why well, he has the stature, his voice, he has that
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deep bathroom voice. I've seen him in movies. I've seen him talk before.
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And I said, okay, and I if you direct him to act
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like this character, he probably could do it. I'm not giving him the
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part. I mean, Marshall, if you're listening, I mean, I'm
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not saying you have you definitely have the part. You still have to audition
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like everybody else. But from what if what I've seen closest, you know,
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he he may be able to pull it off a little youngish looking,
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but I haven't seen him recently, but he has some of that ability to
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do it. You need someone can be very serious. But yet yeah,
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somebody in mind. And I don't think this person can act. But I
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was just going on the size and the name and just where I was visualizing
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it all. And I want to writy to kill me for saying this person
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say it anyway. I think he's a very nice person. But I see
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just his build to be Zion and that's shack. But I just shack because
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because of the size, because of his movement, and I just picture him
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standing up on something just being Xion. I'm like, that's Zire, that's
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him. You know. I'm just saying, like, wow, you know
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that's he would be good. You know. Patrice says it's a very strong
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name, and I agree with. Just to keep saying xi xiety. I
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can be hearing people called male or female, little girl, little boy,
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Zaia, and that's that's that's that's just well, you give it a year
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or so and you can be seeing Xire everywhere. I believe though, I
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definitely believe it now. New authors don't usually come out of the gate with
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such a powerful first novel. Who inspired you to right Zire? Who inspired
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me to right Xire? That's a good question. Okay, I'll picked so
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much because I can't say myself, well, part of it is myself,
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and part of it is I could say, you know, my father,
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Yeah, my father inspired me. I mean not physically, but you know
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his legacy. You know, he died when I really got into writing it.
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He was he passed away shortly before that, thank you. But yeah,
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he was very he was a historian and I and you know, growing
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up, it always I always said, Dad, you should write something man.
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You know, because he was very small, he knew history a lot,
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but he never wrote. That was his only thing. He just didn't
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write any books. So when I when I was writing it, you know,
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inspired is like, you know, I should write something. So that
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is why man. Also for my for my family. And I don't mean
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my family now. I mean my family like ten fifty, one hundred years
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from now. I want I want my family, my descendants to know what
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went on, you know, in you know, in my mindset, you
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know, I always hear I can imagine you know, somebody in school,
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like you said, maybe fifty years from now and say that was my uncle,
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that was my grandfather. That was like, no, it wasn't it.
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Write book? And these kids just happened a fit. Well, why
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wouldn't he write the book? Because my name is Zayah, my name is
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so I'm named after that book. So I what is your writing cryptonite?
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My writing crypt tonight is it's a good question. What is my crypto night
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for writing? But my krypt night is that believe it or not as much
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as I as I enjoyed the process. I sometimes you know, oh here's
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a good time. Sometimes finding the right description description, can you recognize?
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Finding the right language to the disc five things? You know? And I
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have to think a lot to do that. It's easy to just be very
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simple and when you've reached and I and I did a lot of research,
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research and authors and writing. That's one thing I did to prepare for writing
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is I read other books and I like how certain authors can use metaphors the
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right adjectives when describing scenes or just speech or even something as simple as walking
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into a room. And I always have to constantly learn how to do that.
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To do that when I'm writing, I would stop and say, okay,
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I don't want to say smile. Let me get a synonym for smile,
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because it seems to take a lot of digging when you as you write,
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you do a lot of digging, and it shows in your work.
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It definitely shows Patrice's acts. If you could co author with any other historical
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figure, who would it be? If I could cover any other historic figure,
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who could it be? Who would I call through it? Actually?
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You know, whoever call au through it. It's not a historical figure.
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Well I mean he is. I mean everyone, once you're alive, your
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history. So there's this author and it's because of my my, my daughter,
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and it's her influence on me. So there's this author he has.
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He wrote this book. It's called I can't remember, I forgot the name.
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It's about this this young black girl and she's like she does magic.
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Okay, it's like those Hid Potter type books. And he's he's a cool
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guy. And I wish I knew his name. I would plug him.
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You know, it's a good book for kids. I'm not his friend,
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but you know I like to you know, bigger good writing where I see
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it. And my daughter said, yeah, Daddy, you know, Zius
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should should have like a you know, should do something with so and so.
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You should do something with that author, be cool and you know with
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the little girl and like a partnership. I said, huh, that's interesting
24:00
because I you know, he's he's like he's general and he's serious and this
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little girl is you know, she's nice and and it's such a contrasting personalities.
24:07
It will probably be a nice course over she's becoming a little producer herself
24:15
and putting you have no you have no idea, you have no idea.
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It must be wonderful just to watch her, you know, her mind and
24:26
the wheels just turning. You know. She has a dad who's an author,
24:30
and she's and it sounds like she loves to read and she's going in
24:33
with her imagination. So I'm going to be seeing another Jeffrey in the makings
24:37
of doing another book or something. Well, I have two daughters, so
24:41
yeah, so two of them will be coming into the horizon. But yeah,
24:45
so that that would be a great book. It'd be interesting to write
24:52
it him. If we have a partner one day and say, hey,
24:55
let's let's put our cats in something unique, something unique for for the whole
24:59
audience, you know, and I would like to do that. You know,
25:04
you get that author's name, and you know, give it to me.
25:08
I'm not saying I know who he is or I could do it,
25:11
but I'll try to do whatever I can to help out and support. What
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would you say to someone who has written many novels or short stories but never
25:18
published, In other words, they're just tucked away on their shelves, you
25:22
know, book, I would say published, I say what are you waiting
25:27
for published? One thing this has told me is that I think, and
25:32
I don't want to generalize, but people out there who were just too scared
25:37
to do things differently. You know, we're used to going to work doing
25:41
this what I call it, and I use this word for you know,
25:45
there may be some pushback in what I say, like this conformity. And
25:49
it's almost like when they have these ideas that are unique or a work that
25:53
is, you know, black people that can do things for the world,
25:56
they don't want to share it. And like, I have a friend and
26:02
he's I've known him since forever and he's in since. I know he's an
26:07
excellent writer and I I was telling him, man, you should write something,
26:08
right, But he says, Noah, no, no, No.
26:11
I said, man, you I said, look, if I could write
26:12
a book, and I didn't grow up as a writer. You know,
26:17
I grew up a science guy, and I could write. If I could
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sit down and write, sire, anyone could write anything. And I'm being
26:23
honest, I mean anyone who knows me. No, I was never a
26:27
writer growing up. I didn't have that history of sitting under a tree thinking
26:30
of things to write. M't you know, there's a lot of people who's
26:37
afraid to take that leap into writing. And what we're gonna do right now,
26:41
we're going to take a leap into a commercial and we're going to write
26:44
that with mister v W, Jeffrey and Za. Okay, turn off the
27:07
legs. Then a candle tonight, a man of amergint, let's take a
27:25
shower shower together. I was a bundt. You was my some whatt wealthy
27:48
and save Jace turn off. Come girl, I want to care of you.
28:06
What special treat You're so sweet. We are back and we are talking
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to the author of Zion, which is your I'm glad to have you back.
28:22
I can sit and talk all night with you. I can tell yeah,
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we really, you know, we really got a vibe going. Yeah.
28:30
Well, to be fair to everybody, we met in New York,
28:33
we were at the Queen's Book Fair and it was just amazing just to see
28:38
to see you there and just to know all about it. So I just
28:41
definitely wanted to speak with you and it to have you on my podcast to
28:45
give everybody what I got there at the event. Now, what does your
28:49
novel or for for readers? In terms of excitement, characters and plotline.
28:53
Oh boy, you just take another hour. I can go on and on.
28:57
But well, my my book offers a plethora of characters. So whatever
29:03
your personality is, whatever the type of people you're like, you're going to
29:07
find them in the novel, you know, because I don't. My style
29:11
is I believe in ensemble casts. I mean, I believe in like some
29:15
books, you have one character and you follow them for the majority of the
29:17
book. They're on almost every page. And that's fine. That's some people's
29:21
style. I believe in showing different points of view. You know. I
29:26
don't just want people to see what Zaire thinks. I want some people see
29:29
what other people think. He has other people in this army. He has
29:30
officers, he has soldiers. There's the other side, the American army,
29:34
the American people you know, who are who are in it as well.
29:38
So you have all these points of view. So you're really going to get
29:41
a panoramic view of this war that's going on. In addition, there's there's
29:48
plenty of action in the book. You're going to see a lot of action.
29:53
You're going to see an actual world what it would be like if you
29:57
had, you know, a black army on the offensive and with a leader
30:06
who's who cannot be compromised, and what that looks like and you and you
30:11
will see what the hierarchy looks like in such me okay, and you and
30:18
I guarantee you when you read it, you will be confused because you don't
30:22
know what to think. This is not a straightforward Oh wow, Zaia is
30:26
the hero or this or that? No, you're going to be confused because
30:32
with hire there'll be other characters that you're going to see and something and you
30:34
think, wow, this character is cool too, and this is the character
30:38
you have his own book, here's a whole book as well. Maybe,
30:45
So do you try to be more origional or do or to deliver to readers
30:49
what they want? You know, which one do you try? Do you
30:52
try to be more regional or do you deliver the readers what they want?
30:57
I believe that readers want a good story, and that's what they want.
31:03
Readers want a good story. And someone told me that years ago this I
31:06
met a director, a film director, and it was this guy who was
31:10
an actual like mainstream director. We'll mention his name, but he worked with
31:14
all the big stars and he said, he gave me this advice, I'd
31:17
never forget it. He said, no matter what decade it is, everyone
31:21
loves a good story. He said, it never changes, whether it's nineteen
31:26
thirty five or twenty fifteen, people will always flock to a good story.
31:30
Wow. Absolutely. So when people tell me, well, that's not what
31:36
people want, I say people, I said, look, when Star Wars
31:38
came out, people want asking for Star Wars. When Harry Potter came out,
31:42
people want asking for Harry Potter, When Waiting the Exhale came out,
31:48
people weren't asking for those type of books. You remember that in the early
31:51
nineties we had all those books that Reading to Exhale. People are not asked.
31:55
They don't ask for things. We deliver in the audience judges. But
32:00
without content is to their liking or not. And then and that's how you
32:04
create content. Yeah, And so I write. I try to write good
32:08
stories. And I also do like to be original as well, because well,
32:14
I like to give. I like my audience to think from some look
32:17
at something that's fresh, you know, something that they haven't seen before.
32:22
I want to keep them on the edge of the seat. And guess I
32:24
am definitely going to keep people on the edge of the seat. I can
32:28
tell you that we've been chatting for a minute, and I have an idea
32:31
as to who you are as a writer. I would like to get an
32:35
idea of who you are as a reader. What book is currently on your
32:37
coffee table? I have a book and you won't believe this, Well maybe
32:44
you will. It depends. I am reading a Star Wars novel Star Wars.
32:52
I think it's called Lord of the Sith, you know, So it's
32:55
looking at I know everyone knows Darth Vader, and it's actually looking at the
32:58
point of view of Darth Vader and you know, his mentor or you want
33:02
to call him that, the Emperor. And that's what's currently on my table
33:07
right now. Yeah, and I can see the connection between that and Zaia
33:15
were you were born in Georgetown, Guyana. Yeah, come to the United
33:20
States. I came when I was very young. I mean literally like I
33:22
was actually I just learned to walk when I came, because my family was
33:27
actually there on vacation. I mean they came, they moved. It was
33:30
the seventies. That's when a lot of Caribbeans moved to America and New York.
33:34
So they met over here in the in the United States, had my
33:37
sister first, and then they went back to Guyana to go to visit their
33:42
families again, and they stayed there for over a year. And I was
33:45
born during that time in Guyana. So when they came back to the States,
33:51
that's I came back obviously, you know, I came back. I
33:54
guess just starting to walk or something. So I did spend much time you
34:00
studied here in the United States. What school did you attend and what was
34:04
your focus? My school, so I'm probably saying that I'm a public school
34:08
kid all my life up to like, you know, college, and I
34:16
went to I grew up in Crown Heights and went to the public schools around
34:21
the area and specialized high school as well in New York. And my focus
34:27
was science, yes, and that's what I did. I mean, I
34:31
actually did all that did the medicine. That's why I said I could do
34:37
math all day, math in chemistry. As you can see, there's nothing
34:42
pointing towards writing. If you look at my past, nothing's foretold that I
34:45
was going to be a writer. You know, it's odd because a lot
34:50
of people say that males usually like science and not math. Look, I'm
34:55
all the stuff is whatever. I'm live an example, I've heard of left
35:01
brain and right brand. I said, look, I can do science,
35:05
I could do art, I could do whatever I feel like doing, like
35:07
because I do test preps, so I can I can do right now,
35:10
I can give you a course in biochemistry and then after that course we can
35:15
go discuss a book. So where anything we want to be. So I
35:19
say whatever to all those things I don't have. I don't don't label,
35:22
don't label people like that. I did it, definitely, I definitely did
35:25
it. You're also the founder of JT. S Prep. Tell me about
35:30
that. So my day job is I have my own test prep company.
35:36
So I'm education. I'm really a big education I'm not a teacher, but
35:39
I've done a lot of work with test prep. Started with SAT Prep helping,
35:46
you know, educating the community on the importance of it. I'm doing
35:50
it for quite some time, over ten years. And also I integrated MCAT
35:57
Prep, which is for medical schools, and I could to most standardized tests
36:00
in addition to regual academic topics as well. And so I have my own
36:06
small company and I kept it small where I have one on one clients as
36:09
well as I contract with certain not for profits to help you know, young
36:15
black students get into specialize high schools and in colleges with SAT scores are strong
36:21
and everything. And I like it. I enjoy it. It's it's a
36:27
lot of work, especially you have to bring a new topic to a community
36:30
that has such a negative view of standardized testing and you're trying. And to
36:36
this day, I was talking to someone about this. You know how it's
36:38
not easy to convince your families andlack communities because you know, the test has
36:44
always been deemed is deemed biased and all these things. And look, ill,
36:49
I tell my student all the time, I said, any test is
36:52
biased if you don't study for it. Have you even thought about doing a
36:59
books in it? Anything like that and pulling stuff together, you know for
37:02
your program? I have. But I had to make a decision because I
37:08
said, Okay, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna do?
37:10
Am I gonna go on this SSAT route? Am I gonna go? And
37:15
then this is when ZI had zire too, Am I going to do this?
37:17
And I said, what do I feel can have the biggest impact?
37:20
And I said there's a lot of people who speak about the essayt and talk
37:23
about it. But people say, Okay, that's nice, but no one
37:30
talks about Zia because no one knows Zia. So I said, you know
37:34
what I'm gonna do, zire, and this is gonna be my gift to
37:37
the world and from you. Appreciate it. And I can tell you that
37:42
what does your family think about your writing and all your accomplishments. You said
37:45
you have two daughters. Are they my daddy is an author? Or oh
37:50
that's just my dad. Yeah, everyone is just everyone. I'm still just
37:53
dad and I'm still just a husband. So that hasn't changed. I mean
37:57
people they're proud, yes, because writing is something that's you know, difficult,
38:00
and it's it's it's the company you want a book. But I'm still
38:05
mean to my family, you know. I think that's the beauty of it
38:08
Earth Earth. If I makes, if I became a billion dollar movie,
38:14
I'll still just be that And I still got to take out the garbage when
38:17
I get home. I'm saying that what's next for Zion? Is there a
38:22
sequel? Is a sequel? Well, all I have to say is when
38:27
you read the book, you'll find out excuse me to make to make Zie
38:32
into a movie. Yes, yes, so, I mean you heard everybody
38:38
heard it here first. They heard it here first, that Zion is being
38:43
planned on being a movie. Black History Month would be the perfect perfect place
38:47
for it to be released. But this historical African novel to be released,
38:52
that would be ideal, And I'm going to try, and I'm gonna I'm
38:54
gonna make I'm gonna make that happen. So I actually it will be a
39:00
movie, and I'm gonna start going on the screenplay. And I'm still debating
39:05
on what I'm going to start because I have another movie I'm trying to get
39:08
out there now. As I said, as I told you before, I
39:12
have Zires part of my company DRG Media. So in addist to the books,
39:16
I also do films and so yeah, so, And part of the
39:22
thing was when I was writing Zion, and one of the problem, and
39:25
I want to say probably one of the issues when you're creative, you gotta
39:28
decide what you're going to focus on. And when I was writing Zion,
39:31
I had the idea for this other script and I had to put that.
39:37
I was working on it because I liked the idea for the script, and
39:39
I said, you know what, I gotta get Zire done. That's one
39:43
of the problems when you when you're very creative, you can get distracted easily.
39:47
Yeah, easily. And I said, okay, let me put the
39:51
script down and just I gotta get Zire done. That's what I kept saying,
39:53
I gotta get Zire done. One of the weekends is about writing.
39:58
Actually, to all those will be writing out there is editing the author's edited.
40:01
When you have to prove your book, it is not fun. And
40:04
I think after I wrote the final page, I was just exhausted. I
40:08
think I didn't look at the book again for weeks, and yeah, I
40:13
think, you know, I was just tired and I didn't want to look
40:16
at it because writing it was such a journey. And then as I kind
40:21
of edited, I gotta do I do my own edit, and oh wow,
40:25
I know they got to be hard. That has to be hard,
40:28
because you're hard on yourself. Now. It hard and it's it's a big
40:30
book and you gotta you gotta go through it with a fine tooth comb.
40:35
And I was not looking forward to doing that. What other projects are you
40:39
working on? Now? So I said, so, the main project is
40:43
my film because I have the screenplays done. So I mean, just like
40:45
so, I have a film and actually this is you won't believe probably won't
40:49
believe this, but it shows you that to my audience, being dynamic is
40:53
very important in this world. So my film is actually about it's a fictional
40:59
it's a fictional movie about Send Them Ound k pop for those are no K
41:02
pop stands for Korean pop culture and the music. And it's pretty big.
41:07
Now, it's very big. I mean, that's miss them. It's it's
41:10
huge. And I got the idea because my again, my daughters, you
41:15
know, they you can see, they inspire a lot. They they love
41:20
it and they love this group. And I said, again this is me
41:24
being original. I said, has there ever been a K pop movie?
41:29
I said to myself and I said, and I did my research. I
41:32
said, I don't think they have, So I said, let me do
41:36
a K pop movie. Wow, that sounds sounds interesting. I would love
41:39
to know more about that. Once you get this start, you know,
41:42
I'm going to invite you back. Yeah, I got to know more about
41:45
this K pop. But what I want you to do is I want you
41:47
to tell people about your book club. So the book club that I'm that
41:52
was here, you know. So what I'm going to start, you know,
41:57
when when it gets big, is desired book club. So when the
42:00
book gains a lot of traction, I want, I want to have like
42:04
a group to speak about it. They have people's thoughts on the book and
42:07
have a community where people just have thoughts, fly back and forth on what
42:12
they think, which characters they like or hated, what were their favorite scenes,
42:16
or like one person read the book. I asked one person read it,
42:21
she will teach her And she was upset at me over one character,
42:24
like how can you let that happen to that character? And I said,
42:28
well, it's a war. What can I do like that? But but
42:37
but that's what I like. I mean, she became passionate about one of
42:40
the characters. And that's exactly what I wanted to happen. Where you're mad
42:45
at the author or happy with the author for thing certain things happening, but
42:51
a nothing I want to tell you know, the audience is whatever protects stick
42:55
to your guns. Because a lot I've had people, not a lot that'sn't
43:01
even say well, maybe you want to do this, maybe you want to
43:06
do that, and some people want to do because it's what they want their
43:10
agenda to be. You know, Like I'm I give you an example.
43:14
And this was the first someone I knew and they said, well, you
43:16
know what if Zire we found Zia was a woman. And I said,
43:22
that's not gonna work in my book. Yeah, I said, You're free
43:27
to write a book on your on your own about something like that, but
43:29
it's not gonna work in my book. You know exactly who Zia is,
43:32
you know exactly what you want, you know, And I'm still going to
43:36
push it no matter what you said. I'm gonna push it. I'm gonna
43:38
I'm gonna call Shack tomorrow and I'm gonna let him know that that is coming
43:43
and he needs to audition. Now, I'm gonna tell you that maybe a
43:46
little rusty and whatnot, but that's Zion's I got it. I'm gonna call.
43:52
I know, I know Shaq loves to talk, so police tell Zaia.
43:54
I mean, tell Shack about my book because you know he looks I
43:57
mean. And now the NBA is coming up, so I love to hear
43:59
on the NBA. You know, inside the NBA. Can you imagine you
44:02
know, no, no shade to his girlfriend wife fiance and imagine that big
44:07
Z on that big chess. Well, yeah, z he needs it.
44:12
He always he had the bigs. Now let him put a big Z on
44:14
his chest now exactly exactly seeing it's just you just turning it a little bit
44:17
and you just stretching it out here and yeah, yes, yes, I
44:21
mean I you know, like I said, I'm I feel like I'm a
44:23
humble, down the earth guy. But when it comes to Zire and maybe
44:27
because you know, reading Zion, it gets it gets me amped because it's
44:31
it's kind of interesting because you're in writing something that's having an influence on you
44:37
and it's coming from you, so it's kind of an otherworldly experience. It's
44:42
like, I see Zion being one of those books, one of those movies
44:45
that's going to be talked about, like you know when you grew up or
44:49
I grew up with brothers and they always watch West Ends, and you know,
44:52
your parents watch certain pictures and things, and I see Zai as being
44:58
one of those movies. I'm not even gonna say shows could we spin offs
45:02
too later on, but I see it as being one of those movies that
45:07
it's gonna be talked about for a very long time, and it's gonna if
45:10
it's not already, which I believe it is, it's gonna make history.
45:15
It's definitely gonna make history. I definitely see that. And that's why I
45:20
had to calm down when I'm writing, because I'm mind. I would get
45:22
excited, like you know, I love this scene and my mind's planing now,
45:25
and I say, calm down, come down, you still got you
45:28
still got all these other pages to write. Calm down, man, because
45:30
you get excited over your work and everything. But the fact people tell me
45:35
when they look at they said, wow, this this just when they read
45:37
like the first part of it, the little synopsis, and somebody say,
45:40
wow, this sounds like a movie. And I say, I know,
45:43
I know it is, it is, it will happen, It's gonna be,
45:45
It's going to happen. I see that it is. I I know
45:49
it's gonna happen. Yeah. Are you on social media and we can readings
45:52
and our listeners interact with you. So I'm on my website, you know
45:59
you can you know, which also has like a little piece of the book
46:01
for people to the preview. VW. Jeffrey dot com. You know,
46:07
that's v W j E F f R e y dot com. And on
46:13
Instagram v W Jeffrey Official, that's my Instagram name, okay, and it's
46:19
on Amazon. You can get the book to my site, Zia Lord of
46:22
America, even if through the YouTube video, you know, you can get
46:25
to my site, you know, the the YouTube trailer. Okay, So
46:30
yeah, that's all you can ajackt me. Thank you, thank you,
46:36
thank you VW for sharing Zion, and I want to thank all of you
46:39
for tuning in to tonight's Basic Black After Dark. Check out Zaia's book club
46:45
because I hear that that's going to becoming strong. I think that you mentioned
46:49
or I know that I've read and I've seen that you have a proluge in
46:52
Chapters one and two are available at VW Jeffrey dot com as well. Yes,
46:58
I courage people to go along that site, to follow him, to
47:04
follow Zion. See you're at it in the beginning. So you remember how
47:07
your children read Harry Potter and they just kept sticking with it and sticking with
47:12
it, and then adult started. Well that's thesire, that's the modern day
47:15
desire right now. So I'm gonna encouraging everybody to get down with Zion because
47:21
it's gonna be remarkable. Yeah again, that's v w J E F F
47:25
R e y dot com and join us Tuesday, October twenty four for our
47:30
bonus shop. We'll be talking with breast cancer survivor Barbara Mrvin and Paul Lett
47:37
Johnson. After eight after Dark, Basic Black After Dark, All new podcast
47:46
show with your host, Black Diamond