Interview ft. Marvin Mason

Get To Know Author Marvin Mason

Where were you born and raised? A: I was born on the South Side of Chicago lived in Lake Meadows before my family moved west to the Village of Maywood where I spent the better part of my life. What do you think makes a good story? A: I generally find a good story is based on something I want to read, but I rarely find those types of novels. A good story should represent an idea or a people, give a perspective that may be far different than what the reader suspects the price will be about. To write from the perspective of the middle class raised black. Many of the authors that I identify with are closer to that background than their material belies. That’s cool, but I wanted to read about Black people who put their education to good use. ​ How many books have you written? A: I am completing my tenth novel right now. I am also featured in a BLP Anthology that teamed me with an incredible young lady named Mycah May. Be on the lookout for her. What do you like to do when you're not writing? A: Awkward question to answer. Writing has always been a passion of mine. I just never shared with the world. I was married for twenty years before my wife discovered the material I’d written in college between 1980 – 1983. I love to research material for my stories. Writing is no longer the hobby, but the research still is. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? A: I wanted to be a writer when I first entered college. I wanted to be in Hollywood as a screenplay writer. At the time, Black voices really weren’t heard even if Black faces were seen. I wanted to be one of the voices for Black America. I still want to be a writer. I am in the company of so many tremendous authors. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to have conversations, actual oral words from mouth to ear with B. Love, Monica Walters, Kay Shanee, Aubree Pynn, Shajuana McDuffy, Kalisha Buckhanon, Jenny Milchman, and my mentor for the Claim Me series A. Marie Johnson. I aspire to develop my writing fashioned by their dedication to the craft. What was your inspiration when writing Playdate & Desire Me Only? A: Novels like Desire Me Only and Claim Me are based on a series of events I have lived through with roughly ten very close friends. From high school until our late twenties we were inseparable and had enough adventures to fill a library. The Playdate was born from my love of Walter Mosley and Robert Greer and a fistful of Black authors that write mystery novels. ​ In the novel Playdate, it seemed to be more of a mystery novel with a little Romance what were you aiming for? A; Playdate, just like the politicians in the story, is all about misdirection and redirection. The feedback, if anyone is paying attention, is Black readers like mysteries, but it is a genre especially major publishers who miss the boat in trying to find an audience. I love B. Love for allowing me to tell this story. The misdirection is not only isn’t it a romance, but it’s not Urban either. It is completely contemporary, but the most important element no one markets: it’s a story about people who are Black, not Black people. ​ Desire Me Only what made you choose that Title? A: You don’t even want to know what Desire Me Only was originally called. The second round of working titles was Three Little Words. I needed a theme that could run the course of the trilogy. Desire Me Only worked best. ​ What was your hardest scene to write in Desire Me Only & Playdate? A: The hardest chapter to write in Desire Me Only doesn’t come until Book 3 slated for late summer. The hardest chapters to write for Playdate involved the explanation of the police boxes to record street activity. The research connecting to an actual video game was phenomenal. I had to pare it down considerably. This was a program that popped up in various states but most citizens focused on the red lightboxes and the traffic tickets coming from those devices. We as citizens completely missed the devices sitting next to them recording all our activity. Taxpayers wound up paying for their existence. The information came about when I researched the actual death of a state official and how the investigators came about their information via these boxes only to be stymied by the privatization of the gatekeepers for those boxes. Which of these two books was the most enjoyable to write? A: Playdate by far was the most exhilarating experience between the two. I am gathering material for a potential follow up now. These books take a minute to research to get the facts and the laws right. Do you have a favorite character that you have written between the two novels? If so, who? And what makes them so special. A: Ellis Freeman and Hank Johnson are my favorite characters, both are on the same side of the law but with different perspectives. If your books Playdate & Desire Me Only were to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it? A: For Playdate, I would feature the entire cast of American Soul; for Desire Me Only, I would feature the cast of BET’s Boomerang. Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with your readers about? A: I am wrapping up Desire Me Only Book 3 for a late summer release. Look out for my July 16th release of The Break. It’s twisted fun. ​