Nov. 18, 2025

From Urban Drama To Erotic Thrillers With Anna J

From Urban Drama To Erotic Thrillers With Anna J
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Season 1

We meet author Anna J, trace her path from urban drama to erotic thriller, and dig into how she builds unforgettable characters like Monica and Dylan. We unpack why representation matters, how warnings protect readers, and what’s coming next in her expanding thriller universe.

• creating the book she wanted to read when no one else was writing it
• designing Monica as a disruptive, cautionary force
• flipping zodiac traits to subvert character expectations
• crafting The Hunt as an erotic thriller with a Black lead
• balancing realism, terror and informed consent with trigger warnings
• using dialect and a glossary for authentic island voices
• co‑writing methods and pushing boundaries in Erotic Snapshots
• side projects including Big Back coloring books and Black‑centric journals
• previewing Copycat, a Morgan prelude and the name to remember, Zanaya
• rebuilding confidence after an eight‑year break and returning gloves off

Follow Anna on Facebook: author Anna J; Instagram: author Anna J; TikTok: scribeatphilly. “Type in Anna J. I’m on the Google, I’m on air.”


outro

00:00 - Cold Open And Prayerful Chaos

01:36 - Host Intros And Guest Setup

02:17 - Anna J’s Origins And Genres

03:07 - The Making Of My Woman, His Wife

07:16 - Building Monica: A Cautionary Icon

12:01 - From Urban Fiction To The Hunt

15:55 - Is Dylan Dead And What’s Next

19:45 - Craft, Nightmares, And Pushing Limits

25:40 - Representation, Desire, And Red Flags

31:20 - Warnings, Triggers, And Reader Experience

34:55 - Co‑Writing And Erotic Snapshots

41:05 - Authenticity, Dialect, And Details

45:30 - Side Projects: Big Back Coloring Books

49:10 - Future Work: Copycat And Zanaya

55:44 - Comeback Story And Closing Credits

WEBVTT

00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.199
It's innocent.

00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:08.320
Look how pictures like what your face part, baby.

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Oh here.

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What what are we about to get into?

00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:15.759
Ma'am, you what I what did I do?

00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:17.440
What did tell me what I did?

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Run it.

00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:21.679
Oh child, Lord Jesus.

00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:23.600
Did you read your book?

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I read it.

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I I I read it.

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I read it.

00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:33.439
Um what had happened was that's that's yes.

00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:34.399
Yeah.

00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:37.119
That's how that's how we start telling them stories.

00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:47.039
What had happened was and the fact that we haven't even mentioned a book, but we already it's the fact that a book wasn't even mentioned, but ma'am.

00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:51.439
You know what?

00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:54.719
I mean, I I like to thank my mama for giving me birth.

00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:56.560
Um, I don't know if Christ.

00:00:56.719 --> 00:00:58.479
I mean, like, I don't know what y'all want me to say.

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Like, listen, listen, and I thank them too, because let me tell you, you have no idea.

00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:08.079
Let me say Lord, we thank you for her mind.

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That the the thoughts, the creativity that you created and that you placed in her the gifts.

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We thank you.

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In Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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We ain't even introduced ourselves as we are.

00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:31.519
We done got right into okay, okay, okay.

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But rewind, I'm sorry.

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Professionalism.

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Welcome to BDST with Toya.

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I am your host Toya.

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Joining me today is Lex Between the Lines and the amazing energy.

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Y'all came on here.

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Y'all came on here starting up and I just got here.

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I don't know.

00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:06.640
I wouldn't have said that had you and I came on like this later, like this little post like Anna.

00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:14.719
Um what the what the listen, listen.

00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:16.800
I'm gonna start from the top.

00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:22.479
Anna, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the types of books that you write?

00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:26.159
Um, yeah, so my name is Anna J.

00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:28.960
Hey y'all, Philly Girl, born and raised.

00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:30.879
Um, I write a little bit of everything.

00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:33.599
I don't have a particular genre that I write in.

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I just kind of let the pen tell me what's gonna happen today.

00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:38.639
So you're gonna get a little bit of everything.

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You're gonna get uh a little messy drama, you're gonna get some urban fiction, you're gonna get a neurotic thriller.

00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:49.759
You know, you're gonna get whatever you know was what's going on in my head at the moment.

00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:51.360
I don't I don't write in a box.

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You and y'all not putting me in there.

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So yeah.

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I'm busting out.

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Let me free.

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Baby, free me.

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So baby, and I appreciate you not being in the box.

00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:05.120
I started with you.

00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:06.879
I was young, young.

00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:12.400
I was not supposed to be reading no no daggone, um, my woman his wife.

00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:17.120
Okay, you have you have no clue how many times I've heard that over the years.

00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:22.240
I don't think I had any business writing my woman his wife when I wrote it.

00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:24.879
So how old were you when you wrote it?

00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:29.360
Um I started writing it when I was 22.

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And I actually turned it in for publication at 24.

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I am 48 now.

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So yeah.

00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:41.039
Oh my goodness.

00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:44.240
How the heck do you know about that kind of drama at 22?

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Baby.

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You know what had happened was because that's one of my questions.

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Where did the idea come from?

00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:56.560
So here's the thing.

00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:59.520
I've always been an avid reader.

00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:08.000
I've always been an avid reader, and what I noticed early on was that the books that I wanted to read weren't written.

00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:16.399
And if I wanted the drama, if I wanted the the mouth the mouth drop, if I wanted the oh my god, did she just say that?

00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:17.680
I had to write it.

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Cause wasn't nobody else doing it.

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Not that there weren't great books in it back in the day, because we, you know, we had our Omar Tyree, we had Sister Georgia, we had Treasure Blue, you know, we had Kawan.

00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:32.480
So it's not like it wasn't there, but it wasn't written the way I wrote it.

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So I kind of had to step up to the plate, if you will, and make it happen.

00:04:38.399 --> 00:04:39.199
That's true.

00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:40.160
Yeah.

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I guess that's how it started.

00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:43.680
Yeah.

00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:53.759
That book was extremely messy, and I loved every second of it.

00:04:54.240 --> 00:05:06.160
Um, anytime someone tells me that they read any form of urban fiction or something is messy, I immediately recommend that book, which was how Lex got off that book.

00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:08.959
I was like, have you heard of Anna J?

00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:09.839
She was like, mm-mm.

00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:11.439
I said, oh no, no, no, no.

00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:12.800
You need to read her book.

00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:18.079
No, let me tell you, she said, I had a book that I think you and your wife could read together.

00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:22.000
So I was like, okay, and then it said my woman is wife.

00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:28.319
So I was like, okay, this sounds like um a lady about to get taken.

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I mean, um, you know, from her husband and she's gonna switch to the so I'm thinking, okay, me and my wife.

00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:37.279
So I started reading it before I my wife don't really read anyway.

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So I probably would have been reading it to her, just telling her about it.

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Page one.

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I said, wait, what?

00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:50.560
Wait, what character is this?

00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:51.439
Wait, what?

00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:53.680
I was so confused and I read it again.

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I said, oh.

00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:02.160
Wait, what how am I supposed to read?

00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:06.160
My wife already be thinking, well, she don't think I'm innocent or nothing like that.

00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:15.600
But the extent of the stuff that I be reading, she just be like, you be reading them nasty books, but she don't know the extent of the nasty.

00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:22.800
I imagine me and my wife years later, and she was like, Oh, wait, you the one that wrote that?

00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:24.480
I was like, Oh.

00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:38.639
So what had happened was um I like to think that um I do a fairly great job at bringing people in from the first page.

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I know for me as a reader, you'll you don't have too many pages before I put that thing down.

00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:46.079
Right.

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So I like to think um that if I catch you immediately, you ain't you ain't going nowhere until I let you go.

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You stuck with me.

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So yeah.

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You ain't turn me loose.

00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:03.279
I ain't fitting to either.

00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:04.720
Tell why can't you?

00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:08.240
What did these characters come from?

00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:09.920
Like, how did you create these characters?

00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:16.079
Did are are they based on people you like know, or these characters just kind of form themselves in your head?

00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:24.319
So when I first started writing my woman and his wife, I knew that Monica was a mess, right?

00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:26.480
Monica was a whole mess.

00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:34.399
Um, I didn't want it to be the typical um guy meets girl, brings girl home, they have a threesome.

00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:36.639
You know, Monica had her own motive.

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She was the one to look out for.

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You didn't know that initially.

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You know what I mean?

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She was the one to look out for.

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So it was kind of like it you brought this lady home and you had no clue that at the extent that she would go to ruin your home.

00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:53.759
This woman was wow.

00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:54.800
Did y'all meet Monica?

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Like this baby, Monica was something else.

00:07:59.120 --> 00:07:59.279
Yeah.

00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:00.639
But you know, killing part.

00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:01.759
Like, where does she come from?

00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:03.519
My wife's name is Monica.

00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:06.240
Oh man.

00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:11.600
Listen, Monica is just one of those characters that just won't let you rest.

00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:16.240
And when when you hear authors say that the characters talk to you, that's a real thing.

00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:20.399
I actually wrote Monica again in a book called The Serial Wife.

00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:22.800
Um, and she's still with the shenanigans.

00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:23.600
You know what I mean?

00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:34.639
She was just, I wanted her to be so diabolical that any man that read that book that thought that they was gonna bring this woman home, you thought three times about it.

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Not twice, thrice.

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Like, I don't think I want to do that.

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Because they always want the threesome until they don't.

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Mm-hmm.

00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:41.840
So, yeah.

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I don't think anybody should be having a threesome with somebody who was stealing drawers and painting murals on the wall because of what?

00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:52.879
She literally a cautionary tale.

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She is literally a cautionary tale.

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Yes.

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That's all I write.

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That's all I write is cautionary tales.

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I want you, I want you to take something from everything that I write, regardless of what this the situation is.

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You gotta take something from it.

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And Monica was the reminder to cherish your vows or not, and see what happens.

00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:17.120
I can't, you know what?

00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:20.559
And so that book, I'm trying to remember.

00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:23.120
That book was based in Philly as well.

00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:34.879
Yep, so my it was based in Philadelphia, and then um the aftermath was more, you learned more about Monica because after I wrote my woman, his wife, people was like, yo, where the hell did this girl come from?

00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:36.799
Like, where happened to her?

00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:38.720
Like, who hurt you, sis, you know?

00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:43.679
So I I had to give you the backstory because people like that don't just show up one day.

00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:45.120
That that's been in the beginning.

00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:54.799
So um I wrote the aftermath and I kind of gave you like her childhood, you know, kind of how she had to learn to fend for herself, pretty much.

00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:57.600
And for Monica, it was never a love thing.

00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:00.799
It was a um, I want that, let me go get it.

00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:09.279
And and I I would say loosely, very loosely, very loosely, y'all, she has because I'm a Virgo myself.

00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:21.279
So what I typically do with my characters, I I I assign them a zodiac, I create a character profile, I assign them a zodiac, and I typically have them act the opposite of what people think the zodiac should act like.

00:10:21.919 --> 00:10:31.519
So Monica is my Virgo, 827, and she's kind of like if I if I had that kind of crazy spirit, that's who I would be.

00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:34.720
If I had it in me, but I don't.

00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:39.279
So yeah, I made her act the total opposite.

00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:44.639
So she was kind of like the man, what a man will typically do we think.

00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:47.679
Yes, yeah, surprise.

00:10:49.679 --> 00:10:50.320
Yeah.

00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:53.120
So yeah, I wrote the point.

00:10:53.279 --> 00:10:58.000
We baby, we're gonna get to the hunt in a minute because I have a question about somebody being Aries.

00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:01.519
We'll get to that in a minute.

00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:08.159
Because I feel like I feel like one of her characters is an earrings like me.

00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:13.120
But what a nice Sagittarius character.

00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:25.600
Ain't no, it ain't no, no, um, and the craziest part is um when I when I created James, I made him a Leo, of course, the king of the jungle.

00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:27.200
He wasn't that kingly.

00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:29.840
He let this woman come in there and tear his house up.

00:11:30.159 --> 00:11:34.720
So I gave everybody the opposite traits of what they should be.

00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:41.919
And then you got my I think you got um Jasmine, who was his wife, who's our Aries, our bossy one.

00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:42.799
You know what I mean?

00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:46.639
She was the only one that was um that was true to her sign.

00:11:47.039 --> 00:11:48.799
And I I had a good time with them.

00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:52.159
Um, I just I was just thinking, like, you know, what else could this woman do?

00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:53.840
Like, how could she take this to the top?

00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.320
And then once she topped that, how can she top it again?

00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:58.639
That was my whole mindset when I was writing that series.

00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:01.360
If I can make that bad, how can this be worse?

00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:03.840
Because how did you keep up with those storylines?

00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:06.320
I said Monica had so much going on.

00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:25.759
It was like not only that, because you know, when you read stories like this, you may see it centered around like just that one couple, but Monica had stuff going on with the governor, the mayor, then the police officer that pulled up, and then it cross-connected with like it was just so many different things, and then did she see the police officer again with another situation?

00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:27.759
But something happened with his low.

00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:28.320
Yes.

00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:32.240
How did you she was she was one of those untouchable people?

00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:34.320
She was just kind of like, like, who you gonna check?

00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:34.639
Me?

00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:35.360
Impossible.

00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:37.679
Wait, check who, your mama.

00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:40.879
What kind of research goes into that?

00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:43.039
Like, I don't know.

00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:46.240
Well, at least back then, what kind of research went into that?

00:12:46.559 --> 00:12:48.639
I don't know that any research did.

00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:50.879
To be honest with you, we were just young and wild.

00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:53.360
When I was in my 20s, I was outside, baby.

00:12:53.600 --> 00:13:03.759
Okay, so I you know, this the escape, this little escapades and sexcapades and whatever other kind of page we had went into the went into the book.

00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:05.519
We were we was living.

00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:07.120
We was living.

00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:12.799
So baby, I am here for at all.

00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:14.320
At all.

00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:16.480
Now I just summer down a little bit.

00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:18.960
I summer down a little bit since then.

00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:26.080
But um I had I had a great time with Monica, and also because I knew that I've never read a character like her.

00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:29.759
I've never, not even to this day have I read a character like her.

00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:36.159
So it was one of those things where I knew that I wanted her to be somebody that would be unforgetta.

00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:40.159
Oh, she definitely is 24 years later.

00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:43.679
And it's like, mm, yeah, you still wow, huh?

00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:44.720
Yeah, I'm still wild.

00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:49.600
And every so often she, you know, she peeks her little head out like, Anna, what you working on?

00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:52.080
So, you know, we'll see.

00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:55.440
Um I want to say 2013.

00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:59.679
Between 11 and 13, um, I got the opportunity to do a short story.

00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:02.879
And Monica was like, Oh, I'm coming back outside.

00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:04.000
And I said, Are you now?

00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:05.519
What had happened?

00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:06.799
What we finna do?

00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:15.519
The serial wife came about, and she she was trying to be regular, and she she don't have a regular bone in her, unfortunately.

00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:22.879
So she's one of those kind of characters where you once you provoke her, she she's you you woke a sleeping beast pretty much.

00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:26.480
I was minding my business, and then here you come pulling on my coattails.

00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:26.960
Now I'm up.

00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:27.440
Let's go.

00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:29.360
Did you really have to provoke her though?

00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:31.440
Did you really have to provoke her?

00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:38.080
Um, not not early on, not early on, but by the time we got to the serial wife, she was older.

00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:40.080
She was older, she had lived a little bit, you know.

00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:42.960
I mean really looking for looking for love, you know?

00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:45.039
And then you know, people started acting up.

00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:47.039
So she was like, Oh, y'all forgot who I was, huh?

00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:47.919
Let me show you right fast.

00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:49.279
Hold on, be right back.

00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:50.720
So, yeah.

00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:53.360
That was the serial book.

00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:54.240
Yes, the serial book.

00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:56.080
The serial wife, yeah.

00:14:56.320 --> 00:14:57.360
I need I got another book.

00:14:57.519 --> 00:14:59.120
I need to, yeah.

00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:00.320
You wrote a book.

00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:04.080
Y'all thought she acted up, but she she really acted up in this in that one.

00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:04.559
But yeah.

00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:10.799
Wait, Nami on the podcast going to find the book and add it to my cart because I'm getting ready to order it right now.

00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:13.679
It was the serial wife.

00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.799
Listen, got it.

00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:30.320
So with books like that, with uh My Woman, his wife, um, you also wrote a book called Um When Good Wives Go Bad.

00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:32.720
Exposed When Good Wives Go Bad.

00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:33.759
Yes, yes.

00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:37.919
With books like that, how did we get to the hunt?

00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:43.519
I know you said you wasn't gonna stay in no box, but where did the hunt?

00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:45.120
Okay, yes.

00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:48.399
Oh, my guy Dylan.

00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:49.679
I love me some him.

00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:50.720
I I really do.

00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:52.559
Is Dylan an Aries?

00:15:55.279 --> 00:15:57.120
Do you want Dylan to be an Aries?

00:15:57.600 --> 00:15:57.919
No.

00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:05.279
I no, I actually I actually made um I actually made Dylan a Gemini, um, actually.

00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:06.639
Um, The Hunt.

00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:13.200
So I started reading Thriller maybe like three years ago, two, three years ago.

00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:17.120
Um, my first introduction to Thriller was Never Lie by Freedom McFadden.

00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:18.399
Mouth was open.

00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:19.600
I said, wait a minute.

00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:21.120
This this is what people writing.

00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:26.000
And then I was thinking to myself, like, well, where are the where are the black girls that's writing this?

00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.200
Like, where I know we out here, do we gotta be out here doing it, you know?

00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:33.360
And I I end up uh reading Octavia Grant.

00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:35.039
And I said, Oh, here we go.

00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:37.360
This this here we are, you know what I mean?

00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:50.000
And I said to myself, I said, um, every thriller, not every thriller, but most of the thrillers I've read, especially by like my Freedom McFadens, my Kirsten Mogglins, Geneva Roses, they all kind of sound the same.

00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:53.120
And I couldn't really identify with those people, to be honest with you.

00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:55.840
I wanted a character that people could identify with.

00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:57.519
I wanted somebody that sounded like me.

00:16:57.679 --> 00:16:58.879
I wanted somebody that looked like me.

00:16:58.960 --> 00:17:00.799
I wanted somebody from where I was from.

00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:07.839
And I wanted somebody that had a secret that he really, really couldn't tell anybody.

00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:10.880
And it'd be a secret that was hereditary.

00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:14.799
So he didn't, you know, his apple was still on the tree.

00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:16.720
He didn't just become crazy one day.

00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:18.559
His apple was still on the tree.

00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:21.119
And Dylan Hunt was born.

00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:22.240
Um, I love him.

00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:26.000
He's he's next to Monica, like they they kind of share the number one spot.

00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:35.119
He's he's one of my favorite people in the world, and I was hoping that people will be open to receiving him because he's not your typical SK.

00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:37.759
True.

00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:38.960
Yeah.

00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:41.279
True.

00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:47.680
Okay, so I I have a question real fast before Lex jumps in.

00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:52.240
I just real quick, because she I could tell by a look on her face, she got a question.

00:17:53.440 --> 00:18:14.880
Was was uh was Dylan telling his story from inside the ground under the dirt because the way the book ended, I'm just like where was he okay?

00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:21.200
Oh my god.

00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:24.000
I'm trying to be so tame.

00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:27.920
No, don't be tame, don't be tame at all.

00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:35.119
Um, Dylan was telling his story the way it needed to be told.

00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:38.960
That's my answer, and I'm sticking to it.

00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:40.880
Anna.

00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.799
So possibly in the dirt, but maybe not in the dirt.

00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:47.200
Because he because the way it ended.

00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:50.960
Okay.

00:18:51.839 --> 00:19:01.359
So um the way it so when I first started writing it, it wasn't my intention to write um any other.

00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:05.920
I was gonna write a thriller, a thriller, a singular.

00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:15.200
But then by the time I got done, I was like, uh and then people was like, well, wait a minute.

00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:16.799
But what about this and what about that?

00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:18.720
And and we had and now we have a copycat.

00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:19.920
Who was that?

00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:22.319
Is it his sister, is it his mom, is it his dad?

00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:24.240
Is it somebody at the restaurant?

00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:31.680
Then I started writing something else because is you need to know who these other people are and where they came from.

00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:33.680
So now we have a series.

00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:39.039
Uh I'm still not gonna say whether he was writing it from the grave.

00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:40.720
Just know he told his story.

00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:42.240
Well, by the way.

00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:43.119
Very well.

00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:51.359
Um it it would it would be who you remember the details because yeah, there's more coming.

00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:58.319
Oh my god, is it gonna be like a crossover where we gotta go back and look at the details of this book and oh it's gonna overlap?

00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:05.519
Um, so when I typically when I write a sequel, I write a continuation.

00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:07.119
We're not fitting a recap.

00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:08.400
This is not, we're not on Netflix.

00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:11.200
We're not recapping the first, we're not recapping the first season.

00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:12.720
We're gonna keep this story going.

00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:14.240
We're gonna keep moving that way.

00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:21.039
So I'm not gonna say it's an overlap, but um, the characters do follow us through the next books.

00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:27.119
So you'll get to um you'll get to learn more about Officer Morgan, for example.

00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:31.839
She she was the one that they board, and if you remember, when they was really trying to catch it, and they said, Well, we need somebody else.

00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:33.279
So they called her.

00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:37.839
So you'll learn more of her story um and how it all ties in together.

00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:42.799
You'll learn that um some of the people that you met along the way are not who you thought they were.

00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:54.240
So um from the officer squad or from the off from the officer squad from that restaurant, you'll you'll quickly learn, like, oh, I thought, no.

00:20:56.079 --> 00:21:00.880
Because I had questions about the lady that they brought in, honey, because to her and her husband were.

00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:03.279
Yes, yes.

00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:06.559
I was like sometimes you you take one for the team, they said, right?

00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:09.039
Yes, and it threw me off.

00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:16.319
I said, Y'all just okay, y'all, we just gonna how many but how many, but how many crooked cops do we know?

00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:26.559
You know, not that she was you know crooked in a bad way, but you you know, sometimes you gotta go above and beyond and get and do what you gotta do.

00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:43.759
Yeah, and it was thankfully they had that understanding, and they had incentives to go with the um yeah, yeah, yes, legs to go with you.

00:21:51.359 --> 00:22:01.519
When the when when the friend came in and she she slid off, I said, This lady really, I ain't never read no stuff.

00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:07.440
Like, I can literally say in each book that I have read of yours, it's always like, I ain't never read no shit like this.

00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:08.559
Like what?

00:22:09.279 --> 00:22:22.960
But I did want to ask, I remember you said there was a um in the opening that there was a part where I don't know if you had a nightmare and your wife had to kind of walk you through it, or what what which part?

00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:27.440
I was like, I wonder because there was just so many, there were just so many parts and stuff.

00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:39.440
First of all, a lot of parts, it read like a movie, so I was laying up, it was like I could vividly see like what was going like it really reads y'all.

00:22:39.599 --> 00:22:42.960
That's always my hope when I'm writing a book that you can see how I see it.

00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:45.039
Because it's playing like a movie for me too.

00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:45.599
Yeah.

00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:52.160
So so like when I and I'm just gonna tell you, like, I'm not an outliner, I don't have an outline, I don't know these people.

00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:53.920
I'm getting to learn them as I'm writing.

00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:56.960
So I didn't know who Dylan was initially, he just kept showing up one day.

00:22:57.119 --> 00:22:59.200
So I'm like, oh, you want to tell me your story?

00:22:59.279 --> 00:22:59.759
Let's go.

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:00.480
Who are you?

00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:01.200
You know what I mean?

00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:08.160
So as I was writing him and I started writing these other people, I knew that it was gonna take a special kind of person to bring him down.

00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:12.720
And I knew that um he was multi-layered.

00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:22.720
A lot of the stuff that you happened, which where you got the three the three epilogues at the end with his mom and his and his dad talking and all of that, because I felt like you needed to know his background, where he came from.

00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:24.000
And he he wasn't innocent.

00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:26.000
Like I said, the apple was still on the tree.

00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:28.480
The um the scene that got me the most.

00:23:28.640 --> 00:23:31.119
Now keep in mind, like I'm not a thriller writer.

00:23:31.200 --> 00:23:33.839
Any well, I am I am now, but I wasn't writer.

00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:36.400
And I didn't know how far I could take it.

00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:38.160
I didn't know what was the limit.

00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:42.400
Because I'm if I can push it all the way to the ceiling, I'm gonna break the ceiling just a little bit so I can get through.

00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:43.359
Because you're holding me up.

00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:44.480
Please let me through here.

00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:52.799
The part that got me the most um was the part when officer uh no, the detective.

00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:55.920
Detective um what is her name?

00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:56.400
I'm sorry.

00:23:56.880 --> 00:23:59.440
But was having Heather Butler.

00:23:59.519 --> 00:23:59.759
Yes.

00:23:59.839 --> 00:24:10.960
So she was having the nightmare when she was tied to the bed in the red and the badge was pinned to her skin, and the bodies were sitting on the wall with no heads, and the heads were hanging and it and the eyes were still moving, and it was blood dripping.

00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:11.920
Baby.

00:24:12.160 --> 00:24:16.880
And I wrote that scene, and I want to say I'm a night writer, I'm definitely like 10 p.m.

00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:17.680
to 2 a.m.

00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:18.640
kind of writer.

00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:21.839
And I'm like, oh, let me go to sleep because I gotta get up for work in the morning.

00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:24.960
And baby, the way I closed my eyes and Dylan was over me with that knife.

00:24:25.119 --> 00:24:32.160
No, I literally jumped out because the scene was playing back in the head, only it wasn't Heather Butler laying in the bed, it was me with the badge in my chest.

00:24:32.559 --> 00:24:34.079
And yeah, and I jumped up.

00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:38.079
I mean, I jumped up, and I'm hitting the bed, like, wait, wake up, wake up for a second.

00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:39.279
Like, wake up for a second.

00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:44.480
She was hurt, she said, girl, I know you damn well you ain't waking me up for something that you wrote.

00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:48.880
I said, but I think it's somebody in the house.

00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:51.440
Like, if I think it's somebody, like, where is my phone?

00:24:51.519 --> 00:24:52.640
Because I think it's a now girl.

00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:54.160
I'm out, I'm up here pulling out firearms.

00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:55.599
I said, I think somebody came in.

00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:57.279
She said, Ain't nobody came in here.

00:24:57.519 --> 00:24:59.680
Stop writing that creepy-ish, is what she said.

00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:01.359
You're about to sleep.

00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:04.160
So, yeah.

00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:09.440
A lot of scenes got me like that though, because I'm not um this this is my first time writing something like that.

00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:14.559
So I had to really like step outside of the norm of what I typically write to bring it to life.

00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:19.119
And I wanted it to be an experience like no, like I promise you, I read a lot.

00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:21.440
I think I read like almost 300 books last year.

00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:24.720
What I wrote in the hunt has never been written anywhere.

00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:25.680
Never.

00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:28.799
And I like to be able to bring that kind of thing to the table.

00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:32.480
When you pick up an Anna Jay book, it's an experience like you've never had before.

00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:33.119
Definitely.

00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:44.400
I I want to say, I want to say I'm a you know, I'm out here, you know, create it's almost like you're creating new genres within the thriller, like or new tears.

00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:46.480
Does this sound like you get what I'm trying to say?

00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:49.279
Like, no, I knew because I wanted to know what the rules were.

00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:51.599
When I started writing thrill, I'm like, okay, so what are the rules?

00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:58.799
Like, what because you know, there's a formula to writing thriller, there's a formula to writing romance, there's a formula to writing urban fiction that you're supposed to follow.

00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:01.359
I only want to know the rules so I can break every last one of them.

00:26:01.440 --> 00:26:06.400
Like, tell me how I'm supposed to be doing this, so that way I can ignore everything you just said and do what I want to do.

00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:08.240
Tell me what I'm supposed to have in a book.

00:26:08.400 --> 00:26:09.680
That's that's my goal every time.

00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:12.160
So you you can tell me what the rules are, and I'm like, girl bye.

00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:13.599
I ain't fitting to follow that.

00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:15.680
Like, we wanna make this my own thing.

00:26:17.200 --> 00:26:18.079
Every time.

00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:18.880
Every time.

00:26:19.119 --> 00:26:22.319
And I love that about you as an author because yes, you're absolutely right.

00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:28.960
Anytime I've read your books, I don't, I can't find that type of book.

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:33.200
Anyway, most of the things I create is because there's a void.

00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:36.480
That's just about anything I create is because there's a void.

00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:38.799
When I started, uh, I I love the color.

00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:40.160
I'm a coloring book fanatic.

00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:41.839
I have stacks of them.

00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:45.599
And I was saying to myself, like, dang, I can't find no fat girl coloring book.

00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:46.960
Not one that made sense.

00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:48.400
So I had to make it.

00:26:48.640 --> 00:26:52.000
I couldn't find the thriller that gave what I needed it to give.

00:26:52.079 --> 00:26:56.319
There wasn't a black male character that was out here acting crazy the way Dylan was.

00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:58.720
I had to create it when I wrote my woman his wife.

00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:01.839
There wasn't a girl that was disrupting marriages like her.

00:27:02.160 --> 00:27:07.039
So I like to think that a lot of the things that I make is because I can't find what I need.

00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:09.599
So I gotta make it so that I can have it.

00:27:11.680 --> 00:27:12.960
I love that.

00:27:13.359 --> 00:27:21.599
The hunt was like uh my wife watches like First 48 and Snap and the FBI, she watches shows and stuff like that.

00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:26.160
And I'll I we of course we're in the same bed, so I'll be reading while she's watching it and stuff.

00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:31.440
So imagine having that plan while I'm reading.

00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:36.000
I was up all god dang all night.

00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:40.000
I was like kind of like you, but it was just like I was kind of scared to go to sleep.

00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:53.839
But during the time that I read that book, I I was up for a couple of days because and living off a Red Bull, yeah, and it it catches you right from the start because it's like you thinking, like, oh this cute day on a date.

00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:56.000
She's going home with a stranger, okay.

00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:00.640
And then it was literally she completely ignored the tart, like a culture.

00:28:01.359 --> 00:28:09.759
It was like it was like a it was like an episode of Criminal Minds, a culture, because it was like this shit can happen in real life, and I think that's what got me the most.

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:33.279
That it was like this could have really had like you can go out and meet a guy and think ain't and you can go home with them on the because I ain't gonna lie, I went home with my wife on the first night and was drunk and didn't even know who she was the next day, and I'm just reading this book like damn, I could have been in the ground if she was a dealing on it.

00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:38.160
Like if she was a dealing, but he was such a gentleman, like he finished her off.

00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:41.680
You know, he made sure it was it was complete.

00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:44.000
At least he made it complete.

00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:53.200
He was a gentleman, finished the job, he finished he finished what he came there to do, okay?

00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:54.240
She went happy.

00:28:54.319 --> 00:28:58.559
At least he went happy and she could she went there done, finished.

00:28:58.799 --> 00:28:59.759
Yeah, finished.

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:00.880
That was another thing.

00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:12.400
The fact that he he really saw himself as doing the world a favor or doing like he was a gift because he I mean, because you're alone anyway.

00:29:12.559 --> 00:29:13.839
Ain't nobody looking for you.

00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:15.119
What was he diagnosed?

00:29:15.279 --> 00:29:16.720
What was the diagnosis?

00:29:17.039 --> 00:29:20.319
Was there was I don't even think I ever gave him one.

00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:23.920
I'm trying to, I don't think I ever gave him an actual factual diagnosis.

00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:27.680
Because I feel like people like that, what what would you what would you put him in?

00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:30.079
What diagnosis could you give a person like that?

00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:34.960
He was paranoid, that's for sure.

00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:46.079
You know, he had anxiety, but he was also like um I don't want to say he was schizophrenic, but he had this, he had that he needed perfection.

00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:49.359
Everything with him had to be like an OCD kind of thing.

00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:52.799
Like, I would have put you on this table, but people gotta eat here, so I ain't gonna do it.

00:29:52.960 --> 00:29:58.640
However, I'll take you to the basement, chop you up in little pieces, put you in the freezer paper, stick you out in the trash with the old stuff.

00:29:58.799 --> 00:29:59.839
Like he just had a it was.

00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:01.839
A method to his madness for the most part.

00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:03.839
Dylan wants his own thing.

00:30:05.039 --> 00:30:08.240
They would they would study him for years to figure out who he was.

00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:18.319
And then to find out, toward I like how in the book we found out like the mama and daddy wasn't as perfect.

00:30:19.119 --> 00:30:23.200
Because I was just like Yeah.

00:30:23.519 --> 00:30:25.039
Like what happened to his grandparents?

00:30:25.119 --> 00:30:29.759
Where they had never had things like this.

00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:30.640
Yeah.

00:30:32.160 --> 00:30:32.799
Yeah.

00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:36.079
They wonder why people keep coming to the to the restaurant.

00:30:36.240 --> 00:30:42.880
But the craziest part about it is I wanted when I because that wasn't a that wasn't initial either when I when I first wrote the book.

00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:44.240
Like I was done writing it.

00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:47.119
And Dylan's mom and dad was like, oh, so we ain't got nothing.

00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:48.319
Well, you just gonna leave us out.

00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:49.359
And I said, Oh, hey, hold on.

00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:50.240
I want to talk too.

00:30:50.319 --> 00:30:50.880
Let's go.

00:30:51.119 --> 00:30:57.759
And I felt I felt mostly for his mom because imagine um imagine praying for a thing, right?

00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:02.720
Imagine praying for a thing and you get it before the time you're supposed to have it.

00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:06.559
Because the way the way life is set up, you know, was already written.

00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:07.680
We just showing up to the party.

00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:08.480
God already laid that out.

00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:10.319
We just showing up to the party, we're late.

00:31:10.559 --> 00:31:12.000
Okay, we're late to the party.

00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:16.559
And imagine getting a thing that you were not equipped to handle yet.

00:31:17.279 --> 00:31:18.400
I want this now.

00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:20.240
And God, like I don't think you should have it now.

00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:21.200
I know, but I want it now.

00:31:21.359 --> 00:31:22.079
Alright, go ahead.

00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:23.359
See how that worked out for you.

00:31:23.519 --> 00:31:25.359
And your son is a serial killer.

00:31:25.599 --> 00:31:29.119
And then you try it again, and you got a fire starter.

00:31:29.359 --> 00:31:32.160
Because that man has said you wasn't ready for this just yet.

00:31:32.400 --> 00:31:40.160
This is about I wanted people to understand that when you pray for things, it don't always show up the way you're supposed that you think it's gonna show up.

00:31:40.559 --> 00:31:44.000
And you have to be equipped to handle the thing that you asked for.

00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:47.680
So when you try to move the book before the eight ball, yeah.

00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:50.880
You got fire starters or serial killers that you birthed.

00:31:51.119 --> 00:31:53.119
You were the mom of the serial killer, babe.

00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:54.559
You're welcome.

00:31:57.359 --> 00:32:12.240
God damn, you know, you just and yeah, and even his dad couldn't get no rest, his dad could not get rest because all this time his mom thinking, like, oh, he just liked to watch the news.

00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:14.240
No, baby, I'm looking for my kid.

00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:17.279
He turned on the news, talking about get stuff.

00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:17.759
Let's go.

00:32:17.839 --> 00:32:18.400
We gotta go.

00:32:18.480 --> 00:32:19.039
We gotta move.

00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:21.759
I thought it was a setup at first, yeah.

00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:27.200
When when when the dad, I said, girl, don't go by the jail by yourself, and then you ain't tell nobody where you was gone.

00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:32.960
Because at first in my mind, because I'm like, there is no way you don't know your kid.

00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:39.359
There is no way that oh you know, or you have like the you you know you have that intuition and stuff.

00:32:39.519 --> 00:32:57.200
So when it was like, okay, this tip came through, and then it turned out to be, I was like, girl, they're gonna kill your ass, you go over there because the family has got to be in all it because they're gonna do you flip that switch, and I was just like, imagine having to tell somebody to kill your child though.

00:32:57.440 --> 00:33:01.519
Imagine, because you can't do it, not capturing him and putting him in.

00:33:02.720 --> 00:33:04.240
Imagine having to give the okay.

00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:10.480
Like if you if you run across Dylan, by the way, officer ma'am, if you run across him so we can clean up out of here.

00:33:10.799 --> 00:33:13.839
When you catch him, make sure he's a done button.

00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:16.000
Imagine to be the parent.

00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:19.119
No, take him out because Jill ain't gonna be Jill ain't gonna do it.

00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:20.880
You gotta take him out, you gotta kill him.

00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:24.000
Imagine having to be the parent to have to say it.

00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:25.519
Imagine that.

00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:35.279
I couldn't even imagine me holding a baby in my belly for almost 10 months and then having to tell somebody when you see my child, hair shot.

00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:37.519
You know, that part.

00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:41.119
I was not expecting, I was not expecting that.

00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:48.640
I just because you know how sometimes it's those parents out there that take up for the kids and they hold up hold them in their wrong.

00:33:48.799 --> 00:33:55.519
And I just knew that it was gonna be like one of those type of situations, like I'm gonna stick to my son to the end, so let me cut this off right here.

00:33:55.680 --> 00:34:14.159
Because the way they found him, that the way you did that, that that intricate small little detail, and to think that had he been smart enough, or maybe he he was thinking that I'm just above everybody, and nobody ain't gonna, you should have switched out that, and you would have never, he would have been not that bad.

00:34:14.320 --> 00:34:18.400
Like you like what that small, that's small English.

00:34:18.880 --> 00:34:19.840
Ain't that crazy?

00:34:20.639 --> 00:34:22.719
That was crazy how you did that.

00:34:23.840 --> 00:34:25.599
And I I don't know.

00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:28.800
Again, it was just me, it was just me writing the book, you know what I mean?

00:34:28.880 --> 00:34:34.000
Because again, I don't know when I'm writing, I have no clue what's gonna happen down the street until I get down the street.

00:34:34.239 --> 00:34:36.880
I gotta get down the street first so I can see what's going on down there.

00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:38.159
Like, I really don't know.

00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:43.679
So um, I was saying to myself when they was at the restaurant, I said, you know what?

00:34:43.840 --> 00:34:46.079
Heather Butler is not in his age range.

00:34:46.400 --> 00:34:47.840
We need somebody else.

00:34:48.159 --> 00:34:49.280
Because she's too old.

00:34:49.679 --> 00:34:51.119
She's she's she's seasoned.

00:34:51.440 --> 00:34:51.920
You know what I mean?

00:34:53.119 --> 00:34:54.079
She was seasoned.

00:34:54.239 --> 00:34:56.960
So I was like, who else can we bring in here?

00:34:57.039 --> 00:34:58.960
And and of course, you know, we got our girl Morgan.

00:34:59.039 --> 00:35:00.000
This is her specialty.

00:35:00.159 --> 00:35:02.400
This is her, you know, she wants to save the teens.

00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:04.159
This is her, this is her thing.

00:35:04.639 --> 00:35:07.679
So it was like, okay, we're gonna grab her right face because she looks good.

00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:10.480
She's gonna be what Dylan wants because Dylan has a type.

00:35:11.039 --> 00:35:15.119
You gotta be a stallion, you gotta be dark chocolate, you gotta have that good natural hair.

00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:17.440
Baby, I love that dark chocolate part, honey.

00:35:17.519 --> 00:35:18.960
Yes, yeah, you gotta have it.

00:35:19.039 --> 00:35:26.159
And that was that was another thing that I decided when I was a writer because a lot of the books that I used to read, all the characters were light.

00:35:26.639 --> 00:35:27.599
Every last one of them.

00:35:27.840 --> 00:35:30.320
Light skin, pretty eyes, hair down to the floor.

00:35:30.559 --> 00:35:31.199
Everybody.

00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:34.239
I said, baby, we ain't gonna forget that that black don't crack.

00:35:34.320 --> 00:35:35.840
Well, that's what we ain't gonna do.

00:35:36.079 --> 00:35:42.239
So I made it, I make it my business when I'm writing characters to make sure that they are brown, that we are represented.

00:35:42.480 --> 00:35:43.840
So I know that's right.

00:35:44.239 --> 00:35:45.199
He had them tight.

00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:46.000
He had it tight.

00:35:46.079 --> 00:35:51.440
And I and I in my head, I can hear that woman's heels clicking when they was walking down that alleyway.

00:35:51.760 --> 00:35:53.440
You understand what I mean?

00:35:55.039 --> 00:35:57.840
And then she got to the crib and she ain't waste no time.

00:35:57.920 --> 00:35:58.719
She was already on the floor.

00:35:58.800 --> 00:35:59.760
She ain't waste no time.

00:35:59.920 --> 00:36:02.480
And it's the it's the things in lust that we ignore.

00:36:02.559 --> 00:36:08.800
Because I know if I walk into somebody's home and there's a chair set up with a tarp on it, I don't know.

00:36:08.960 --> 00:36:10.320
I don't know what I will be thinking.

00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:11.679
I don't know if I'm sticking around for that.

00:36:11.760 --> 00:36:17.119
But she probably just thought they was gonna be playing with some chocolate or something, not knowing what was gonna happen, was gonna happen.

00:36:17.519 --> 00:36:22.239
I'm gonna tell you right now, I got to do an about face because there ain't nothing that I need to do with a tarp.

00:36:22.400 --> 00:36:27.199
If you can't get that chocolate licked off where you need to get it licked off without it hitting your carpet, I got to go.

00:36:27.360 --> 00:36:28.880
I mean, I don't know.

00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:38.239
You might be able to lay that tarp down.

00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:39.039
I don't know.

00:36:39.199 --> 00:36:43.599
But uh put a blanket down or something to catch it, not much torque.

00:36:44.559 --> 00:36:46.960
I mean, we might want to slip it, but I don't know.

00:36:47.119 --> 00:36:49.039
It might make for an interesting evening.

00:36:49.280 --> 00:36:50.480
I don't know.

00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:55.119
But have certain situations and baby oil and put it down on the top.

00:36:55.199 --> 00:36:56.079
I can't handle it.

00:36:56.639 --> 00:36:58.079
Leave the shoe, leave the shoes on.

00:36:58.239 --> 00:36:58.639
You know what I mean?

00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:00.480
Don't take them shoes off, leave them shoes on.

00:37:00.639 --> 00:37:02.800
So you just, you know, you just never know.

00:37:03.039 --> 00:37:10.719
But I I am glad that um he was well received because I like I said, I know when I wrote it, I I hadn't read anything like it.

00:37:10.800 --> 00:37:13.039
So I said, okay, I'm about to get a world something different.

00:37:13.199 --> 00:37:22.800
Um, even the cover, the cover of the book at the last minute, I decided to add that it was an erotic thriller because when I started letting my other author friends read it, they said, girl, I thought this was a damn romance.

00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:24.159
I said, Oh, why?

00:37:24.320 --> 00:37:25.679
And she said, Because of the cover.

00:37:25.760 --> 00:37:29.360
I said, Oh, but when I looked at the cover, I saw the characters in the book.

00:37:29.440 --> 00:37:30.639
I saw Dylan.

00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:32.639
I'm not gonna tell you who I think the girl is.

00:37:32.719 --> 00:37:34.719
I'm gonna let people speculate there for themselves.

00:37:34.880 --> 00:37:36.320
But that's what I saw when I saw it.

00:37:36.400 --> 00:37:38.880
And I said, Oh, I need to let people know that this is a thriller.

00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:47.519
Because imagine not knowing, imagine skipping that prelude, imagine skipping that first, imagine skipping the warning, Lex.

00:37:48.079 --> 00:37:54.159
Because I wanted to page one of the meat of the book to get it started.

00:37:54.320 --> 00:37:54.880
And you know what?

00:37:54.960 --> 00:38:07.039
I go into books blind, and I did, I don't know, I ain't gonna lie, I went into this book blind, and just off of like the hunt, and I did see like a um a description that said it was like a serial killer and the cop looking for him.

00:38:07.199 --> 00:38:08.960
So, of course, I go into books blind.

00:38:09.039 --> 00:38:13.199
So in my mind, I'm thinking, so the cop gonna fall in love with the serial killer?

00:38:13.360 --> 00:38:14.639
Like, how this about to play out?

00:38:14.719 --> 00:38:16.960
Like, is he gonna do something to redeem himself?

00:38:17.039 --> 00:38:18.559
Or he killing for a reason?

00:38:18.719 --> 00:38:24.079
And then as I read the warnings and stuff, I was like, well then, how the hell is she gonna fall?

00:38:24.239 --> 00:38:25.039
What's going on?

00:38:25.119 --> 00:38:27.519
Like, how she gonna fall in love if he that crazy?

00:38:27.679 --> 00:38:30.079
And the warnings, and then it was another warning.

00:38:30.159 --> 00:38:41.440
But after all of these warnings, like, hey, if you turn this page, this is and so as I started, and then as I started reading it down, yes, and I was like, who gonna fall in love with this motherfucker?

00:38:42.800 --> 00:38:50.000
Baby, listen, and the craziest, and that was the thing, like when I was writing, when I was putting it all together, I said, Okay, I'm gonna put I'm gonna put the warning on the back.

00:38:50.079 --> 00:38:51.360
I'm gonna put the warning on the back.

00:38:51.519 --> 00:39:00.719
So when people read, you know, the prologue, you know, the uh the back of the book, they can see like, okay, listen, this if this ain't your cup of tea, you might not even want to buy this one, like you might want to skip this one.

00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:02.719
But then I know people don't always read the back of their books.

00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:06.480
I say, well, let me just go ahead and put it on the inside a couple dozen times.

00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:14.719
Like, hey, sis, skipped all of it, and now I'm getting cursed out in the in the reviews.

00:39:14.880 --> 00:39:18.639
Well, I can't believe that hey, well, you should have read the you should have read the warning.

00:39:18.880 --> 00:39:20.960
You the triggers was there for a reason.

00:39:21.280 --> 00:39:21.920
I agree.

00:39:22.159 --> 00:39:25.679
And when you handle triggers, I went back.

00:39:26.000 --> 00:39:31.039
I I went back to read the warning again after I read it all.

00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:37.920
And that's when I seen when you said, because I was like, didn't I see that warning about her wife in the nightmare before?

00:39:38.079 --> 00:39:44.719
Because what that book gave me the creeds, like it was just because I think a part of it was like, I can't believe I wrote that.

00:39:44.800 --> 00:39:51.679
Like, you y'all should have seen me in church on Sundays just praying, like, Lord, please, just whatever this finna be.

00:39:51.760 --> 00:39:52.320
You know what I mean?

00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:58.559
Because I know I said I prayed about it and I said I wanted to write thriller, and I told you I wanted a twist, I wanted you to give me something different.

00:39:58.800 --> 00:40:01.119
You showed up, Jesus Hassan Christ.

00:40:01.199 --> 00:40:03.679
I know y'all ain't know just how Jesus had a middle name is Hassan.

00:40:03.920 --> 00:40:12.639
I know y'all didn't know that, but yeah, uh he showed up and he showed out and he told me, like, all right, Anna, you're gonna write these books, but I I just didn't know it was gonna be that.

00:40:12.719 --> 00:40:14.480
And I'm gonna I'm very proud of it.

00:40:14.559 --> 00:40:19.679
I feel like um for my first time writing something in this genre, I did my due diligence.

00:40:19.760 --> 00:40:22.079
It was a great contribution to the thriller world.

00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:25.440
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.

00:40:26.239 --> 00:40:27.199
What's what's it look like?

00:40:29.440 --> 00:40:32.800
Lex is a thriller lover, so please.

00:40:33.599 --> 00:40:40.320
I'm just trying to see, I just want more of whatever this genre, like whatever this classification is.

00:40:40.559 --> 00:40:43.039
I and I'm definitely not your typical thriller.

00:40:43.280 --> 00:40:44.000
It's not that.

00:40:44.079 --> 00:40:45.119
I'm not writing it.

00:40:45.280 --> 00:40:48.400
I'm not writing what you're getting from everybody else, just so you know.

00:40:48.800 --> 00:40:52.320
And I love it, it's I'm and I'm just kind of getting into thriller.

00:40:52.639 --> 00:40:54.800
That's what I told Toy on another when she interviewed me.

00:40:54.880 --> 00:41:12.800
Like, if you would have asked me like a couple months ago, like what was my favorite genre, it would be like dark romance, and then I have rom coms in between and stuff, and then a little paranormal, but thrillers have taken over, and then it's like when I got to yours, and I was like, it's different from the thrillers that I've been reading.

00:41:13.119 --> 00:41:16.639
It's different from the thrillers that you typically read, and that was my goal.

00:41:16.719 --> 00:41:28.559
Like, I read, I read a lot of thrillers, a couple hundred probably, and I said I kept saying to myself, You're not writing that, yours is not that, you're bringing something different.

00:41:28.639 --> 00:41:30.960
So I'm fitting to take thriller and spin it on his head.

00:41:31.039 --> 00:41:37.199
Where you're not gonna ever, whatever you think the typical thing is for any genre, I don't care what I'm writing, Mary had a little lamb.

00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:40.719
Mary ain't gonna hit them lambs gonna be on the block hustling, they're gonna come cool.

00:41:41.039 --> 00:41:43.119
Like, it's not gonna be the same.

00:41:43.440 --> 00:41:44.559
You understand what I mean?

00:41:44.719 --> 00:41:45.440
It's not gonna be.

00:41:45.599 --> 00:41:47.119
Mary ain't living on no farm.

00:41:47.599 --> 00:41:54.639
If you had to categorize like your genre or the subgenre of thriller, what would you call it?

00:41:57.199 --> 00:41:59.599
Gosh, I don't know.

00:41:59.760 --> 00:42:03.679
I label um the hunt as an erotic thriller because that's what it was.

00:42:03.840 --> 00:42:10.000
It was it had some eroticism, but there was some, you know, thriller suspense aspects.

00:42:10.800 --> 00:42:12.639
I don't know that I can I can't put me.

00:42:12.719 --> 00:42:14.480
It ain't no box that can hold me, babe.

00:42:14.719 --> 00:42:17.280
I'm sorry, like I don't know where to put myself.

00:42:17.360 --> 00:42:20.000
I'm just gonna show up where I show up at, and you get there to get it.

00:42:20.079 --> 00:42:20.960
That's how it's gonna go.

00:42:21.199 --> 00:42:22.159
I loved it.

00:42:22.480 --> 00:42:22.800
Right.

00:42:22.960 --> 00:42:25.599
Yeah, and appreciate it more than you know.

00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:31.519
Yeah, but okay, so let me ask you this question because you have a certain style and way of writing.

00:42:31.679 --> 00:42:42.239
So when you are writing books with other authors, like you did motives um with was it Secure Secure Rashad, yeah.

00:42:42.400 --> 00:42:48.480
Um, and then I believe there's a couple of other books that you have, like I believe erotic snapshots is with other authors.

00:42:48.960 --> 00:42:53.440
What is that process like in with writing with other authors?

00:42:54.320 --> 00:43:00.960
Okay, so when I did motives, um it was like that's like an urban fiction.

00:43:01.039 --> 00:43:02.800
I in my head is urban.

00:43:03.599 --> 00:43:12.960
And I knew that um Shakur Rashan is an amazing writer, but but he writes uh like BDSM type books.

00:43:13.519 --> 00:43:15.360
But I know that he can write anything also.

00:43:15.519 --> 00:43:20.400
Like he's another author that has the potential to write anything that he put his mind to.

00:43:20.639 --> 00:43:24.480
So when I was writing it, I was like, oh, do I feel like writing a whole book?

00:43:24.639 --> 00:43:26.880
That was really my do I want to write this whole thing?

00:43:27.119 --> 00:43:28.400
And I was like, you know what?

00:43:28.480 --> 00:43:32.480
I don't let me call him and say, hey, don't you want to do this?

00:43:32.559 --> 00:43:36.719
Now now he's so amazing that I don't care what I call that man with.

00:43:36.880 --> 00:43:37.840
He like, you know what?

00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:39.519
I said, I need you to do X, Y, Z.

00:43:39.599 --> 00:43:40.480
Well, what's the word count?

00:43:40.559 --> 00:43:41.360
Is this many words?

00:43:41.440 --> 00:43:42.320
All right, bye.

00:43:42.480 --> 00:43:44.800
And then next thing I know, I got an email.

00:43:45.039 --> 00:43:46.000
You understand what I mean?

00:43:46.079 --> 00:43:48.639
That's just the relationship that I had with him, which I absolutely love.

00:43:48.800 --> 00:43:51.840
So this was just me sharing the creativity.

00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:58.960
And I knew that when I, if I wrote it to a certain point, he was gonna take that thing and haul, he was down the street, he was gonna run with it, you know.

00:43:59.199 --> 00:44:00.480
That was the motivation with that.

00:44:00.559 --> 00:44:07.920
With erotic snapshots, um, which is a series of short stories, I wanted people that was not afraid to cross the line.

00:44:08.159 --> 00:44:10.960
I don't want anybody that's like, oh, we gotta write in this bubble.

00:44:11.119 --> 00:44:11.599
Nope.

00:44:11.840 --> 00:44:13.760
Pull off, pull out all the stops.

00:44:13.920 --> 00:44:15.199
I don't care where it's at.

00:44:15.360 --> 00:44:16.559
Where are we doing it at?

00:44:16.719 --> 00:44:23.760
So we went from Mal Hau Club to the Burger King Bathroom to showing you how to use topsicles and cucumbers at the supermarket.

00:44:24.320 --> 00:44:25.519
Let's go there.

00:44:25.840 --> 00:44:27.440
Yeah, I wrote a story in there.

00:44:27.519 --> 00:44:30.000
I wrote, I wrote two stories in the route of snapshots.

00:44:30.239 --> 00:44:40.079
So the first one was called The Headhunter, and that young lady basically had um a company whereas when you if you told her what you liked, she was dealing with uh professional women.

00:44:40.400 --> 00:44:43.280
If you told her what she liked, she went and headhunted and found it for you.

00:44:43.440 --> 00:44:50.960
So if you have a particular flavor that you like, you want to be put against the wall a certain way, whatever, she was like, All right, I got somebody that can do that.

00:44:51.199 --> 00:44:53.920
And then I also wrote a story called Supermarket Suite.

00:44:54.000 --> 00:44:56.159
And there was a gentleman that actually worked at the market.

00:44:56.320 --> 00:45:06.639
And what he would do, which was now that I'm thinking about it, is a little is a little creepy, but depending on what you had in your what you had in your cart, he was like, Oh, you like hunting that Cheerios, huh?

00:45:06.880 --> 00:45:08.239
Meet me in aisle six.

00:45:08.400 --> 00:45:09.760
I'm gonna show you how to really use them.

00:45:09.840 --> 00:45:11.679
So what the hell is you about to do with the cherry?

00:45:12.639 --> 00:45:13.519
You'd be surprised.

00:45:13.679 --> 00:45:18.880
You'd be surprised, you'd be surprised when he when he got them bought them popsicles and they went to the back.

00:45:19.039 --> 00:45:20.559
So, you know, it depends.

00:45:20.639 --> 00:45:22.559
But then we had um authors like Laura.

00:45:29.360 --> 00:45:36.800
And then we had Aretha Temple or Popsicles, we had Aretha Temple, and she gave us a whole adventure in a Burger King bathroom.

00:45:37.360 --> 00:45:45.119
Like, you know, so I wanted people that would that was not afraid to write outside of the box, and they they they bought it, they came with it.

00:45:45.920 --> 00:45:48.880
So that was that's how erect it's not erotic snapshots happen.

00:45:51.599 --> 00:45:53.199
And we sip, yes.

00:45:55.039 --> 00:45:55.679
Yep.

00:46:00.960 --> 00:46:02.559
I'm still on the Cheerios.

00:46:04.639 --> 00:46:12.719
Well, I mean they might end up in some weird places.

00:46:14.159 --> 00:46:16.159
You gotta be creative to get them out.

00:46:17.119 --> 00:46:18.480
That's all I'm gonna say.

00:46:18.639 --> 00:46:19.519
That's all I'm gonna say.

00:46:19.840 --> 00:46:22.880
I'm just thinking about when I eat them and they drop in my shirt.

00:46:24.000 --> 00:46:27.280
And you got them right.

00:46:27.760 --> 00:46:35.599
And that and that was a fun project because I was my whole thing was for people to I will hope, you know, that I will motivate them to take it to the next level.

00:46:35.679 --> 00:46:38.719
So whatever you thought was the most extreme thing, that's not it.

00:46:38.960 --> 00:46:43.840
Whatever you think is extreme, go 10 notches up, and then when you get there, go 10 more.

00:46:43.920 --> 00:46:44.960
Now we at extreme.

00:46:45.119 --> 00:46:52.000
I love that for y'all that y'all have this group of people where you can push each other's boundaries, like you can go higher.

00:46:52.320 --> 00:46:54.320
Like you can go higher than it.

00:46:54.559 --> 00:47:06.239
It's needed, and we and we and we can talk to each other and and talk crazy to each other because I feel like by the time it gets to the public, we done already ran them in the hole so bad that by the time y'all say something, they already like girl and Jade done said that 15.

00:47:06.400 --> 00:47:07.199
You understand what I mean?

00:47:07.280 --> 00:47:10.079
Like, you gotta be able to bounce off people.

00:47:10.639 --> 00:47:15.920
So I'm gonna tell you like your character sounds flat, she don't look right, we don't even know what she looks like.

00:47:16.079 --> 00:47:17.199
How old is this lady?

00:47:17.360 --> 00:47:18.159
You know what I mean?

00:47:18.239 --> 00:47:19.599
Like, what's going on with her?

00:47:19.679 --> 00:47:20.880
The story's not adding up.

00:47:21.039 --> 00:47:22.719
And she was then, and then what happened?

00:47:22.800 --> 00:47:24.559
No, girl, it's a whole gap missing right here.

00:47:24.719 --> 00:47:30.000
We do all of that so that by the time y'all get it, we done already filled in all of the holes, and you could just sit back and enjoy it.

00:47:30.079 --> 00:47:32.079
So it's important to have those kind of people.

00:47:32.239 --> 00:47:40.960
Um, yeah, uh the hunt, the hunt went through a whole think tank before it was published because I needed people to tell me, as readers, what's missing from this?

00:47:41.039 --> 00:47:48.159
And I'm gonna tell you, um, there's a young lady that's in my think tank, her name is Chevy, and she said to me, she said, Anna, I really enjoyed the book.

00:47:48.239 --> 00:47:48.559
I loved it.

00:47:48.639 --> 00:47:49.440
She said, but there's one thing.

00:47:49.599 --> 00:47:50.320
I said, Well, what's that?

00:47:50.480 --> 00:47:54.320
She said, Well, you said that um Dylan and his parents are from the islands.

00:47:54.480 --> 00:47:56.239
Why they sound American?

00:47:56.960 --> 00:48:00.800
I said, Oh, you, you, okay, all right.

00:48:01.039 --> 00:48:01.760
You know what I mean?

00:48:01.920 --> 00:48:03.119
And I had to go back in.

00:48:03.280 --> 00:48:06.960
I actually had somebody else go back in, like, because she speaks um petois.

00:48:07.119 --> 00:48:08.079
I don't speak petois.

00:48:08.239 --> 00:48:12.159
And I that's how the glossary got there, because I need these people to sound like they're from the islands.

00:48:12.400 --> 00:48:15.599
That was what I wanted to ask you, uh, but but you just answered it.

00:48:15.679 --> 00:48:16.400
Like, did you speak?

00:48:16.480 --> 00:48:18.880
Because I was like, where did she get this from?

00:48:19.039 --> 00:48:19.920
Like, who okay?

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:20.960
But they answered that question.

00:48:21.199 --> 00:48:27.840
One of one of my best is when I tell you that the love, I I don't know what I would ever do if Diane wasn't here.

00:48:27.920 --> 00:48:28.719
Diane Remper.

00:48:28.880 --> 00:48:36.159
She's an amazing um editor, she's an amazing friend, she's an amazing reader, and she speaks fluent patois.

00:48:36.480 --> 00:48:41.280
A lot of people may not know it because y'all don't hear her talk on the internet, but she she got it, she got the accent, she got it all.

00:48:41.440 --> 00:48:42.880
And and we were in the think tank.

00:48:43.039 --> 00:48:46.480
And now and when Chevy said it, I said, Oh, Diane, I need you to come back with me.

00:48:46.559 --> 00:48:49.920
Let's walk through this book again and let's change this to that to that to that.

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:52.239
And I wanted people to know what this man was saying.

00:48:52.400 --> 00:48:54.000
That's how the gossip got there.

00:48:54.079 --> 00:48:59.440
It's not a typo, this is how they talk, and it just bought the it just brought it all together.

00:48:59.840 --> 00:49:00.960
I don't speak it.

00:49:01.119 --> 00:49:11.199
I have family from New York and family from Jamaica because my dad is Jamaican, so when I was reading some of it, I'm like, oh.

00:49:14.159 --> 00:49:33.280
A little bit, a little bit, so but y'all was like, oh, I I've never seen this in any book ever, for there to be a glossary for it, and that's what you're talking about, and you've done all this with books, and then you have a big back coloring book.

00:49:34.559 --> 00:49:38.719
Yeah, so so um, yeah.

00:49:38.880 --> 00:49:44.800
So what happened was uh I I wanted uh I wanted a big back coloring book.

00:49:44.880 --> 00:49:48.559
I wanted a true Big Back activities coloring book.

00:49:48.800 --> 00:49:54.079
So I'm on Amazon, I'm on the Etsy, and I'm like, how come nobody has a Big Back coloring book?

00:49:54.159 --> 00:50:00.159
I didn't I didn't say I wanted a coloring book with pictures of pizza, I said I wanted a real fat girl, fat guy coloring book.

00:50:00.320 --> 00:50:01.199
Couldn't find it.

00:50:01.679 --> 00:50:04.960
I said, Oh, let me pull out the pad, start drawing some things up.

00:50:05.199 --> 00:50:07.199
And we got volume one and volume two.

00:50:07.599 --> 00:50:08.639
So yeah.

00:50:09.760 --> 00:50:11.039
Because I that's how it works.

00:50:11.119 --> 00:50:20.719
I prom I don't know how I was selected to do this, but anything that I've ever made is because I couldn't find it.

00:50:20.800 --> 00:50:22.159
I'm an avid journaler.

00:50:22.320 --> 00:50:24.960
I have to, because there's too many things in my head, I gotta write it down.

00:50:25.119 --> 00:50:30.000
But I would notice when I would go into like TJ Maxx and Walgreens and places like that that sold notebooks.

00:50:30.800 --> 00:50:34.480
We weren't on there, or we were, it did it still didn't look black enough.

00:50:34.559 --> 00:50:35.519
It still wasn't black enough.

00:50:35.760 --> 00:50:36.000
Yeah.

00:50:36.480 --> 00:50:38.480
So I had to come home and make it.

00:50:39.280 --> 00:50:40.880
That's that's how it all starts.

00:50:41.119 --> 00:50:41.599
Yep.

00:50:42.079 --> 00:50:44.559
Do you see yourself writing any paranormal?

00:50:46.880 --> 00:50:52.800
Um, gosh, and I'm I'm I'm gonna say I don't know because I I never thought that I would write thriller, and here I am.

00:50:52.960 --> 00:50:57.760
You know, I never thought that I would write romance, but I'm working on something now for a project next year.

00:50:58.000 --> 00:50:59.360
Um, so I I don't know.

00:50:59.519 --> 00:51:03.039
I I've just started reading um paranormal.

00:51:03.599 --> 00:51:05.280
Uh what's what is the young lady's name?

00:51:05.360 --> 00:51:06.639
Is it Natavia?

00:51:06.960 --> 00:51:07.599
Oh, goodness.

00:51:09.199 --> 00:51:12.480
Yes, yes and Brick just wake up and be a fairy.

00:51:12.719 --> 00:51:13.199
Jesus.

00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:16.880
Have you read any of her other like Deep or Brick?

00:51:17.519 --> 00:51:19.679
No, so that was my first book that I read about her.

00:51:19.840 --> 00:51:29.760
And what actually the craziest part about it is um she posted a book on her Instagram last year called Cruella Hoodville or something like that.

00:51:29.920 --> 00:51:32.480
It was like a twist on the Cruella Deville story.

00:51:32.719 --> 00:51:35.599
And I from the cover, I said, Here's my money.

00:51:35.920 --> 00:51:36.719
Thank you.

00:51:36.960 --> 00:51:39.679
And I got the book and I stuck it on the shelf, right?

00:51:39.760 --> 00:51:40.400
It was a trophy.

00:51:40.639 --> 00:51:42.079
A lot of the books are trophies.

00:51:42.239 --> 00:51:45.280
And then I was on Instagram again because I kept saying, I'm gonna go back and read that.

00:51:45.360 --> 00:51:47.599
I put it on my TBR and everything, but we know how that goes.

00:51:47.760 --> 00:51:48.480
Never read it.

00:51:49.199 --> 00:51:55.119
And then I was on the gram one day and they was talking about this fairy, and I was like, hmm.

00:51:55.440 --> 00:51:58.480
And then I said, you know what, I'll let Kendall read it to me.

00:51:58.719 --> 00:52:09.360
And immediately I'm on the Google trying to figure out what prayer I got to pray to wake up as a fairy with that man so that I can experience that part.

00:52:09.599 --> 00:52:12.800
Because I needed to know how I can be down with that.

00:52:13.360 --> 00:52:15.519
So I don't know if I'll if I'll write it.

00:52:15.599 --> 00:52:17.519
I don't know enough about it at the moment.

00:52:18.000 --> 00:52:19.920
But you know, we'll we'll see.

00:52:20.239 --> 00:52:20.800
We'll see.

00:52:20.960 --> 00:52:26.639
I like to stay in my lane, I like to do my little research, and you know, if I can't do it justice, then I'm not gonna do it.

00:52:26.960 --> 00:52:30.559
I but I will never, you know, play down somebody's thing.

00:52:30.719 --> 00:52:35.280
So if I can't really come with it and give you that with a twist, because it's not gonna be what you've read.

00:52:35.360 --> 00:52:36.000
You got to know that.

00:52:36.159 --> 00:52:38.079
Whatever I write ain't gonna be what you already read.

00:52:38.239 --> 00:52:40.880
If I can't give you that, then I I probably won't.

00:52:41.039 --> 00:52:42.079
So we'll see.

00:52:42.400 --> 00:52:46.960
Because we know you pay, you you don't go in nobody else's lane, you just pay for a new one.

00:52:47.119 --> 00:52:47.679
Yeah, right.

00:52:48.719 --> 00:52:50.880
Knocking out, walking, knocking down walls.

00:52:51.119 --> 00:52:51.679
Yeah.

00:52:51.840 --> 00:52:52.639
So we'll see.

00:52:52.719 --> 00:52:53.599
I don't know.

00:52:57.039 --> 00:53:05.199
Well, so before we wrap up, can you tell us what you have coming soon?

00:53:05.360 --> 00:53:08.559
I know we have copycat too, um, or copycat.

00:53:09.440 --> 00:53:10.079
Oh wow.

00:53:10.400 --> 00:53:12.079
All right, so we had happen.

00:53:14.559 --> 00:53:19.280
What had happened was um the copycat is coming.

00:53:20.800 --> 00:53:29.440
But um I was writing the copycat, and it was something about it that just wasn't doing what I needed it to do.

00:53:29.920 --> 00:53:31.360
So I set it down.

00:53:31.920 --> 00:53:40.079
And in the midst of that, Officer Morgan Johnson, who you met in the hunt, she was like, all right, like, but before you say that, I need you to say this.

00:53:40.239 --> 00:53:42.400
And before we get to that part, I need you to say this part.

00:53:42.559 --> 00:53:47.039
So I'm actually working on um a prelude to the copycat that's gonna drop first.

00:53:47.599 --> 00:53:49.679
And then the copycat will drop.

00:53:49.840 --> 00:53:55.360
Um, but I actually have a whole series in mind for that that I'm gonna um hopefully write.

00:53:55.599 --> 00:53:58.559
Um, I have some collaborations coming down the pike next year.

00:53:58.960 --> 00:54:00.480
You'll see me in the places next year.

00:54:00.559 --> 00:54:03.039
I'll be at a couple of events, so I'll be outside.

00:54:03.360 --> 00:54:05.519
Um, I'm doing Chocolate City.

00:54:06.000 --> 00:54:07.519
Uh I think that's in April.

00:54:07.599 --> 00:54:08.559
Don't don't quote me on it.

00:54:08.639 --> 00:54:10.400
But I'll be at the Chocolate City lit event.

00:54:10.559 --> 00:54:13.920
I'll also be at Pages in the City in New York in July.

00:54:14.320 --> 00:54:18.320
Um, yeah, so it's some stuff coming.

00:54:18.880 --> 00:54:20.159
There's some stuff coming.

00:54:20.400 --> 00:54:20.719
Yeah.

00:54:20.960 --> 00:54:22.960
Oh, I'm so excited for you.

00:54:23.199 --> 00:54:25.199
I'm so excited you're finna be outside.

00:54:26.079 --> 00:54:27.039
I'm finna come outside.

00:54:27.119 --> 00:54:29.519
Yeah, I haven't been outside in a while, so I'm finna come out there.

00:54:29.599 --> 00:54:30.239
Yeah.

00:54:31.360 --> 00:54:34.000
Oh, I'm so excited right now.

00:54:34.159 --> 00:54:37.920
My husband's gonna be so mad because he's gonna have to hand that card over.

00:54:38.159 --> 00:54:40.559
She's gonna be welcome in New York.

00:54:40.639 --> 00:54:42.000
I have family out there.

00:54:42.239 --> 00:54:44.639
Oh, yes, we're gonna take a trip.

00:54:45.360 --> 00:54:50.800
I I'm trying to see is that is that around the time that I'm gonna be in New York around April, around like spring break.

00:54:50.880 --> 00:54:51.599
I hope those dates.

00:54:53.119 --> 00:55:03.119
No, so the chocolate no, the pages in the city event is July 26th, and I only remember it because I was panicking for a minute because my family reunion is that same weekend.

00:55:03.280 --> 00:55:06.000
But then I looked at the date and I was like, oh, okay, I can skip that day.

00:55:06.239 --> 00:55:07.760
So I'll be there for that.

00:55:07.920 --> 00:55:10.880
Um, I wanna say Chocolate City is in April.

00:55:10.960 --> 00:55:11.920
That's in DC.

00:55:13.679 --> 00:55:14.000
Okay.

00:55:14.400 --> 00:55:14.960
In April.

00:55:15.039 --> 00:55:16.719
I'm gonna be set for that.

00:55:17.280 --> 00:55:22.400
See, I can't I if I if I could I would, but I'll be in Italy in May and my let's talk about that.

00:55:22.559 --> 00:55:23.519
And I know that's right.

00:55:23.760 --> 00:55:32.960
Um, but yeah, I got something um I'm just gonna say Zanaya is a character in my next book.

00:55:35.440 --> 00:55:35.840
Girl.

00:55:35.920 --> 00:55:36.559
That's I don't know.

00:55:36.639 --> 00:55:37.199
I can't, that's it.

00:55:37.280 --> 00:55:38.000
That's all I can tell you.

00:55:38.159 --> 00:55:44.719
That when you read about Zanaya, you if you think that if you think that hunt was something, just wait on it.

00:55:45.039 --> 00:55:45.679
Yeah.

00:55:46.639 --> 00:55:48.000
All of my author friends were unfriends.

00:55:48.079 --> 00:55:50.800
They was like, I don't even want to be friends with you no more because I can't believe you just did that.

00:55:51.039 --> 00:55:51.679
Then they came back.

00:55:51.760 --> 00:55:52.079
They came back.

00:55:52.159 --> 00:55:53.920
I was like, wait, come back, come back, come back, come back.

00:55:54.159 --> 00:55:58.320
So it's it's um it's gonna grab you from the beginning again, from the very first page.

00:55:58.400 --> 00:55:59.840
You're gonna be like, What?

00:56:00.079 --> 00:56:05.599
And then you wanna be taken for a ride, but it's needed because it's gonna set up the copycat.

00:56:06.239 --> 00:56:07.599
It's it's needed.

00:56:08.800 --> 00:56:11.519
So definitely I told you about a young lady named Zanaya.

00:56:11.679 --> 00:56:12.559
Just remember that.

00:56:15.119 --> 00:56:18.400
That is all I'm gonna be thinking, like, this is just gonna be sitting.

00:56:18.880 --> 00:56:20.719
Like, what the hell are we about to do, Zanaya?

00:56:20.880 --> 00:56:22.079
What are we about to get into?

00:56:22.880 --> 00:56:24.880
Yeah, the name of the I don't even really want.

00:56:25.199 --> 00:56:31.760
I mean, it's already on Amazon, the cover and everything, but um Zanaya's story is another cautionary tale.

00:56:31.840 --> 00:56:32.960
It's one that needs to be told.

00:56:33.119 --> 00:56:37.119
I I I really want to educate the people on how crazy people are.

00:56:37.599 --> 00:56:41.679
Our predators live right in our neighborhoods, they live across the street.

00:56:42.480 --> 00:56:48.079
When you go out the door, he he sit there on the porch and watch a child play all day, every day, and then one day she's gone.

00:56:48.159 --> 00:56:49.679
And you don't know what happened to her.

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:53.199
So I need people to be cognizant of their surroundings.

00:56:53.440 --> 00:56:56.480
Every story that I write has is something going on there.

00:56:57.039 --> 00:56:58.559
You just have to pick up the pieces.

00:56:58.880 --> 00:56:59.519
That's all.

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:01.760
So remember, I told you about Zanaya.

00:57:01.920 --> 00:57:04.480
So when you interview me again, we're gonna speak it into existence.

00:57:04.639 --> 00:57:04.880
Uh-huh.

00:57:05.119 --> 00:57:05.519
Yes, yes.

00:57:07.360 --> 00:57:10.880
You told you mentioned Zanaya in the last one, and I'm like, Yeah, so what happened to her?

00:57:11.840 --> 00:57:12.480
Yep.

00:57:15.199 --> 00:57:15.840
Yeah.

00:57:16.400 --> 00:57:18.079
I'm so excited.

00:57:18.639 --> 00:57:19.119
Me too.

00:57:19.440 --> 00:57:20.239
I'm so excited.

00:57:21.039 --> 00:57:21.519
Yeah.

00:57:22.559 --> 00:57:24.159
And I'm glad to be writing again.

00:57:24.239 --> 00:57:25.920
I didn't write for like almost eight years.

00:57:26.159 --> 00:57:29.360
So I'm glad to be back typing again.

00:57:29.599 --> 00:57:32.079
So was the hunt your first um comeback?

00:57:32.400 --> 00:57:33.840
I mean, which what was your first?

00:57:34.400 --> 00:57:35.119
Was my first comeback?

00:57:35.280 --> 00:57:40.719
Yeah, so I the last book I wrote was um it was the serial life, was the last one.

00:57:40.800 --> 00:57:42.400
That was back in 2013.

00:57:42.960 --> 00:57:45.840
And then 2024, the hunt came out.

00:57:46.079 --> 00:57:47.920
Then you come back swinging like this.

00:57:48.239 --> 00:57:48.559
Maybe.

00:57:48.719 --> 00:57:50.960
Yeah, because I'm a knock, I'm gonna be like gloves off.

00:57:51.119 --> 00:57:52.800
Yeah, gloves off.

00:57:52.960 --> 00:57:53.440
Yep.

00:57:54.239 --> 00:57:55.679
Play with somebody else.

00:57:57.440 --> 00:58:00.800
Yeah, I'm so I had to remind myself who I was.

00:58:00.880 --> 00:58:03.199
If I was I wasn't always, I I lost my confidence.

00:58:03.280 --> 00:58:03.840
I don't know where.

00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:04.880
I don't know what happened to it.

00:58:05.039 --> 00:58:10.639
It just fell off one day, and then I was like, hmm, maybe the literary world needs something else.

00:58:10.800 --> 00:58:16.639
It took me a minute, it took me a minute, but um, yeah, and that's what I came back with.

00:58:17.519 --> 00:58:20.800
Wow, I love it.

00:58:21.199 --> 00:58:23.840
Yeah, I do, I love it.

00:58:24.159 --> 00:58:27.360
Well, Anna, thank you so, so very much.

00:58:27.599 --> 00:58:29.840
This has been amazing.

00:58:30.719 --> 00:58:43.280
I have loved every second of this, honey, and I am looking forward to coming back and talking with you because you got Thanks Cooking, honey, and I'm gonna be right there in the kitchen waiting with my plate and my Tupperware.

00:58:43.519 --> 00:58:44.320
Can you hear me?

00:58:44.880 --> 00:58:51.199
Yeah, yeah, y'all don't y'all don't hear this dog growling at me from the sideline, right?

00:58:51.360 --> 00:58:54.719
Um, because she keeps coming back, like why you who you talking to?

00:58:54.880 --> 00:58:56.800
This is the this is a puppy.

00:58:57.519 --> 00:58:59.840
Um, yeah, hush.

00:59:00.159 --> 00:59:02.079
Yeah, I'm excited about it.

00:59:05.039 --> 00:59:06.320
Stop and get out.

00:59:06.880 --> 00:59:08.639
So, yeah, um, yeah, I'm excited.

00:59:08.800 --> 00:59:09.920
I'm excited for y'all.

00:59:10.079 --> 00:59:12.079
Um, y'all wanna love me for this.

00:59:12.159 --> 00:59:14.320
Like, all I said, Dylan is not the last of it.

00:59:14.400 --> 00:59:15.280
That we'll just say that.

00:59:15.360 --> 00:59:16.800
That's just how it's gonna go.

00:59:17.360 --> 00:59:19.280
We got a whole series coming.

00:59:19.519 --> 00:59:20.480
I'm excited.

00:59:20.800 --> 00:59:21.199
We do.

00:59:21.280 --> 00:59:21.599
We do.

00:59:22.159 --> 00:59:23.679
I didn't even know that, but now we know.

00:59:23.840 --> 00:59:24.159
Yes.

00:59:24.400 --> 00:59:25.119
But thank y'all.

00:59:25.199 --> 00:59:26.559
I'm I'm so happy to be here.

00:59:26.639 --> 00:59:27.760
Thank y'all for the interview.

00:59:28.000 --> 00:59:28.400
Thank you.

00:59:28.559 --> 00:59:32.559
Tell us where we can follow you on all across your socials.

00:59:32.960 --> 00:59:35.599
Okay, so on Facebook is author Anna J.

00:59:35.760 --> 00:59:42.000
I think it's author Anna J also on um Instagram, and scribe at Philly is on TikTok.

00:59:42.639 --> 00:59:43.760
That's how you can find me.

00:59:43.920 --> 00:59:44.800
Type in Anna J.

00:59:44.960 --> 00:59:46.079
I'm on the Google, I'm on air.

00:59:46.239 --> 00:59:46.880
Just type it in.

00:59:48.559 --> 00:59:49.599
On the Google.

00:59:49.840 --> 00:59:51.360
On the Google, yes.

00:59:52.800 --> 00:59:54.960
Oh, well, thank you so, so very much.

00:59:55.199 --> 00:59:57.039
And we will see you guys later.

00:59:57.199 --> 00:59:57.519
Thank you.

00:59:57.679 --> 00:59:58.880
All right, ladies, have a great day.

00:59:58.960 --> 00:59:59.119
Thank you.

00:59:59.280 --> 00:59:59.519
Thank you.

01:00:00.159 --> 01:00:00.639
Thank you.