Sept. 16, 2025
From Urban Fiction to Thriller Mastery: Toni LaRue's Journey
Thriller author Toni LaRue shares her journey from urban fiction to becoming an NBCC-nominated author with several number one releases on Amazon. She discusses her meticulous character development process, representation challenges for Black thriller writers, and how she approaches trauma and emotional depth in her stories.
• NBCC-nominated thriller author with 10+ novels and multiple #1 Amazon releases
• Discovered thriller writing after reading Lisa Gardner's "The Other Daughter" during a graveyard shift
• Creates detailed character profiles before writing, including birthdays, traits, and preferences
• Works full-time with unhoused populations while maintaining her writing career
• "Juneteenth" explores themes of racial injustice and vigilante justice through emotional storytelling
• Emphasizes the importance of Black representation in thriller genres
• Uses trauma in her stories to humanize characters rather than glorify violence
• Upcoming novel "Safe House" features a domestic abuse survivor encountering serial killers
• Co-writing a Christmas horror anthology with Tanisha Stewart
• Believes thrillers offer realistic perspectives on life's uncertainties and unresolved situations
outro
00:00 - Meeting Thriller Author Toni LaRue
08:32 - From Urban Fiction to Thriller Writing
16:26 - Character Development and Research Process
26:42 - Black Authors in Thriller Genre
33:23 - Emotional Depth in Juneteenth
42:05 - Upcoming Projects and Horror Elements
WEBVTT
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Hey y'all, hey, welcome back.
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You are watching and listening to Licks Between the Lines and I am your host, licks, for the most part, I try to stay in between the lines, but I do occasionally cross them.
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But today I am going to be on my best behavior because we have an amazing thriller author in our presence, okay, and I am going to let her introduce herself hello, so I am Tony LaRue.
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I am an NBCC nominated author for thriller mystery author of the year.
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I've had several number one releases on Amazon.
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I am the author of over 10 novels and two short stories, and I also have a best-selling series, asylum series, that I co-wrote with author Tanisha Stewart come on through honey.
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Yeah, all right, let's go ahead and jump right on in.
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Why, like what led us to thriller and suspense?
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so that story is actually funny, I would say.
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Growing up I I've always loved like thriller, suspense movies, and horror is one of my favorite genres.
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But I did not get into the thriller, suspense genre until I was in my early 20s.
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And it was funny how it happened, because I used to wear graveyard at this hotel and for some reason I did not have a book with me.
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Normally I would always have a book to read during the graveyard shift.
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So it just so happened there was a book in the Lost and Found and it was the Other Daughter by author Lisa Gardner, and it was a crime suspense novel.
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So I'm like you know, I don't have anything else to read, I'm going to just pick this up, read it and then in the morning I'll go grab me.
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You know some books and by this time, mind you, I already had published my first book.
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So I had a book that was already out and it was not a, not a thriller.
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So I'm reading the book and when I tell you, I was glued to those pages because I was a huge fan of, like CSI, criminal minds and that is what, if that was like the mindset it put me into, and I was just like where has this been all my life?
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You know, and thriller is one of the biggest genres outside of romance, so I just can't believe it took me that long to just really dive into it.
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But after that I was like this is what I'm supposed to write.
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So I kind of fell into it a little bit so what were you writing at first?
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were you writing romance at first?
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wait, why are you?
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smelling, where were you writing?
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so my very first book which is not in print anymore it was an urban fiction, because I grew up reading like Kiki, swanson and Quan and all those like street fiction, urban fiction authors, so I just kind of gravitated toward that genre because at that time it was really popular.
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So my first book is actually an urban fiction.
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Um, but that was my one and only so hey, you went from your one urban fiction that was your first book and then you just went straight to like thriller yes, I did a whole flip.
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I did.
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My family still asked for a part two for that first book and I'm like I'm not even thinking about that book anymore.
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Y'all never gonna get it.
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Stop asking was it like?
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I've never looked back now but you said it's not in any print or anything, because now I need to go and see this first book.
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So when I originally published it um, it was still.
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When I originally published it um, it was still fair, like Amazon, kdpr, that was still fairly new.
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So it was never um an ebook, it was all um, it was print and I went to a um, I outsourced the printing company to print my copies.
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So you can't find it anywhere unless you just happen to know somebody who has it.
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One of those things where you got to know somebody who has it one of those things where you gotta know somebody who knows somebody yep, yep, I mean, maybe one day somebody will be like hey, I got the the first pony room novel you know how they have those um limited editions, and they come across it and they're like hey, these, only so many of these were in print and I got, let me see somebody.
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That means I'm in a deep dive.
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I need to find this book now, tony.
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Yes, so when you're writing your thrillers, how does your, how do you do character development, like is it from based off of people you know, or, like I've heard some people say, they just have the voices that speak to them.
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What does that?
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process look like.
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So for me, I know the characters before I even know the story.
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Um, I and I am that.
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I won't say that I haven't based the character off of anyone.
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I personally know I may pull different personality traits, different characteristics here and there, but most, most of the time, all my characters are completely fictional.
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But once they start talking to me, I will sit down, I will do a character profile me.
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I will sit down, I will do a character profile.
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So even if something doesn't make it to the book, I know every single thing about them, at least for my main characters.
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Like I know their birthdays, I know what they do for a living, I know what their favorite shows are, their favorite foods are.
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Like I do a complete um character profile to create the characters why do I feel like you have like a white I'm seeing like criminal minds evolution, like with the white, with the whiteboard and the characters displayed and the character traits, and then like real profiling?
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someone else said the same thing.
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I was like I feel like I need to get a whiteboard at this point.
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I do everything on the computer, but, um, you're the second person that said that, so I need a whiteboard.
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Like seriously, I'm slipping like where you can see everything, because how do you use?
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you have everything on a computer, so you have to like go through the different pages yeah, I use like a spread, a spreadsheet, and then you I'll have like all their traits, uh, the zodiac, because I'm into astrology, so the zodiac sign.
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Um, I'll just have everything in tab on the um on the computer.
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And it also helps because as you're writing, you forget certain things, like you may forget the color of their eyes or how you describe their skin tone, or you might forget what age you said they were.
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So it's easier to go back and look at what you originally put versus having to, you know, skim through your book trying to figure out you know how old they were have you always used like a spreadsheet to develop your books, or was this like a method that you just kind of developed over time?
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it's a method I developed over time.
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When I first started writing, I was all over the place.
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I didn't outline, I didn't do character profiles, and what I realized is it wastes a lot of time because you have to constantly keep reading back through everything to make sure.
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Okay, well, did I get this right or did I change the age?
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It's like oh, on chapter three I said her hair was brown.
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Now on this chapter her hair is red.
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So it took a lot of time and a lot of revisions when I wasn't structured, so I had to figure something out goodness, that's a that sounds like a lot does.
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Is it time?
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Is this your full-time?
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Are you a full-time author or do you have a second?
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Do you have a full-time job and then it's part-time author?
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yeah, so I do have a full-time job.
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I feel like I'm a full-time, I have a full-time job and I'm a full-time author.
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It never stops.
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I feel like I'm doing both because where did you find time to write?
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Do you write while you're at work?
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Sometimes you'll be writing on the clock, tony.
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Sometimes you gotta get it in.
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Do you have like a sit down, like a phone job, or are you moving about?
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uh, so I um, I work for outreach program, so I work a lot with like um the unhoused demographic, or the demographic who suffers from like um drug and alcohol abuse and mental illness.
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So they don't be worried about me so that sounds wait, because that sounds like it's hands-on.
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And then you go from that to writing you get a lot of inspiration from them.
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They tell me some stories.
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They tell me all their business.
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I'm telling you.
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It's every cracking me up I was just about to ask when you said that, and I didn't even know where you worked at when I was about to ask this question like, how do you weave in like mental health and like mental stability into your stories?
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How do you separate your story okay, like, how do you disconnect from it once you start writing it?
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I was, I would say I I do not disconnect from it while I'm writing.
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So once the book is, it's so weird and there's a couple of other authors in my little circle who feel the same way.
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If I, once I hit, publish and that book is out to the world, it's like my mind will literally turn off and I don't even think about it anymore, like I will forget character names, I will forget things that happen in the book.
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But while I'm writing I'm completely zoned in, so I don't want to detach at that time.
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But how do you so while you're writing it, how do you balance it Like, do you have to just take a break or take a step away?
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What does that?
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look like it depends, I will say, for Juneteenth I don't know if you've read juneteenth yet, but that deals with the really heavy topic um, so that book was really emotional for me.
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But, honestly, just writing the book was therapeutic.
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So just getting it out and getting it, you know, getting every getting the entire story typed out was actually therapeutic.
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Because to research that story, um, I literally immersed myself into that character because he lost his son tragically, um, to gun violence.
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So I was like I don't know how it feels to be a black man in america.
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I don't know how it feels to, you know, lose a child to senseless violence.
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But it was really important that I tapped into those emotions.
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So when I was listening to news articles about like trayvon martin, tamir rice, I was really.
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I was like I just really wanted to embody how that character would feel in these moments.
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So it was, you know, I was happy, sad, mad, you know.
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I was all those things.
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So it was that was one of the heaviest books that I've ever written, um, but so at the end it was very, it is, I felt, vindicated.
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I'll say that because it is still very much a thriller I haven't read it yet, it's on my tbr and it's just the news clip.
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Is that like I can remember, like in real time, those events like unfolding and how it felt and just seeing it like on the news, and not even I didn't even do like a deep dive right into it?
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So the fact that you took the time and you went in and you did like a deep dive into not just one but you named about three different ones, my heart is already heavy, like yeah, how, like did you do this over?
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Did it take you a minute to put this to get to?
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I?
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will say I wrote that book probably in like within a time frame of four months.
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So at first, because it was called Juneteenth and Juneteenth was originally, originally supposed to be something completely different it was supposed to be a horror story kind of it was.
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It was supposed to put you like in the mind frame and like a jordan peele or some type of um, fat tire type of book.
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But I just kept going back to the same storyline and I was like, okay, well, let me sit down.
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And so, as I was writing it, it's very important, it was very important to me that I not make a mockery of the story, um, or anyone who has been through a similar situation as the main character.
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So I I didn't want a situation to where you have this black man who just snapped and he just started, you know, killing a bunch of people.
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I didn't want to tell the story like that.
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It had to be um, there had to be some type of emotional tie to his actions and so that's where his storyline kind of comes in.
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And, um, with most of my characters, I like to tap into their emotion and so I was like, you know, I just had to go for it Like I was like there's no.
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You know, I know what it feels like to grieve someone.
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I know how I felt when, you know, the Trayvon Martin verdict was read and I was like I just have to tap into these emotions.
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That's the only way I can tell this story.
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So that's what I did.
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It may not have been the healthiest approach, but you know I had to.
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You know I had to do it for the name of the art I am speechless right now, like truly speechless, and because I just watched um american sun.
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have you seen that I haven't?
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Then, when you get a chance, you have to go and watch it.
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That's why I was just like I literally just watched this a couple of days ago.
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That's why I was like I haven't read Juneteenth yet and it's been on my tbr.
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And at first I did.
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We watched the um jesse smollett, and then right after that we were like wide awake and we went right into american sun, which I don't know why.
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We watched it back to back.
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But then it's like here I didn't know that june tink was, I don't know.
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I thought it was like a revenge, but I didn't know that it dived into, because I like to go into books blind and I don't even know what be going on until I start reading and getting the plot.
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So now I'm just like, yeah but I will say it, it is very much still a thriller.
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Um, I categorize it as either like an action thriller.
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Some people have called it a political thriller because of the storyline.
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So it's still a lot of action in it, but it does deal with a heavy topic and it is a vigilante justice thriller.
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So it's all those things.
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But okay, I have a question.
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Vigilantism and I don't even know if that's a word and revenge what?
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How are they on the scales in your books like?
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Are they about the same or is there like its own moral code?
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for for juneteenth, um I, I will say this the character had to definitely call into question his morals and his integrity, because there were certain things that morally he did not want to do.
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But the way that justice looked, he had to cross certain boundaries in order to get justice for his son.
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I'll say that so okay now.
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Now I have to bump it up, now I have to go ahead and then I'm gonna have to bring you back after I read it because we don't have to go in there.
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Yes, and I actually wanted to come and talk about the perfect profile and look, we, we're gonna hold that thought and we're gonna take a quick commercial break and then we'll be right back with more questions from miss tony.
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Okay, guys, we are back off of commercial break and I want to know what stereotypes and thrillers do you want to challenge or avoid in your work?
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so stereotypes I want to.
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I will say first, not necessarily um, stereotypes I want to avoid, but I just want to put it out there that black people do write thrillers, because that still is a thing.
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It's so weird to me.
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So when I first started writing thrillers, I knew it would be an uphill battle, because I didn't see many people that looked like me writing thrillers.
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You had, like Walter Mosley I don't know if Wanda Morris was out at that time, but you had but they were far and few in between.
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So when I was looking for books to read that were in the thriller genre with black characters, I could not find them, and so that that's one reason I was like I definitely have to write thrillers that feature black characters, but even now there's still like a stigma when it comes to black authors writing thrillers, black readers reading thrillers.
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I would say BookTok has definitely expanded the people's horizon, so I'm so fortunate for that.
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But it's so strange like you will still get people who will, who will post asking you, asking, um, you know, if there are black thriller authors and it's just like, hey, like where you been.
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So that is something I wish would change that's crazy.
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You said that because, like I and I had just told when I spoke to um here earlier, like people I've been doing like the thriller Thursdays and stuff, and people are like, um, hey, have you read this person or have you?
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And I'm like everybody has read or heard.
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That's why I'm posting these people to introduce you to new thriller authors.
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Yeah, yeah.
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But I like book talk too, because you can actually put in.
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That's why I try, when I read like a black thriller or a black indie, I try to hashtag it or put that in the captions indie, I try to hashtag it or put that into captions.
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So if people would take the time to like search and put like black thriller or black thriller, mystery, horror, it will pop up.
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Yeah, do you write horror?
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Are any of your books classified as horror?
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or splatterpunk not splatterpunk but uh.
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Like the asylum series, the, I would say the first book is horror and then it kind of morphed back into thriller, like psychological thriller or psychological horror.
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But I do dabble a little bit in horror.
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I was trying to see you.
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Did you say you and Tanisha?
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Who's that collaboration with?
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Yeah, me and tanisha.
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What who's that collaboration with?
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Yeah, me and uh, tanisha stewart how did you guys meet?
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so how did we meet?
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I want to say she was advertising.
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It had something to do with bookmarking.
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And I want to say, I want to say what she was.
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She was, um, advertising her, um, her package for, like, um, teaching people how to do like amazon ads and stuff.
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So I had reached out to her for that and, um, so, while we're doing our little court, it was like a little one-on-one consultation.
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You know, she was looking at my books and she was just like, oh, I'm going to read something tonight and I'm thinking like, ok, thank you.
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And you know, the next day she was like, oh, I love this.
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She was like I bought, you know, I read the other one.
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So I feel like from there we kind of start building a relationship.
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And then it was also her idea to bring myself kenya moss time um octavia grant, um and myself and herself into the um black women who write thriller, horror, suspense um facebook group.
00:21:19.224 --> 00:21:34.194
And then from there we just, you know, she stuck with me now listen, you guys don't know what you did when you opened up that facebook group and, like I was telling her that paper, who would have known?
00:21:34.194 --> 00:21:39.534
I, I know it's crazy and I know you had just said that a lot of people don't know and they're still asking and stuff.
00:21:39.534 --> 00:21:45.252
But I did not realize we had that many thriller women because I think was it?
00:21:45.252 --> 00:21:50.185
It was just women on there on that list that's going around the um thriller.
00:21:50.185 --> 00:21:51.448
Is that women?
00:21:52.990 --> 00:21:58.186
you probably have some men on there because you have, like Brandon Massey, as they cause me.
00:21:58.186 --> 00:22:10.260
So I want to say there are some men, not a lot, but there are some wow but you know the men like the men be dipped off into the shadows.
00:22:10.260 --> 00:22:18.345
It's like we don't see y'all we out here working hard, trying to promote everybody and they just be tucked in the corner somewhere.
00:22:18.526 --> 00:22:31.932
It's like come on now man, I still have to read um Brandon, an essay I have, like I have a long TBR list that I need to really get to so oh yes, you do.
00:22:31.951 --> 00:22:33.615
Brandon mass is one of my favorite.
00:22:33.615 --> 00:22:37.244
I got to meet him at the um icu event.
00:22:37.244 --> 00:22:43.172
I was so excited wasn't that recently it was like a couple weeks ago.
00:22:43.833 --> 00:22:45.914
How was that experience like meeting him?
00:22:47.376 --> 00:22:47.696
listen.
00:22:47.696 --> 00:23:00.114
I was trying to be so cool and calm, but my head was just like, oh my god, oh my god, I cannot believe this is happening in my head.
00:23:00.114 --> 00:23:19.132
In my head, I was trying to be professional and it was so cool because he actually came up and introduced himself to me, like I don't know who he is, um, but we had the opportunity to talk several times during during the event, um, and I actually sent him a copy of juneteenth, so he said he was gonna read it.
00:23:19.192 --> 00:23:23.186
So fingers crossed so now we gotta watch to see for his review.
00:23:23.186 --> 00:23:28.156
Only, if he loves it, he gone.
00:23:28.156 --> 00:23:31.286
He's gonna love it, all of your writers, but no, he's gonna love it.
00:23:31.286 --> 00:23:40.470
Did you have like a um, a moment to kind of like um, get any advice from him, or was anything shared?
00:23:42.034 --> 00:23:48.352
no, not during that time we were mostly um, because he was trying to figure out which book he wanted to buy.
00:23:48.352 --> 00:23:49.890
He bought never, say never.
00:23:49.890 --> 00:23:58.020
That's how how the subject came up, that I was sending him juneteenth because by the time he came back around to my table juneteenth had sold out.
00:23:58.020 --> 00:24:01.931
So I was like, don't worry about it, I got you, I got you, I'll send you one.
00:24:01.931 --> 00:24:03.756
So that's how that happened.
00:24:03.756 --> 00:24:05.066
But you know it was so.
00:24:05.066 --> 00:24:14.277
It was so busy and everybody kind of had to stay stuck at their tables, so we didn't get to really dive into a lot, but it was cool.
00:24:14.277 --> 00:24:16.353
He was such a cool, pleasant person.
00:24:17.204 --> 00:24:18.290
Were you on a panel there.
00:24:19.586 --> 00:24:20.430
No, not at ICU.
00:24:20.430 --> 00:24:28.073
I don't think they have panels at ICU, so I just had my table where I was selling books.
00:24:28.073 --> 00:24:34.003
I'll be on the panel for B3, the Black Book Bash, and on October 3rd.
00:24:34.023 --> 00:24:34.124
Mm-hmm.
00:24:34.124 --> 00:24:38.693
Yes, I heard y'all have your own corner.
00:24:38.693 --> 00:24:41.118
Like the thrillers, a thriller section.
00:24:42.086 --> 00:24:55.737
I want to say how she and when I say she, kasey, is one of the organizers I want to say she has it separated by genre, which I thought was a pretty cool idea is this like your first?
00:24:55.757 --> 00:24:59.310
that's not your first event the icu.
00:24:59.371 --> 00:25:02.097
The icu was technically my first event.
00:25:02.097 --> 00:25:06.971
I had done one some years ago, but it wasn't a book even, it was just you know where you.
00:25:06.971 --> 00:25:14.321
Um, it was different vendors and I was there, and then after that I hadn't did an event until I see you.
00:25:14.321 --> 00:25:19.031
So I I see you with my official first book event.
00:25:19.031 --> 00:25:20.955
But now y'all gonna get sick of me.
00:25:20.955 --> 00:25:21.998
I'm about to be outside.
00:25:21.998 --> 00:25:26.612
I got I got some dates lined up next year already.
00:25:27.615 --> 00:25:29.398
Are you going to be at Black Romance Book Fest?
00:25:30.486 --> 00:25:32.011
No, I don't write romance.
00:25:35.008 --> 00:25:36.934
But I mean, are you coming?
00:25:36.934 --> 00:25:40.853
Wait, am I fortunate Like maybe we get a thriller romance?
00:25:43.528 --> 00:25:46.503
I don't have the hardest time writing romance.
00:25:46.503 --> 00:25:48.211
My hat goes off to them.
00:25:48.211 --> 00:25:53.758
I don't know how they keep stories interesting only talking about love.
00:25:53.758 --> 00:25:55.772
I cannot do it.
00:25:55.772 --> 00:25:57.672
My character even when I try.
00:25:57.672 --> 00:26:12.431
I've been writing a book called the Swindler and I haven't put it out yet because it's not finished, because you know you have to kind of build up to the part where she swindled, so that is believable and what, and so he has.
00:26:12.431 --> 00:26:13.954
You know they're dating and stuff.
00:26:13.954 --> 00:26:18.089
And when I tell you me and the characters are like can you hurry this up?
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