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Speaker 3: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Malik's Bookshow, bringing the world together
Speaker 3: with books, culture and community.
Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Malik, your host of Malik's Book Show. Well, well, well,
Speaker 1: we had a phenomenal week.
Speaker 3: I was so exhausted traveling back and forth from the
Speaker 3: East to the West, but I had to get back
Speaker 3: to the event that we hosted at the Bowen Hill
Speaker 3: the hit Story Baldwin Hills Prinshaw Plaza. We hosted the
Speaker 3: sixteenth anniversary of the lam Park Village Book Fair. This
Speaker 3: is our second year working with the Lamur Park Village
Speaker 3: Book Fair. It's hosted phenomenal book fairs over the last
Speaker 3: sixteen years. I mean Cynthia ExHAM, who's the executive chief
Speaker 3: executive of the Lamur Park Village Book Fair, has done
Speaker 3: an incredible job in bringing so many published authors to
Speaker 3: our community. Now, this is the first time since the
Speaker 3: pandemic that we had it in person event and hitting
Speaker 3: up our headline is three time Emmy nominated actor and
Speaker 3: director producer and author Eric Lesaal who's the ambassador this
Speaker 3: year for the twenty twenty three Lamur Park Village Book Fair.
Speaker 1: We also headlining.
Speaker 3: Co headlining with him is award winning actor and author
Speaker 3: ol Mar Epps. That's right, we had the old Mar
Speaker 3: Epps and Eric Lesaal headlining the sixteenth annual Park Village
Speaker 3: Book Fair and it was incredible.
Speaker 1: It was phenomenal.
Speaker 3: It was so electric, passionate, it was so much information
Speaker 3: it was the community came out in large numbers.
Speaker 1: We hosted it at the historic ball.
Speaker 3: On Hills Greenshaw Plaza November eleventh, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: It was all day event.
Speaker 3: It kicked off with our first headliner and our ambassador,
Speaker 3: Eric lesau who wrote a three books serie that.
Speaker 1: Kicked off with the Laws of the Privaty, The Laws.
Speaker 3: Of Wrath, and the Laws of Annihilation, which just was
Speaker 3: released in October twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: So that was the featured book at the book festival.
Speaker 3: Moderating the conversation with Eric Lica is the mystery writer
Speaker 3: Gary Phillips, a local favorite who wrote a lot of books.
Speaker 3: Also he's a screenwriter and he's known throughout the circle
Speaker 3: of the industry. Now, this wasn't a fiery electric I mean,
Speaker 3: the community came out in large numbers and showed support
Speaker 3: for this year's Lamart Park Village Book Fair, hosted by
Speaker 3: Malite Books. We were incredibly blessed to see how the
Speaker 3: community responded and came out in book signings, conversation. We
Speaker 3: gave away one hundred and twenty five books to the
Speaker 3: community because we want to elevate literacy and give voice.
Speaker 1: To the voiceless. This was an incredible event.
Speaker 3: You're for it, I mean, and it brings a high
Speaker 3: I feel blessed to be in partnership with the Lamark
Speaker 3: Park Village Book Fair. They have been hosting the events
Speaker 3: for sixteen years and I had always wanted to be
Speaker 3: part of their organization and to work with them closely
Speaker 3: and to help curate authors, book signings and programming for
Speaker 3: our community. And the pandemic hit and things kind of
Speaker 3: got shut down and as a result, I continue my
Speaker 3: vision to work with Cynthia axem Over at the Lahmert
Speaker 3: Park Village Book.
Speaker 1: Fair and woila.
Speaker 3: You know, last year we didn't do it in person event,
Speaker 3: but we did a virtual event and the virtual was boom.
Speaker 3: We had Tabitha Brown, Terry Crews, the Mother of Black Hollywood,
Speaker 3: Jennifer Lewis all featured at our virtual Lamert Park Village
Speaker 3: book Fair last year. Virtual was one thing, in person
Speaker 3: is another, and we had some challenges to bring back
Speaker 3: the Lahmert Park Village in person, but we overcame it.
Speaker 3: We had timing chinalenges, funding challenges and talented challenges, but
Speaker 3: we pulled together and made it happen and got two headliners,
Speaker 3: Omar Epps and earth Lisa, both are in the industry
Speaker 3: of acting, writing, producing, directing. The've won awards and they
Speaker 3: headlining our twenty twenty three Lavert Park Village book Fair,
Speaker 3: and it was a home run hit. I got so
Speaker 3: much content from the event that I'm only gonna feature
Speaker 3: Ericlesith on this episode. The following week, I'll bring Omar
Speaker 3: Epps content. This was a beautiful event, a community event,
Speaker 3: and you know, this is the Police Bookshelf bringing the
Speaker 3: world together with books, culture and community.
Speaker 1: This was a community event and so.
Speaker 3: I was able to just amass a great amount of
Speaker 3: content that I can feature. I personally wasn't able to
Speaker 3: interview Ericles South, but that's okay because Gary Filer mystery
Speaker 3: roter Gary Phillips did, and so we're gonna bring some
Speaker 3: of that conversation.
Speaker 1: But for those.
Speaker 3: Inspiring writers, script writers, book writers, Hey, I think you
Speaker 3: can find this very useful conversation.
Speaker 1: I almost forgot, almost forgot to mention.
Speaker 3: That I have a segment by Time of the Brown,
Speaker 3: who is promoting the Feeding Health Day as well as
Speaker 3: her new book, I Did a New Thing thirty Days
Speaker 3: of Living Free. Now that book is slated to come
Speaker 3: out in January thirty with Elite Books. It's doing a
Speaker 3: pre order campaign so you can order the book and
Speaker 3: it's going to be signed exclusively by Time of the
Speaker 3: Brown and Malik Books is going to be the provider
Speaker 3: who sends in his shipping and package it.
Speaker 1: So hey support this pre order.
Speaker 3: Campaign that we're doing and with Tamatha Brown, and it's
Speaker 3: called I Did a New Thing thirty Days of Living Free. Now,
Speaker 3: let me tell you this. It takes thirty days to
Speaker 3: break a habit. It takes thirty days to renew your mind.
Speaker 3: It takes thirty days to make the ultimate change in
Speaker 3: paradigm shift.
Speaker 1: In your behavior and in your mind.
Speaker 3: So she did a new thing in thirty days and
Speaker 3: she talking about that in this new book, and I
Speaker 3: know that it's going to be viable and useful for
Speaker 3: Malie's Bookshelved audience as well as anybody who's looking to
Speaker 3: change their life, elevate their life, and make a difference
Speaker 3: in their life. So peep out that segment on this
Speaker 3: episode as well and enjoy the conversation with Eric Leasal
Speaker 3: at the sixteenth anniversary of the Lemurt Park Village Book
Speaker 3: Fair hosted by Malik Books.
Speaker 1: Enjoy this segment.
Speaker 3: Author screenwriter Gary Phillips in conversation with three time Emmy
Speaker 3: nominated actor, director, producer and author. Eric Let's sob Enjoy
Speaker 3: this conversation.
Speaker 2: So coming from the world of visual film, TV.
Speaker 4: Network versus table, Uh, there's always these notions of violence
Speaker 4: and what do you show where you don't show right?
Speaker 4: And in a book, like I said, you know, you
Speaker 4: got all the real estate in the world to create
Speaker 4: the visual imagery that you want to create or not write.
Speaker 4: Certain things have happened off stage or whatever. So is
Speaker 4: do you think about that in the sense of, you know,
Speaker 4: when you're writing these scenes and the scene is gonna
Speaker 4: be rugged in this bloody whatever it is, do you
Speaker 4: worry is this too much or is it not enough?
Speaker 5: I go, I go in, I go in, and and so, yes,
Speaker 5: there are very violent scenes.
Speaker 2: That is a part of the storytelling.
Speaker 5: And I think, you know, my books in some ways
Speaker 5: they have these sort.
Speaker 2: Of parable esque feels to them.
Speaker 5: And so because like I said, my first inspiration was
Speaker 5: based on characters from the Bible, and obviously the Bible
Speaker 5: is very violent and or has its place, has lots
Speaker 5: of fun. So so I come from I come from
Speaker 5: that place. It's my goal to Someone once said that
Speaker 5: I do violence and lyricism in equal measure, and so
Speaker 5: I yes, I go in deep.
Speaker 2: But I think a lot of times it's really cool.
Speaker 5: Some of the best compliments I've had was people go,
Speaker 5: oh my god, this is violent. I can't read this
Speaker 5: at night, but I can't stop reading it during the day.
Speaker 2: Okay, we got you, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 2: that's all I try not to now.
Speaker 5: I think as the books progress, I definitely try not
Speaker 5: to do gratuitive I try not to do anything. I
Speaker 5: tried not to do gratuitous action. I try not to
Speaker 5: do Gratudi's violence. Gratuitis sex, I tried. So my violence
Speaker 5: is plot driven. So if you look at the movie Seven.
Speaker 5: That was a violent movie, but that was his sermon.
Speaker 2: His sermon was that. So my quote.
Speaker 5: Unquote sermon, particularly in the first book, where a character
Speaker 5: is very similar to the villain in Seven, he's preaching
Speaker 5: a sermon and his sermon is bloody.
Speaker 2: His sermon is violent.
Speaker 5: But then there's a balance because there's also a beautiful
Speaker 5: love story in the book. So I try to balance
Speaker 5: and sort without compromising either of those. And some people say, listen,
Speaker 5: I don't really particularly like thrillers, but I love yours
Speaker 5: because he got this love story. So I just try
Speaker 5: to be true to whatever I'm writing. The first book,
Speaker 5: Laws of Depravity, I read an article and I was
Speaker 5: inspired by an article. I didn't know this at the time,
Speaker 5: but all of Jesus's disciples were boom murder. So it's
Speaker 5: not in the Bible, but all of his disciples, and
Speaker 5: it was more than just the twelve that we know about.
Speaker 5: There is what's called the lesser and the Greater disciples.
Speaker 5: And so Jesus rode with about I think, I don't know,
Speaker 5: thirty two thirty six people. So all of them beheaded, crucified,
Speaker 5: torn limb from limb. They were, they were, they were
Speaker 5: they died savage ways in such brutality.
Speaker 2: I read that article and I and I was intrigued, and.
Speaker 5: This is my first is before I was even thinking
Speaker 5: of right and I just thought to myself, Wow, it
Speaker 5: would be really cool to come up with a modern
Speaker 5: day serial killer who kills clergy in the same manner
Speaker 5: that Jesus's disciples. So that so I had the plots
Speaker 5: before I had I Not only did I have the plot,
Speaker 5: I had my antagonist before I had my protagonists. So
Speaker 5: once I I was like, Oh, this guy has to
Speaker 5: be this.
Speaker 2: He has to get that. And then I was like,
Speaker 2: hold on, hold on, who's going to carry you through this?
Speaker 5: So then I created my protagonists and then that, and
Speaker 5: then I was like, okay, we got two of them,
Speaker 5: and then well, what about a third one I wanted.
Speaker 5: I wanted the presence and the perspective of a theme
Speaker 5: of a strong female.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to just do two men.
Speaker 5: I also made a point of making sure that my
Speaker 5: first book did not feature the perspective of an African American,
Speaker 5: because I have an African American protagonist. I started with
Speaker 5: the Irish Italian protagonists first because I didn't want to
Speaker 5: be reduced to I don't you know, we have to
Speaker 5: choose our adjectives. I don't want to be known as, oh,
Speaker 5: he's a good black writer. I want to be known
Speaker 5: as he's a good writer who happens to be Bay
Speaker 5: And so I didn't want people to pigeonhole me. I
Speaker 5: didn't want publishers and industry too, So I purposely focused
Speaker 5: on that. So I got to I got plot, I
Speaker 5: got antagonists, I got protagonists.
Speaker 2: And then who's going to be the protagonist, is going
Speaker 2: to lead.
Speaker 5: Us through this first book, who's going to be the
Speaker 5: protagonists on this second.
Speaker 2: Book, etc. So I go back and forth. I come strong.
Speaker 2: I come from a strong place of character, just as
Speaker 2: an actor, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: So the second book focuses a little bit more on
Speaker 5: our African American protagonist whose father was a big time
Speaker 5: gangster who's now legitimate, but some of the horrible things
Speaker 5: that his father did come back to haunt him, so
Speaker 5: that's his personal abovement. The third book, Laws of Annihilation,
Speaker 5: which was just released, focuses more on the Jewish FBI agent,
Speaker 5: and she is in the first chapter diagnosed with terminal cancer,
Speaker 5: and as she's dealing with that, there are two rabbis
Speaker 5: that are brutally murdered in a synagogue, so it becomes
Speaker 5: a hate crime. And so so you have basically a
Speaker 5: Jewish FBI agent leading up the investigation of hate crimes
Speaker 5: towards towards the Jewish community. At the same time, uh,
Speaker 5: someone is kidnapping African Americans and uh and killing them
Speaker 5: as well. So it's really and then there's a lot
Speaker 5: of tension between the Jewish community and the African American community.
Speaker 5: But the third book really explores our FBI's perspective of
Speaker 5: a Jewish FBI agent working alongside our two other heroes
Speaker 5: investigating crimes that personally affect her because of course she's Jewish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so keep it fresh, how do you? I mean?
Speaker 4: So on one hand, like for instance, there you know
Speaker 4: there sometimes when the late great Robert Parker wrote the
Speaker 4: spicture novel Spincer and Crime, right, a whole series of
Speaker 4: these books. Some were good, some were and and but
Speaker 4: then you know, you get a lot of hopefully that
Speaker 4: you get a lot of readers, you get a lot
Speaker 4: of fans, and so then is the trap, Well, I
Speaker 4: want to really do something with this character. I really
Speaker 4: want to take this character in this direction. But can
Speaker 4: I do that and keep the fan base or do
Speaker 4: I worry about anything naming the fan base or don't
Speaker 4: you know you just kind of go where the characters go. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I also, I think I write as much for me
Speaker 5: as I write for readers. And what I mean by
Speaker 5: that is I try to keep it honest. So I
Speaker 5: don't want to turn this into because a lot of
Speaker 5: times you'll take a series and it will overstay its
Speaker 5: wealth because now you're writing fifty books and you're writing
Speaker 5: twenty five books. I don't get me wrong, I aspire
Speaker 5: to be that prolific a writer, but at the same time,
Speaker 5: it becomes a machine. So more than likely, once I
Speaker 5: reach book number five, more than likely that's the end
Speaker 5: of this particular series. What I'm doing is I create
Speaker 5: these interesting characters. I may do spin offs so you
Speaker 5: have a familiarity. Even maybe some of our protagonists may
Speaker 5: may pop in, but it won't be the same because
Speaker 5: I've done Now that I've done the third book, I
Speaker 5: basically told the story of each protagonist. So I don't
Speaker 5: want it to now just be okay, we got to
Speaker 5: just solve the case. Yeah, now, listen, you know, if
Speaker 5: you're so blessed to have a machine behind you and
Speaker 5: your publisher is like, oh you better get behind you,
Speaker 5: or they show you a royalty sheet and you're like, let.
Speaker 2: Me rethink that.
Speaker 5: So, I mean, you know, right now, I like to
Speaker 5: I like to think that I'm gonna keep it.
Speaker 2: Pure and I'm gonna you know.
Speaker 5: But the truth is, as long as I'm inspired and
Speaker 5: I feel like I'm doing original storytelling, then yes, if
Speaker 5: I can, if I can find a way to do
Speaker 5: book six and seven and keep it fresh feel original, absolutely,
Speaker 5: But I think when it starts feeling a little like, okay,
Speaker 5: we're just turning out books now, which can you know,
Speaker 5: be very profitable. But ideally I would like to think
Speaker 5: that I'm going to.
Speaker 2: Keep it fresh, all right, So I don't outline.
Speaker 5: I I mean, every every writer has their own style.
Speaker 5: My style is to really just turn things over in
Speaker 5: my head, live with them for a while, start with
Speaker 5: a really cool idea. Once I start writing, then I
Speaker 5: get inspired to do something else and and so it's
Speaker 5: it's a it's an interesting journey because sometimes you have
Speaker 5: to wait for the book gods to inspire you, and
Speaker 5: sometimes you know, so I've just never been organized enough
Speaker 5: to do the index cards and to that works for
Speaker 5: a lot of people, you know, and listen, writing a
Speaker 5: book is hard, however, you get to do it, do it,
Speaker 5: and there is no one way. So I just I
Speaker 5: just I think, I think, I think, and then I
Speaker 5: start writing. Then I started leaning to if a character
Speaker 5: starts speaking to me, and a lot of times a
Speaker 5: character can kind of announce their importance, like all of
Speaker 5: a sudden, you'll start going, wow, this this character is
Speaker 5: really interesting. I want to explore this part if I
Speaker 5: want to explore their past, So I start doing that.
Speaker 5: So so I'm a much more of a I guess,
Speaker 5: a spontaneous writer. And I'm not saying and I'm not
Speaker 5: bragging about that, because I admire people that can do
Speaker 5: the structural stuff that just doesn't work for me. So
Speaker 5: and I you know, I read different types of writers
Speaker 5: and everyone everyone does it differently, and so I.
Speaker 2: Just this, this works for my voice. Okay.
Speaker 4: So now we actually do have a few minutes left,
Speaker 4: and so I like to throw it over to the audience.
Speaker 2: Surely there must be some questions for I think you
Speaker 2: have one question.
Speaker 6: Are all three of your books interrelated or are they
Speaker 6: separate from each other?
Speaker 2: It's a great question. I actually did it as both.
Speaker 2: Each book can be read as a.
Speaker 5: Standalone, but of course it's a series, so it's better read,
Speaker 5: uh you know, as as that.
Speaker 2: Because there are a lot of really.
Speaker 5: Interesting twists, and so even if even reading them in
Speaker 5: order also helps because there'll be a big twist at
Speaker 5: the end of the first book, and if you read,
Speaker 5: if you start on the third book, you will already
Speaker 5: know what I'm.
Speaker 2: Starting the second book, but pushing up the shop. Yes,
Speaker 2: they can't be read as standalones. Uh, you know, so
Speaker 2: you've enjoyed anyone, you want to thank you, Sir.
Speaker 6: Get a road boss to have a counsel to her,
Speaker 6: cause he's doing a great stop.
Speaker 2: This is far Eric was south, so.
Speaker 6: I mean kind of the city of Lot Saderson, the
Speaker 6: tenth District and a big old fan. I I just
Speaker 6: wanna say that your contribution to literacy is really important,
Speaker 6: and I wanna thank you for sharing your talents on
Speaker 6: the screen and by pen. It's so important, not only
Speaker 6: in this community to come and have a conversation about
Speaker 6: your thoughts, you know it.
Speaker 2: It's really interesting to hear hear poor.
Speaker 6: Owl and you and that that's a art itself. It's
Speaker 6: it's almost I have a son who's a rapper, you know,
Speaker 6: and you know a rapper.
Speaker 2: Your kid's a rapper. But he started.
Speaker 6: Poetry at twelve years old, and you have a flashlight
Speaker 6: and his little book under his m under this uh black,
Speaker 6: and he'd be writing and I'd go in there and
Speaker 6: I was like, what do you what.
Speaker 2: Are you doing? I think it's some black boy?
Speaker 4: And what was that?
Speaker 1: It was?
Speaker 2: It was his art coming out of him, and that's
Speaker 2: exactly what you're doing. So I'm so proud to you
Speaker 2: the whole.
Speaker 7: Hello there, happy world leaguing day. You look, did you
Speaker 7: know that it is World begon day? Y'all don't have vegan.
Speaker 7: It has been over six years for me, Honey, I
Speaker 7: can't believe it.
Speaker 2: Some days I'd be.
Speaker 7: Like, dang, it has really been over six years. Twenty
Speaker 7: seventeen of August, I did a thirty day Began challenge
Speaker 7: and never went back. It became my whole life, Hney,
Speaker 7: trying something new, and it not only changed my life
Speaker 7: but saved my life. And so I get excited about
Speaker 7: this day as a reminder for myself, like, man, something
Speaker 7: so small, it's just to change how I ate for
Speaker 7: thirty days really changed my whole life. But yeah, so
Speaker 7: it is world bigon day. Look y'all know, I got
Speaker 7: beading cookbook in case anybody needed cooking.
Speaker 2: From the spirit.
Speaker 7: But also just talking about doing something new that I did.
Speaker 7: You know, when I did the Begon challenge, I wrote
Speaker 7: a new book, of course, called I Did a New Thing.
Speaker 7: And it's not just about my thirty day began challenge.
Speaker 7: It's just about a challenge I started going back in
Speaker 7: twenty fourteen where I would take thirty days and try
Speaker 7: to do something new every day to see how it
Speaker 7: made me feel like, you know, we're my hair a
Speaker 7: different way. Maybe go to a place I've never been before,
Speaker 7: you know, if you've never been to a play, go
Speaker 7: to a play versus going to a movie, taking a
Speaker 7: walk in a new neighborhood, just doing something new and
Speaker 7: seeing how it shifts inside of you.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 7: And so I did it again right recently, and I
Speaker 7: wrote about it, and I wanted to share with y'all.
Speaker 7: And my hope is that it encourages all of us
Speaker 7: to try something new.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 7: And the other thing that I do, which is not
Speaker 7: a new thing, is supporting my local bookstores especially my
Speaker 7: black owned bookstores, so Elik Books and rep Books would
Speaker 7: have the first signed book play copies a right, So
Speaker 7: I'm sending each of those our locations five hundred book
Speaker 7: places that I'm signing for the new books, so you
Speaker 7: can pre order those now. You can click the link
Speaker 7: of my bideo and go ahead and pre order because
Speaker 7: the book comes out in January. But if you go
Speaker 7: ahead then you can pre order now you can be
Speaker 7: one of the first to get to sign a copy.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 7: So AnyWho again, happy world, begon day. I hope and
Speaker 7: pray that everybody's having the most amazing day. Okay, but
Speaker 7: even if you ain't, don't.
Speaker 2: Go messing up. Nobody else is here. Very good. Pre
Speaker 2: order my book oh very.
Speaker 7: Soon, and I mean very soon, like maybe in a
Speaker 7: week or two, I'll be announcing the book to us,
Speaker 7: So stay tuned, okay, I'll see y'all later.
Speaker 2: Love y'all.
Speaker 7: Bye.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to Malik's Bookshelf with topics on the
Speaker 3: shelf are books, culture, and community.
Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review. Check
Speaker 1: out my Instagram at Malak Books. See you next time.