Speaker 1: My League Books has all the knowledge you want.
Speaker 2: My League Buds has all the knowledge you need.
Speaker 1: Legs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have all the books that.
Speaker 1: The whole wild world. One up read My League Books.
Speaker 3: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Leak's bookshef bringing a world together
Speaker 3: with books, culture and community. Hi, my name is Malik,
Speaker 3: your host of Malik's Bookshelf. Well, we had a wonderful week.
Speaker 3: I lined it up last week on my last episode,
Speaker 3: so if you haven't listened to it, go back and
Speaker 3: listen to that. But our prime that style that it
Speaker 3: was called Message to My Daughter. But before we got
Speaker 3: to my thoughts and my conversation about my daughter, I
Speaker 3: talked about my big events that were taking place all
Speaker 3: last week. And one of the biggest and explosive events
Speaker 3: of last week was our event on Saturday where we
Speaker 3: hosted Grace Buyers and gave away seven hundred.
Speaker 4: Books to the community.
Speaker 3: The event was hosted by Malik Books and be sat
Speaker 3: as Black Scholars Achievement Program and Grace Buyers graced us.
Speaker 4: With her appearance and I got a chance to talk
Speaker 4: to her for my podcast. So I want to feature
Speaker 4: that interview on this one hundred and two. Yes, right,
Speaker 4: one oh two.
Speaker 3: One hundred and second episode. I want to feature that
Speaker 3: conversation I had with Grace Barers. I always get a
Speaker 3: chance if I'm able to talk with them just for
Speaker 3: a few minutes, so I could bring that conversation. You know,
Speaker 3: Grace Barers has two New York Times bestsellers, I Am Enough.
Speaker 4: And I Believe I Can.
Speaker 3: Both of those are some of the most powerful books
Speaker 3: that's been out on the market in the last four
Speaker 3: or five years, and it continues to sell because it's
Speaker 3: a message that allows represent that has represented, that allowed
Speaker 3: that has representation, and it teaches self esteem and believing
Speaker 3: in yourself as well as knowing that you are enough
Speaker 3: for you no matter what cards you're dealt in this world.
Speaker 3: So he's two powerful books that Grace Buys wrote that
Speaker 3: has impacted the book industry, and so many other books
Speaker 3: have exploded afterwards to empower people to love themselves, to
Speaker 3: know themselves, to believe in themselves, to beat themselves.
Speaker 4: And she's definite it's more than just.
Speaker 3: An actor and author, but she's an activist and those
Speaker 3: book two books have definitely made an impact throughout country
Speaker 3: and around the world. And so I'm honored to have
Speaker 3: the conversation where she came out and met all these
Speaker 3: kids out at Cleveland High School and we did a
Speaker 3: book signing and the books were free sponsored by b
Speaker 3: shide L a U s d L a U s
Speaker 3: D S School District, and she was able to meet
Speaker 3: and greet so many of our community, the kids in
Speaker 3: our community, youth in our community, teens in our community, and.
Speaker 4: We was able to give away those books.
Speaker 3: The other thing that I don't want to feature on
Speaker 3: this conflict was just explosive book signing. Will was the
Speaker 3: moderator and we hosted that League Books and it was
Speaker 3: in conversation with Ladarian Willis and his groundbreaking book Blood
Speaker 3: at the Room. Now, this is a fantasy book, a
Speaker 3: magical book that where.
Speaker 4: The main character is a black boy, and there's not
Speaker 4: a lot.
Speaker 3: Of books like that in the Indian hasn't been, and
Speaker 3: I've been in his intes for a long time. We're
Speaker 3: talking about a fantasy book where the main character is
Speaker 3: a black boy who's coming of age and who's trying
Speaker 3: to find himself and learn about his roots and the
Speaker 3: abilities that he have, his magical powers that he has,
Speaker 3: and all he's got to unravel all the mysteries and so,
Speaker 3: and he has to go to an HBCU school to
Speaker 3: learn how to and that's a black HBC Historical Black
Speaker 3: College University. As he goes, he's enrolls in one of
Speaker 3: those in Cameran University, which is an HBCU school. And
Speaker 3: so when doing the book signing, we magically transform elad
Speaker 3: Books into the official bookstore came to you, and we
Speaker 3: made people feel as though they were part of the
Speaker 3: magical experience.
Speaker 4: Where the main character in the book his name.
Speaker 3: Elite, and I'm going to be in conversation with him
Speaker 3: about this magical book, and we're going to talk about
Speaker 3: many things about the book and what he had to
Speaker 3: do to overcome the obstacles to get to a three
Speaker 3: book deal. And this is the first of the series
Speaker 3: Blood at the Root. Now this was my third moderation.
Speaker 3: I haven't had much experience doing it, but this was
Speaker 3: my third one and I hope to do many more.
Speaker 4: And so I brought the energy. I brought the electricity.
Speaker 3: Malik, the hype man of books was in full effect.
Speaker 3: So enjoy this episode where I feature my conversation with
Speaker 3: great Buyers and I feature my moderation with Ladarian Williams,
Speaker 3: the author of Blood at the Root In the last enough,
Speaker 3: I believe I can't sell lead books.
Speaker 1: What inspire you to write these wonderful books? Because these
Speaker 1: books right your mind?
Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
Speaker 6: You know, I really really wanted to write a book.
Speaker 7: That inspire children to love themselves just as they are,
Speaker 7: just as they were they were born. I do not
Speaker 7: believe that God makes mistakes, and so I wanted them
Speaker 7: su to de break all present that they were and
Speaker 7: to know that they have masage an impact books so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 8: You know, I'm glad I reached out. I would always tag.
Speaker 1: You anything I'm doing.
Speaker 2: These books stood out to me because that's why I
Speaker 2: mentioned children. That's my son on there too, and one
Speaker 2: percent without in the future.
Speaker 8: We don't have a.
Speaker 2: Future book, so we have to invest in you and
Speaker 2: teach them to love yourselves. And that's why your books laying.
Speaker 1: Such a huge impact.
Speaker 2: Are the teachers for men?
Speaker 1: Or what's the boot self?
Speaker 2: Then to themself to coming up? Thank you, you've yourself yourself.
Speaker 1: Listen, got it you?
Speaker 8: I gave them all the credit, So thank you acordingly
Speaker 8: real just say my.
Speaker 2: Podcast I'm on.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I never sold myself as a podcast, but this is
Speaker 2: the want to be on one hundred and second episode.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 9: Well.
Speaker 6: I just want to say thank you to people who
Speaker 6: are supporting the lead books. I remember seeing your pop
Speaker 6: up in the La Mall Century Since and I walked
Speaker 6: by it and I was like, oh my gosh, what
Speaker 6: I divers set up?
Speaker 4: And I walked in and I was.
Speaker 2: Like, y'all have my books.
Speaker 8: Y'all.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we can't keep out enough of s.
Speaker 2: But I believe, okay.
Speaker 6: And I looked around and I was just so just
Speaker 6: moved by all the different types of books that you had.
Speaker 5: I knew, I knew that they were specifically curated for
Speaker 5: you guys.
Speaker 7: Buy you guys, and so just keep supporting elite books.
Speaker 2: This is such a wonderful endeavor.
Speaker 8: That you're doing with your books.
Speaker 1: I mean, we need it. We need it, so thank
Speaker 1: you everything you heard it race ain't.
Speaker 2: It is so I meanesus also a free We thank
Speaker 2: these h thank you these types of partnerships.
Speaker 4: I mean fifteen I wish I haven't.
Speaker 5: Wow, that's a bus and you intentional effort.
Speaker 2: They have big postals made made.
Speaker 10: I wish I could have come, but yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 10: I told you to I said, it's a lot of
Speaker 10: time to reach out to great fives to what can do.
Speaker 2: If I'm available, I mean to strike old. So y'all
Speaker 2: get busy and.
Speaker 8: That's it. Opportunity.
Speaker 1: We finish a schedule.
Speaker 10: This is early camp and we work closely with her
Speaker 10: at b side and and you know, we us together
Speaker 10: is what how is?
Speaker 2: How became? You know, and us working as a team
Speaker 2: work makes the dream work. They understand that beside the
Speaker 2: children a woman, they want to make sure the service
Speaker 2: all you know, underserved. That's why everything is here freaking
Speaker 2: and so they walk.
Speaker 10: That way beyond and above to enrich our community with
Speaker 10: books because we competing in a world of entertainment, video games.
Speaker 2: We're competing. You know, you gotta read to achieve and readers,
Speaker 2: our leaders and leaders are readers. And you bought me,
Speaker 2: took a step and your book word them out.
Speaker 1: Tell us, Kim, tell us.
Speaker 8: What you told me about I believe it.
Speaker 2: Supervisor or someone's she is a goal for their children.
Speaker 11: Oh it's our superintendent Regin North superre Intendant doctor David Baka,
Speaker 11: who has a bi racial child and he brought this
Speaker 11: book for his daughter and.
Speaker 2: She loves it.
Speaker 11: So he was exceptionally excited when he found out that Grace.
Speaker 5: Fires was coming, and not only about the message about
Speaker 5: I am enough, but also I believe I can. Yeah,
Speaker 5: we actually instilled not only just with our African American students,
Speaker 5: but are also our African.
Speaker 1: American girls when it comes to girls in steam the
Speaker 1: science that's rilgy.
Speaker 5: Engineering and math.
Speaker 2: Yeah, where with our marginal authors.
Speaker 11: So we need to instill it at an early age.
Speaker 11: Thank you, Malie, Thank you Grace for what you do
Speaker 11: and just believing in our.
Speaker 1: Girls and believing in that week. Thank you. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for now.
Speaker 8: Maybe it's been a real pleasure today.
Speaker 1: I loved it.
Speaker 5: Y'all filled me up.
Speaker 2: You guys really killed me up.
Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you, Thank you appreciate your time.
Speaker 12: Yeah, hey, trust me, it's like pulling tea sometimes it
Speaker 12: gets you know, to come and come up to the community.
Speaker 2: You wrote a book for children, and you should be
Speaker 2: open arms to come to a setting like this. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's like.
Speaker 2: You wrote the kids.
Speaker 1: Boy, i'mna be honest.
Speaker 2: Hey, sometimes you got to do go through some nose
Speaker 2: to get to it.
Speaker 3: Yes, and we got.
Speaker 8: It's just like.
Speaker 1: Thank you. He knocked doors. No, he's not getting open
Speaker 1: some doors and he's in a night conversation. Blood the room.
Speaker 1: So that's where to carry Awayiam.
Speaker 9: Out, put around the poor and get on some love
Speaker 9: because he had to the sire.
Speaker 8: The train fell back in the shake up Polly Rood.
Speaker 1: It changed the date and lacked the street and the
Speaker 1: battle no black point not out. Who welcome, my brother?
Speaker 1: That's what's up. You know they call me the hype
Speaker 1: Man of books.
Speaker 10: You look and and I didn't wrong with that at first,
Speaker 10: but after you don't have what somebody's change.
Speaker 2: The first person to tell you something, maybe the second
Speaker 2: person say the same thing.
Speaker 10: Maybe think about it. But three people don't know each
Speaker 10: other tell you the same thing, then it might be
Speaker 10: some truth.
Speaker 9: So this is Malique, the hype mat of books, and
Speaker 9: we're gonna hype this conversation up.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about blood at the room.
Speaker 10: And my first question too, my beloved brother, is brother,
Speaker 10: what gave you the strength and the motivation to rank
Speaker 10: this timely book?
Speaker 8: Yeah? You know what game and the strength was. You
Speaker 8: always hear about the inner child, but you never hear
Speaker 8: about like the inner teenager. And when I grew up,
Speaker 8: when I was in high school. It was the big
Speaker 8: boom of white Hey, it was you know, Hunger Games,
Speaker 8: it was Twilight, and it was Divergent. But I never
Speaker 8: got to see a black kid in those stories unless
Speaker 8: we were there to propel the white man character story
Speaker 8: forward or we were killed. And through all of this,
Speaker 8: I just thought, I thought about the seventeen year old
Speaker 8: of the Ladarium. I thought about my nephew, who is
Speaker 8: a thirteen year old black boy right now who needs
Speaker 8: to see that he can be the hero of his
Speaker 8: own sword, and that he can conjure storms, he can teleport,
Speaker 8: he can, you know, make the impossible possible. And so
Speaker 8: that's what drove me for four years, cause it's been
Speaker 8: a lot of those but it it's been a lot
Speaker 8: of downs, and it's here, Like I can't. I still
Speaker 8: can't believe that it's here. So that's what kept me
Speaker 8: through it Cause I saw it. I saw my book cover.
Speaker 8: I told my friends in the group chat. I was like, y'all,
Speaker 8: I just woke up from a nap and I just
Speaker 8: haven't I just had a dream about my book cover. Yes,
Speaker 8: and so I knew if I saw it, I knew
Speaker 8: it's it's possible and it's there. I just have to
Speaker 8: get through the storm or self job again. So that's
Speaker 8: when that's what I felt.
Speaker 10: And the reality is, then, w what got you through
Speaker 10: all of these trials and tripolations then?
Speaker 1: Was going through your mind to get to this point.
Speaker 10: Because you went through some things. You lived, You came
Speaker 10: from Alabama, if you went to.
Speaker 8: College, dropped out, Yeah, p w A Israel.
Speaker 1: You end up working in Taco Bell.
Speaker 8: Bell.
Speaker 1: Then you took your last check from Taco.
Speaker 10: Bell, came to La too, what to write, produce the
Speaker 10: script and all of these things.
Speaker 8: Talk about that, Yeah, that's that's about to be nine
Speaker 8: years in two days that I, you know, packed up
Speaker 8: from Taco Bell. You know, I bought my you know,
Speaker 8: my plane ticket in the driving through, and I said,
Speaker 8: I can't do this anymore because if I stay here,
Speaker 8: I'm not gonna make it. I just didn't. I got
Speaker 8: to the point where I didn't want to exist anymore
Speaker 8: because I wasn't creating. I wasn't being in that space.
Speaker 8: So I bought a one way ticket to l A
Speaker 8: nine years ago in two days. And I'm like, and
Speaker 8: now my book is coming out to me?
Speaker 11: Is that yeah, Like I.
Speaker 8: Can't even lie, Like there were some days I couldn't
Speaker 8: even get out of bed when nobody wanted blood it
Speaker 8: through because I'm gonna be real, Like when we did
Speaker 8: the short film, I submitted to Sundance, I submitted to
Speaker 8: every single short film festival, and they all kept saying no, no, no,
Speaker 8: And I was just like, what the heck? You know,
Speaker 8: it's viral on social media, it's getting on distraction. Why
Speaker 8: are you not accepting it? And it got them so
Speaker 8: bad that I couldn't even get out of bed anymore
Speaker 8: because I was like, my friends, they risk their health
Speaker 8: to come out here and to do this short film.
Speaker 8: I spent a lot of money on the short film,
Speaker 8: the money that I didn't have, and I just didn't know.
Speaker 8: You know now, I wish I could go back and say, Ladarian,
Speaker 8: that's just you just playing seeds. It's okay. It takes time.
Speaker 8: You know, you're gonna go through the storm and it's okay.
Speaker 8: But eventually it's gonna grow. And like again, obviously it's
Speaker 8: group because I just had to pivot because Hollywood kept
Speaker 8: telling me no. They were like, we can't, we don't
Speaker 8: really connect to the voids, so we can't market this
Speaker 8: or we can't blah, blah blah, and so I was
Speaker 8: just like, Malik would not leave me alone. He would
Speaker 8: keep me up at night. He was like, my story
Speaker 8: deserves to be told, then you have to tell it.
Speaker 8: And so I was like, well, what do I do?
Speaker 8: Okay and boom. I remember my love for books. I
Speaker 8: remember reading Twilight. I remember reading Hunger Games and feeling like, yo,
Speaker 8: I kind of want super speed. I kind of want
Speaker 8: to be a sparkling vampire. I don't know why I wanted.
Speaker 8: I was trying, I don't judge you, and so yeah,
Speaker 8: but I remember again, I remember that. So I was
Speaker 8: just like, Okay, keep going with there. It's gonna happen
Speaker 8: one way or another. Because when an idea bothers you
Speaker 8: like that, it's it's supposed to be told, like if
Speaker 8: there's a I don't know if the ancestors guy whoever
Speaker 8: is supposed to be told. So I just kept going
Speaker 8: and I'm sad I'm listening to Malik.
Speaker 1: The character in the book is Malik man'lit. So so
Speaker 1: I love reading the book. I felt like I was
Speaker 1: reading a.
Speaker 10: Little bit about myself because Maliite, you know, he had
Speaker 10: a lot of challenges in his life and he overcame it,
Speaker 10: just like you overcame some of your challenges.
Speaker 1: So talk about you know, what is it about this.
Speaker 10: Character, Maliite that you kept you up, kept you few,
Speaker 10: and kept you wanting to fulfill this desire to bring
Speaker 10: this out.
Speaker 8: Yeah. I think he just wanted to be connected to something.
Speaker 8: I think when, especially with black people in this country,
Speaker 8: our history has been ripped away from us, and then
Speaker 8: when we try to celebrate it or practice it, it's
Speaker 8: demonized in you know, in Hollywood and media and all that.
Speaker 8: So I think he really wanted to just be connected.
Speaker 8: And it's so powerful to see this black boy, you know,
Speaker 8: meet his grandmother on the same soil that his ancestors
Speaker 8: fought in death led on and she's teaching him the
Speaker 8: ways of his ancestors and magic, and she's instilling in him,
Speaker 8: you know, that he is good and that he is beautiful,
Speaker 8: because a lot of times black boys are not told that,
Speaker 8: they're not told that you're good, that you that you
Speaker 8: belong here. And so to have his grandmother and we
Speaker 8: all know, like a lot of a lot of us
Speaker 8: from the South were raised by our grandmothers, and we
Speaker 8: all sat at the feet of her, and we all
Speaker 8: learned the wisdom of God, and we all we learned
Speaker 8: the ways of our ancestors through church, through song, through
Speaker 8: the Answer, through anything. And so to have that and
Speaker 8: to give that to this young boy that we don't
Speaker 8: get to see a lot of NYA fantasy, it's something special.
Speaker 8: And that's what I kept telling Hollywood and publishers. I'm like,
Speaker 8: it's not about the focal point of his story. Wasn't
Speaker 8: about him dealing with, you know, police brutality and racism,
Speaker 8: even though those stories are important, I didn't want that
Speaker 8: because I was tired of seeing young black boys being
Speaker 8: killed in books and on TV all the time. And
Speaker 8: it was just like, why can't they have the you know,
Speaker 8: the the some affairs, Why can't they have the epic romances,
Speaker 8: the magic that I kept asking those questions and nobody
Speaker 8: could give me an answer.
Speaker 1: What, Well, this says a lot about your character and
Speaker 1: being in you person.
Speaker 8: Then now your desab was to create a script.
Speaker 1: Now you took classes and writing. Okay, Well, I went
Speaker 1: on U c.
Speaker 8: L A's website and saw that they had books, and
Speaker 8: then I went to Amazon and got it for cheap.
Speaker 1: Self talk.
Speaker 8: I am a college drop, but that's okay.
Speaker 1: Because you know there are many rags for witches that
Speaker 1: will drop out.
Speaker 10: But that's the thing about books, is that anything that
Speaker 10: you want to beat you can find in a book exactly.
Speaker 1: And that's what you did your self, taught you talked
Speaker 1: to some how to write the script.
Speaker 8: Yeah, thanks the true Blood. I found the script got
Speaker 8: holes and shout out to Alan Barb. Yeah, I took
Speaker 8: the Yeah. I was back holder and I was writing
Speaker 8: scripts in the middle of drive through. I will pack
Speaker 8: people's tacos and put my out and hide and various
Speaker 8: sauce on it and gay thank you, and then I'll
Speaker 8: go back to writing my scripts in the middle of
Speaker 8: the drive They're like, what are you doing. I'm like,
Speaker 8: I'm writing a script and people are like you right,
Speaker 8: I'm like yeah, and he's like, that's what you want
Speaker 8: to do. I'm like, yea, I'm going up. Got let
Speaker 8: In a couple of days, I get on my line
Speaker 8: literally in the middle of the job that my cowork
Speaker 8: is likely Dan's writing again.
Speaker 11: He's right.
Speaker 8: But I just couldn't stop writing, Like something in me
Speaker 8: really just I just had so many stories to tell.
Speaker 8: It was burning inside.
Speaker 10: And I mean, I'm sure Minia can relate to that,
Speaker 10: and I think that's important to hear someone that has
Speaker 10: went through that type of obstacles and desire to bring
Speaker 10: forth his baby. But at the root, now you thought
Speaker 10: it was gonna be from a writing script and producing
Speaker 10: maybe a movie or TV series, and the book came
Speaker 10: out as half the thought.
Speaker 8: Yeah again, we did the short film and Nobody Nobody
Speaker 8: in Hollywood and it was the pandemic. So I was
Speaker 8: a little dramatic too. But when things started, when things
Speaker 8: started opened up, I was seeing everybody getting stamped on
Speaker 8: TV shows and people are selling shots, and I was
Speaker 8: like in Netflix with their Coming of Age thems, I
Speaker 8: was like, where are the black kids? Like Black kids
Speaker 8: deserve coming to HM too. But when I pivoted, I
Speaker 8: was gonna self publish it. I was going to self
Speaker 8: publish the book. I was going to work eighteen twenty
Speaker 8: hours a day doing live to pay for because when
Speaker 8: you self published, you gotta pay for the editors, the artists,
Speaker 8: for them to put it in a book form. We
Speaker 8: gotta pay for everything. And when I was working with
Speaker 8: my editor, shout out to Marco Weston, She's a black
Speaker 8: woman from back and Rouge Louisiana she said, look here,
Speaker 8: you can't self publish this. You got to traditionally publish
Speaker 8: this because we need a story like this. And I
Speaker 8: was like, nah, I'm good publishing. And I was really
Speaker 8: mad because it was a lot going on in America.
Speaker 8: It was a civil unrest, it was protest, and I
Speaker 8: was just like, we're publishing does not want a story
Speaker 8: about a black boy unless he's dealing with racism. And
Speaker 8: she was like, no, you got to. You gotta gotta
Speaker 8: get it right, get it right. And so she helped
Speaker 8: me edit it. She got me she helped me write
Speaker 8: a query letter, so queery letters, you know, like a
Speaker 8: cover letter to it agent. And I started sending him
Speaker 8: out and I was getting a little petty because I
Speaker 8: was getting rejections. And I was like, see, I told you,
Speaker 8: I told you publish. She does not want this because
Speaker 8: I kept being told we love the story, but we
Speaker 8: can't connect to the boys. We don't know how to
Speaker 8: market this, we don't know, we don't know what he's
Speaker 8: a black boy, he doesn't deal with racism, what like,
Speaker 8: we don't want this. And she was like, keep going,
Speaker 8: keep going, and you know, in July August twenty twenty one, yeah,
Speaker 8: twenty twenty one. I saw him with my agent, Peter
Speaker 8: Now and he took a chance on it, and he
Speaker 8: was like, yeah, we're going to sell this. We want
Speaker 8: to sell this. So so yeah, that's how we've pivoted to.
Speaker 10: The lesson is sometimes we don't see an opportunity when
Speaker 10: it's right in front of Sometimes we're going down a
Speaker 10: different road, but only to lead back on the.
Speaker 1: Road where you needed to begin. Because now you got.
Speaker 9: A book and it's published, and you got a three
Speaker 9: book deal. Listen, we got something in common. We both
Speaker 9: broke over.
Speaker 8: To Okay, it barely did that. Sorry, So yeah, I was.
Speaker 8: I was in Chicago. I got it. So it looked
Speaker 8: during like the Christmas break. And when in Christmas break,
Speaker 8: publishing in Hollywood shuts down for like it feels like
Speaker 8: for three years because when we went on when we
Speaker 8: went on break, we were all my last batch of editors,
Speaker 8: and I was like, okay again because everybody, every publisher
Speaker 8: kept saying no, and I was like, Okay, the gang,
Speaker 8: it's time to break up with this book. It's time
Speaker 8: to let it go, like because I can't keep getting
Speaker 8: my heart broken over the story. And when I was
Speaker 8: in Chicago, I was working on a play. Shout out
Speaker 8: to Milly for getting my play into Chicago. I got
Speaker 8: a call from my agent. He said, hey, we got
Speaker 8: an offer, but they kind of loan balled you, and
Speaker 8: I know you want a three book deals and they
Speaker 8: only offered you too, and I was like, I need
Speaker 8: a three book deal. And so once, you know, once
Speaker 8: other editors find out like oh wait, he got he
Speaker 8: has an offer, then that's when they want to jump
Speaker 8: in and auctioning. So I got back from Chicago. I
Speaker 8: was doing lift. I was angry. I was just depressed.
Speaker 8: I was like, oh my god, I'm tired of driving
Speaker 8: drop people around in lag I was in the middle
Speaker 8: of downtown. I don't know where I was, but I
Speaker 8: was in the middle of downtown and my agent called
Speaker 8: me and he never calls so he owned emails. And
Speaker 8: I was like, let me swerve over. You know, I
Speaker 8: dodged a few and come and travel goes. Sorry. I
Speaker 8: swerved over to the right and I get into the
Speaker 8: phone and he was like hanging the game, and I
Speaker 8: was like, what's up, Like what's going on? He was like,
Speaker 8: I'm happy to tell you that you sold Blooded through
Speaker 8: a three book deal to Pingland, random House, give it up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And.
Speaker 8: I was like, he was like, yeah, you know, he's
Speaker 8: so like, yeah, you know, we're gonna get the details,
Speaker 8: we're gonna get the contract. We don't get everything. I
Speaker 8: was like, oh okay, and he got off the call
Speaker 8: and I turned off my lift app and I drove
Speaker 8: all the way from downtown to North Collegood in LA
Speaker 8: traffic and just said, I sold the freaking booking. And
Speaker 8: I started prying in the Rocks parking line.
Speaker 1: Happy tears, yeah, happy, happy ti.
Speaker 8: Yeah. That was January nineteen, twenty twenty three. I sold
Speaker 8: the book.
Speaker 10: And then you should never forget that changed your life,
Speaker 10: changed my life, man, this last week, man, you was
Speaker 10: growing up.
Speaker 1: I mean with LA times. People say out to interview,
Speaker 1: was said day man.
Speaker 8: Yeah out of that field, shout out to my PR Michael.
Speaker 8: That's ain't no r right now. He is. He changed
Speaker 8: my life. He's changing my life and he's hungry as
Speaker 8: I am. And what I loved about talking with him,
Speaker 8: I said, hey, I have big dreamers and I know
Speaker 8: this might sound crazy, but I want my book. And
Speaker 8: I was like, I want my booking deadline. I want
Speaker 8: my book on the John Botrana in New York. I wanted.
Speaker 8: I went everywhere, and he was like, that's why, let's
Speaker 8: let's do it. Because I'm a I'm all about don't
Speaker 8: tell me like you know, it's not it's not possible
Speaker 8: for a debut author. Just ask. That's all I'm asking
Speaker 8: you to do is ask. All they could do is
Speaker 8: say no. And he's been don't get fast exactly. He
Speaker 8: started asking. People were like, oh wow, like this is
Speaker 8: an interesting story. And once one thing picked up, it's
Speaker 8: literally like a spark. That's what he said today to me.
Speaker 8: He's like, it's one spark and now we build people.
Speaker 8: And then La Times called him and say, hey, we
Speaker 8: want to interview him, we want to feature his book.
Speaker 8: And I was just like I was in the La
Speaker 8: La is one in Atlanta. I was like, I'm in
Speaker 8: the La Times. My book is right here. And just
Speaker 8: three years ago I was in the bed, depressed and
Speaker 8: seeing nobody wants the story. And now La Times picked
Speaker 8: up the people and we got some other big things
Speaker 8: I can't announce.
Speaker 1: But yeah, never doubt yourself. You know, I don't care.
Speaker 1: You know what trials, trivilation you go through if you
Speaker 1: want to succeed.
Speaker 10: You got to go through those storms and you know,
Speaker 10: you might got to go through a thousand notes to
Speaker 10: get to that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and then I know you learned.
Speaker 8: From that I did. Yeah again, pivot always, you know,
Speaker 8: don't be afraid to pivot, don't be afraid to detour.
Speaker 8: And the detour might take a little bit while longer.
Speaker 8: That's okay. That's why they sing that song just a
Speaker 8: little while longer, like it's okay, it's gonna come because
Speaker 8: you never know, because there are always people. Your name
Speaker 8: is gonna be spoken in rooms that you never entered,
Speaker 8: and so you never know. Because people were watching, they
Speaker 8: were like, oh, we saw your book, we saw your book,
Speaker 8: we saw that tweet, we saw your TikTok. And I
Speaker 8: was like, well, I don't get the engagement, but okay,
Speaker 8: but they were like, no, we saw it and we
Speaker 8: and that's why we that's why we're featuring you. So
Speaker 8: it's just you know, you never know, just playing those 's.
Speaker 8: Don't be afraid, you know, if you want to write
Speaker 8: a book, dancing, whatever you want to do, don't be afraid.
Speaker 8: And people telling me, no, that's all right, produce it yourself.
Speaker 8: Do out there and do it yourself, because once you
Speaker 8: start doing it yourself, that's when they gonna want to
Speaker 8: come and say, hey, I see you're doing it. Let
Speaker 8: me let me jump on it.
Speaker 10: So, you know, well, let's talk a little little book.
Speaker 1: This new book just came out to date a Root. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what what does title mean? And how did you come
Speaker 1: up with you?
Speaker 8: Yeah? I don't I think I named it like heritage
Speaker 8: or something like something. I thought it was powerful at
Speaker 8: the time. But I was listening to Billie Holliday's song
Speaker 8: and it was in the middle of like the Black
Speaker 8: Lives Matter. I was like, Okay, she says blood on
Speaker 8: the lead, blood on blood at the route, and I
Speaker 8: was like, what does that really mean? Because we always
Speaker 8: hear but nobody could ever ask. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 8: it's about we all know what it means actually, because
Speaker 8: it's about the lynchings, right that happened in American Town.
Speaker 8: But I was like, no, I want to replain that
Speaker 8: and flip it on his head. And also there's a
Speaker 8: line in the short film and in the script that
Speaker 8: Mamayah says to Malik, you know, you know you there,
Speaker 8: you know there's a root in you and you could
Speaker 8: you if you plant bitter seeds, then the root's gonna
Speaker 8: grow and then there's and the magic of resilience is
Speaker 8: in your blood. And when she said that, I was like, blood, okay, root, blood,
Speaker 8: and then I remember that's all blood at the root,
Speaker 8: and so I just I decided to flip it on
Speaker 8: his head and reclaim it as a powerful saying it is.
Speaker 10: It is powerful because I think I heard you say
Speaker 10: blood represents you know, Elik in his life, and the
Speaker 10: roots represent legacy ancestors because you know, we didn't get
Speaker 10: here overnights.
Speaker 8: You know, we have ancestors.
Speaker 1: So and I love that because that's one of the
Speaker 1: things here at Malique Books. We say Malique Books and
Speaker 1: then on the bottom and says we got these roots.
Speaker 8: And it's called our roots are strong.
Speaker 1: So you know I connected Malik is the character and
Speaker 1: then he got the root.
Speaker 10: I said, man, this is destiny for us to have
Speaker 10: this conversation, you know, because our roots are.
Speaker 1: Strong, our legacy is strong.
Speaker 10: And I think that that's one of the strong points
Speaker 10: of your book, his Malik's legacy, his ancestry.
Speaker 8: Yeah, his ancestry again, because they're really cracking down on
Speaker 8: being in black history and classrooms and just in America
Speaker 8: in general. So we need our historians, we need our griels,
Speaker 8: we need the storytellers to keep on telling our stories
Speaker 8: because they're they're trying to erase them. And so that's
Speaker 8: what I because I remember I put something in the
Speaker 8: book in our spoiler, but the Haitian Revolution because I
Speaker 8: never learned about it until like my twenties, and I
Speaker 8: was like, wait, what, I grew up in Alabama school
Speaker 8: system and that's all right, we have to studied more harder.
Speaker 8: So I wanted to. I wanted to this Black Wood
Speaker 8: to experience Black history up and personal. He goes through time,
Speaker 8: he learns where he comes from, and he has that gift.
Speaker 8: But he you know, either he's going to go down
Speaker 8: the wrong path or the good path. But by my eyea,
Speaker 8: his grandmother can't control that. Yeah, so that's that's what
Speaker 8: I want to, you know, implement him stories ancestry. You know,
Speaker 8: our ancestors are always with us, but at the end
Speaker 8: of the day, we still do what we want to do.
Speaker 10: So yes, yes, yes, what was your non negotiable when
Speaker 10: you got this book?
Speaker 8: There? I was really I was really old with my
Speaker 8: editor Lisa Aroun before she even sent over the contract
Speaker 8: and she was like, well, you know, is there anything
Speaker 8: else that I said, Yeah, we gotta have a black
Speaker 8: boy in the cover and he has to be alone.
Speaker 8: There's no there's nobody else. And she she was like okay.
Speaker 8: And I was like, that's like a non negotiable because
Speaker 8: imagery is so powerful, because I remember when I walked
Speaker 8: in Offense but Parts and no Boy in Burbany, and
Speaker 8: I remember when I walked in and I asked the clerk,
Speaker 8: I said, hey, where's the Why are you fantasy books
Speaker 8: with black boys? And she she looked and I looked
Speaker 8: and she looked at me and she was like, oh
Speaker 8: my god, I really don't have any. And I was like,
Speaker 8: that's when I got to write it. And I just
Speaker 8: think about that moment all the time. And so I
Speaker 8: told my editor he has to be a black boy
Speaker 8: in a hoodie because I did it on purpose. And
Speaker 8: so it was so interesting because this cover is not
Speaker 8: the original cover. So shout out to Oliver Smith parent
Speaker 8: who plays the League in the short film. I called
Speaker 8: him one day. I said, bro, like my my poet
Speaker 8: are saying, you know, they don't, they don't. They're trying
Speaker 8: to take over kind of like the cover. I was like,
Speaker 8: I need a day of yours on a Saturday, and
Speaker 8: we need to go shoot photos of you just doing magic.
Speaker 8: We lived like one hundred candles. I had to light
Speaker 8: og and they're blow them out and we're practical, feeling
Speaker 8: go and we shot for like I think it's like
Speaker 8: four like four to six hours. Wow. And there was
Speaker 8: one photo actually was back here that inspired the book cover,
Speaker 8: and the designer she was like, oh my gosh, I
Speaker 8: love that. Can I use that photo? And she used
Speaker 8: it and that's how the book cover came to be.
Speaker 8: And that's why we see a black boy on the
Speaker 8: front cover because I knew and I knew that they
Speaker 8: were going to try to you know, it's publishers. They
Speaker 8: try to white watch stuff, and so I was like,
Speaker 8: that's what I need, and so she they decided to
Speaker 8: put a black boy, and they took a big risk
Speaker 8: on that because a lot there's not a lot of
Speaker 8: white A books with black boys on the front cover.
Speaker 1: I would know bookstore, And you're correct, and that was
Speaker 1: old of you, and I applaud you.
Speaker 10: You made us stand because we do need to see
Speaker 10: more pictures with strong black boys.
Speaker 8: Now.
Speaker 10: I started out as a black boy. In fact, you know,
Speaker 10: I collaborated with thirty.
Speaker 1: Other black men in a book called Heart of a
Speaker 1: Black Man, Stories of Triumph.
Speaker 10: And Resilience, and my chapter was called from Devastation to Elevation,
Speaker 10: and I talked about myself as a young black boy
Speaker 10: and not being different than any.
Speaker 1: Other black boy, but just going through.
Speaker 10: Society not knowing who and what I am and my
Speaker 10: purpose and the things that I got caught.
Speaker 8: Up in along the way.
Speaker 1: But I was able to still find a certain gift
Speaker 1: in myself. My magical power was I found deep.
Speaker 8: In me that I was fast. I was real fast.
Speaker 8: And it took me.
Speaker 1: All all the way to USC on the track scholarship,
Speaker 1: and all the way.
Speaker 10: To that nineteen eighty four Olympics. You know, I had
Speaker 10: to keep the time, but I discovered that gift. We
Speaker 10: all got gifts, they buried deep. You gotta find it.
Speaker 1: Those are magical powers. This is within you. But the
Speaker 1: only bringing out without visiting came in you and listening
Speaker 1: to the.
Speaker 10: Instructors who they had to teach you that you are somebody,
Speaker 10: You are special, you are magical, you have power, and
Speaker 10: that's how we all develop and get to what we get.
Speaker 10: And so as a young a black boy, I had
Speaker 10: a lot of obstacle. But like I said, my chapter
Speaker 10: was called from Devastation to Elevation, and.
Speaker 1: It's no different than your story. You know, you went
Speaker 1: through a lot, but you found your way and gave
Speaker 1: burn to blood at the root and were too.
Speaker 8: Right. All right?
Speaker 10: So what's the final thoughts you would like to tell
Speaker 10: the audience before we bring this tool clothes you can
Speaker 10: get to book sign it.
Speaker 8: Yes, And I tell this to executives all the time.
Speaker 8: Sorry Insteace, I do I get fired up in the
Speaker 8: eighties when you see black, when you see us black
Speaker 8: people creatives sharing our work on Instagram and Twitter and
Speaker 8: social media, please share it, please retweet it, because they
Speaker 8: are rebooting a lot of stuff and they're not including
Speaker 8: black stories. So please pull up for us. We hear
Speaker 8: a lot of times as black creatives. We want black fantasy,
Speaker 8: we want black sci fight, we want black this. But
Speaker 8: you gotta pull up. We gotta pull up for them.
Speaker 8: And sharing is free ninety nine and retweeting is free
Speaker 8: ninety nine. So and if you have money to support,
Speaker 8: please do that because we are out here writing them.
Speaker 8: We are out here trying to sell them, and we're
Speaker 8: pitching them, but we need people to pull up because
Speaker 8: publishing in Hollywood, they look at It's like the reason why, really,
Speaker 8: I got to publish he Deals because my agents sent
Speaker 8: them my TikTok that with god over a million views.
Speaker 8: I ain't talking about the blood. So please pull up
Speaker 8: when black creators are posting their work and yeah, because
Speaker 8: we're out here writing the stories that y'all want to see. Wow,
Speaker 8: give it up.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to Malak's bookshelf, where topics on the
Speaker 3: shelf are books, culture, and community.
Speaker 4: Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review.
Speaker 2: Check out my instagram at Malak Books.
Speaker 4: See you next time.