Mocha Girls Read is taking time out to chat with a published author. We have asked HonMag PR to help us get in contact with authors and see if they would be willing to sit down and chat with us.
HonMag PR is was founded in 2018 by Tia Kelly, HonMag PR specializes in promoting novels that contain at least one main character who is a person of color.
Today we are pouring a cup of coffee and sitting down to chat with author Tiye Love.
Who’s Tiye Love?
I recalled reading romance ever since I was a young child and would sneak and read the Western love stories my grandmother kept on her bedside table. Although I didn’t understand half of the words I read at the time, something about those books captured my attention. As I grew older, my love of romance expanded to other genres, and I became a fan of anything remotely related to reading and books, such as libraries, bookstores, and the coffeeshop around the corner. I loves to travel and have lived in several cities, including New Orleans, Washington D.C., and Houston, and finds inspiration for my stories from every place I’ve had the fortune to visit or inhabit.
I want my readers to escape their realities and embark on a journey of self-exploration and love when they delve into my books. I’ve loved reading fiction, thrillers, and romance for years. Although my original (and still) writing interest was YA and self-help books, I received a surprise text one Valentine’s Day, and wrote the very first chapter of a romance novel that day. And I became forever inspired to write spicy love stories – with a twist.
Welcome, Tiye. Thank you so much for joining us today and for being our first author. We have a few questions we would love to ask you. The rules are simple. You MUST answer 10 questions. You can pass at any time and we will pull another question but you must answer 10 of them.
MGR: What’s your favorite childhood book?
TL: It’s actually a play, A Raisin in the Sun. I would read the play aloud and pretend to be each character. I didn’t truly understand it until I was much older, but I would have to say that’s what stood out to me. Of course, I read Judy Blume, Beverly Clearly, and Encyclopedia Brown stories.
MGR: I was a Judy Blume fan too. Does writing energize or exhaust you?
TL: I could be dead tired and wanting to sleep but I find myself in front of my computer with another idea. Writing is my passion and it completely energizes me.
MGR: Now that is passion! Cause, when I’m tired, ain’t nothing coming between me and my bed. Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
TL: Honestly, I try to be a mix. I want to be original and still appeal to a variety of audiences and I think some of my work can be construed as contemporary romance and some have said more like urban lit because some of my characters use a lot of profanity and language may be more vulgar than contemporary.
MGR: Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?
TL: I can only speak my truth and there’s no way you can write in such a way readers experience what your characters feel without putting your emotions into your work.
MGR: Tiye, how did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
TL: I think I try to write stories more quickly because I like the whole process (okay, maybe not the marketing so much, LOL) from finishing a manuscript to choosing a cover to seeing the finished product. I’m also probably more critical since I’m exposing more of my work to the world.
MGR: What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?
TL: Honestly both Toni Morrison and Zora Neal Hurston. I had to reread them when I was an adult to understand how prophetic and deep these authors were. I read them as a youth and didn’t understand the hype. Crazy when I think it of it now. LOL.
MGR: What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
TL: The way I interpret this question, I recall when I was in the fifth grade, my white teacher asked students who were interested in the gifted program to raise their hands so that we could bring permission forms home to our parents. I raised my hand and of the hands raised, she told me to
put my hand down and said, “I wasn’t smart enough” and didn’t give me a form. For years afterward in the back of my mind, I never felt smart enough. It wasn’t until I was in college and read the Autobiography of Malcom X when Malcolm described a similar experience as a child
that I understood that her words, that language had scarred me deeper than any physical wound. But it was also language from Alex Haley’s book that healed me.
MGR: Tell us what you think literary success look like to you.
TL: Literary success means to be able to be a full-time writer so that I can explore all my various interests I have in several genres. It means that I continue to grow and write stories that are both entertaining, inspiring and that readers hopefully learn something about themselves during their escape with my books.
MGR: Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
TL: I do read reviews and there’s a part of me that wants to rebuke them so that I’m not affected by the bad ones. Don’t get me wrong, I believe criticism can be a good thing but not when it’s done simply to hurt. I read reviews and discern based on their statements or critique is it helpful to my growth as a writer and can use it moving forward, or should I just trash that particular reader’s opinion. Bottom line, every person isn’t going to like my work no matter how much I believe in my writing.
MGR: What was your hardest scene to write?
TL: My hardest scene thus far was a fight scene between two brothers who had serious sibling rivalry and had been building up between them for years in Forbidden Secrets. I don’t write action stories and I was all in my feelings as I wrote it, had to read some Eric Jerome Dickey, his Gideon character, and James Patterson to help. I do plan to write an action romance story in the future because it was a thrill writing it (once I got over my reservations).
MGR: Any last words and let our readers know how to get in touch with you.
Please take a ride with me, Tiye Love and hold on to your hearts! I invite you to check out my website and join my newsletter at www.tiyelovebooks.com, and follow me on FB @Tiye Love Books, and/or on my IG @tiye28always
Thank you so much for joining us and spending time with us.
Other Books by Tiye Love
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