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Author Rhodesia Jackson |
Pt. I
OE | ORGENA BOOKS sat down recently with Author Rhodesia Jackson to catch up on life:
OE: Thank you for taking time out to conduct this interview.
RJ: My pleasure.
OE: Let's start here: What has Rhodesia Jackson been up to? Readers want to know. They ask all the time, what is she doing? Is she writing a new book? What exactly have you been up to?
RJ: I thank you for providing this platform. I owe it to My Readers to share what's been going on in my life. So much has happened I don't know where to start. In many ways the Katrina Disaster is the line of demarcation when referencing my life. Everything stems from there.
Before I start, I have to mention what someone warned me during the early days after Katrina: not to mention that I have been even remotely effected by storm. "Don't tell anybody that or they will not want to do business with you." Suppress, deny, pretend that I wasn't operating my business from a cheesy road-side motel with a mice problem because every single part of my life in New Orleans had been wiped out. You know I didn't take that advice. I carried on business, jumping through the endless slew of hoops and red-tape to get back home, all while caring for four young children, parents, several older relatives; cleaning out, gutting and renovating properties; on top of that, rebuilding institutions and associations. My neighborhood was devastated, my church community, my children's school. My business contracts put on indefinite hold and invoices never to be recouped. For the last 8 years, I have been literally fighting for our survival in every facet that you can imagine.
OE: As a result, has your writing suffered?
RJ: I'm a writer, first and foremost. Whether it is published or produced, I write every day. It is my regiment. It's also therapeutic.
OE: Tell us about some of your projects. What you do have cooking?
RJ: I have been really taking time to learn how to navigate the new digital frontier and adapting my storytelling,and journalistic skills. And it's fascinating. In many ways, I feel that all my life experiences have been preparing me for this time. In the digital world, the playing field is more leveled. While it has given rise to digital giants, the difference here is that it about sharing. It bears an uncanny resemblance to me to the New Testament: A New World Revelation where each individual is empowered and his/her voice matters. I'm going off on a tangent. You asked about my projects, right?
OE: Yes. At one time or another, you've mentioned crossing into screenwriting?
RJ: At about 10 years old, I had an epiphany. What the nuns I who taught me in high school described as a calling. I was called to writing. After this revelation, I started writing all kinds of things.I had these instant stories inside me: book, poems, plays. Why not tv? movies? Another thing occurred at this time, my father brought me to the library to get my own library card. So I checked out the two writing books in the children's section at that time: screenwriting for tv and movies. I wrote a script but producing it became a difficult thing. It never got off the ground though I was trying to cast family members. next i wrote an adolescent novel. That didn't go any further than my godmother's desk whom I was depending on to type. Finding my way through the process would take many years -- learning to type in high school, majoring in print journalism, working in publishing. I would eventually learn how to play every instrument like Prince to produce my works.
OE: At what point did you actually get back to screenwriting?
RJ: After "Pecan Candy & Huck-a-bucks" was published and growing in popularity. It was a naturally progression in my growth. I was ready to tackle this next writing frontier and took a screenwriting class. I can save you a whole lot of money, because all we did was watch movies. That's it. The good part was that it turned me on to movies I hadn't considered as well as helped me to understand how to the visual language on the genre. It would take another decade before all the pieces came together for me. A year or so after Katrina, while juggling all those things, I brought myself to the process and wrote for 3 months and rewrote for another 3 more months (and it could use another good round of revising), but i have a finished manuscript.
OE: Tell us more about the screenplay. What should readers expect?
(Pt. II will run in next week's post).
Stay connect with Author Rhodesia Jackson:
@Rhodesiaj1
rhodesiaj
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