Interview with MARTI TUCKER

THE ROCK: Who is Marti Tucker, and tell us something about you?
Tucker: You asked for it: I come from Gary, Indiana, attended Roosevelt High School, then zipped on down to Fisk University, and it did take me long to marry a Meharry man--a dentist from Meharry Medical College. I trekked to California where my husband went into practice and graduated from California State University, Los Angeles with a genuine degree in education. Later, I took and finished a two-year creative writing course and studied under the world acclaimed writer, Budd Schulberg at the Watts Writer's Workshop. I have been a newspaper editor, reporter, a magazine writer, columnist, children's education writer, publisher and novelist. My husband became the mayor of an urban city for twelve years. I kept busy getting inside the people's lives, loves and pain.

THE ROCK: Where are you from and currently residing?
Tucker: I am from Gary, Indiana and presently reside in Culver City, California.

THE ROCK: Are there any other writers in the family?
Tucker: Everyone. I have four children and they're all writers--in their various fields. My daughter writes screenplays and has sold six to 4 major studios.

THE ROCK: When did you start writing?
Tucker: Truly, I believe it was before I could walk. I first remember writing at four years old--a little story with a beginning, middle and end. My mother and sisters clapped for it. In all of my careers, I never remember not writing.

THE ROCK: What prepared you to become an author?
Tucker: Writing the million pages. "A writer becomes an author when he or she has written a million pages." I read that someplace, and for the life of me, I can't remember where. But I loved that quote and kept striving to make my million pages. I don't know if I made it or surpassed it, but I know that continuous writing is the only thing that improves one to the point of being an author. I know. I know. Some people just write lovely in the very beginning, but I didn't. I had to keep looking for my voice and my structure. My shape so to speak. I think I hear a unique voice now. Do you hear me? OK. That's what I mean. Writers are only as good as their voices. You can fake a lot of stuff, when you have a recognizable voice.

THE ROCK: What inspired you to become a writer?
Tucker: I really don't know. No one in my family was a writer. They thought that stuff was for fools and children. It wasn't a real job, and it paid off in chicken feed. They were entrepreneurs. "Don't work for anybody because you'll never amount to anything. You'll be too tired when you finish giving away all of yourself." But I still wanted to write, and write I did. Everyday, in some way, somehow, at some time, I'd find me something to write. I had to write. OK. OK. I got it. I think loneliness inspired me to write. I was the youngest of seven children who were all much older than me. So I lived pretty much as an only child, and my father was dead and my mother worked. Now there. That's it.

THE ROCK: What inspired you to write your book?
Tucker: I was a mayor's wife, an avid reader, a person who wanted to know what made Black people so disrespected in this world. Well, when I came to live in the inner-city, I began to see and observe such raw division among the people. I wrote about it to try and understand it. I came to believe that division caused gang violence, social snobbery, selfishness, upper-class abandonment of the less fortunate, the uneducated, and the poor. I believe it brought cheating and lying and corruption. I tried to make sense of political life. The behind-the-scene maneuverings that got people killed and kept others poor and put others in jail while the world kept on smiling, drinking cocktails and dancing. I just had to write about it.

THE ROCK: Tell us about your newest creation. What is the premise?
Tucker: I'm always jumping ahead of your questions, but I'm not about to repeat it. The premise is that a young mayor's wife, beautiful, selfish and naive must grow up in a hurry. When her husband, a man for the people, is assassinated, she is left to carry on his ideals and find out who murdered him. She is thrust in the middle of secrets and lies, in a land where nothing is as it seems. Political maneuvers stretch all the way to the White House. I worked to show how politics affect the shoes you buy, the medical care for your baby, your job, our home, your life, the water you drink--every day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. If only I could make that clear so that people would learn to vote and know what they're voting for. Of course, we writers are to entertain--and that's what The Mayor's Wife does--entertain. We fight to elect the mayor's wife into City Hall, where all the secrets are believed to be hidden.

THE ROCK: Any publishing contracts in the working?
Tucker: I am considering an offer I have from an agent; I'm considering self-publishing my first run, just to have the fun of being free with the novel after five years of writing. I will finalize my talks with an agent and a publisher, when I'm finished with the final edit in the next month.

THE ROCK: Have you ever self-published? Why or why not?
Tucker: I am a publisher, who has published the following: The African America Survival Kit, Baby Can Read Series and The Right Combination. Yes, I will self-publish my first edition. I just want to develop my platform of helping African-Americans to overcome division and use The Mayor's Wife to show it in action. Then I'll perhaps work with a traditional publisher, or I might do like Canfield and the Chicken Soup Series and never get a traditional publisher. I have to do very well with marketing.

THE ROCK: What are "traditional publishers" looking for?
Tucker: Well, it seems that traditional publishers are looking for books that will make money. It has always been that way. And as long as Black people buy erotica like it's Jack Daniels or Chevas Regal, they'll publish erotica--Slow Burn and Somebody's Got to Be on Top, etc. It's like drugs. If Black people didn't buy drugs, we wouldn't have junkies. But everybody, it seems, has jumped on the erotica bandwagon. And publishers and self-publishers are publishing. But I am not an erotic writer. I have some romance in the Mayor's Wife, but not the graphic stuff. I think African Americans, like any Americans, can write what they want. I only hope they know the implication. People think Blacks are sex fiends--sex, sex and more sex. Well, erotic writers defend their writing, "We're causing Black teens to read for the first time." Well, if those poor teens are going to be aroused by all of that explicit sex, I think it's better they didn't read at all.

Too many, way too many of our young people are going out there shooting up people, raping girls and no one can deny that the jails are full of them. I think they need inspirational books written in a lively way to catch their imagination. They need self-help books, written with sparkle and comedy.
The youngsters I run into on the different movie sets need character building. They are rude, loud, cursing and running around with a bad understanding and a chip on their shoulders. But if you take the time to talk to them and straighten them out, they'll hang around all day. So our books need good strong characters of integrity. Yes, people do get killed in the Mayor's Wife, but a young woman comes to Christ with all of her flaws. My characters also talk business, politics, restoration and life changes too. They're not all pimps, whores and drug dealers. They show the world that we have variety in our race, just like any other race. My novel shows that our people are not all sex fiends, burglars, murderers, pimps, whores and crazy. I believe some publishers will buy any book that is intriguing enough to make people keep reading.

THE ROCK: If you were a publisher, what would be your niche and Why?
Tucker: I would definitely publish ethnic because it's difficult to sell something you don't really feel a part of. I would publish books with Black characters and target my market to the thirty and above set. No one has set them on fire. These are people with wisdom who has emotional and technical needs and no one is filling it. Find a need and fill it, and you will be successful. I would have every story to talk about healing the Black community in some fascinating way. I would reach those teen mothers who didn't know how to raise the kid she had at 14. I would teach her to get out of her ghetto mentality, and make herself and that kid whole. I would teach her an ally to a great man. Then our men would empty out of the jails, and create jobs for themselves like they do in my novel, The Mayor's Wife.

THE ROCK: For an author, is having a publishing contract with a "traditional publisher" important professionally ?
Tucker: No and yes. I say no because a contract with a "traditional publisher" is just a piece of paper that gives away your rights and gets you about 7% of gross or net sales. You might not make any money on your first book that way. I say yes because if the company is willing to give you a decent advance and commit to a decent promotion, it can help you build your career. You will still have to market your book. They will pay you 7-10% from gross or net sales. I say yes also because if the company gives you those three items, you will be given country-wide distribution. You will get more acceptance by bookstore owners. You will still have to market your book. I say no because if your goal is to become known for your writing and to make money and be in control of your rights, you don't need a "traditional" publisher. I know several millionaires who have never had a "traditional" publisher. It depends on what "the writer" wants. Today, the trend is moving towards "self publishing" because writers are tired of reading about everybody but themselves. They are forming coalitions and bookclubs to write about themselves and buy from themselves. If they gain respect in that network, it's enough.

THE ROCK: What are some of your professional and personal achievements?
Tucker: I have taught school, seminar presenter, news reporter,--covering local school board, city council, book reviewer, movie background artist, commercials--Kleenex, Wells Fargo, etc, BookPitch columnist, novelist, screenwriter, editor, Memoir, Write Place Publishing.

THE ROCK: Who are some of your favorite authors?
Tucker: Walter Mosley, Mario Puzo, Sister Souljah, Sheila Goss, Lindy Hubis, Ayn Rand, Stephen L. Carter, Scott Turow, Higgins Clark, and Danielle Steel.

THE ROCK: Where do you want to be in five years?
Tucker: Five new books and 1,000 books for great new discoveries...with the new Black story.

THE ROCK: Where can readers find you?
Tucker: writelink3@yahoo.com or www.marthatucker.com

THE ROCK: Thank you, Ms. Tucker.

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