Hooray for all Erica Simone Turnipseed fans! If you've been hungry for a sequel to her first brilliant novel, Love Noire, then reading her delicious sophomore page-turner, Hunger is sure to satisfy your appetite for something absorbing and romantic but very intelligent.
An uncommonly talented and promising new writer, Erica Simone Turnipseed continues the cross-cultural journey when well-heeled, professional invest banker, Innocent and his bohemian, free-spirited love interest, Noire, reunite. Hearthache, identity crises, and the 9-11 tradegy fan the flames of love and lust.
Hunger is a must-have for your harvest of autumn page-turners! To make the journey more enjoyable, purchase the Love Noire/Hunger soundtrack. Visit http://www.ericasimoneturnipseed.com for details!
Carla: I noticed
that Hunger takes place during tragic day of 9/11. Why did you decide to
have the story take place during this time period?
Erica: Yes, the story begins on
9/11, with a prologue that chronicles key occurrences after the end of A Love Noire. Given
the fact that A
Love Noire presents several characters who would necessarily be
directly affected by the 9/11 terror attacks(Innocent in particular), it made
sense to begin the 
story there and explore how our main characters, Innocent and Noire, as
well as the people around them, negotiate their lives and there fractured love
for each other in the confusing and difficult months following 9/11.
Carla: I understand that during the
writing of Hunger you became pregnant and was diagnosed with HELLP
syndrome. As a result of the illness, you lost your daughter Grace Ayodele
Webb. Did you rewrite any portion of Hunger to share your feelings of loss with
your readers?
Erica: I lost Grace four days after
she was born; I was 24 weeks pregnant when I was diagnosed with HELLP Syndrome
and had to deliver her by emergency cesarean section at that time. I wrote Hunger
entirely after that experience, so I can't say that I rewrote
any portions of it to reflect my own experiences. Rather, my experiences,
including the loss of my daughter, inform some of the issues addressed in
the novel and drew me to an exploration of the themes of love, loss, and
redemption.
Carla: Will you engage in any campaigns to increase
the awareness of HELLP syndrome?
Erica: It remains to be seen how I
can best increase awareness about HELLP Syndrome. I think that the fact that I
have been talking about it and have mentioned it in several interviews and etc.
is helping to raise awareness. I'm thankful to have this platform from which I
can discuss HELLP Syndrome and other important issues.
Carla: The idea of creating a music
CD for Hunger is very innovative. What was your inspiration for creating the
cd?
Erica: My husband, Kevin Webb, had
the idea of developing A Love Noire/Hunger: The Soundtrack and is the
executive producer on the project. As he noted, I created a world in A Love Noire
and expanded it in Hunger. The Soundtrack extends that world and
gives people another, complementary experience to the books. For some, it's
their first experience of the novels and entices them to read the books. People
have been very receptive to the Soundtrack.
Carla: Hunger and Love Noire are
such wonderful books and we believe that will likely receive some requests to
adapt both stories to a movie. Have you received any such requests?
Erica: Many people have made the
same observation that you have, and we're certainly hopeful that there will be
an opportunity to translate these stories to film. We'll see if it happens!
Carla: Are you currently working on
any other literary projects? If so, will you continue to write fiction or will
you explore another genre?
Erica: My next book will
be another work of fiction--a novel--and expect that I will write many
more novels, God willing. However, I also enjoy essays, novellas, and
short stories. I hope that my writing career will be a long one and that it
will embrace different genres of writing.
Carla: Are you currently reading any
books? If so, what are they?
Erica: Because I am in the midst of
promoting Hunger,
it's been hard to read books consistently. I've got quite a backlog!
On my shortlist is the non-fiction book There Goes the 'Hood by
Lance Freeman about gentrification in Harlem in Brooklyn, as well as Edward P.
Jones's The
Known World and Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake. I keep on
picking up I
Got Somebody in Staunton, a collection of vivid and evocative short
stories by William Henry Lewis. And, as I prepare to sit back at the computer
to write, I've been looking at Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America,
Hung:
A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America, Kenji Jasper's
Dark,
and the largely unsung Harlem Renaissance novellas Quicksand and Passing
by Nella Larson. I'm also reading The Power of A Praying Woman
with the women's ministry at my church.
Carla: Who are some of your favorite
authors?
Erica: That's a hard question
because different authors' writing styles and subjects capture my imagination
at different times. The list of books that have been formative for me is long
and it certainly includes Migrations of the Heart by The Heart of a Woman.
Erica Simone Turnipseed's debut, A Love Noire, won the Atlanta Choice Author of the Year Award from the Atlanta Daily World. A philanthropist, Turnipseed founded the Five Years for the House Initiative, a fund-raising drive for the Afro American Cultural Center at Yale. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn, New York. For more about Erica Simone Turnipseed visit her website at http://www.ericasimoneturnipseed.com.