September 30, 2025 • 29 mins
Teri McCready talks to Author Darius Myers in a new series called "Reading the Room."
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Reading the Room on the Black Information Network, and I
am especially excited to be speaking with the author of
the Black Camelot book series today, Darius Myers. Thanks for
joining us today, Darius.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Terry, thank you so much for having me. This is
a real privilege on I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
It is a pleasure, Darius.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
And So just to offer a bit of a preamble
to this absolutely stunning, consumptuous collection of yours. The series
centers around opulence. There's intrigue and power. It's New York edginess,
it's gritty, a little something for everybody. Obviously, there's racism,
(00:42):
all dripping in suspense. So tell us more about what
exactly sparked your inspiration and take us through the storytelling
and writing process.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Ok. Sure, sure, Well, Like as I've come to know,
most writers have ideas, they just don't have that moment,
and and I've had several moments. I am a representative
(01:16):
of the characters that I've created in this series. And
one of the themes that I started with that really
kind of led to the to the entire series was
me being a an executive, a media executive on the
(01:36):
sales and marketing side at tier one destined class, world
class companies, and I was always the only black person
and quite honestly the only person of color in the room.
(01:59):
And so at one point I decided I was running
a really huge piece of business or categories of business
at Gannett USA today superstar blah blah blah. But it
was a burnout job, and I decided that I was
(02:23):
going to just walk away. But I was a journalism major,
and I always fancied myself as a writer who just
kind of sold out to be a businessman. And so I,
as a lark, I decided to apply two top three
(02:47):
or four business schools and if I would get into one,
I would I would, I would just ponder it and see.
And so I ended up getting accepted to the Kellogg
School at Northwest and which is the number one marketing
(03:11):
MBA program in the world, and at that time was
ranked and it's always been a top five school, but
it was ranked number one or forever for about six
seven years straight down. I know you did this at
(03:32):
a lot, but you can't.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
First of all, I have to say, Darius, I love
how you invoked the plan B businessman.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Options down so as I did, calling me because they
knew what I was doing. All to me was the
publisher topic. You said, I know what you're doing. I
know you'll leave for a while, but you got to
come back to work somewhere, so give us some consideration.
And so I did. And when I was coming back
(04:10):
to interview for jobs or what role I would take,
I would eventually ended up working at Fortune running a
marketing team. I had to come back to New York
to meet with this woman at at an ad agency
to see if I could help her figure out stuff
(04:35):
and essentially be the liaison between Time Ink and her
and Sports Illustrated was a Time Ink or Time Warner property,
and Fortune was a Time Warner property. Well terry. The
woman made me wait five hours, wait five hours to
meet with her. Oh and and honestly, I was, I was,
(05:01):
I was. I was like, you know, Darius, you've been
doing this for a while. You know what you're doing.
The reason that you're sitting here waiting for this woman
and Time Warners has been recruiting you for two years.
(05:21):
Essentially my entire time in business school is because you
got a decent name. And so I you know, I
was like, I don't think this is where my future lives.
So that was thirty years ago, and and and at
that time, I just I was flying back on a plane,
(05:47):
and those characters in the first book in the series,
The Publisher's Dilemma, were birthed on a plane ride. I
put the I put the book down. I put it down.
I was just gradually or slowly writing it, and and
I was busy just managing my career. Here I can
(06:15):
talk more and more and more about it, but I
wont be too long winded. I know you have listeners here,
so I don't be too long winded with with that explanation.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Your story is a fascinating one, Darius. I have to say,
so far, your journey sounds completely atypical from what from
what most people would experience.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Darius, are you there.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, I'm here. I see We've got to disconnected for
a second.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Oh okay, okay, I just wanted to be sure.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
No, no, what I was saying was what you've described
is a fairly I would guess, fairly atypical experience.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
For Yeah, I guess I'm an a type personality, right,
So you know, I knew I was going to have
to do something, and I enjoy telling stories. I mean,
(07:26):
that's what that's what you know I did. I was
just doing it for products and and for magazines and newspapers,
and it was all business speak. And so you know,
I guess if you could write a story, if I
(07:47):
could write the story of me being the only person
of color in the room and how I never got
to feel the joy of the workplace, I could write
that book, you know. But a and and and and there,
(08:10):
and there is a place for how to books. But uh,
one of the beauties of having time to be in
a lab so to speak, in graduate school and even
afterwards was was was I had a moment to just
(08:31):
kind of tap into my creative self. And I was like, well,
you know, don't write that book. You know, let it
be like a murder mystery. You know. Let let that guy,
you know, use his power, this black guy that kind
of begins to climb the ranks, and he and he
(08:52):
faces his his his dilemma, his personal dilemma as to
how he's going to reach back and pull up and
pull other black folks with him. And when he does it,
I decided that you know what, all hell's gonna break loose. Now,
(09:13):
it's all gonna everybody around him are going to just
go crazy. And so that's what happened in the book.
And as I wrote it, it just came together and
and it became fun to do creating the characters. And
(09:35):
when I had some people look at it, they're like, wow,
this is really good. I had a book editor edited
for me, and she did more serious works, and she
said to me, Garius and I don't read stuff like this.
This is a treat. And so that you know, that
(09:57):
was ten years before again I decided to start publishing
my works because I was being that a type personality
and just focusing on making a living as opposed to
(10:20):
exploring this world of book selling and book marketing, which
is as smart as I think I am as a
brand new frontier a world never traveled for me, and
it's been really, really a challenge.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Well, okay, so your.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Books, your book Sterious are certainly progressive in the stories,
in the story making blacks at the centerpiece of this narrative,
and uniquely right now, it seems like, at least in
recent pop culture.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
We're seeing more of that idea.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
And I look at as an example, Ralph Laurence oak
Bluff's I Don't know, if you saw that fashion spread
last season that featured the prominence and wealth and black
elegance of these families in the inkwell, so I felt
like this was an insightful vignette of black American life.
It's contemporary America that we just don't see enough, nearly
(11:22):
enough in the spotlight, if at all. And so your books,
to me are kind of an extension of that where
people are looking at hey, wow, there are black people
like this in America owning media empires as opposed to
being you know, the exception. Now it's more like the rule.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah I can you hear me?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I sure can?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Okay, Yeah, you know I I wanted to, yes, you know,
I wanted to bring attention to those kinds of characters
and those kinds of humans, because we are there and
(12:14):
they are there. But I didn't want it to be
done and to to amplify and and over the top
way this eliteness, that that that escapes and the opportunity
(12:38):
that escapes a lot of people who look like us,
because navigating through these landminds are are very very very difficult.
And as an example of such as presentative of such,
(13:01):
you can see just how few people make it to
you know, the C suite, right, and and it very
much looks like a pyramid. In any industry. There are
a lot of people who may get entry level, mid
level management roles and as they as you moved to
(13:25):
the top levels, it gets it gets harder and harder.
So I really wanted my characters to to to focus
on their accountability and responsibility of such. So, for example,
in my second in the second novel, Black Camelots Dawn,
(13:47):
where they are they they are named Got Them's Black Camelots.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Are you talking about Madam hot Temper Darius.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Madam hot Temper, Madam hot temp for is is my girl?
But no, it's not her, It's it's uh, because she's
she's an interesting one. She she comes back, She comes
back to to to Got Them after after serving a
jail sentence because because her husband was a bit of
(14:22):
a cat, uh and so she catches him prowling in
a place that he wasn't supposed to be and and
so so she ends up going away upstate as as
we would say in most places, uh, for some confinement
(14:43):
for a few years. But but she comes back and
her true character and her and her warm and pleasant
and dear personality is revealed. But she's a beauty, she's fetching,
she's smart, she's she's as as the young ones would say,
(15:07):
she's all that very much. So, but and but and it.
But in the in the second book, uh, they convince
the head of the Harris Simmons Media Company h to
start a living will to support black colleges and black causes.
(15:29):
And so that's their life's work, right, That's supposed to
be their responsibility is going out and changing the world.
So these are really mindful characters who know what they're
supposed to do now, you know. Uh, And and this
(15:51):
would not be a spoiler alert because I like this
part of the works when they all are also made
members of And this is fiction, right, so you know,
getting beyond sort of like the the you know, the
(16:12):
ink Well stories or the sag Harbor pieces of of
you know, black exceptionalism and elitness. This is fiction, right.
So the you know, the moment they are named white
black camelots, white supremacists say there's no such thing as
black royalty, and they set their mind and they come
(16:35):
from all over. It's it's a call to action by
white supremacist groups to end the era of Black Camelot.
So they come to got them set on the demise
of Donald Alexander, Kwame Mills, and Samantha Rivers, the three
Black Camelon people. And but the Black Camelots have a
(16:59):
pre actor and he admits them as the first three
people of color into the world's most powerful, secret society
of strength and of.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Go ahead, no, no, go ahead, go ahead, finish your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
So so they are admitted into the world's most secret,
powerful secret society that protects them against the attacks of
of of their you know, aggressives, their attackers.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I feel like with the white supremacists parachuting in to
cause trouble, that piece feels very non fiction y for fiction.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, I wrote it his fiction. But but we are
inspired by by what we see, right, So yes, yes,
and I thank you for saying that. I think that
that's a very relevant contrast of truth, you know, as
(18:11):
we as we see it, as we understand it, and
as we process it. So thank you for that, of course.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
And on that note, just to have a little bit
of fun, I wondered in all of it's or in
all of their complexities with your characters, you know, the Dawns,
the Madam hot Tempers, Donald Alexander, Teddy Walker. I won't
tell anyone, but who really was your favorite character?
Speaker 3 (18:40):
And why?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Oh you know, listen, listen to listen everyone. Women all
see themselves as as one of the four women of
(19:06):
Black Camelot or key Woman. So there's Carrie Sinclair. There's
a beautiful, beautiful former investment bank and now photographer. There's
Michelle Nubonnie who who is a kind of It's Daniel
(19:29):
Jackson who is a supermodel, and then there's Madam hot Temper,
and there're a couple of others. But those are the
kind of the four four. And it's interesting to see
people say most people say that they are Carrie Sinclair.
(19:51):
I'm Carrie Sinclair. You wrote you were thinking about me
when you created Carrie Sinclair. I'm like, what, really have
a have a Scooby boy's work.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
So so yeah, it's it's uh, I get that more,
I get that more than than than anything.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
But all the characters, the key characters are inspired by
people that that I know. So I have lived uh
and and a close comparable but the life of say
(20:35):
Donald and quam and and Kwame, Donald, Alexander is named
after my favorite uncle Donald and my grandfather Alexander. So
so I did a little thing like that. You know,
I would name characters after after after people that were friends. Uh.
(21:01):
Aquam Mills is named after my life time friend, childhood friend,
uh Steve Mills, who was was was a top executive
and in the n b A and and uh president
(21:22):
of the New York Knicks for for a long time.
You know.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
The bankers are inspired by friends of mine from you know,
Morgan Stanley and and and places like that, and and
so so I.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Pull from from this this world that that I was
privileged two to to to just be in the room
with for for a long long time and again uh
having Chops as a riot or and just being cognizant
(22:03):
of of where I was I was creating. I was
creating a bank of memories that that I would just
call on when when when I was in when I
was in you know, when I was writing. And I
will tell you that that when when COVID came around,
(22:31):
I had the first book done, uh before COVID, and
and when when COVID came around, and I was locked
on lockdown just like everyone else. That's you know, I
was I was at a very very very you know,
(22:53):
rapid fire writing phase where where I just was just churning,
churning these book out one after another, one after another.
And because and I'm going to talk about the business
side of this for a second, because the world had
shut down, and and bookstores weren't they were closed, and
(23:20):
and it was it was you know, you could you
could put your books on Amazon, but you couldn't really
be out there as a as an independent writer, uh,
you know, doing your thing selling, being a huckster. I
(23:41):
found myself with with being okay with that, just churning
the workout and then feeling like I could just turn
to my to to my marketing experience and my brand
management experience and and figure out you know that part,
(24:04):
that part later, And that's kind of where I'm at
now is telling the world about the Black Camelots and
how we brought this you know, this product suite together.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Well, Darius, as a singular sensation, as you are in
the publishing world, you know, chief cook and bottle washer,
You're doing it all. What is it like, you know,
doing the writing and you know, first draft, second draft,
as we know, you know, being a prolific author.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Is nectar of the gods for a writer.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
And then you factor in, you know, the exponential impact leading.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Into the next one, the next book. How is it
creating the art of the cliffhanger? How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Well, you know, the the the the first book was
probably probably but the that cliffhanger, like solving the crime
(25:21):
but then leaving the door open for what's next. And
and because I didn't want these characters to kind of end,
you know, that kind of came. It came, I don't
want to say providentially, but it just kind of came.
(25:43):
And so uh and and and maybe because I had
I had been sitting on that product for such a
long time, and and so so once I was there,
and and I had really developed the secondary group of characters,
(26:13):
I call them the celebrity hack Patrol. And these are
the gossip reporters who who decide that that that the
Black Camelots were good business. And so they named him
the Black Camelots. And it's like they they fill up
our columns, they get eyeballs. And you being in the
(26:37):
in the in the news and information business, you understand that.
So they were they made those guys into the Black Camelots.
And and that allowed me, that gave me the runway
to just continue with another with with the Nether Adventure.
(27:05):
And midway through the second book, Terry and and writers
say this all the time. You know the characters, their personalities,
uh as they are developed, that becomes pretty self fulfilling
(27:29):
at that point, right they they you know how they're
going to speak, you know how they're going to enter
the room. You know how they're going to handle conflict.
You you know their capacity when I say handle conflict,
whether or not you know they would they would be
(27:49):
someone who would be a killer or or or you
know how how how other characters would respond if they
got killed? M hm and so and so you kin'd
(28:11):
that kind of began for me, uh midway through the
second through through the second book. And the hardest part
after that was not the cliffhanger as much as that
the tragic surprised, right because an action adventure, suspense thrillers,
(28:37):
somebody's got to die. And so just trying to figure
out who that person is and how it's going to
be done, you know that that was the hard part.
And and and you know as uh as uh Eddie
(28:58):
Murphy once said, and one of his films they got
which one, He's like a karate man cries on the inside. Right,
I would find myself. I would find myself in those moments.
I'm like, Wow, I just killed I just killed this
person and that and that a good way. So so
(29:19):
so that that is the is probably the more hard,
more difficult for me. I say that, you know, because
the the Cliffhangers haven't haven't played me as much as
(29:46):
as as some of those moments
Reading the Room on the Black Information Network, and I
am especially excited to be speaking with the author of
the Black Camelot book series today, Darius Myers. Thanks for
joining us today, Darius.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Terry, thank you so much for having me. This is
a real privilege on I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
It is a pleasure, Darius.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
And So just to offer a bit of a preamble
to this absolutely stunning, consumptuous collection of yours. The series
centers around opulence. There's intrigue and power. It's New York edginess,
it's gritty, a little something for everybody. Obviously, there's racism,
(00:42):
all dripping in suspense. So tell us more about what
exactly sparked your inspiration and take us through the storytelling
and writing process.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Ok. Sure, sure, Well, Like as I've come to know,
most writers have ideas, they just don't have that moment,
and and I've had several moments. I am a representative
(01:16):
of the characters that I've created in this series. And
one of the themes that I started with that really
kind of led to the to the entire series was
me being a an executive, a media executive on the
(01:36):
sales and marketing side at tier one destined class, world
class companies, and I was always the only black person
and quite honestly the only person of color in the room.
(01:59):
And so at one point I decided I was running
a really huge piece of business or categories of business
at Gannett USA today superstar blah blah blah. But it
was a burnout job, and I decided that I was
(02:23):
going to just walk away. But I was a journalism major,
and I always fancied myself as a writer who just
kind of sold out to be a businessman. And so I,
as a lark, I decided to apply two top three
(02:47):
or four business schools and if I would get into one,
I would I would, I would just ponder it and see.
And so I ended up getting accepted to the Kellogg
School at Northwest and which is the number one marketing
(03:11):
MBA program in the world, and at that time was
ranked and it's always been a top five school, but
it was ranked number one or forever for about six
seven years straight down. I know you did this at
(03:32):
a lot, but you can't.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
First of all, I have to say, Darius, I love
how you invoked the plan B businessman.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Options down so as I did, calling me because they
knew what I was doing. All to me was the
publisher topic. You said, I know what you're doing. I
know you'll leave for a while, but you got to
come back to work somewhere, so give us some consideration.
And so I did. And when I was coming back
(04:10):
to interview for jobs or what role I would take,
I would eventually ended up working at Fortune running a
marketing team. I had to come back to New York
to meet with this woman at at an ad agency
to see if I could help her figure out stuff
(04:35):
and essentially be the liaison between Time Ink and her
and Sports Illustrated was a Time Ink or Time Warner property,
and Fortune was a Time Warner property. Well terry. The
woman made me wait five hours, wait five hours to
meet with her. Oh and and honestly, I was, I was,
(05:01):
I was. I was like, you know, Darius, you've been
doing this for a while. You know what you're doing.
The reason that you're sitting here waiting for this woman
and Time Warners has been recruiting you for two years.
(05:21):
Essentially my entire time in business school is because you
got a decent name. And so I you know, I
was like, I don't think this is where my future lives.
So that was thirty years ago, and and and at
that time, I just I was flying back on a plane,
(05:47):
and those characters in the first book in the series,
The Publisher's Dilemma, were birthed on a plane ride. I
put the I put the book down. I put it down.
I was just gradually or slowly writing it, and and
I was busy just managing my career. Here I can
(06:15):
talk more and more and more about it, but I
wont be too long winded. I know you have listeners here,
so I don't be too long winded with with that explanation.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Your story is a fascinating one, Darius. I have to say,
so far, your journey sounds completely atypical from what from
what most people would experience.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Darius, are you there.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, I'm here. I see We've got to disconnected for
a second.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Oh okay, okay, I just wanted to be sure.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
No, no, what I was saying was what you've described
is a fairly I would guess, fairly atypical experience.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
For Yeah, I guess I'm an a type personality, right,
So you know, I knew I was going to have
to do something, and I enjoy telling stories. I mean,
(07:26):
that's what that's what you know I did. I was
just doing it for products and and for magazines and newspapers,
and it was all business speak. And so you know,
I guess if you could write a story, if I
(07:47):
could write the story of me being the only person
of color in the room and how I never got
to feel the joy of the workplace, I could write
that book, you know. But a and and and and there,
(08:10):
and there is a place for how to books. But uh,
one of the beauties of having time to be in
a lab so to speak, in graduate school and even
afterwards was was was I had a moment to just
(08:31):
kind of tap into my creative self. And I was like, well,
you know, don't write that book. You know, let it
be like a murder mystery. You know. Let let that guy,
you know, use his power, this black guy that kind
of begins to climb the ranks, and he and he
(08:52):
faces his his his dilemma, his personal dilemma as to
how he's going to reach back and pull up and
pull other black folks with him. And when he does it,
I decided that you know what, all hell's gonna break loose. Now,
(09:13):
it's all gonna everybody around him are going to just
go crazy. And so that's what happened in the book.
And as I wrote it, it just came together and
and it became fun to do creating the characters. And
(09:35):
when I had some people look at it, they're like, wow,
this is really good. I had a book editor edited
for me, and she did more serious works, and she
said to me, Garius and I don't read stuff like this.
This is a treat. And so that you know, that
(09:57):
was ten years before again I decided to start publishing
my works because I was being that a type personality
and just focusing on making a living as opposed to
(10:20):
exploring this world of book selling and book marketing, which
is as smart as I think I am as a
brand new frontier a world never traveled for me, and
it's been really, really a challenge.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Well, okay, so your.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Books, your book Sterious are certainly progressive in the stories,
in the story making blacks at the centerpiece of this narrative,
and uniquely right now, it seems like, at least in
recent pop culture.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
We're seeing more of that idea.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
And I look at as an example, Ralph Laurence oak
Bluff's I Don't know, if you saw that fashion spread
last season that featured the prominence and wealth and black
elegance of these families in the inkwell, so I felt
like this was an insightful vignette of black American life.
It's contemporary America that we just don't see enough, nearly
(11:22):
enough in the spotlight, if at all. And so your books,
to me are kind of an extension of that where
people are looking at hey, wow, there are black people
like this in America owning media empires as opposed to
being you know, the exception. Now it's more like the rule.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah I can you hear me?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I sure can?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Okay, Yeah, you know I I wanted to, yes, you know,
I wanted to bring attention to those kinds of characters
and those kinds of humans, because we are there and
(12:14):
they are there. But I didn't want it to be
done and to to amplify and and over the top
way this eliteness, that that that escapes and the opportunity
(12:38):
that escapes a lot of people who look like us,
because navigating through these landminds are are very very very difficult.
And as an example of such as presentative of such,
(13:01):
you can see just how few people make it to
you know, the C suite, right, and and it very
much looks like a pyramid. In any industry. There are
a lot of people who may get entry level, mid
level management roles and as they as you moved to
(13:25):
the top levels, it gets it gets harder and harder.
So I really wanted my characters to to to focus
on their accountability and responsibility of such. So, for example,
in my second in the second novel, Black Camelots Dawn,
(13:47):
where they are they they are named Got Them's Black Camelots.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Are you talking about Madam hot Temper Darius.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Madam hot Temper, Madam hot temp for is is my girl?
But no, it's not her, It's it's uh, because she's
she's an interesting one. She she comes back, She comes
back to to to Got Them after after serving a
jail sentence because because her husband was a bit of
(14:22):
a cat, uh and so she catches him prowling in
a place that he wasn't supposed to be and and
so so she ends up going away upstate as as
we would say in most places, uh, for some confinement
(14:43):
for a few years. But but she comes back and
her true character and her and her warm and pleasant
and dear personality is revealed. But she's a beauty, she's fetching,
she's smart, she's she's as as the young ones would say,
(15:07):
she's all that very much. So, but and but and it.
But in the in the second book, uh, they convince
the head of the Harris Simmons Media Company h to
start a living will to support black colleges and black causes.
(15:29):
And so that's their life's work, right, That's supposed to
be their responsibility is going out and changing the world.
So these are really mindful characters who know what they're
supposed to do now, you know. Uh, And and this
(15:51):
would not be a spoiler alert because I like this
part of the works when they all are also made
members of And this is fiction, right, so you know,
getting beyond sort of like the the you know, the
(16:12):
ink Well stories or the sag Harbor pieces of of
you know, black exceptionalism and elitness. This is fiction, right.
So the you know, the moment they are named white
black camelots, white supremacists say there's no such thing as
black royalty, and they set their mind and they come
(16:35):
from all over. It's it's a call to action by
white supremacist groups to end the era of Black Camelot.
So they come to got them set on the demise
of Donald Alexander, Kwame Mills, and Samantha Rivers, the three
Black Camelon people. And but the Black Camelots have a
(16:59):
pre actor and he admits them as the first three
people of color into the world's most powerful, secret society
of strength and of.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Go ahead, no, no, go ahead, go ahead, finish your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
So so they are admitted into the world's most secret,
powerful secret society that protects them against the attacks of
of of their you know, aggressives, their attackers.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I feel like with the white supremacists parachuting in to
cause trouble, that piece feels very non fiction y for fiction.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, I wrote it his fiction. But but we are
inspired by by what we see, right, So yes, yes,
and I thank you for saying that. I think that
that's a very relevant contrast of truth, you know, as
(18:11):
we as we see it, as we understand it, and
as we process it. So thank you for that, of course.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
And on that note, just to have a little bit
of fun, I wondered in all of it's or in
all of their complexities with your characters, you know, the Dawns,
the Madam hot Tempers, Donald Alexander, Teddy Walker. I won't
tell anyone, but who really was your favorite character?
Speaker 3 (18:40):
And why?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Oh you know, listen, listen to listen everyone. Women all
see themselves as as one of the four women of
(19:06):
Black Camelot or key Woman. So there's Carrie Sinclair. There's
a beautiful, beautiful former investment bank and now photographer. There's
Michelle Nubonnie who who is a kind of It's Daniel
(19:29):
Jackson who is a supermodel, and then there's Madam hot Temper,
and there're a couple of others. But those are the
kind of the four four. And it's interesting to see
people say most people say that they are Carrie Sinclair.
(19:51):
I'm Carrie Sinclair. You wrote you were thinking about me
when you created Carrie Sinclair. I'm like, what, really have
a have a Scooby boy's work.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
So so yeah, it's it's uh, I get that more,
I get that more than than than anything.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
But all the characters, the key characters are inspired by
people that that I know. So I have lived uh
and and a close comparable but the life of say
(20:35):
Donald and quam and and Kwame, Donald, Alexander is named
after my favorite uncle Donald and my grandfather Alexander. So
so I did a little thing like that. You know,
I would name characters after after after people that were friends. Uh.
(21:01):
Aquam Mills is named after my life time friend, childhood friend,
uh Steve Mills, who was was was a top executive
and in the n b A and and uh president
(21:22):
of the New York Knicks for for a long time.
You know.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
The bankers are inspired by friends of mine from you know,
Morgan Stanley and and and places like that, and and
so so I.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Pull from from this this world that that I was
privileged two to to to just be in the room
with for for a long long time and again uh
having Chops as a riot or and just being cognizant
(22:03):
of of where I was I was creating. I was
creating a bank of memories that that I would just
call on when when when I was in when I
was in you know, when I was writing. And I
will tell you that that when when COVID came around,
(22:31):
I had the first book done, uh before COVID, and
and when when COVID came around, and I was locked
on lockdown just like everyone else. That's you know, I
was I was at a very very very you know,
(22:53):
rapid fire writing phase where where I just was just churning,
churning these book out one after another, one after another.
And because and I'm going to talk about the business
side of this for a second, because the world had
shut down, and and bookstores weren't they were closed, and
(23:20):
and it was it was you know, you could you
could put your books on Amazon, but you couldn't really
be out there as a as an independent writer, uh,
you know, doing your thing selling, being a huckster. I
(23:41):
found myself with with being okay with that, just churning
the workout and then feeling like I could just turn
to my to to my marketing experience and my brand
management experience and and figure out you know that part,
(24:04):
that part later, And that's kind of where I'm at
now is telling the world about the Black Camelots and
how we brought this you know, this product suite together.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Well, Darius, as a singular sensation, as you are in
the publishing world, you know, chief cook and bottle washer,
You're doing it all. What is it like, you know,
doing the writing and you know, first draft, second draft,
as we know, you know, being a prolific author.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Is nectar of the gods for a writer.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
And then you factor in, you know, the exponential impact leading.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Into the next one, the next book. How is it
creating the art of the cliffhanger? How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Well, you know, the the the the first book was
probably probably but the that cliffhanger, like solving the crime
(25:21):
but then leaving the door open for what's next. And
and because I didn't want these characters to kind of end,
you know, that kind of came. It came, I don't
want to say providentially, but it just kind of came.
(25:43):
And so uh and and and maybe because I had
I had been sitting on that product for such a
long time, and and so so once I was there,
and and I had really developed the secondary group of characters,
(26:13):
I call them the celebrity hack Patrol. And these are
the gossip reporters who who decide that that that the
Black Camelots were good business. And so they named him
the Black Camelots. And it's like they they fill up
our columns, they get eyeballs. And you being in the
(26:37):
in the in the news and information business, you understand that.
So they were they made those guys into the Black Camelots.
And and that allowed me, that gave me the runway
to just continue with another with with the Nether Adventure.
(27:05):
And midway through the second book, Terry and and writers
say this all the time. You know the characters, their personalities,
uh as they are developed, that becomes pretty self fulfilling
(27:29):
at that point, right they they you know how they're
going to speak, you know how they're going to enter
the room. You know how they're going to handle conflict.
You you know their capacity when I say handle conflict,
whether or not you know they would they would be
(27:49):
someone who would be a killer or or or you
know how how how other characters would respond if they
got killed? M hm and so and so you kin'd
(28:11):
that kind of began for me, uh midway through the
second through through the second book. And the hardest part
after that was not the cliffhanger as much as that
the tragic surprised, right because an action adventure, suspense thrillers,
(28:37):
somebody's got to die. And so just trying to figure
out who that person is and how it's going to
be done, you know that that was the hard part.
And and and you know as uh as uh Eddie
(28:58):
Murphy once said, and one of his films they got
which one, He's like a karate man cries on the inside. Right,
I would find myself. I would find myself in those moments.
I'm like, Wow, I just killed I just killed this
person and that and that a good way. So so
(29:19):
so that that is the is probably the more hard,
more difficult for me. I say that, you know, because
the the Cliffhangers haven't haven't played me as much as
(29:46):
as as some of those moments
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