The Dithering of a District Diva

Two months ago, I introduced many of you  to “Happy Black Girl Day!”, a holiday created by Brooklyn diva extraordinaire and fellow blogger Sister Toldja.  This once-a-month holiday allows us to take a break from the constant media assault on Black women and to celebrate the sisterhood with showers of positivity.  The way I choose to celebrate HBGD is by highlighting an extraordinary and prototypical Black woman.

May’s Prototype: New York Times best-selling author Aliya S. King.

I first met Ms. Aliya S. King at a “Tweet-up” in Baltimore.  What’s a “Tweet-up,” you ask?  Oh, it’s just when a New York Times best-selling author and award-winning freelance writer decides that since she’s going to be in Baltimore speaking at a conference, she might as well open up her hotel room–via tweet–to the random new writers in the Baltimore area who might want to ask her questions.  The random tweets went as follows:

If you (or someone you know) is in the B-more area and would like to participate in my Q&A on writing this Fri: aliyasking@gmail.com

Hit me up if you’re in the DMV-area. I’ll be in B-more on Friday. Time for a tweet up!

As I confessed in an earlier post, my no-car-having, lost-without-metro-access behind was no where near Baltimore, but I had to be there.

When I got to room 2400, I was stunned by the sight of this glamorous woman–in a short, tan jacket-dress paired with salmon peep-toe stilettos–mixing and serving drinks and hors d’oeuvers to the 30+ new writers who had piled into her suite.

After she finished her candid and completely off-the-record Q&A with us about the process of writing and publishing a book, contract figures, pitching techniques and inside tips, I had to ask her–still stunned–why? Why do this for us?

Her response: “Because no one did it for me.”

I got here, scraping up a mountain with bloody fingertips and I promised that if I make it, I will never ever be too busy to help somebody else.

The words of  a prototypical Black woman.  We scheduled an HBGD interview for three days later.

You don’t have to meet her in person to see that she resonates a passion for writing:  it jumps off the page at you on her blog, and in her Ustream videos, where she gives live advice to new writers via webcam.  I had to ask her, when did you fall in love with writing?

I was four and it started out as a love of textiles: pencils, pen, paper. I was obsessed with them.  I would be scribbling things and folding it over and making it into a book.  I don’t remember if at the time, I could even write.

Even before she had the skills or the confidence, she had the vision: all she wanted to do was write, and write what she wanted, when she wanted, as a freelance writer.  Only a lucky few people can make a good living this way. It is pretty audacious, in fact, to believe that you can make a good living as a freelance writer. Who–or what–authorized you to make that decision?

It’s funny you should ask it that way, because I did actually get authorization to do that. I was working at The Source for Carlito Rodriguez.  I came to him and told him I wanted to get out and freelance and he gave me a contract for $1500 a month to write for The Source, so  knowing that [I had a steady source of income coming in] I felt confident that I could get other work.

I was also dating someone at the time and telling him about all the realities and statistics and he just said, “Stop it.”  He was saying I was really talented and good enough, and just made me feel like I could do it.  And then, all the editors were familiar with my writing and gave me a lot  of work.

But pursuing one’s passion full-time is not only a-typical, it can be downright heartbreaking.  Aliya has encountered more than one dream-killer in her ten years of freelancing.

I wrote a really good story for The Source on the behind the scenes making of the Lauryn Hill album [The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill] and the lawsuits that surrounded her. I found the lawyer and everything, and the story was killed.  I have had stories killed, ideas that I thought were really fleshed out.

And not just magazine articles; Aliya has faced many setbacks in trying to get her books published.

I wrote a novel eight years ago, got an agent who didn’t believe in my book but shopped it anyway, and all the publishers turned it down.  While I was waiting to hear back, though, I didn’t write anything else.  [So, when I had heard the news] I was devastated. I couldn’t write fiction for years after that.

She added:

And then there was [the man] who stole my money.

She had recounted this story in our no-holds barred, “Club 2400” Q & A a few days earlier.  The man–who shall remain nameless–shopped her first book to a publisher, got the first payment from the book, and took it all, never to be heard from again.

It doesn’t get more war-torn than that.  And it hurt.  But I also thank that person because that situation taught me how to handle my business, be on [top of] my contract, on [top of] my agent.  I’m aware now, and that won’t ever happen to me again.

But with every downfall for Aliya, there seems to always be a lesson and an upturn. She went on to write Bad Boy singer and Biggie Smalls’ wife, Faith Evan’s book Keep the Faith–a New York Times best-seller.   Her writing has appeared in countless mainstream magazines, and she has TWO books that will be released in the coming months:  the much-anticipated memoir of Frank Lucas (of  “American Gangster” infamy) Original Gangster, and also, her baby and first published novel Platinum (which will be published on July 6 and is available for pre-order on the panel to your right (scroll up a little! —->).

She spent years following around hip-hop wives, girlfriends, and lovers, and got an exclusive look into their fascinating–and sometimes empty–lives, and had to write about it.  She fictionalized the characters to protect their identities, but her characters are so real, and their qualities so unmistakable, that this salacious book is sure to get tongues wagging.

Everyone should also be on the lookout for an exclusive and EXPLOSIVE article Aliya has coming out in VIBE magazine, soon.  After literally years of trying to find a mainstream outlet to publish her already-researched, -written, -fact-checked article exposing the past of a top hip-hop figure, she is finally able to get her story out, after many powerful people–and fearful editors–tried to shut her story down. But her raw and bloodied fingertips only taught her the most important skills of mountain-climbing: keep moving.

Now, as soon as I am done with a project, I immediately start writing something else. If I take some time to mourn my losses, its ok because I already know that I have something else on the sidelines. I will never rest on my laurels again.

The sequel to Platinum is already written and ready to go.  And though she notes that she had hoped her first novel would be one akin to Zora Neale Hurston’s work–the kind you study in classrooms–Aliya has learned that “what comes out, comes out. Whatever ideas come to me, that’s what I write.”

And her life-goal is to free others to do the same:

I got more out of what happened in room 2400 than anything else. I want my legacy to be that I helped other writers.  If my books never sell, if I go back to teaching, I want to be known as someone who helped other writers find their voice.

She can consider her goal fulfilled.

Aliya ended the interview in true New York fashion:

I want to give a shout out to everyone in room 2400 for making my first Tweet-up a resounding success!

It was.  And she is.

What we can learn from Aliya: have the audacity to live the life you want to live.  Survive your battle-scars.  Remain hungry in the face of success–and defeat. And you’d just better help someone else along the way.

Undeniable talent, unkillable passion, unstoppable drive, unbreakable spirit.  Aliya S. King is:  The Prototype.

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