Tell us a little bit about you outside of being an author. I was raised in one of America’s harshest inner-cities. I was a wide-eyed youngster groomed to become a pastor. However, I shunned the pulpit, out of a rebellious nature, and have had a professional career that has included everything from being a pharmacy technician to flipping burgers to being a volunteer to graduating California State University to a community activist to a poet. I was heavily influenced by intellectual movements of the 16th and 20th Centuries as a young adult. I am the eldest of four and father of four so I am usually busy. I love basketball, great movies and I have even been known to laugh at myself once in awhile. I have even attended a few colleges over the years.
Tell us a little bit about your work in progress and/or your upcoming release. EveryDay Life was molded and forged by heat and passion. I crafted EveryDay Life so that it could exist beyond the world of literature. I am presently looking to bring EveryDay Life to the stage and screens both big and small. But I wanted it to be read and enjoyed by people first.
How many years of professional writing experience (if any) do you have? None. What have you written? I don’t have any years of professional writing experience. If you include EveryDay Life then I’d say about eight months. But I have been writing poetry since I was sixteen and I have hundreds of poems. I have written just about everything there is to write from urban tales of adventure to scholarly political science pieces. I wrote and produced most of the music for my underground rap group in the 90’s. I was originally going to publish a book of poetry first, but that would have been too easy and far less important.
Do you have an occupation in addition to being a writer? I love to write but it doesn’t pay the bills. If so, what is it? I work in a pharmacy, but most of my time is spent, teaching people the finer points of basketball, blogging about psychology, philosophy, political science and I also tutor children.
What credentials establish you as an expert in your field or have contributed to your success as an author? I have a degree in English. I have been a community activist for quite some time. As a youth I was a natural comedian, socially contentious, and a student of human nature. In the last few months I have been featured on WBOK 1230 am, on its popular Back Talk/Black Talk segment. I have been featured on Life Remixed Radio, HYPE Magazine Radio, Let’s Talk Honestly Weekly, African-American’s on the Move Radio and Conversations LIVE!, C.A. Webb, Joey Pinkney and popular radio host CJ Morgan among others. I have been interviewed by former Executive Director of KRS-One’s Temple of Hip Hop Sai Browne. My very first interview was with 2006 Marguerite Press Award winner George Cook. I have been compared to Tyler Perry, Lorraine Hansberry, which I don’t think is a deserved or fair comparison, but an honor nonetheless. I have been listed as “An Author We Love”. EveryDay Life has been featured in The Clarion Ledger, Crunk Newsletter. EveryDay Life was named The Best Kept Literary Secret of 2008 and recently EveryDay Life was not only selected as a finalist for Reader Views annual literary award it was a winner. I have spoken on universities panels about social issues, masculinity, and hip hop.
About the Book
What was your motivation for writing this book? I have read many books over my life time and I felt that some issues were missing. EveryDay Life relays powerful messages about life, death and all things in-between in America’s urban ghettos and forces people to look at issues that are all too easy to ignore from urban sprawl, race relations to gender identity and politics.
EveryDay Life is a journey from hopelessness to hope. It is a raw, humorous, an inspiring look at the journey of a young man, who against the odds and his environment decides to change his life for the better. EveryDay Life contains many universal topics and discussions that people deal with on a daily basis and some topics that people think about but never dare to say out loud.
This story provides a realistic and thought-provoking portrayal of the social chaos and wanton violence in the urban ghetto. From the in-your-face conversations to the aggression of California’s gang underworld, an unlikely hero emerges. The relevant subject matter and humor of EveryDay Life is undeniable, or so they tell me. So my motivation for writing the book was life itself.
Tell us some of the factors that make your book unique. Just about everything from the cover, the style, tone, and the themes. Couple those things with the dialogue, realism and hip hop backdrop and you’ve got a very unique work of literature. I didn’t want to make a book that had to cater to get noticed. I didn’t want to make a book on women’s issues or on men’s issues. As I did research for my project I realized that the media and scholars would only dare to only ask certain questions. I wanted to ask the extra questions that need to be asked. I wanted to write a book that required thought, doesn’t required a PH.D to comprehend. I wanted to create a book that was accessible, about real people, real issues, and humorous to boot. EveryDay Life is the book, no one saw coming and because of that I expected to catch some flak.
What is the single most important thing that readers of your book will be able to do after reading your book that they could not do before? My hope is that people will have a better understanding of people. You know those people you see but just automatically assume they are up to no-good and write-off like that they don’t matter. I think that my book will bring a greater understanding to society, and the relationships of men and women, while providing a lot of laughs.
Is there local or regional relevance for your book? The location is sunny Long Beach, California but it has many worldwide themes that everybody can use, discuss, and learn from.
What emotions does your book evoke from readers? Hope. I want the reader to have the feeling that everybody matters, all of us. And that every journey begins with the first step. EveryDay Life is about that step.
Are there any controversial elements in your book? Not really. Before my book was published I was told that African Americans won’t read a book like this. I was told that the hip hop culture does read. I was told that my book was too different to be accepted. All of which only motivated me even more to get my book published. Perhaps the only controversial element in my book is Truth.
In researching your book, did you come across any surprising facts, figures or statistics? I am and was surprised by how many scholarly studies, symposiums, discussions, and articles have been written about and claiming to have the solutions for some of these issues, yet they have not changed perceptions or attitudes. A lot of that has to do with the amount of denial in American society we first need to be really honest with ourselves. Surprisingly enough there have been some people who can’t even sit down to read a great book like mine because of some preconceive notions they received as a youth. It has also been very difficult to expand and challenge the age old notions of masculinity. I am not a fan of labels and I don’t believe that anyone is a fan of labels so I didn’t want to be put inside the box so I chose to write outside of it.
If your book were for sale in a major bookstore, in what section would it be found? EveryDay Life could be found just about everywhere but mainly in Drama, African-American, Humor, Philosophy, Fiction, Social and Political Science sections…. well one can hope. It is a 21st Century piece of African-Americana.
What did you learn while writing this book? Just about everything I have done as an author has been a struggle but I have grown from each experience. I knew that taking the road less traveled wouldn’t be easy but it is definitely worth it. Along the way I have been introducing new ideas and new ways of thinking. Controversial maybe, but I have got people talking… not arguing, talking. Yes the book is not like the books before it. Yes I could have created a book with a lot of moralization and a traditional happy ending, but what has that gotten us in the past and in every day life not all endings are happy or what you’d expect.
What one thing about writing do you wish other non-writers would understand? I think that there is a book, a story inside of everyone; some people just don’t know how to bring it out. I have discovered that in writing sometimes the more credentials you have the less credible you become. Writing is the easy part and the entertainment of it is excellent, but I think that all books can do something to better society. When someone comes up to me and says that because of my book they look at people differently, or they say things like “I didn’t know that”, or “your book had an effect on my son”, it means more to me all six of Jordan’s championship rings…maybe the last three.
What are three things you wish you’d known before you reached where you are now?
- You really can’t measure how much time you actually spend on the book after it is published.
- I wish I had known how the market would react to my book before I published it.
- The book business is a lot tougher than it seems from the outside.
How and why does your book differ from books of a similar topic? My book is a little broader and it holds no punches. EveryDay Life is not a conformist piece, when it is referred to as genre-breaking it really does apply. There is a lot of condensed wisdom between those pages a lot of good conversation starters. I left the conversation finishing up to the readers.
What would you like your readers to take away from your book? EveryDay Life is a Fiction book with Non-Fiction elements. I think that after reading my book people will realize that people in the “hood” are more aware of what is going on with the government than you would think. They may not be able to do much about some of the things that go on with the government, but they question those in power more than anyone else and for good reason. And questioning what is going on around you is what every good citizen/patriot should do. I believe that it was Wittgenstein who said that “A thought which is not independent is a thought only half understood.”
If you could change one thing you did during your road to publication, what would it be and what would you have done different? If I knew it would be as accepted as it is I would have put more resources behind it. I also would have put it when I wrote it in 2006 but thank goodness for Barack Obama. Because of him people are reassessing their views of African Americans. Many people are opening themselves up to new points of view and challenging a lot of antiquated thoughts.
What advice would you give an aspiring author? I do not subscribe to the notion that sometimes you have to write a bad book to deliver a good message. As an author you can use that platform for many things so why not try and help people in the process. Words are power they persuade and motivate. If you are going to write a book commit to it and write about something you enjoy so that it doesn’t seem like work.
Where can readers learn more about you and your books? You can always find me on
http://www.mghardie.com
Please identify five recent books that compete most directly with yours. That is a really tough question because when I sat down to write EveryDay Life I did so with the purpose of doing something that had not been done. What I can do is list some very good books that when rolled together you get a feel for my book:
- The Covenant with Black America, 978-0883782774
- William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, 978-0571160563
- A Raisin in the Sun, 978-0679755333
- Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation, 978-1573442572
- English, August, 978-159017179
- White Men Can’t Hump (As Good As Black Men): Volume I: Race & Sex in America, 978-1425957438
- Open Mike: Reflections on Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture and Religion, 0-465-01765-7
- The Restraint of Beasts, 978-0684865119
- Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny, 978-1592402007
- The African-American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Country, 978-0684864150
- Candide, 978-0606025201
- Invisible Man, 978-0679732761
- King Lear, 978-0563200819
