What was the Voodoo Macbeth?
That was the name people living in Harlem in 1936 called Orson Welles’ Macbeth. Those folks were not exactly sure what to expect
from the play, but they knew Welles was transplanting Macbeth to Haiti, and had
hired African voodoo drummers to play in his orchestra, hence the name.
Which parts of King
of Harlem are historical? Which are
fictional?
The mystery is completely fictional, and so are my detectives, but virtually everything
concerning Macbeth happened. Not just
the voodoo drummers, but things like the Harlem Chapter of the Communist Party protesting
the Voodoo Macbeth, death threats sent to Welles, even an attack on Welles in the
lobby of his theatre, though I took a little literary license with that particular
incident.
What other
historical people besides Welles appear in King of Harlem?
Macbeth’s star, Jack Carter. Its
Banquo, Canada Lee, though I took quite a few liberties with him, especially with the
formal way he speaks in my novel. Some others
include Welles’ producer, John Houseman, Harlem intellectuals like Langston Hughes
and Carl Van Vechten, and the evangelist Father Divine.
Why did you make
your detective, Sassafras Winters, a retired Chicago Cubs pitcher?
I just thought it was a cool idea. I am
die-hard Cubs fan, and so are millions of other people around the world, thanks to WGN
broadcasting the team’s games. So,
besides being a fun concept to write, the Cubs link gives Winters an immediate hook with a
lot of potential readers.
What about
Winters’ assistant? Where does the name
Chinaman come from?
Chinaman was the name of Valerie Perrine’s character in the movie W.C. Fields and
Me. When I heard it I immediately thought
it fit his personality to a tee. It probably
didn’t hurt that I have a weakness for unusual names, either. Plus I figured, “Come on! If she can be named Chinaman, so can a New England
valet!” I must confess that Chinaman is
a tribute to classic movies, which I have loved my whole life. Chinaman is a sort of Frankenstein Monster, but,
instead of stealing body parts from graves, I snatched bits and pieces from various old
films to build my creation.
Do you think
African-Americans unfamiliar with the Voodoo Macbeth will be interested in finding
out more about what some historians claim is a milestone of Negro theatrical history?
I hope so. Not many Americans seem to be
aware of the Voodoo Macbeth. Not to
the degree that they are about Welles’ War of the Worlds panic broadcast or
the film Citizen Kane. The Voodoo
Macbeth did more, in my opinion, to bring Negro theatre out of Harlem and into
Broadway than any production at that time except maybe Porgy. Over half the audience that saw the opening night
of the Voodoo Macbeth had never even stepped foot in Harlem before then, and
they left intensely impressed by what they saw.
King of Harlem
is a print on demand paperback. What is
“print on demand”?
A print on demand or POD publisher stores all his books on computer. No copies of any of their books exist prior to an
order being placed, at which time only the required number of copies to fill that order
are printed. The process involves a lot of
computer technology that has only been available in the last few years and saves a ton of
money in warehouse space.
Why did you publish King
of Harlem as a POD paperback instead of selling it to a traditional publisher?
No traditional publisher would accept it, and my literary agent sent it everywhere. There was one editor at Bantam who fell in love
with it, but she couldn’t convince her superiors to buy it. She told my agent, “Somebody is going to
publish this book, and that person is going to make a lot of money.” I’m about to find out if she was right.
What are you doing
to help promote King of Harlem?
I am arranging interviews, signings, and speaking engagements. I’m always available for either, if anyone is
interested. I have sent King of Harlem
to several reviewers around America and England, and it looks like most of them will be
giving my novel a positive plug. I have my
website (Stevenpjones.com)
as well as a promotional newsletter that anyone can subscribe to for free at
www.authorsden.com/spj. I am also making up
bookmarks that will be given away at bookstores around the country.
You wrote a number
of comic books before King of Harlem. What
is the biggest difference between writing a comic book and a novel?
Comic books incorporate both words and pictures in a sequence of panels to tell a story. A novel is strictly words, so a writer does not
collaborate with an artist during the creative process.
All the control as well as all the responsibility for telling a story
belongs completely to the writer. But both
are a blast.
rnsby (Charlie Grimm) |
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