Sigourney Weaver once said that the crooked path has its dividends. And mine is a crooked, was a crooked path. I was working in the Garment Center, then I went to Columbia to get a master’s because a friend said everyone should have a master’s. And this was at a time when education was not so costly. I got the master’s, I thought about being a professor, I majored in Slavic languages and literatures with an emphasis on Russian.
And then I thought do I really want to become a professor of you know Russian language and literature? And I thought maybe not, I might end up isolated. And while I was in graduate school a friend from college who was working at Black Enterprise Magazine said would you like to do some book reviews for me and that started and I started to enjoy that and then I got more assignments with magazines and newspapers.
And then a literary agent took an interest in me and she began to recommend me for work and she recommended me to work with Vy Higginsen on turning that gospel musical Mama, I Want to Sing into a young adult novel. And then it was book by book by book.