Keith and I go way back to my college days at the University of Michigan School of Art and Design. We were both aspiring comic book creators looking to build our skills, and we bonded instantly. He’s had a stint as an officer for the Detroit Police Department, and is now a researcher and educator on issues of African Mythology and Spirituality. His debut book “Black Goddess Legacy Of The Sacred Black Feminine” deals with those issues.
What inspired your book?
My search for a mother goddess. When I was little I would hear bible stories about god the father and the son, but never god the mother. That lingered with me. I was raised a Jehovah’s witness and eventually joined a church. But I needed more answers so you did more searching.
Did you start with an outline or did you make it up as you went along?
I had an outline of what I wanted to talk about. and it changed over time. The overarching question is who is god the mother.
What researching methods did you use?
Several. I read a lot of books, I have an extensive historian, theologian, archaeologist, and mythologist bibliography. These are respected experts speaking of the history of the mother goddess throughout time.
Did you draw on personal experience?
A big part of the book is investigation. I wanted to infuse the spirit of Indiana Jones and finding history. I used my police experience and forensic process of 5w’s and deductive reasoning. Much of this book is about my personal journey to answer the questions of spirituality I’ve had since my youth.
How did your publish?
I self-published.
Why did you do it that way?
I want to build a publishing company and I want to monetize my intellectual property fully.
Are you looking to land representation?
I am interested in getting representation. I plan for getting other professionals to help publicize and market the book. I will be acquiring help asap.
Who did your cover and marketing?
I did all of my own illustrations for both the cover and the interiors. The book is intended to be a complete visual experience blending both text and images. I used a mixture of traditional art, pencils, pens, ink, painting and digital art. When doing digtal art, I used Crita, Adobe Creative Suite and GIMP. I use Adobe Indesign for the page layout. As far as marketing goes, I plan on hiring a marketer, but I’ve been exploring how to use social media for marketing. A lot of issues with getting professional help is having the capital to hire the right people. I’ve been looking into low-cost and no-cost marketing. The problem is that a lot of those resources start off free, but then they charge for results. But I am open to learning new marketing techniques.
How many revisions did it take to get a publishable book?
16 at the time of this interview. They are really a redundancy for saving. After saving the old documents enough, I just create a new one. I make sure to have multiple backups.
What other ventures have benefitted from this book?
I run a nonprofit called Afro Perspectives. It is focused on educating people about the hidden histories and influences of Afro indigenous people. The book is a conversation starter about African indigenous spirituality. What we were doing before Columbus and the crusaders and their beliefs were imposed upon us. What we thought about gods and goddesses and our place in the cosmos. I want to explore our arts and crafts, and the heritage that was taken from us by colonialism and see if there is anything valuable we can use today. It can answer questions about race and heritage.
Who are the people that would benefit the most from reading your book, and how did you determine that?
I feel that women in general, and Afro indigenous women in particular would benefit the most. My most popular presentations were about the history of Afro indigenous female spirituality.
How did you decide what order to present your topics in?
It began as an outline of the goddesses I wanted to include, then the attributes of each goddess that I feel would be important today. Like why is Athena’s owl important? I ordered topics by how these things occurred to me personally. To retell the story of how I came up with this, my preface explains who I am and how I came up with this book. It was important to also tell my story about finding these goddesses, as well as the goddesses themselves.
How do you juggle being the both the author and the artist?
I don’t have a real process. It just comes by inspiration. Sometimes I wake up with sketches in mind, sometimes it’s all writing. My experience with comic books helps a lot. I have found that visual storytelling techniques of comics have really coming in handing. So I have been researching storyboarding, thumbnail, and how-to-books on sequential art in comic books. And that has helped incorporate the writing and the graphics. This is a visual storytelling piece, where the pictures do more than just describe the text. They are there to evoke emotional response and an enhancement to the story.
How did you ensure that your advice, memories, and recollections were accurate?
I used cross referencing. I referred to photos I took at the time, journals I kept at the time. I vetted my resource materials because all scholars do not agree. I tried to seek out opposing arguments to weigh them for their worth in relation to my work. I used references from credible resources that have been vetted in the academic community and were recognized as the top in their field. I also used unabridged dictionaries and encyclopedias. The book has an extensive bibliography and book list so the readers can go through and check for themselves.
What would you like your readers to gain from reading your book?
I want them to gain a sense of wonder about this world that we live in and that there is still so much to discover. And it will empower others to take control of our historical narrative and use our folktales and heritage in ways that our counterparts have used theirs. i.e. how the Far East has monetized its cultures and histories in their art forms. I want to spark an interest in us doing that for ourselves. Part of Americanization is the removal of African indigenous stories and lore. There is no Five Deadly Venoms, Mount Olympus or Legend of Eldorado for African culture. I have found a treasure trove of Afro indigenous folk tales that are just as fantastic as the mythos of other cultures. The issue is getting them in front of people. I gave my goddesses the Hollywood treatment for this book to excite others to do the same.
What are you writing next?
The next project is called Young Heroes, and is about unlocking your inner power, increasing your conscious awareness and how you can get a zeal for learning, self-discipline and ancient principles of success for a new generation.
What is your advice to other writers?
Get started as soon as possible, and don’t let anything stop you. There always will be stuff to stop you. The only time you are going to have is the time that you make. Depending on how valuable you think your idea is, that is how much time you will make for it. That is the test of how much you believe in what you are doing. Either your are going to do it or not. Nobody can do it for you. There is no quick way or shortcuts to do it. Learn to love your ideas and be willing to work for them as diligently as possible, no matter how hard it is. Be determined to finish it.
Be Sure to download your copy of Black Goddess Legacy Of The Sacred Black Feminine” today!
