Greetings
humans, half-breeds, and everything in between. A while back, I had the
pleasure to interview my new friend, Jacqueline
Malcolm. She is visiting the ECS as a guest and sharing loads of
interesting insights into her work. Be sure to look around and see what she has
to offer. Here are the results of our interview. A good time was truly had by
all, and here’s how it went down.
Hi there Jacqueline! It’s so awesome to have you
here at the ECS Universe. Don’t worry about the darkness, your eyes will
adjust.
So tell me, who is Jacqueline
Malcolm?
I was born in Northampton, England, the youngest of 3
sisters to Jamaican-born parents. The love of theatre and writing started from
a very young age. Before I was 10 years old I would write poems and post them
through various neighbors letter boxes so they could have something nice to
read. I enjoyed a full career in event management and administration to an
executive level before taking a career change to study acting (New York and
London) which propelled me into writing and producing stage plays for the fringe theaters of London plus many other
commissioned and inspired pieces.
Wow, I’m sure growing
up with three sisters must have been interesting. I think it’s so cool that
you’ve had a love for writing and theatre since you were a kid. Though I have
no talent for it, and am a professed movie buff, I too appreciate theatre in a
way that doesn’t compare to the cinema.
So whacha got for me
today?
SLAVE: Escaping the Chains of Freedom
is Book 1 of SLAVE: The
Trilogy and is set in 18th Century New York. It follows the life of freed
slave, Hezekiah Thomas, who, through a concoction of chance and opportunity is
faced with the decision whether to go against all of his convictions and become
an owner of slaves. The aim of the book is firstly, to explore the possible
motives behind the reported black slave owners and traders of that period and,
secondly, to take a look into our own hearts to question how far would we go
for a profit?
I must just go ahead
and applaud you now for taking on such a dynamic and controversial topic. From
what little I know about the truth of the American (U.S.) slave trade, there
were several reasons why and how a former slave may have become a slave owner
and or trader, but even after knowing all the facts, good or bad, this is still
a hard topic to truly understand.
So who’s starring is this 2 dimensional script read of SLAVE: Escaping the Chains of Freedom?
Of course
the main character is Hezekiah Thomas
himself. A mulatto freed slave who has actually
enjoyed quite a comfortable and happy life living in the home of his father,
the white General and his loving, supportive and strong wife, Betsy. The dark cloud in his life is
his envious half-brother, James Thomas
IV (who, by the way, is the main character of Book 2, Slave Brothers) and
James’ embittered, almost hateful wife, Gloria.
Hezekiah’s main mentor becomes a black slave trader, Albert Shelton who is the one to entice Hezekiah into slave
ownership (and, I should mention, is the main character of Book 3, The Trade).
The other key players are Ruth Thomas,
Hezekiah’s and Betsy’s only daughter; Ezekiel,
Hezekiah’s first slave who he begins to see and treat more like a son and Adam Shelton, Albert’s only son who
becomes Ruth’s fiancé. I try to write strong, realistic characters so they all play
both hero and villain – even Hezekiah. For some reason, I wanted to show that we’re
all flawed at the end of the day.
I like the idea of
characters being both villains and heroes. In real life it’s all about
perspective. A do-gooder may be liked by many, but someone out there may not
like what they are doing. Sometimes people make good and bad decision based on
the extenuating circumstances in their lives. With this lineup of characters,
this is sure to be an intense read.
Past, present,
future, is there a rhyme or reason to your writing?
Now that sounds
peaceful. In an environment like that, I’m sure you imagination has time to
sour. I enjoy hot tea too, even in the summer, but every now and then I have to
give into my Southern (U.S.) roots and have a cup of iced tea.
What author(s) has
most influenced your writing? Why or how?
I love everything and anything written by Philippa Gregory. Her
ability to build a
character and spread them open for us on the page is magnificent and I’m a
lover of historical fiction which is her genre. But one of the series of books
that inspired me most were authored by Manda Scott
who wrote the Boudica Series. I was half way through
the first book and realized very little action had actually happened and yet I
couldn’t put it down. It showed me that readers respond more to characters than
they do to action – so that’s how I try to write – let the characters tell
their own story.
I am a little familiar
with Gregory’s work. It’s hard not to be after having her books turned into
movies. I too like historical fiction, though again, I have no talent for it.
The Boudica series sounds like it’s definitely worth looking into, even if only
from a writing technique point of vew.
Whose brain are you just itching to scratch?
Again wow! I must say,
you are bold. I love that you are so honest, most people would hold back on a
question like this, but not you. I can understand where you’re coming from. I
can’t image what goes through the mind of a living icon or a serial killer, but
these are the people that others read about and write about. These are the
people that fictional characters are based on. There could surely be some
benefit to getting to know what on the mind of someone like that.
Who is so you and
why?
It’s
normally anyone with very strong controlling tendencies!! My
sister summed it
up perfectly recently when she says I’m like Ben Hurr, the Chariot scene when he’s
racing against his enemy, whipping his horses, charging forward filled with
mayhem and danger; accept she says I’m like that just going around the shopping
market! Had to laugh.
 |
| IMDB |
That’s funny and
actually not a bad comparison. To have that kind of concentrated fanatical
determination has to be good for something.
What’s your ideal
reading spot for your next highly anticipated read?
 |
| Amazon.com |
I’ve read book one of
the Game of Throne series and it was really good. I plan to read the rest
eventually, but I have seen the show. The Black Count sounds like a good read
and the cover is definitely enticing.
What was your
favorite book or story, pre-teen years?
There was a series of books called My Naughty Little Sister which
my
sister used to read to me at night. She would always make references to me so
that book always brings back good memories. But apart from that we grew up on
all the fairy tales of wizards, witches and princesses and loved them all.
 |
| Amazon.com |
I can’t believe I grew
up not knowing about this series. I may just have to look into that. It sounds
like a really cute concept…Now this is where the questions get a little kooky;
are you ready?
Love it!
Alright then, here we
go.
If you could only
watch one movie for the rest of your life, what would it be?
 |
| IMDB |
LOL! Of all the
musicals out there to pick, I must admit that I didn’t see that one coming.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a good film, just not what I was expecting. I do,
however, adore your reasoning for choosing it. It would be nice to think that
everything from this moment forward will be blissful. Good choice.
What makes you geek
out?
I looooove travelling. Been to a few places but not the
entire globe by far. For instance, I’ve been to India but never to China. I’ve
been to many parts of Africa but not South Africa. And I’ve been to Mauritius
but not Australia. Seen many places but so many more still to visit.
Looooove this answer.
I want to travel, but just haven’t been able to really do it the way I want to
at this point, but there’s always hope for the future.
So what’s testing your patience right now?
Well living on a small Greek Island, I could say that’s
pretty much
every movie in the year that I’ve been here. But the one I really
want to see is the new slave movie, Django Unchained obviously because it’s the
same theme as my book so I already love the theme and am excited to see what
angle they’ve taken it.
 |
| IMDB |
I never thought about
how life could be different on an island in a bad way. I guess you probably do
have to wait a while to see the latest films. I saw DJANGO. It was
entertaining, but not to be taken too seriously. It’s an extreme view of
slavery, though accurate in so many ways, it just outrageous in others.
When the soundtrack
of your life is playing in your head, what songs express your glee and what
songs bring out your rage?
Andre
Bocelli and Mary J. Blige
sing a duet of What
Child is This? <= listen. And I could (and often do) listen to
that song for hours. The songs that make me want to scream are those where it’s
obvious the composer hasn’t really given the lyrics any thought and are just
singing empty words or some girl is singing about how she can’t live without
her man!!
Awesome, I really like
this answer. This question is always one of my favorites. I agree with you,
there are very few talented lyricists making good music these days…and that is
a good rendition of this song.
What’s the most fun
experience you’ve ever had, to date?
Oh, wow, these are too many to count but more because I tend
to enjoy most the simplest things in life. My days are filled with laughter
just being with my family so every dinner time is fun. I guess the bigger
things would be going to the airport with one of my best friends and jumping on
the first plane available, and ending up in Milan; or landing in Nice and jumping onto a helicopter to our
hotel in Monte Carlo; or taking a 26-hour coach ride from London to the Czech
Republic; or flying off to Venice just for lunch; or enjoying breakfast at The Savoy and afternoon tea at The Ritz. Those kind of experiences will be
part of my life-long memories because they don’t happen often so when they do I
kind of soak up every minute of it.
You have an amazing
life. Not everyone has the ability to live life the way you do and so many of
the ones who do, unfortunately choose to sit at home and watch tv and youtube
videos or work their life away making more money they don’t really need.
Remind me again how I was lucky enough to meet you?
Someone sent me a link of your site and said, ‘Jacquie, you
should contact her – she sounds great’ – and they were right J
I love word of mouth,
it’s my friend. I truly enjoy meeting new people and have enjoyed this lovely
time we’ve spent together.
Not that you can see
into the future, but in your opinion, what does the future hold?
In the next five years I’m not sure if I’ll still be living
in Greece but I’m pretty sure it will be somewhere just as beautiful, possibly
in Italy or the South of France. I’ve always wanted to retire in Monte Carlo so
who knows, maybe that dream will come to pass by then.
Ok humans,
half-breeds, and everything in between, that’s all for today. Be sure to follow
this blog to see who will be visiting next time. For more from Jacqueline Malcolm,
check out these great links:
Website: http://www.jacquelinemalcolm.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/slavethetrilogy
A Review of SLAVE…: literaryinklings.com/
A Press Release for SLAVE…: www.prlog.org/
