I’ve been on twitter nearly two years. For me, it’s a double edge sword. Scrolling through the tweets can be time consuming, stealing the little free time I should be writing. Often laughing or groaning at some of the inane bullshit people tweet (yes, my own past tweets included). However, twitter has been incredibly helpful in aiding my growth as a writer and enabling me to make great connections with great people I now call real friends. One of those folks is Tisa. She’s got a big heart, an acid tongue and a helluva lot of talent. I’m not talking about your run of the mill talent. I’m talking about the kind of talent that you feel is too big and too bright to be tied down in the indie scene. A very special voice. I feel that way about a special few people (got a list of ten). Tisa is one of those. Everything she writes hits a nerve, serves a point and sends a message.
We need more honest, no bullshit kind of writers like her on the indie writing scene for sure.
Tisa answered some of my questions for punk noir. If you don’t follow her yet, haven’t read her stuff, I hope you will by the end of the interview.
Can you tell our readers a little bit about how you got started in the Literature scene?
I’ve been writing since I was eight, so I can say I’ve been in several scenes since before the internet became the thing that defined your work. My first serious literary works were poetry in high school, and that’s how I got into writing epic verse – it was my mission to outdo everybody I had to read in Middle English Literature. That’s what put me into slam poetry and spoken word poetry, because back then fans wanted to see your passion reading your stuff. My best memories are performing some of my work at Snaps N Taps in Columbus, OH.
I got started into Literature literally being an avid reader. As a kid/teenager I was reading about 25 books a month. And I read everything from Jackie Collins & Sidney Sheldon to Mumia Abu Jamal & George Jackson. Then when I ran out of things to read I started writing. Everything evolved from there.
Tell us about your most recent work?
Over at Uncle B. Publications I edited Now There’s A Story with Stephen J. Golds, Sister FM Diva: Poetry Inna Mi Yahd by Verna Hampton; I’m one of the featured writers in Pulp Modern 10th Anniversary and my debut novel Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep comes out October 16th, 2021.
Describe your writing style in 5 words?
A live unadulterated uncensored experience.
What and/or who are your inspirations?
In no particular order: Sidney Sheldon, Donald Goines, Jackie Collins, Tina McElroy Ansa, Danielle Steel, Bebe Moore Campbell, Dorothy Allison, April Sinclair, Rita Mae Brown, Dr. Bertice Berry, Shirley Conran, Sam Greenless and others, but this group for fiction were my go staples.
What advice would you give to up and coming indie authors?
Write what you feel. Don’t give into peer pressure about self-censorship. As long as you are true to your character and their story, everything else will fall into place. Don’t worry about an agent. Don’t worry about the fickleness of certain imprints. When your work is in the right hands you will feel it in the gut.
What are your plans for the future?
Releasing more novels. I have a collection of stuff itching to get out. Just all depends on the publishers.
What is an issue you care about deeply?
I care about all this forced totalitarian dictatorship going on about the virus which will not be named, and this cancel culture mentality that as seeped into every modern democracy known in the modern world. People need to get off the internet and chill in real time with real people.
What novel are you reading now?
Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep by me.
What music are you listening to now?
Deep Purple, The David Coverdale years.
Finish this sentence: Fuck __!
Fuck is that atomic waste particle smell of nauseous toxic gasses on the planet’s colon?
If you could go on a drinking binge with 5 writers alive or dead who would you choose?
Well, if we could drink tea it would be Jackie Collins, Sam Greenlee, George Jackson, Dr. Bertice Berry, and Mutabaruka. I know, what a collective.
If you could travel to a time and place in history what would it be?
Houston, 1976. I’m going to the Parliament Funkadelic Earth Tour and watch Glen Goins bring down the mothership.
What would you like written on your gravestone?
Nothing. Headstones are massively expensive in America and I probably won’t have one.
There are 10,768 bus stops in the entire Chicago metro area. 79th and Stony Island is one of them. For some, it is merely a weak shelter from the elements. For others, it’s just a way to get where they’re going. On the east side of chicago a bus stop has a deeper meaning. It’s a place of business, a political forum, a portable toilet, a church pulpit, a bed for weary bones, and occasionally a graveyard for the unforgiven. Rapid transit is always late on that side of town. In the dead of winter it’s cold as hell, giving no rest for the weary waiting for their bus to come.
One thing is for certain…
Loose Squares are just the glue that holds it all together.
Punk Noir Magazine 
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