What inspired you to write BLING?

I’ve grown up around people in the hip-hop world since I was in high school, so I know what a fascinating, yet bizarre world it is first-hand. Then in 1999, I started writing for magazines, and interviews with hip-hop stars are always the most fun because they are uncensored, funny, and most of them have amazing success stories. I had so much juicy info that I decided to spin it all into a book.

Please tell us about your journey to publication. How long did it take you to write the book, did you receive an offer from the first publisher that saw the novel, etc?

It took about a year to write BLING. I had never written fiction before I started it so it was a huge challenge to figure it out, which I loved.  It was also liberating because I could just make up everything, create my own world, make my own rules! Every agent that I met with (when I had half my manuscript done) wanted to represent me and that gave me a case of writer’s block because it became real.  Before that, it’s just this thing on your computer, a hobby almost.  After 3 months, the block lifted and I wrote the second half of my book in 30 days.  My agent sent it to about eight publishers, and we were going to have an auction but then Miramax swooped in and took it off the table.  They gave me a book-film deal and the other publishers couldn’t offer that.

When did you know that you wanted to become an author? How did that come about?

Well, I decided to become a magazine writer in 1998 because I was unhappy at my PR job.  I had always been a magazine junkie and I realized (after two years of therapy) that I should try writing. So I quit my job and dove in – it took about 8 months to get published and then I was off and running. Then I decided to take the next step and write a book because I love to write humor, but I don’t get much chance of that with my magazine writing. Also, I was very dissatisfied with most women’s commercial fiction. It’s whiny, all the same to me. I thought I could do something different.

You obviously know a lot about the hip-hop scene. Were any scenes from the book inspired from what you know, or it is through your imagination? Did the characters come alive while writing the book?

Both inspired by real-life and my imagination. I know or have interviewed ten people who are like each of these characters – the mogul, the young singer, the ingénue – so it’s easy to draw the outline for each.  Filling them in is where you have the fun.  I could have very easily written an entire book where I cribbed real dialogue, real situations from things I know but I didn’t do that.  That’s a bore – it would be like writing a really long magazine article and I wanted to be a FICTION writer.

In your opinion, who is the most sympathetic character in BLING and why do you feel that way?

Hmmm. That’s a hard one for me because as the writer I have sympathy for all of them. To me, they are real people.  I think in real life, we don’t always have sympathy for people because we don’t know all that they’ve been through to get to a certain point. And if we did, we might see them much differently. But I know everything that has gone on in the lives of my characters to make them who they are – even the things that are not in the book.  But if I had to pick one, I’d say Mimi, the singer, because she struggles the most.

Who are your writing influences? Which books have impacted you and affect your approach to writing novels?

I love J.D. Salinger. I could read Catcher in the Rye a hundred times and never tire of it. I love David Sedaris for his humor.  I don’t have too many writing influences. I read a lot more non-fiction (biographies and books on popular culture) than I do novels. But I think that helped me in a way because I just made up my own structure and approach as I went along which gives me a unique style – I hope!

What type of feedback have you received so far about the novel?

Everyone sees the book and says, “It’s so thick!” because it is a long book and then they finish it and say, “I wanted more” or “I was sad that it ended”.  Which, needless to say, makes me very happy. I love that men and women are both taking to it because that was my goal. A female friend who read it didn’t have much affection for the mogul because he’s arrogant, a womanizer (or “modelizer” as they say on Sex and the City).  Then her husband read it and said, “That guy’s life was completely cool and any man will tell you that.”  Totally different takes and I love that.

What did you enjoy most about writing BLING?

There were rough times when I couldn’t make it work and I wanted to pull my hair out. Or worse, when I smoked like a madwoman, just staring at my computer screen. (I have since quit!) And then there was my awful three months of writer’s block.  But the best were the times when I was “in the zone”.  You can just see the whole scene and you write it from beginning to end, polish it up and read it back and it makes you laugh out loud…aaaah!  It’s such a thrill! I miss that.

Will you be touring in support of the novel? If so, where will your travels take you?

I will be on a ten city tour beginning in my hometown of New York and going to Chicago, LA, Oakland, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Atlanta and D.C.  I’m excited but nervous, too!