Margaret Johnson-Hodge

Book-Remarks.com

Featured Author - Margaret Johnson-Hodge

October 2002 Interview
 

Margaret Johnson-Hodge has a knack for writing about relationships the way that they are. Books like A New Day and Butterscotch Blues bring a sense of jazzy realism as characters ponder relationship and family issues. In this interview, Margaret shares how she develops her characters, give her own definition of success, and tells some of the greatest honors she's received during her writing career.

About the Author

Margaret Johnson-Hodge is the author of several books that have received national acclaim. Two of her novels were up for movie options: Hallmark Hall of Fame considered “Some Sunday” and Showtime considered “A New Day”. She had made the Black Expressions Favorite Author of 2000 list as well as the 1998 Reviewer’s Choice Awards. Her novel “Butterscotch Blues” made both Blackboard and Essence Magazine Bestsellers list. “A New Day” made Mosaicbooks.com’s What’s Hot List five times and it also made Emerge Magazine’s Top Five Fiction List. The reviews are in and Margaret has garnered praise from the likes of  Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, The Quarterly Black Review, Essence and Ebony Magazine.

Married with children, Margaret resides in Georgia.

Questions and Answers with Margaret Johnson-Hodge

True Lies is a fantastic novel and your writing is better than ever. How did you come up with the concept for the book, and did the title come first or the storyline?

Well, first off, thank you for the compliment. I try to get better with every novel I write and it’s nice to see somebody thinks I have (smile).  I am my own worst critic, I’m very tough on myself but I feel “True Lies” was a good story and so far, folks agree.

The concept came to me like this — I got a ‘what if’ in my head.  What if a woman met a really nice guy only to find out he has a child with someone else and the ties to both the mother and the child ran deep. How would the woman handle it? How would the man handle it? The child’s mother? The child? I took it from there and let the characters tell me the story.

2.      Your characterizations are done so very well that Rick, Gina and Dajah seem like they exist. How do your characters appear to you and what techniques do you use to give them that sense of realism?

It was a casting call in fast forward. They all popped up, saying things like: ‘Hi. I’m Dajah and this is my present situation’, and ‘Hi, I’m Rick and this is where I am at my life’ and so on. I don’t force the direction of my story. I get the premise, the characters, and see where they take me. Like I’ve said in the past, often I am as much surprised to find out things about them as the reader is.

With regards to technique, I didn’t use one on a conscious level. I just let the story guide. I try to be a careful observer of ‘real life’, how things often go for most people and it allowed me to keep it as real as I could manage. I try to respect whom my characters are and aren’t and I never force anything, whether it’s reaction, dialogue, choices, etc. on the story.

3.       When you’re writing a story, how do you know when it’s time to cut off the narrative and return to dialogue, and vice versa? Do you go by instinct, or something else?

It’s like cinematography. I record the ‘scenes’. There’s a rhythm to a good scene, y’know? There’s dialogue, cutaways to reactions, etc. So when I’m writing I ‘see’ and ‘hear’ and ‘feel’ what’s happening and try to record it within a certain flow.

4.      In your opinion, what are some of the greatest things reviewers can say about your books?

That the book made them laugh, cry and get pissed off. A shout out about my writing skills wouldn’t hurt either (lol). But seriously, I want people to feel something, whether they hate the book or love it. I want them to get involved with my story and not be a remote by-stander. I want to stir up their emotions, good or bad ones.

Case in point: someone wrote a scathing review of one of my books where the person talked about going down to the publisher with a picket sign to protest that fact that my book was even published. This person penned seven paragraphs of angst against my book and all I could do was smile. Why? Because whether that person realizes it or not, I’ve done my job. I made them feel. I stirred up their emotions. Yes, they hated it, but they felt something nonetheless. 

What is your definition of success? 

Success is getting letters from people you don’t know and have never met but you touched them with your words so much that they write you a three-page letter. Success is meeting someone for the first time and seeing their eyes light up because they are standing in your presence. Success is touching a stranger’s life without even knowing you have until they’ve told you.  

6.      Your books are always very family-oriented and seem to paint complete pictures. Is this a conscious effort?

I don’t know if it’s conscious. I just try and tell a good story about somebody’s life and family plays a big part in all of our lives.

7.      What are some of the most wonderful memories you’ve cherished regarding meeting your readers?

There have been many. Some of the best were: back in August, I met a reader who’s life matched one of my books so closely that she actually had little post-ums on the pages of her copy, where her life and my character’s life matched up, including the reader’s first name and my characters middle name (which I had forgotten I had even named her that). Then just last night I was at a Mary Kay party and the rep spent a lot of time sitting down at my feet, showing me how to do a pedicure and a leg pampering, clueless that I was the author of a couple of books she had read. When she found out, her mouth fell open. All she wanted to know was ‘how come you didn’t tell me’. As a rule I don’t go around saying: “Hey! I’m Margaret Johnson-Hodge and I am an author!” I want folks to get to know me as ‘Margaret’. Needless to say, she said her daughter was reading “Butterscotch Blues” and she wasn’t going to believe that I was at her Mary Kay party.

But the best one took place at an affair a few years ago in Atlanta. I had been corresponding with a certain woman who had read my works and loved them.  We had been corresponding for months, sharing e-mails, etc. I was sitting at the signing table and this woman comes up to me and just stands there with a Madonna smile on her face. So I look at her and I smile back and we went on that way for a good thirty seconds; me, feeling perplexed and she, just going on with that Madonna smile. Finally I noticed her nametag and when I did, my mouth fell open. I jumped up from the table, ran around it and shouted: “Girl, you didn’t tell me you were coming and how you gonna just stand there and not say who you were!” It was none other than Cydney Rax! I gave her a big ol’ hug and teased her for the rest of the evening about it.

8.       So far, what is the greatest honor you’ve experienced in your career?

There are a few: Hearing author Evelyn Coleman address me as an ‘author’.  Being at an affair and standing in a group with Lolita Files, Victoria Christopher Murray, Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant and hearing them praise a section of one of my books that had I read from. Hearing my writing bud Timmothy B. McCann tell me my writing was almost ‘Baldwin-esque’. And lastly, being invited back to my hometown to appear at the main library that I used to visit all the time when I was younger.  Those are the things that made me feel like I was doing something right.

9.      How do you pick the names of your characters (like Tarika and Shanisha). For some reason, the names all seem to fit.

In my old neighborhood, there were so many Shamika’s, Kanisha’s, Do-ricka’s etc., running around, it was simple to use those names. I got so happy with making up names in “True Lies”, my editor cried ‘enough!’ and made me change some of them. I picked those names to keep in step with the times.

10.    What are your hopes and aspirations for True Lies, or do you not want to touch that at this point?

My hope is that it will entertain, inform, inspire, and make people feel something; that someone will read it and say: that was a good story, I enjoyed it, or even, everybody in the book just pissed me off. And lastly, I hope people who have never read me before take a chance and pick the book up, even if it’s from the library (lol).

Any last words? 

I want to take this time to thank you, Book-Remarks.com, for all of the love and support you’ve shown me and for giving me a chance to share some of my thoughts with others. I want to thank the readers who have been with me from the beginning and are still with me today. I want to thank the readers who have just discovered me. I want to thank everyone who has ever written a review for one of my books. I truly appreciate it. From the bottom of my heart, I do. Those who want to e-mail me can do so at Email MJH

Peace y’all,

Margaret

Margaret Johnson-Hodge's Official Website

True Lies

The last time Dajah Moore took a chance, she was eight, and a wild, downhill bike ride left her with a scar on her knee. But the still-there scar is nothing compared to the ones criss-crossing her heart. She has a chance meeting with Rick Trimmons and when the handsome corrections officer gives her the protection of his mace and the temptation of his phone number, she falls hard.

    For Rick, nobody comes before his four-year-old daughter, Kanisha. She’s his heart and soul and the reason he puts up with all kinds of fool craziness from his baby’s mother Gina. Meeting Dajah shows Rick what his life could be like, until Gina’s outrageous behavior forces him into desperate choices that could destroy his happiness, his soul, and everything he’s ever worked for…

     [Read more]

Some Sunday
 

Sandy Hutchinson has faced times so hard they nearly broke her. The death of her young Trinidadian husband, Adrian, from AIDS was a powerful kind of hurting that left her wary of ever loving again. Then Adrian's brother, Winston, begins to re-awaken her feelings—and her conflicts about the past. But just when Sandy thinks she's getting her mind straight, life throws her a curve. His name is Randall—a contractor who arrives to remodel her basement, and may just renovate her heart.

[Read more]

Butterscotch Blues

SANDY FINALLY HAD EVERYTHING HER HEART DESIRED... THEN SHE HAD TO DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT TO KEEP IT

Sandy Hutchinson has skin so dark and chocolately brown, her friends call her "the black Diva." At the age of thirty-four, she and her three girlfriends have shared a tight bond since college, and been through the ups and disappointing downs of dating. With high aspirations about careers and love, they sometimes fall a bit short of their dreams, but nevertheless are always there for one another to offer sympathy and support. Sandy wonders if love will forever allude her, until the day she meets Adrian Burton, a Trinidadian with caramel skin, naturally wavy hair, and eyes the color of butterscotch.

[Read more]

Review of True Lies

A favorite among readers, author Margaret Johnson-Hodge gets better and better. Her latest, True Lies is one of the tightest novels she's ever written. The story revolves around a sincere, goal-oriented, but problem-plagued man named Rick who has fathered a child with an unstable drama queen named Gina.  Although they are no longer a couple, Rick dotes on their daughter, four-year-old Kanisha, and dealing with Gina emotionally sends him to places he never wanted to go. Through it all Rick tries to develop a romance with Dajah, a woman who sometimes gets frustrated with the drama, a woman that Rick hopes will make his life complete.

True Lies reads like a movie; it's very vivid, and the characters are so well drawn that when you read the dialogue, you can literally hear their voices. Margaret Johnson-Hodge shapes and sculpts her characters with amazing precision; she doesn't make all men look bad, or all baby mamas look trifling. She digs deep and helps the reader to understand the characters' motivations for the decisions they make.

The novel takes surprising turns that may cause one to talk out loud to the book, grow disgusted with some of the characters' decisions, and make you feel as if this story could be anybody's. True Lies is just that authentic. 

This is a commanding and appealing novel, and it's highly recommended.