New novel excerpt: IN THE NIGHT OF THE HEAT

Wow--time really flies!

I couldn't believe it when I checked Amazon.com and saw that In the Night of the Heat, my newest Tennyson Hardwick novel with Blair Underwood and my husband, Steven Barnes, is already in stock. Its official on-sale date is September 16!

With that kick in the pants, I thought I'd better post an excerpt and let readers know that this novel is about to drop. And here's a hint: It sounds like hype, but this novel is better than Casanegra, in our humble opinions. The story is better. The cover is better, as you can see for yourselves. And get this: The novel comes with its own suggested MP3 soundtrack you can download for yourselves to listen to while you read [see the list of songs at the very front of the novel, after the dedication]--Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Kanye West, Isaac Hayes, Alicia Keys, and lots more! I always listen to music while I'm writing, so this time we decided to make the soundtrack a part of the novel so it feels like a movie inside and out.

The story, as always, is ripped from real-life headlines. In Casanegra, we fictionalized the LAPD-hip hop connection that made headlines after the murder of Biggie Smalls.

In this new novel, Tennyson is asked to solve the murder of a football icon and film star recently acquitted in the murder of his ex-wife and her fiance--and Tennyson realizes that he can't solve T.D. Jackson's murder unless he can answer the question that captivated a nation: Who killed his wife?

Is it steamy? Guess you'll have to read the book for yourselves.

Here's an excerpt from Chapter One:

April didn’t use the doorbell anymore, not since I had given her a key. At ten after seven, she let herself in after two quick, shy knocks.

Who is THAT? I thought in the millisecond before I remembered she was my girl. April had changed her hairstyle, framing her face with chin-length braids in the front, elegantly styled into a shorter page-boy style in the back. Her haircut made a dramatic shift on her face, from cute and girlish to queenly. For a year solid, I hadn’t touched anyone else. Monogamy was the last thing I’d expected in this lifetime.

My girl. My girlfriend. My life had a new vocabulary.

April undressed herself bit by bit as she crossed the room toward me; her jacket on the coat rack, her hat on the sofa. April’s ivory sweater, stretched tautly across her bosom, made me wish we were on our way upstairs. April docked herself against me. “Sorry I’m late,” she said. Her lips brushed too quickly across mine. “You won’t believe...”

I interrupted her, holding her still for a kiss with a little flavor. Her lips relaxed, offering nectar. Then she pulled away shyly, as she always did when Dad was nearby. April was smiling, but she wasn’t planning to stay. I could see it in her eyes.

“So get this: The brother’s car blew up,” April went on. “They chase him for nearly eight miles, and his Ferrari flips into a ditch. This poor old lady he broadsided on La Cienega might not wake up, but of course he walks away without a scratch.”

April’s stories from work made me feel tired. After staring down a gun-barrel in the desert that day, I felt no schadenfreude. But April hadn’t been with me in the desert. She was a police reporter, and death entertained her just fine.

“They’re lucky nobody got killed,” April went on. “These police chases are out of control. Yeah, he robbed a bank, but sometimes guilty people go free. Deal with it.”

“Saw it on TV,” Dad called from the kitchen.

Dad had hooked April up with police sources more than once, old buddies from his Hollywood division, many of whom had risen high on the ladder and were willing to speak off the record. Retired Captain Richard Allen Hardwick and April Forrest were becoming a formidable team.

“Where’s Chela?” April asked me.

“Chess club, ‘til eight-thirty. She said not to wait.”

April lowered her chin, skeptical. “Chess?”

“I bribed her into giving it a try.”

“How much of a bribe?”

Dad wheeled himself into the dining room, a large plate of warm nachos on his lap. Suddenly, I was surrounded by observers.

“An iPhone,” I said. “Let’s eat.”

“Plainfoolishness,” Dad said, or something like it. With words at easy disposal, Dad would have been ranting. A nascent rant glimmered in his eyes. April sighed, too. Tag-team.

The fact was, it was Chela’s second chess club meeting in a month, which was more commitment than she had given the drama club. Chela needed to buy into something new, and chess had a nice ring to it. Better, by far, than her former hobbies. Besides, Chela hadn’t come around to liking April yet, and wasn’t sorry to miss Thursday dinner.

For now, separate corners worked best.

Dad mumbled grace too low to hear, the only time he spoke at length without self-consciousness. We couldn’t quite make out the words, but the gratitude in his voice needed no translation.

“Amen,” he finished.

April’s face lit up. “Oh, Ten, don’t forget—the Tau fund-raiser is tomorrow night.”

I searched my memory, and came up dry.

“The scholarship fund, remember? You signed up for the celebrity booth. People come up and take pictures with you. The committee chair loves ‘Homeland,’ and she was so excited when I said you’d come. Give me the dates for your episodes, and she’ll have all our sorors Tivo you.”

I’d forgotten all about the fund-raiser. When April’s work week ended, her community work began. Her exhausting schedule was one of the reasons we saw so little of each other.

“So you’re tied up tomorrow night?” I said.

“But if you’re there with me...” she said playfully, and grinned. Her dimples wrestled the disappointment right out of me.

“Okay.” It was hard to say no to April, another growing problem.

I felt Dad beaming silently across the table. He must have thought he’d arrived in Heaven early. If police captains had the same powers as ship captains, he would have married me to April on the spot. He'd just heard me commit my Friday night to a scholarship fund-raiser hosted by one of the country’s most prestigious black fraternities, Tau Alpha Gamma. Dad was a Tau, too, but I had refused to pledge during my year in college, mainly because I knew how badly he wanted me to. Dad never left the house except to see his doctor, so I knew better than to invite him.

“Thanks, Ten.” April draped an arm over me when she kissed my cheek, which gave me hope that she might come upstairs after dinner. “Guess who else committed today? T.D. Jackson.” Her voice soured. “He must be on a goodwill tour before his trial. You know it must be for a good cause if I can stand to be in the same room with him. I’ll have to meditate first.”

T.D. Jackson. Fallen football and action star, accused of murdering his ex-wife and her fiancé. Despite a mountan of physical and circumstantial evidence, he'd been acquitted in the criminal trial six months before. No surprise there. The rich and famous rarely go to prison. Justice would have another crack at him, though: The civil trial would begin in a week.

Twenty years before that, T.D. Jackson lived in my dormitory suite for about three months while I was at Southern California State. He was a star from the moment he set foot on campus. What I remember most was the parade of girls to and from his door. Once, I ran into him in the bathroom as he flushed a condom away at six in the morning. The lazy sneer on his face said: Most of you losers aren’t even out of bed yet, and I’ve already been laid.

T.D. Jackson made April crazy. The thought that he had gotten away with abusing and finally killing an upstanding sister seemed to keep her awake at night, as if his very existence set back the progress of civilization. Her teeth were already grinding.

“Innocent until proven guilty,” I reminded her.

Dad and April both made comments, but they kept them under their breath. The guilt or innocence of T.D. Jackson and what his case did or didn’t say about the roles of race and gender in the criminal justice system had already spiced our dinner conversations.

But I was glad I would run into T.D. again. I didn’t expect him to remember me, but I looked forward to shaking his hand and staring into his eyes. Wondered what I would see there. If I was right, T.D.’s eyes would probably broadcast the same thing April had just told me herself:

Sometimes guilty people go free. Shit happens.

Deal with it.

© Copyright 2008 by Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes

Why Blair Underwood Deserves an Emmy

Dear Academy Voters:

OK, I admit it: I have known and worked with Blair for more than a decade now, and I’ve been a fan since “L.A. Law.” Many of Blair’s newer fans remember his work—and…er…his assets—in HBO’s “Sex & The City.” Or noticed him in Something New and Madea’s Family Reunion.

But a lot of us can take if farther back. Before I met Blair, when he appeared in 1996’s Set it Off as Jada Pinkett Smith’s love interest (if you haven’t seen it, rent it), I was moved to tears because I was a single woman convinced I would NEVER, EVER meet a man of the warmth, poise, intelligence and unabashed adoration Blair personified on-screen. (Turns out I married that guy after all, two year later—his name is Steven Barnes—but who knew?)

Blair deserves an Emmy for his work on television in the past year. Not just a nomination—which should be forthcoming next week—but he deserves to take home that statuette. If there was a category called “Busy,” Blair would win hands-down.

Blair is being lauded for his riveting portrayal of Alex, a Navy fighter pilot wrestling with demons after bombing an Iraqi school in HBO’s outstanding series "In Treatment." But let’s not forget that he was simultaneously appearing as the hunky Mr. Harris in CBS’s “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and as multilingual millionaire Simon Elder in ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money.” Not to mention directing his first feature film, Bridge to Nowhere. And, oh yes, promoting our collaborative erotic mystery novel, Casanegra.

Blair juggled all of that AND managed to pull out his best work on television in the difficult and intimate one-on-one format of "In Treatment," opposite Gabriel Byrne.

After more than twenty years in the business, Blair has taken Hollywood by the throat and forced television viewers to take a good, long look beyond his face.

As I watched Alex on "In Treatment," I knew that character. I’ve seen that combination of rage and vulnerability in people I care about, and Blair nailed it. Blair peeled himself away to show us the human devastation and emptiness at the core of the horrible tasks we ask our young men and women in uniform to carry out far from home.

Maybe it’s because Blair’s father is a retired Air Force Colonel who lived that feeling when the cameras weren’t rolling. Maybe it’s because Blair could be justifiably pissed off that despite an impressive career, the slots for Black Leading Men in movies are few and far between—especially since he’s so obviously meant to play a love interest, not a wise-cracking buddy or a spiritual guide.

Whatever the reasons he was able to access that rage, Blair’s portrayal of Alex is as authentic as his smile is bright.

Every once in a while, an actor we’ve admired for years reminds us why we first noticed him in the first place. And reinvents himself before our eyes.

True, I’m biased. But anyone who didn’t notice that this was Blair Underwood’s year must not have been watching enough television.

CASANEGRA: A grand time with Steve and Blair at BEA!

NOTE: At the end of this entry, you'll find a great Publishers Weekly blog item by Bethanne Patrick about the African-American Booksellers' luncheon Steve and I attended with Blair Underwood at BEA, the major national Book Expo, on May 31, 2007. She wrote a terrific piece about the luncheon, sponsored by Atria Books.

Here are my own BEA highlights:

This was the first time Blair, Steve and I appeared in public to promote our erotic mystery, CASANEGRA: A TENNYSON HARDWICK NOVEL--which, incidentally, is now available on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. (It should be in bookstores any time...)
We knew the room would be aflutter because Blair's presence always brings out the flutter in people, but the event was even more exciting than I had anticipated. Here's why:

** The three of us have always had great chemistry, but aside from Hollywood pitch meetings, we haven't had many opportunities to "strut our stuff" in public. The topic of the panel was "Writing Outside of Your Comfort Zone," and one of the questions was about the greatest challenges--and the greatest benefits--of our new project together.
As for challenges...well, let's just say that I once had a very personal writing process, so collaboration did not always come easily to me. I have really sharpened my skills since I've been working in Hollywood, which is Collaboration Central. I mentioned that Steve and I had a few arguments when we first started collaborating on screenplays, and the two of us also had a few minor disagreements in the formation stages of Casanegra. It's always tough to find a shared vision, no matter how close you are. That's probably the hardest part.
As for the benefits? I was sitting BETWEEN Blair and Steve at the table, so I rested one hand on Steve's back and one on Blair's with a huge grin on my face:
"Lucky me!" I said.
The audience laughed. Enough said. Working with two handsome and dynamic men is never boring, and my point was plain as day.

**It was a real treat to meet erotica writer Zane, who was also on our panel. Some of you may not have read Zane, but you need to know her name. She is a one-woman industry unto herself, with her own line of books at Atria and a whole slate of media projects she is storming Hollywood with. Zane is pleasant, gracious and demure. And she is committed to helping other writers fulfill their dreams, a truly admirable trait. And her new advice book, Dear G-Spot, is getting good reviews as well as good buzz!

**If you haven't read Nathan McCall's Makes Me Wanna Holler, you really should. Even as someone who was raised by civil rights activists, Nathan's smart insight into black male rage in America opened my eyes in new ways. Nathan was on our panel promoting his first novel, entitled Them, which is going to blow audiences away yet again. Nathan is a terrific and important writer, and it was a pleasure to share a panel with him.

**There is a new writer named Stacey Patton who is publishing her first memoir, That Mean Old Yesterday, and her presence on the panel infused it with a sense of both freshness and gravitas. Her memoir recounts a painful childhood and a legacy of physical abuse with roots in American slavery. It was lovely, and heartbreaking, to hear her tell her story. She is brilliant, lovely woman who has overcome adversity with her heart and soul intact.

**The Rock Bottom Remainders: I don't think I've ever mentioned it on my website, but over the years I have been privileged to sing backup, dance and even play keyboards with the Rock Bottom Remainders, organized by author Kathi Goldmark. Even if you've never heard them play, you might have heard of the band members: Stephen King. Dave Barry. Ridley Pearson. Mitch Albom. Scott Turow. Amy Tan. And others.
I first met Stephen King while playing with the Rock Bottom Remainders, and through that contact he was gracious enough to read and blurb my second novel, MY SOUL TO KEEP.
Aside from that, as someone who would trade my writing talent for more musical talent any day (sorry), it has been a dream come true to stand on a stage with these writer/musicians, and performers like now-deceased rock legend Warren Zevon, to experience the heady rush that comes from playing and singing music on a stage.
Steve and I stopped by during the rehearsal and sound check at Webster Hall to say hello. I'd been invited to sing backup during the concert later that night, but I ultimately couldn't make it because of exhaustion (I was in bed by 9:30!). But it brought back a rush of memories to have the chance to climb on the stage one more time, however briefly, and stand beside Kathi and Amy to sing back-up and play a kazoo while the band rocked on.
Needless to say, any chance I have to say hello to Stephen King is precious to me. Without King's work to tickle my imagination, I don't know that I ever would have discovered my love for writing novels about the supernatural. King hasn't performed with the Remainders nearly as frequently since his devastating accident...and you've got to see the bliss on the man's face while he's up there on stage. Music has its own magic. King was as excited to meet Warren Zevon for the first time as I was to meet him!
Dave Barry first invited me to jump on stage with the band about ten years ago, while we were both working for The Miami Herald and I ran into him in the company cafeteria. (It just goes to show, folks: Even if you're really shy about asking a question, it never hurts. Next thing I knew, I was playing a keyboard in front of my first live audience!)
Wish I'd seen the concert last Friday night. I know they were great.
Thanks for the memories, gang! Hope to play with you again.
(One of these days, I'm going to post an audio link so you can hear Tina Turner's version of "Proud Mary" I recorded--with Warren Zevon singing Ike's part--for Kathi Goldmark's Don't Quit Your Day Job Records. The CD features several writers singing, including Norman Mailer, Maya Angelou, Dave Barry, Stephen King, and others. It's a real hoot! You can grab a copy of this rare CD for yourself at www.dqydj.com.)

That's my BEA roundup! Can't wait for BEA in Los Angeles next year.

--Tananarive

The Publishers Weekly piece follows:

The Book Maven

Bethanne Patrick
Book Expo 2007: Atria's African-American Luncheon May 31, 2007
Today I attended the African-American Booksellers Luncheon (sponsored by Atria this year) -- far and away the most congenial BEA event, open to all and always fresh and interesting.
The theme for 2007 was "Writing Outside of Your Comfort Zone," with panelists Nathan McCall, Stacey Patton, Zane, and the writing team of Blair Underwood, Tananarive Due, & Steven Barnes, along with moderator Adrienne Ingrum. Everyone on the panel has written a new book in a genre different from their previous one:
-- McCall, a journalist and the author the autobiography Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America, has a debut novel coming out in October called Them.
-- Patton, a journalist and academic, has a memoir called That Mean Old Yesterday due out in September.
-- The ever-prolific and adaptable Zane will release her first nonfiction title, Dear G-Spot, in July (just wait until you see the fabulous cover!).
-- Due, Underwood, and Barnes have collaborated on a new mystery series called Casanegra (and yes, Blair Underwood is that Blair Underwood -- but besides star turns on Sex in the City and Madea's Family Reunion, he is the author of Before I Got Here: The Wondrous Things We Hear When We Listen to the Souls of Our Children), the first mystery series for any of them.
A few fun quotes and moments from the standing-room-only crowd in the large ballroom where the luncheon was held:
-- After Steven Barnes decried the lack of creation stories for African-Americans, there were shouts of "Preach it!" from the crowd.
-- Zane, just about everyone's favorite erotic author, saying of herself, "I'm no sexologist!" but also pointing out that her book's cover (with its gorgeous photo of a woman's torso) is much hotter than anything from "Dr. Ruth or Dr. Phil."
-- Stacey Patton describing a newspaper assignment in which she interviewed an older man whose shoeshine business was about to be shut down because of new construction: "We talked about shoes all day... and I finally felt I had stepped into his life... that was a powerful moment."
-- Tananarive Due telling the story of an email from a reader who said that after reading one of Due's books, she (the reader) felt able to cope with and fight off an attacker. "That's the kind of reader I want."
-- Nathan McCall responding to a submitted question about potential reader disappointment when an author tries something new: "Our primary responsbility as artists is to write the book we would want to reader."
Sing it, Brother McCall. Thanks, Atria Books, for a wonderful kick-off to this year's BEA.

Announcing...CASANEGRA!

Hello, readers--

Welcome to the new and improved "Tananarive Due Readers' Circle." I apologize to those of you who joined my former AOL Group who have had trouble sending and receiving messages in the past...but we have now arrived in a new era!

I am christening my brand new blog to tell you about a project I am VERY excited about--my first mystery novel, Casanegra: A Tennyson Hardwick Novel. But that's not where the excitement ends: This novel is a three-way collaboration between me, actor/director Blair Underwood and my husband, Steven Barnes. It's a taste of Hollywood on your bookshelf!

Casanegra will be published in July, and the buzz is already beginning. Here are a few highlights:

** Casanegra is the July pick for the Essence Book Club.

** Publishers Weekly called Casanegra "seamlessly entertaining."

** A video interview with the three of us will soon be posted on YouTube.

** New York Times bestselling author E. Lynn Harris writes: "Casanegra is a wild ride through Hollywood, heart-pounding in every way. Smooth, ultra-sexy Tennyson Hardwick is a man readers will want to meet up close. He is all heart and danger, a knight in battered armor. You will love this novel!"

What's it about?

Here's the jacket copy: "Casanegra follows the adventures of Tennyson Hardwick, a gorgeous, sexy actor and former gigolo, living on the fringes of the good life in Hollywood. This story, which chronicles the redemption of a prodigal son, combines the glamour of Hollywood with the seedy hopelessness of the inner city.

"In this hot and steamy mystery, Tennyson struggles to hang on to his acting career and redeem his sex-for-pay history, which estranged him from his family--especially his father, a decorated LAPD captain who raised Tennyson to call him 'sir.' Now, in the wake of his father's sudden stroke, Tennyson has to save himself from taking the fall for the first murder of a female rapper. In the process, he discovers his hidden talents--the hard way.

"Golden Globe-nominated actor and author of Before I Got Here, Blair Underwood joins bestselling novelists Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes to create a cool, irresistible character in Tennyson Hardwick. This gritty, provocative mystery will keep readers craving more."

Why a collaboration?

Casanegra is a brand new experience for all three of us, something none of us as individuals would have written on our own. I have known Blair for many years, since he optioned my novel My Soul to Keep and helped set it up at Fox Searchlight studios, where it is still at the script stage. The idea of a collaboration came up in our ongoing conversations. Steve and I moved to Southern California two years ago to have a more direct role in shepherding our books to films, and we consider Casanegra to be our first "co-production." It is a book written to be a movie, complete with an actor as the star. It is an utterly unique project.

There is no supernatural element in Casanegra, which is what my writing is best known for, but the book has enough suspense that I don't believe my readers will be disappointed. As in all of my work, there is a serious message beneath the entertainment: namely, the violence that plagues rap music and LAPD corruption linked to rappers. This mystery series is designed to take news from real-life headlines and fictionalize it in Tennyson Hardwick's world, all of it packaged under classic movie titles. It was great fun to write!

Are you still writing solo novels?

Absolutely! I am currently writing a sequel to my novels My Soul to Keep and The Living Blood, entitled The Colony, which will be published by Atria Books in 2008. Thank you so much for your patience, but I wanted to get it right! The Colony is set in the near-future, following the adventures of my African immortals, especially 17-year-old Fana. I will update you when I know more about the publication date.

Once again, welcome to my blog. If you want to email me, please write to me at TheLivingBlood@aol.com. I can't always respond right away, but I look forward to hearing from you!