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Interview with Rojé Augustin, author of The Unraveling of Bebe Jones

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The series begins at the height of the Global Financial Crisis, when 23-year-old Desiree Washington lands a job with her idol, legendary R&B singer Bebe Jones.  Desiree quickly discovers that the outwardly perfect Bebe is in fact a troubled and lonely diva reeling from a career in decline and a marriage in tatters, and that behind all the money, glamor and fame there are skeletons in the family closet.

Throughout all of this Desiree seeks support from her best friend Sean Minton, an aspiring music producer who hails from the insulated world of New York’s black elite burdened with secrets of his own.

Rounding out the cast are Bebe’s husband, Magnus Chadwick, a British hedge fund manager who cares more about money than family; her disgruntled household staff—all with strange ties to Bebe; and her children, brave casualties of their mother’s nightmare.

This book is different from most other African-American literature. Tell us how.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to tell you about my debut novel, ‘The Unraveling of Bebe Jones‘, a book I wrote with the specific intention of offering something NEW in contemporary black literature.

The story was conceived out of my life-long passion to create a popular saga about an African-American family whose struggles stem not from racial issues or stereotypes but from the experiences of trust, betrayal, greed, hatred, love and death that mark us all as human beings.  How do lies impact relationships?  What chain reactions do they trigger?  How are people directly and/or indirectly affected by greed or denial?  These are just a few of the questions explored in the novel, which revolves around the rich and famous Jones family and the people who work for them as they cope through an array of personal dramas.

What genre is it?
African-American contemporary fiction, Women’s fiction, Women’s lit.  You can pick any one of these.  Definitely drama.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
Great question.  The first thing that comes to mind is a quote attributed to Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite authors.  He said:  “Write to please just one person.  If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.”   My honest answer to this question is I have no idea what kind of readers it will appeal to because The Unraveling of Bebe Jones is a book that’s all about experimenting.  For one thing, it’s intended as a kind of television drama series in print.  As a producer and a lover of the TV drama series, which to me are like novels on the screen, my goal is to spend an entire series with the Joneses, with each book representing a ‘season’ and each with a soundtrack.  So I guess I’m hoping it appeals to people like me, people who love a good family drama.

That’s a novel way of looking at it. Complete this sentence for us: if you like_____________, you’ll love The Unraveling of Bebe Jones.
If you like THE NANNY DIARIES and/meets THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, you’ll like my book.

Desiree Washington is at the centre of this story, right? Tell us more about her and the people around her.
Desiree Washington is a 23-year-old girl with dreams of becoming a writer.  But when the banking crisis turns her life upside down, she takes a job as a French tutor/nanny to the children of a wealthy superstar.  There’s only one problem: She doesn’t speak French!  Her best friend Sean Minton has dreams, too, of becoming the next Kanye West.  He’s a lawyer/music producer-in-training with tracks in his pocket and boys in his closet and he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants.

Global icon Bebe Jones is Desiree’s new boss.  Once a ruling star of show business, her glitter is slowly fading, along with her marriage, and quite possibly her mind.  What she’s after is happiness, but she’s looking for it in all the wrong places.  Her two young children, Jedda and Jordan Jones Chadwick, 9 and 6, want what all young children want: Mom and dad happy together forever.  Sadly that’s not the case and at such tender ages they react in strange and sometimes scary ways.

Did you say you’ve written other books?
Nope, this is my debut.  Or as they pronounce it here in Australia where I live, dayboo

Haha. Talking about pronunciation, how do we say your first name? Writing African-American fiction we wouldn’t have expected you to be living in Australia.
My name is pronounced ro-jhay.  I’m a native New Yorker currently living in Sydney with my husband and two daughters, this after a three-year stint in London.   So I’m officially an ex-pat.  My husband is Australian, which is why I’m way the heck Down Under in the first place.

I began my career as an editorial assistant at the New York Daily News, where I wrote a few pieces for the lifestyle insert BET Weekend Magazine.   I then moved to television, first at CBS New Productions, where I cut my teeth on hour-long documentaries for cable, then to 20/20 with Barbara Walters and John Stossel, Primetime with Diane Sawyer and Good Morning America Weekend Edition as a writer and producer.  I also freelanced a bit for The Tyra Banks Show and E!

Besides writing a novel, I’ve recently begun developing television series through my production company in Sydney.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
rojeaugustin.com.

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
Twitter: @rojeaugustin, Facebook/rojesbook 

What’s next?
The second book in the series is well under way, with all the characters returning for another season of relationships and jealousies, triumphs and disappointments, joys and tragedies.  Plus, there’s a surprise companion to the series to follow, so stay tuned.

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