Interview with Rojé Augustin, author of The Unraveling of Bebe Jones
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. 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? What kind of readers will it appeal to? 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. Desiree Washington is at the centre of this story, right? Tell us more about her and the people around her. 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? 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. 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? How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook? What’s next? |
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