Chocolate Chat featuring
Tananarive Due
hosted by Cerece Rennie Murphy
CRM : What inspired you to write My Soul to Keep and how did you come up with the concept especially to use Jesus ’ s blood and the biblical references ? I would immediately think of things I learned in Sunday school and different hymns from my Baptist upbringing .
TANANARIVE : I was single when I wrote it , having bad luck in the dating scene . I was also a reporter for The Miami Herald . The story came to me in two ways : Jessica ’ s story of finding out that everything she believed was a lie , and the story of Dawit ’ s incredible loneliness ( and , unfortunately , selfishness .)
As for Jesus ’ s blood , I was very inspired to learn of the Christian city of Lalibela in Ethiopia , which was Christian without Europeans . And I asked myself the one thing that could explain David ’ s immortality , whether or not they were believers . Even non-believers could say , “ Yeah , I could see how people would say that could make you immortal ,” and believers can ask themselves questions about the meaning of free will and how we use gifts from God .
CRM : Please share your earliest memory of “ knowing ” that you wanted to be a writer .
TANANARIVE : I have wanted to be a writer literally as long as I can remember . I wrote a picture book called “ Baby Bobby ” when I was four , and my mother made copies and was very supportive . And that was very much my journey as a young writer , a LOT of support at home and exposure to books and reading . I wrote a lot of fan fiction in junior high and high school for a paramedic show called “ Emergency !”
CRM : Twenty-two books later , have you found a common theme or group of themes that you find yourself exploring over and over again , or is the theme different every time ?
TANANARIVE : Almost everything I write is about some kind of interaction between past and present , and facing outer darkness while grappling with some kind of personal trauma . I create characters who have to learn and grow into their circumstances and