Edwardo Jackson Official Website

E.J.: My hometown is Seattle, WA. I went to school in Atlanta, GA at Morehouse College, a historically black college that, quite literally, saved my life. The black college experience is something I would recommend for all African-Americans so that we can experience the strength and self-confidence that comes naturally through being in the majority. Although I have always been a writer, I have found additional strength and confidence from the environment of my postsecondary school education.

E.J.: I have been writing ever since I was four. Books, not stories. I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was four. I have always considered myself a writer. Now, I just get paid for it.

E.J.: James Baldwin has an amazing, complex, literary writing style. I thank my Freshman Composition teacher for exposing me to him. And since I have always wanted to write popular fiction, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Terry McMillan have influenced me also. A book that has most influenced my life is Race Matters by the intellectual giant known as Cornel West. A brilliant, brilliant, brilliant man -- and a book that should be every black person's bible. America's not ready for him.

E.J.: Outside of my own books, I haven't really read any romantic books. I avoid scary novels because I avoid scary movies. Not a blood and guts fan. I like books like Clancy's and Grisham's, fast-moving, heavily plotted, and entertaining. But I do have to admit that there are a couple of scenes between Janie and Tea Cake in Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" that are very sweet and romantic.

E.J.: Nina Simone, Nina Simone, Nina Simone. Did I mention Nina Simone? Try listening to her "I Loves You Porgy" sometime. For a two minute song, it'll make you cry. If I listen to anything when I write, I'll listen to that old, sweet verve and big band music. Stuff like Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald.

E.J.: Usually I'm reading scripts or entertainment industry magazines. The last book I read was by Trey Ellis, "Right Here, Right Now". He is quite possibly the funniest writer alive. In my CD player is Jay-Z's "The Life and Times of S. Carter", Jodeci's "Diary of a Mad Band", Mariah Carey's "Rainbow", and the Funkmaster Flex-Big Kap mix CD.

E.J.: I have just finished the screenplay to Ever After, which I am shopping now. I plan on resuming the sequel to Ever After, called "Neva Hafta" and eventually writing the screenplay to that. And a year after I finish Neva Hafta, I figure to wrap up the Nick trilogy with a book tentatively titled "I Do?"

E.J.: I would like to thank all of those people who have supported me and my novels all the way through, as well as those who have bought and read the book. Good black men are out there, my sistas. Just don't settle for anything less.