A: People assume that hip hop can't be literary. This reminds me of when I was in my early 20s and I wrote the Off Broadway play Goddess City.  People assumed that hip hop could not mix with theater. People need boxes to define and understand things so I am not opposed to these labels.  Call it chick lit, call it street lit, just read it and see that it is smart, funny human literature that anyone can enjoy. I think that I break the mold by writing a literary novel that takes place in the hip hop world.  It frustrates me that a black face on the cover means that people see this as only a book for black people, because I grew up around everyone and reading everyone.  I was told that mainstream press wouldn't be interested in a smart hip hop story because publishing is still segregated.  Hopefully this is not true!

Q: What is Dareitude?

A: Dare also has a deeper -but non-preachy--  message about women and media images, a message of self-esteem.  One of the main questions I had was how can hip hop fiction be motivational.  In conjunction with blackplanet.com, I am launching a motivational movement as well that I call DAREITUDE, based on the novel.  

Dareology and dareitude are terms I created while writing Dare.  Dareitude is daring with attitude. Dareology is about having the courage to live the most joyful life possible, just as the characters in the book learn from looking for love and self-esteem in all of the wrong places.  I know-I've been there.  This is another branch of my on-going work with Eve Ensler's V-Day, which aims to promote strength among women, and my own Goddess Factory movement.  Each chapter of DARE begins with a quote from a woman in hip hop because I also wanted to pay homage to a heritage of the strength of women in hip hop that we don't see reflected in mainstream culture.  In addition, there are clear literary nods to Toni Morrison-the characters live in Ohio on her fictional Bluestone Road from Beloved; and nods to Alice Walker-there is a reference to her Finding the Green Stone.  The book is divided into Love, Joy, Harmony, Beauty, Moxie and Truth. These are the principles of dareology, or daring to be your best self.

Q: What inspires you?

A: I am inspired by the belief that we all have a right to happiness.  Joy can't be underrated.  Pursuit of happiness is in the Constitution.  Oppressed communities forget that.  We have a right to joy and pleasure-emotional, sexual and otherwise.  Dare is raw, funny, honest, sensual and socially conscious, but more than anything I want the book to inspire the pursuit of joy.

Q: What writers influence you?

A: I enjoy a wide variety of work from the literary works of Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor to the tell it like it is work of Terry McMillan.  I also enjoy hip hop author Heru Ptah and many of my peers like Jennifer Weiner and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez.  There are exciting things happening in black and Latin women's writing right now!  I am also classically inspired as you'll find hints of The Wizard of Oz in Dare.  In fact, the entire novel Dare is a chick lit retelling of Faust set in the hip hop world. 

Q: Some of your characters are pretty outrageous?  Are they based on real people or people you know? 

A: Several people have asked me if the main character Maya Hope is me, and I like to think that every character is me.  It was hilarious that while I was writing Maya going through adjusting to being a public figure, as a BET host and an emerging figure on the scene, I was experiencing some of the same things.  I also was going through a devastating, heart-wrenching breakup with the man I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with and they say that living well is the best revenge, so I wanted to give Maya a chance at revenge.  I think that readers will definitely notice echoes of some of the well-known figures in the rap game and pop culture in the characters.  Like every other writer, I draw from what I know and then spin it into magic, gold and madness in my imagination.  Read it and then guess who may be based on whom! 

Q: What's next?

A: My main objectives are to entertain and inspire people to live lives of outrageous joy, while empowering them culturally, politically, emotionally and sexually.  My work is featured in quite a few anthologies: Eve Ensler's A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer; Paula Derrow's (Self Magazine) Behind the Bedroom Door; and I write about the word slut in Ellen Sussman's Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex.  The advance buzz is that people are really enjoying DARE and the adventures of Maya and her best friend Athena. 

My upcoming novels will be just as much fun.  Meanwhile, please look for me on my weekly film show The Best Shorts on BET J and my daily online show launching in January on blackplanet.com, as well as other platforms.  And then of course there are all of the mini-movies that I have directed on my interactive site. Bigger and better, baby!! That's what we all have to DARE to be!  Life is a party when we let it be.