Plays. Art. Books by Andrea Clinton
Where Do We Go From Here by Andrea Clinton
Coming March, 2016
Excerpt from Where Do We Go From Here
Looking ashamed to say where she was from, Geeda stared out and didn't say a word, but then she realized she was speaking to a bum, a woman who literally lived in the streets, "I lived on Bergen Street in Newark, Li’l City in East Orange, then around the corner near Death Valley," pausing, "but," squirming on her hospital bed with chills, "about ten years ago we moved on up like the Jefferson's to Maplewood," pausing, "a few miles from the middleclass section. Poverty is horrible living," Geeda said as she shivered.
"I'm sure it wasn't that bad. I walk the beat in that area sometimes, met a few older guys and gals my age and play chess in the park. Not so bad, at least not until the kids come around and those crack heads of course. Boy I'll tell ya, crack heads will shake anybody down to see what they have, even a bum on the streets."
Pulling her cover over her, trying to warm up, "I hate that place. Nothing but zombies and their eff'd up families there—never going back. It was awful living," Geeda said.
"Now," Paula continued, "how could it have been hard for you when it was your parents who were working to feed and clothe you?" Pauses to no response. "They don't want you to fall back to sleep, might as well talk."
"It's not just growing up there that I hate, it’s hunger, police, fighting, stabbing, shooting; and, some kids, they had a dad or step dad, I had Morris.
"Don't seem like a man with a name like Morris could be mean or as bad as you make him seem. Morris seems like a good guy," she said, noticing Geeda getting more irritated, sickly and wanting to burst her bubble. "I'm sure he had some good qualities. Birthdays?" Geeda cut her off.
'You ever tell anybody, I'll use this razor to cut your throat!' is what Morris use to say to me each time he snuck in my room from my bedroom window. Then he would reach in his pants and empty the contents of his pocket on my nightstand.
'Turn over, don't look at me. It makes me uncomfortable,' he would say. Then, he'd take out a thick piece of a short rubber rope; I always saw him start to tie it around his arm as I slowly turned around to face the other direction. I felt so uncomfortable. I didn't know what he was going to do, even when I saw the dope, needle and spoon he placed on the nightstand by my bed—I was 9, how would I know.
"With all or most of my friends being molested by their mother's boyfriend, neighbor or uncle, who knew what he was capable of? When he came in the window like that, back then, he never touched me. He was focused. I just lay there until he finished shooting his drugs and left out the window again. Those few minutes seemed like forever, and I had to wait through the nodding and waking up, beginning to leave and then nodding again. When he did go out the window, I closed and locked it, then ran in the room with my mother, locked her door and put the dresser in front of it and got in the bed with her in case he came back.
That happened off and on until I was 12-years-old. I'd sleep with my mother a few nights, then, she'd take him back and he'd just sneak in the bathroom to get off on his drugs. Then when they'd argue, because he stole from her, or slapped her for accusing him, she'd put him out and call the cops, well, vice versa. Then, I'd have to worry about him sneaking in my room again. I was smart, I'd always lock the window. But, my mother would often go in the room to vacuum or get my laundry and would leave the window open to, 'Let it air out,' she'd say. That's when he'd catch me off guard again. And just when I thought he'd moved on or heard he found a girlfriend or went back home to Brooklyn with his mom’s or to Philly with his wife, he'd be right back at my window, threatening me. The only time I was sure he wouldn't come in through my window was when he was locked up and that was never for long; a weekend, a month or two, then, he'd be right back out with me fearing his face behind the glass, rapping at my window showing me a knife or gun when it was locked to pump fear in my heart so I'd open or unlock the window."
"Why didn't you tell your mother?" Paula asked
"It never made sense to tell my mother. After he'd go to church for a month, come back holding her hand, giving her rent money and calling her pet names, she'd take him back. I never knew if she really believed in him, or was money hungry or just believed herself when she said, 'For a man to give up all that money when he could've gone and gotten high, he must want to do right. He must—' she'd say. Then, my friends, their mothers and all the women he'd con in between jail and making up with my mother, would laugh at my moms for believing in him and taking him in again.
( Continued... )
© 2016 All rights reserved. Book excerpt reprinted by permission of the author, Andrea Clinton. Do not reproduce, copy or use without the author's written permission. This excerpt is used for promotional purposes only.
Meet the Andrea Clinton
Andrea Clinton is the niece of Rock and Roll Hall of fame’s George Clinton of the funk band Parliament/Funkadelic. She’s an award winning playwright, winning the Union County, Board of Chosen Freeholders Advancement Community Theatre 2015 grant award for her play, Murphy’s Law: Group Therapy Gone Wild.
She’s also a Screenwriter/Filmmaker, Novelist and Essayist. Andrea is a Montclair State University Graduate where she achieved a Master’s degree in Theatre Studies, as well as undergraduate degrees in: English, Film and Journalism.
She’s the founder and CEO of People Helping People, Inc., a non-profit organization, whose mission is to help citizens become independent and self-sufficient.
BPM: Introduce us to your book and the main characters. Do you have favorites?
The main character is Geeda. What makes her special is that she is resilient and has overcome a nightmare of obstacles and committed to her goal of moving on up like the Jefferson's on the TV show. However, when she feels she stands to lose everything, all those nightmares come relishing back on Geeda and from the beginning of the book we find Geeda walking down the street in her sleevless t-shirt and tweety bird pajama pants lost in need of being found.
Paula is one of my favorite characters. She's quirky and a mental hot mess. She's been through so much and has educated herself so much, her mind has flipped much like the video games when you reach the high score and then you start back at the beginning. Paula is so smart and well educated she's resorted back to finding her way or not quite getting it, life; although, you ask her, life just sucks and she's not going to conform.
Shell is a retired psych hobo. I can't say homeless because it's not the case. Like many hobo's we've seen on TV shows, he wants to travel aimlessly with nothing or no one, just passing by people with no want for quality of life. But he's smart, sharp as a whip. He offers a load of good advice to all that cross his path. Geeda crosses his path and he makes her think in a way she'd never thought before. He helps her see there's no such thing as a pity party for one, it's a festival of pity shared by everyone; he helps her see she was her own worst enemy because, although we all have a story, she bought into hers and took herself all around John Henry's barn just to realize...
BPM: Which character or topic in the book can you identify with the most? Why?
Geeda, the main character is my favorite because she is me. She's living out something I live through often, visions of the past. Things are happening to her as they happened to me. You have this ugly past and it's the past, behind you, supposedly; that's what everyone tells you. In time you buy into it, only to in turn be faced with having to possibly re-live it again because your present situation threatens to change. Honestly, it's like it's always over your head that what once was may be again, whether its hurt/pain, poverty, etc. Geeda is living my nightmare. Honestly, I didn't think of it until now, being asked this question and all. When I wrote Geeda and her life I related, but I didn't realize I was writing about myself, my inner feelings or fears of my past and bad dreams of it.
BPM: What drew you to tackle the topics in your book?
The characters in this book are people from all walks of life and the thing they have in common is they suffer their own issues. Whether it's a defect or a life event, they go through the motions of dealing with their issues and not always in a positive manner. I wanted and always want to bring attention to mental health, which is why I address it in my play, Murphy's Law: Group Therapy Gone Wild. Life is no easy task and the things that happen to us and the people we deal with in life don't make it easier. Put that with chemicals in our foods that affect the brain, in our milk and in our medicines which add to a failing mental health and you see why we've got to begin fighting for our rights to have a healthy mental well being. You've seen the commercials on TV where medicines, "…may cause suicidal thoughts…"
BPM: Does your upbringing or life experiences inspire your writing?
Yes. So many experiences, learned lessons, life events lend to me wanting to share. Additionally, other's experiences inspire me to want to write, not just what they're going through but how they deal with it, their decisions when faced with an atrocity and more. I think all of our experiences make up a good story, which is why I love writing in the realism and naturalism tradition.
BPM: Can you outline some areas where your characters dealt with issues that are in current affairs?
You see mental health all over the news today. People killing, killing themselves, others and it's because they are dealing with mental health issues that is really not getting the attention it needs. The nation has succumb to using chemicals, the same ones that killed and handicapped Vietnamese and our soldiers in Vietnam when they tried to wipe out the foliage for warfare, their used on our foods and the adverse affect is cancer and mental health issues or issues in the brain; there are commercials for medicines that will help you in one way but have you kill yourself in taking them. We've always have people with mental health issues however, the number has grown so much that they are everyday people. Once they commit a crime they are treated like the average Joe and yet most of the issues mental health patients suffer is because of the way we do things or the things we allow in this country.
Geeda, the main character didn't ever think about these things before. However, when she is forced to have to be around these people, she realizes there's a world of things going on that she never, ever had a clue about. She's stumped and each day grows wiser and wiser, yet weary, except for those times she is fed up and snaps, has an outburst. She grows up and learns there's more to life than her past, she learns the hard way and it's not a happy enlightening.
BPM: Finish this sentence - “My writing offers the following legacy to future readers... ”
My writing offers the legacy of life as it was and often repeats itself. People will be
able to read my books and know what was happening in the time the books are
set in. They'll experience the mood of the people and the day and time.
BPM: Share with us your latest news, awards or upcoming book releases.
Well, I won a grant for my play MURPHY'S LAW: Group Therapy Gone Wild. The production is the first of prayerfully many, performing at Hamilton Theatre in Rahway, NJ November 13-15. I won a spot in the DC Black Theatre Festival for my play in 2016.
The sequel to my 1st novel, titled OMAR: Silent as a Lamb is coming Spring of 2016, followed by Tracy, which is the 3rd book will go into publication in the Fall of 2016. I'm going to be meeting with some film and TV people in November/December of 2015 for some scripts I have ready.
I'm just ready to take some of my writings I've been sitting on and bringing the to life for audience and reader's enjoyment. I love entertaining in any fashion. I have almost 5,000 followers on Facebook. I believe almost 2,000 on Instagram and Twitter.Connect with Andrea on Social Media:
Website: www.AroundTheWayPublishing.com
Instagram & Twitter: @Teaclinton13
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndreaClinton13
Blog: www.AndreaClinton.me
Blog: http://around-the-way.blogspot.com
Newspaper: http://paper.li/f-1326915658#
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3214167.Andrea_Clinton
