Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Zig Zag Claybourne. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Zig Zag, thanks for joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?
The saddest thing about publishing as an industry is it still operates as if Dickens is their primary client, as in, acting like it’s still 1850. It’s an industry that actively runs from change or innovation, particularly in how it views its literal source of existence (authors) and source of income (readers). Corporate publishing still thinks telling readers, “We will tell you what you want and you will love it” is as viable an approach in the internet age–when wants move around the world at lightning speed–as it was in the beginning days of the industry when technological and social limitations meant if readers wanted the printed word, they had one or two options. People want options today. They want creativity and diversity. They want to see risks taken in their fiction. What worked so well in the past is increasingly becoming a bore, and until the industry actively recognizes that, the only risk it’s taking is self-obsolescence.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My mini bio on my website reads “There’s a clue in the number of names he uses (Zig Zag Claybourne, C.E. Young, C. Young, Thor MF Jones) showing that Zig believes writers should have the same privileges to inhabit a delightful variety of roles as actors.”
And then it says I grew up watching The Twilight Zone and consider myself a better person for it. Which I do. The Twilight Zone’s mindbenders taught me a lot.
I’ve got many pen names but one goal: joyful speculation.
It wasn’t TV that got me interested in What If. Every writer starts out a reader. Growing up, my family was poor as poor got, so going to the library was our Toys R Us. Ma would walk me and my siblings to the library, we’d all (her included) leave with as many books as we could carry in our red-and-white library bags, and look forward to doing it again! Words, the imagination, and a sense of play have always been part of my life. I didn’t seriously think about becoming a writer until after having a meeting with Beverly Jenkins when I was barely out of college. Yes, that Beverly Jenkins. International bestselling, Romance Writers of America Lifetime Achievement awardee, Detroit icon Beverly Jenkins. She didn’t know me at all but my young self wrote her asking for advice, she said let’s meet, and she taught me the difference between wanting to write and wanting to be a writer. To be a writer was to enter a business, which meant learning enough to respect yourself as part of that business. Passion was one thing, perseverance the next, but the joy that came from respecting your creativity, that was priceless. Beverly showed me it was possible to learn the business but keep that joy. And for me, without joy in the mix, the words are empty. That advice took, because years later one reviewer said of my book ‘Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe,’ “It’s best described as the sheer joy of being alive, rendered in print.”
For me, there’s no greater force than the power of the imagination. I bring readers with me; they’re not just passengers. If I’m running, sweating, laughing, jumping, they’re doing it too. I firmly believe in the playground theory of art: nobody on the benches, every on the field. That approach tends to set me apart in my writing, but really I have the most simple approach. I tend to start off with a feeling. Art is emotion distilled, a communication of internal life hoping to align with the outside. The feeling jumping me might be visceral, something like “How would it feel living under a Church that you believed could read your mind,” or that giddy feeling of talking to a dear friend after weeks of being away. Feeling is key. As a writer it places me immediately in the story or in the character.
Readers dig that immediacy. It’s like I write with them smiling over my shoulder. They come for humor, sci fi, adventure, satire, inspiration, romance–all the things that make up the Black Fantastic! And they leave feeling more humorous, more imaginative, more adventurous, and maybe, if I’ve been very good at putting finding the right words, a little more resilient the next time their feet hit hard ground.
Feelings like that swirl around each other and become a very beautiful thing.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
All forms of creativity are attempts to communicate something beyond the boundaries of the everyday. It’s “I am here, this is what I see, I hope there’s something helpful in showing it to you.” My mission is remind anybody who’s forgotten the most important fact of existence: that nothing changes without the power of the imagination. Social change, political change, personal change, technological change–at their healthiest, all those changes start with being able to imagine something better for the world. Everything I write pushes health forward. Octavia Butler wrote in her landmark novel ‘Parable of the Sower,’ “All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you.” Every word I write is meant to grab a neuron and supercharge our wonderful imaginations. I’ve won awards, I’ve gotten recognition. Those are great. But when I meet a reader who says something I wrote helped them? No better feeling!
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
As a writer, I get new readers from people who love to read. It’s that simple. No amount of marketing or PR can ever replace simple word-of-mouth. I spend most of my social media time trumpeting cool novels I’ve found. If we’re not spreading the joy, what’s the point being online? New readers come across my work via literary conventions, author readings (which I love to do), my own quiet marketing…but mostly from someone telling someone else, “I just read the wildest-coolest-sweetest-funniest thing!”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://zzclaybourne.com
- Twitter: @zzclaybourne