Please tell us about the book and the character who is being interviewed.
The Book -- Up North, a Jazz-Era thriller:
The year is 1933: Driven from her family home in Louisiana by ruthless bounty hunters, teenage Phyllis Joiner tries to start afresh as a cabaret singer in Chicago’s most notable Jazz district....only to realise she has been followed. She’ll have to turn sleuth, playing cat-and-mouse with both her original pursuers and their new allies—the most powerful syndicate in Chicago—to keep them from a rumoured family fortune. But to succeed, it will take an unlikely friendship with a Hyde Park lawyer who is none other than the nephew of her nemesis himself.
The Main character:
My main character is best described as follows: Phyllis Joiner, a 19-year-old songstress who performs alongside her father at his jazz concerts in Lowcountry Louisiana, dreams of one day seeing the glamorous North. As she would put it, "Although I had a day job now and all, deep down I was still a little girl with big dreams." Big dreams of becoming one of "all those glamorous people" she's seen on the Hollywood movie posters, as well as re-joining her cousins Up North.
What she doesn't know is that moving there will do nothing to shake off her family's nemesis, a ruthless land magnate who blames them for his fall from grace. Even after fleeing his posse of bounty-hunters on the journey North, Phyllis finds herself and her family caught in his ever-tightening net.
Now it falls to teenage Phyllis Joiner to turn sleuth, and track them down before they find her family -- a goal that tosses her into the gritty reality of what it means to live "Up North" in the Windy City. It’s a reality that will force her to cast aside her lofty expectations, and become the Captain of her own fate, and her family's protector in the process.
How did it feel to be given a leading role in this book?
It was swell! A whole page-turner all about what happened in my life? I’d never have thought it would happen—nobody I know ever got one o’ those written about ’em.
Obviously to us this was a tale but for you it was something you actually went through, how did you find the journey we read about?
Oh, well, it was a roller-coaster ride. If I had to do it again…I wouldn’t—but now I have to follow through. There’s no choice—my family’s lives are still on the line, and there’s no telling if Owens is done with his scheming. My money says, he isn’t.
If you could do the journey over again would you have done anything differently?
I’d have trusted myself more—I’d have looked out for help earlier and trusted my instincts when they told me something was up—it pays to be two steps ahead when a whole posse of bounty-hunters are after you and yours.
A lot of people would love to know what's next for you?
Oh, well, I’m not done. I still haven’t tracked down that treasure yet—and it’s like a beacon to all evil-doers in this city. I have to find it—I don’t mind if Officer Charlie rolls by every so often to tell me there’s no new lead, I’m still chasin’ a fresh clue. One day me and Owens are going to have a reckonin’ fit for Judgement Day, you just wait. I’m going to find out how he got an arsonist into this neighbourhood, and how he escaped police scrutiny. Oh, and I gotta learn how to dance before Charlie asks me out again!
If you could say anything to the people who read about you in this book what would it be?
Well, if I can help an officer of the law track a criminal across town with no experience, then determination can get you anywhere. But after all that, my exams should have been easy. They weren’t, ’cause I hadn’t put in the time. I’d say, be brave, but stay focused!!
How was it working with the author of your book?
Well, she’s alright. A scatter-brain from time to time, but she takes dictation easily. Really, it was easier than I thought it would be for her to pull through, partially because she’s not that different from me. She’s got my determination, and that counts for a lot.
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