Welcome to the Brookies.

I'm your host, Shawna Richards, a sometime writer and a long time reader.

I invite you to join me as we explore the Brookies and celebrate Virgin Islands authors and talent.

Each week on the books, we'll introduce you to a local author and learn more about them and their work.

A storyteller lives in each of us, and I'm so excited to give our homegrown storytellers a chance to tell their story.

Tonight's selection from the bookcase is Julianne, Queen of the ruins, and I am honored to welcome its author, Howard Jones.

Howard, welcome to the bookcase, and thank you so much for being here with us this evening.

You know, and thank you for having me.

Definitely is on.

So you are a return guest to the bookcase, having been here for, season one with your first book editors, and today you're here talking about Julianne.

So tell us about what you've been doing between editors and Julianne.

Yeah, well, in between those times, honestly, it was a whole, whole a whole lot between, you know, college and then eventually, you know, the military and stuff like that.

So, you know, life was very much tossing all around the place up until then, you know.

But, you know, Julianne is my most recent since I've been working on, I've been really, like, putting in a lot to it because, you know, it's it honestly, when I was in the military, this was how I kind of, you know, kept myself seen over there like it made me think of home.

And so because I was like, no, I've been off island for that long, you know, so it really kept my head together.

So with, Julianne.

Queen of the ruins is your third book and what category of, of literature does it fall into?

Yeah, I would, I normally like put this as fantasy action adventure just with a bit of like a Afro-Caribbean twist to it.

Okay.

And where does the Afro-Caribbean interest come in?

Well, I would say it comes in in the fact that, of course, obviously the story takes place on Saint Thomas itself, just like in a distant future, but also towards like many aspects of, like all Caribbean and of course, the Caribbean folklore being diaspora of West African folklore kind of weaves that into just different aspects of the world and stuff like that.

What inspired this book?

honestly, it's a tricky one.

Like there's a lot of little things, but also it's very much like its own thing.

I just had this idea of like, how would things be if I was like, tiny, you know?

and it's so interesting.

And even I was doing, like, artwork and stuff based around it when I was still in high school, actually, like, at the same time I was doing it.

Of course, I was thinking about Julianne.

I just never had any, like, concrete stuff with it.

So I just never like, wrote it.

But the idea was just floating.

my heart like my mind for years and years still.

So you've had the idea of this character who is, teenager, a young woman?

Yeah.

She's, I have Julia as, like, around 15 in the story, but I kind of always had the idea of just one character, just kind of like wandering around, actually.

And it was a big deal I had for it to be, for to be a young woman.

Because when I decided to sit down and write the book, I was watching us, saw some video.

I wish I could find it, but it was about, this woman was showing a bookshelf.

A woman, a girl was showing up bookshelves, and I said, okay, find the books that have, the female protagonist.

And then, like, they took all the books that didn't have fit that criteria, half of the bookshelf, because then they said, have a female character that actually does stuff in the story.

More of the bookshelf gone.

Hello, female character who has what's the word?

they actually just, you know, do sort of basically, you know, make their own choices of their own free will, like by the time basically by ten two or done, the bookshelf was empty.

So you were very intentional in writing a book with a strong female, a strong woman character.

Yeah.

But also two very much like in its, in its own way.

Like I didn't want hard to just because there's different ideas people have about a strong woman.

Sometimes they could get a little stereotypical.

So I just want I just want to make something that's like her, but not like I'm not mister for no one.

But yeah, that's just the whole thing.

I wanted to female character that just does stuff, basically.

So without giving anything away, what is some of the stuff that Julianne does?

Because when we meet her, when we introduce to her, she's just your average 15 year old living her life in a world that is in our distant future.

And then so what are some of the things that she does?

Well, I mean, I guess from the jump start, you could kind of see that she's very much like.

Active and doesn't really take anyone's craft, I guess you'd say.

Okay.

You know, whereas, you know, the village men are like trying to deal with an iguana, trying to eat like, their fruit, and everyone's scared, but she's willing to kind of just hop on down, like, chase it off, you know?

And she is very.

This isn't a normal iguana.

Oh, no.

No, it's, Yeah, just for context, I guess for the, I guess, audience in a sense, a know all the characters are basically boat like, maybe this big, you know, really they're really tiny.

Like, they call them interlinked for that reason, you know?

So to them, you know, an iguana is in some like, nuisance squatter.

Where would you like?

You know, it's like a dinosaur walking out, right?

Right.

But not seeing them, they're kind of like used to it in certain areas, same as we kind of get used to them eventually, most of us.

But, you know, she very much is a person that just likes to get stuff done because she works in art.

She's on a village that gathers, you know, fruits and that kind of stuff year round.

So her I mean, you know, our women very much have to be active and work hard like anyone else in the village.

But she's always kind of had that angle of if that stuff needs to get done, do it.

If someone needs help, help them, you know.

So what will the the reader of Julianne, will they see their community in it?

Will they see themselves in the story?

Yeah, that's honestly was the hope for it.

Like the whole thing of it is that it's supposed to kind of be reflective of us, but also different because obviously none of us, most of us are four inches tall.

Right?

So, you know, that dramatically changes things.

But also to Julianne, sometimes because she's a young woman, because she's young, gets underestimated or looked down upon, you know, there's crime and there's struggling.

Whole society kind of sometimes seems almost, you know, there's issues that need to be dealt with, you know, and I would say that's kind of very similar to us, you know, and what we have to deal with, you know, those in our culture, good and bad, they've kind of adopted it, you know, as in if we are like diaspora of West Africa, then things are diaspora of us.

what what inspired you to write about, society where people are four inches tall?

What what what triggered your imagination?

Because that's really that's a that's amazing.

No, honestly, I would say specifically there was another series.

I, a game series I played, actually, and it was almost like a society thing, or specifically one character.

She was also on insulin in that story.

Boats.

Yeah.

Tall like not four inch smart.

And I find interesting because she was the antagonist in the story.

But when you fight her, I was like, you know, when your character goes to go face off, she's like fighting you at all.

She's got because in her mind she got tricked.

But in her mind, she was the hero who was facing off of these giants, which is you to protect her people, you know?

And I just found it so interesting.

Like, that was just so interesting because it's like, when are you.

When her music kicks in and everything like that in the middle of Boss battle?

Are you listening to this and be like, I don't sound like I'm the hero in this situation.

It sounds like, use the hero, you know?

But that's a different kind of courage, you know, to fight the fight giant.

You know, like the David and Goliath thing is already, you know, something else that's courage beyond courage.

Now, imagine if Goliath could shoot laser beams, you know, and David and Goliath is certainly, you know, well established theme in in literature.

There's always, you know, the little man going up against a more, powerful force.

So when you were writing Julia, did you have that theme of David and Goliath in your head?

I would say, yeah, I would say that would be a big thing, because Julie is I mean, of course all of them are small.

They're just like, single.

But just like, she's still very much small compared to the gigantic threats she faces sometimes, you know, and I feel like that.

So much better.

Highlights her courage and, you know, whole bravery when she kind of like, faced these threats in the eye, you know, be it, you know, some giant creature, some like powerful bandit, some strong king or something like that.

You know, she kind of look them in the eye and says, right, this right wrong is wrong.

So despite her height, she can stand up for herself.

Yeah.

And take on other powerful forces.

So you've you've written this is your third book and you seem to have found a niche in, in fantasy and worldbuilding.

What is the most challenging part about worldbuilding?

I mean, honestly, I think the hardest part of worldbuilding is just knowing how much my note, like, individual things kind of affect your world.

Like, honestly, like just on the idea of, like, what a this world would have, magic or not, was a decision that took me like months because that would, like, dramatically alter how I have to structure story structure, character structure, everything, you know, so just even small details.

I have to, like, be super confident in and, you know, super sure of myself in because it's like the affect everything.

So worldbuilding is always never about the big stuff.

You know, it's usually about the small stuff, like just something as simple as what if rain was a different kind of what if rain wasn't?

Water dramatically affects every aspect of your world, even though you just change one thing.

And also worldbuilding is, yeah, so I asked you about the challenge.

So what's the easiest thing about worldbuilding?

I guess the easiest thing about it, in the sense, is that.

I feel like it simplifies it if I say I make my own rules, but in a sense, I kind of make my own rules.

Of course, I still have to follow those rules, which is the challenging part, but if my world has magic, my world has magic, you know?

but also to a big part of it, because I have passion with I love devising and reading about history, cultures and stuff like that.

So much less making it myself.

You know, it's just interesting to me.

So is that one of your rules?

You mentioned rules.

What are some of the rules that you follow and do they change for every book?

I mean, I guess it changes on the story, of course, you know, but, you know, there's like lots of little rules, like in the, in the world, of course.

For example, like the power system I mentioned, they do have essentially what is like functionally magic for them.

They know it as secret power and secret powers, that you can tap into in different ways and those different ways that you tap into it are called the parts.

So there's always multiple different parts of power that people can choose.

So some people, like a warrior, will train their body towards limit and break past that limit.

That's considered a physical part, you know, and at first it's just seeming it doesn't look like magic.

It's just you getting strong on mostly.

But after a while, when you push past, that limits, it becomes you having skin as hard as iron.

You know, you can jump super high, go super fast, you know.

So when you were growing up with all these fantastic ideas in your head, did you start writing from an early age or is that something that came to you later?

Yeah.

I, I actually started writing.

I feel like stories.

well, I used to draw them first, and then I got to kindergarten, and it taught us how to write.

I honestly, I feel that it has to be a blessing from God in that I can remember exactly.

I could remember when my teacher was teaching me how to form my hand.

I feel bad because like I she was left handed.

So I like people see me right screw up because my hand is I right right handed, like I'm left handed.

But still, when I form those letters, it's just something clicked.

It made sense and I immediately started writing stories.

Okay, like just as I learn the alphabet and hold up on it words, I just start adding words to my little drawings and picture books and stuff.

So you say you were drawing from an early age.

In addition to writing, did you do your own illustrations for your book?

Yeah, no, I did my own art, did not level up.

I did see a piece of my, writing.

So, I had a, artist I found on five run a commissioned them to do the book covers.

I spent a long time where, like, ones, like dozens of tabs open.

Just finding the specific artists who could just draw a lot of people.

And that was it.

That was.

That was a requirement.

That was.

That was like, guaranteed.

And I didn't notice until, like after the fact.

But the artist from my books actually does stuff from Black Sands Entertainment, which is a, black comic group.

Okay.

I didn't learn this until, like, I was by like the second cover install.

Like, makes sense.

Why a guy from V8.

But when I, when I saw the cover, when I saw the cover of your book, just the the imagery and how Julianne is drawn immediately made me think of anime.

So now you made that connection.

You made that connection for me.

So when you are, when you are writing, which audience are you writing for?

Who do you want?

Julianne, Queen of the ruins, to appeal to?

Well, well, Julianne specifically, I kind of was go in.

I was kind of tell people, look, I was I think the closest introduction I have would, comparison would be Avatar The Last Airbender, where, you know, you could show this to kids and it's a cool it's a cool show, but at the same time, you could like, sure, it's adults and they'll be seeing it and being like, understanding, like the deeper themes and deeper messages and something that, you know, like because I was drawing on teen Nickelodeon and it wasn't kids mainly watching it, but me growing up, having watched it, I was just there like, oh God, this was about PTSD.

This was about like aspects of war and protest.

And these are normally not kids topics.

But, you know, that's what allegories for, you know.

But I think it's all in how it's packaged.

Yeah.

No.

Exactly.

That's kind of what I want to go for with Julianne is like, I want something that kids could read and enjoy.

but also adults.

does anyone in a community kind of read it and then kind of be like, oh, they're talking about that topic in our community personally and know it's like there's meant to kind of hit all those different layers, you know, it's not too childish.

The adult can't read it, but not too like intense so that kids won't be able to understand it, that like some level, you know.

So you have now written three books, all of which are in the, fantasy realm.

Do you also read the type of books that you like to write?

Yeah, that's a very ironic twist, because I usually don't write a lot of, I don't read a lot of fantasy.

I more read sci fi.

Lately I've been reading a lot of, Dune from Frank Herbert, but even in the past, I read a lot of stuff like, Sharon Draper's books.

like Copper sonnet, a Ziggy books, which are just very much like, regular, just fun.

Well, Culberson wasn't a fan of fiction, but he loved fiction book, and it was some of the most live going look at stuff, which I think had a low key, you know, affect on me when it came to that.

It's obviously julianne's not that a graphic, but not a thing about a couple.

Another female, very strong female lead, but like, not like, let's see, she was a strong female lead, but not so not strong in a sense of she was out and proud and stuff like that.

But because she was a very tough, enduring survivor, you know, of the transatlantic slave trade, the worst of it, you know.

So what can you tell me about your writing process?

How do you get are you the paper and pad?

Are you sit down before the computer.

What helps you get the words out of your head and onto the page?

Yeah.

Well, yeah, it doesn't do, just I just do go to the computer one time.

You know what?

You know?

So it's very simple.

Just open up word.

You know, sometimes get my notes together and then spend, you know, the whole 30 minutes or more just on YouTube trying to find the correct song playlist for it.

So what music do you write to?

honestly, like all that just changes depending on the what I'm writing.

Like, if it has to be like a romantic scene or like an action scene or, you know, even like the kind of like dancing, like it just has to be like, I just have to just get the right vibe on this, you know?

It could just be like, so specifics on my list, like, I just need to get like, that specific vibe.

And I can kind of write from there.

So what what music do you remember what kind of music you were listening to and writing?

Juliann.

yeah.

I mean, I think I was like by and large, just like, like some like really kind of relaxing EDM for like whenever it's like a part where she's kind of like in country I think is like a little, like relaxing, like EDM type music or like other types of relaxing music.

Because, you know, when I was growing up, it was like my spot to relax, you know?

So it was like, when I want to conjure back that feeling.

I tried to like, listen to, like some relaxed music and stuff like that because that's how I get that vibe.

But, you know, my my list, like something more fast paced, like rock or like, does something else if it's like a action scene or something like intense, you know, so all the demands.

Do you have a favorite passage in your book that you can share with our audience?

Yum yum.

I'll probably just a part here that I think, I've always kind of was nervous about.

Tom doing passages because I always felt like it was so high context.

I feel like reading any part of it, would it make no sense by itself?

Okay.

But, I could just read a small piece here.

Okay.

And if you need to give a little context to our audience so that they understand what precedes or the bigger story that this is happening.

Yeah.

Well, okay, so for this part, it was them, you know, Julie and Albie, which is our friend Jimmy along the way who's like a, basically like a knight, you know, they're trying to, you know, rescue a friend of theirs who got kidnaped by a bandit, you know, so now they're trying to find, like, a way to get there quickly.

So, yeah, I can see from here.

All right.

To leave from the bottom of Cassie Pass, you had several options.

Most sensible people would go up the winding roads until they reached the top.

The other option was to pass over the hill through a large god.

It was faster, but obviously less sensible and more dangerous than a previous path.

Julie, however, was not sensible.

The gun was small compared to many autos, with a small trickle passing through the rocky part down the hill.

The part was rather steep, with only a small space.

Besides the rocks which you could possibly walk or ride on shifting dirt.

Or we could not help but looking down into the gut and pray endlessly that the multi was on would not slip in order small to the right place, instead of like forcing and stuff or be come on, if you called riding much faster.

This isn't safe Julie, he replied sissy, you is a crazy person.

He snapped back.

He looked.

He looked at the slowly creeping mouse and gently whipped the lean.

It began to dash up the path.

To his horror, the top of the hill was much more merciful, and they walked through the tall bush and across the ruined roads.

It was afternoon now, and even the mice were getting tired.

So, you know, it was kind of like one to kind of highlight the character, you know, orbs.

despite being a knight, he's very much a coward.

He will run from a field, run from a fight, you know.

So he says, I, Juliana, is insensible.

Yeah.

Because Julie will take, she is willing to take more risk when need be.

You know, she's not, like, needlessly reckless.

But, you know, if she has to take some risks to get to save the day, she is going to easily take the risk.

You know what?

This game, you know, he typically runs from danger.

Julie will run towards it if need be.

You know what is like the big, And it kind of creates like an interesting dynamic where, you know, orb is a tree knight, like, he's incredibly skilled, fighter.

I've been training from bird, but he's constantly inspired by Julie because she doesn't have that training those skills, and yet she's the one that kind of leaps head first into danger.

Well, he's kind of comes naturally to her, you know?

So it's like he himself, who is like such a powerful knight.

And even then he's like an actual like, you know, he's much older than Julie.

He's not old.

He still kind of gets inspired by hot to, to say, like Julie never learned to sword fight.

She never learned to ride in battle.

She never trained amongst, like, you know, chiefs and knights, but yet she fights and I don't, you know, so it propels him to do better, you know.

So in this story from we start I when we first introduced to to Juliana, like I said, she's a, a teenager living living her her life.

And so does the reader of Julian walk along with her as she becomes the Queen.

Yeah, I mean, I'm that's a vibe I kind of go for.

I was like that.

I guess I kind of build up what, you have a character go from their humble beginnings to, you know, becoming like, you know, a hero or becoming whatever, you know, being a villain if need be.

You know, just taking that, that journey.

And that's kind of why I want to go with, go with, with this one.

You know, you are going to like, follow Julie through the good times, through the bad, through her defeats, through victories and is going to like, you know, very much affect how you view the world when you kind of have the story through her side.

There will be other perspectives on other characters, of course, throughout the times, you know.

But, you know, that's who I really plan to stick with for most of this book.

But of course, later on there will be some others, you know?

Okay, I think Roy still has to get their story for the person out there who is listening to you and who thinks that they may also have a story to tell, what would you say to that person?

Yeah, I would say biggest advice.

And I've gotten a few people like, you know, who kind of come to me with the same stuff.

I just tell them to just write.

Don't worry about judgment, don't worry about quality, don't worry about it.

Just don't worry about nothing.

You know?

Cause comparison is a thief of joy.

And you know.

And a thing is to.

Another thing is to never feel like your story isn't unique.

you know, I could give ten people the prompt that there's a knight.

He has to go rescue a princess from a dragon.

I will get ten completely different people and write a mouse.

Yeah, basically, you know, it's like I. I kind of give you, like I say, I can give somebody.

I like some of the Japanese games I've played, they take that same exact problem or you're a hero as a dragon.

By the time you're done, you're not.

It's you don't ever.

The dragon's not the actual end of the game, you know?

So people will always people's own soul.

I guess you'd say their own life and everything that I will affect.

Everything, you know, on every aspect, that of you, that makes you a unique person is going to make that story unique just the same.

So don't worry about, oh Lord, earrings did this.

You can't do Lord rings and Lord of rings couldn't do what you do, you know, just just right.

Just do it, you know?

But so many times we hear writers being told, write what you know.

Does that apply to fantasy and worldbuilding?

I, I would say, still want to see because, what Air force.

I feel like I wrote Air Force.

Well, but there's some stuff in the story itself that I probably couldn't really get as accurately as someone else.

Like there's characters who are, like, living in areas that are like gray and snowy and, you know, these are not fantastical enough.

There's no one real life, you know?

But I've never seen it.

So it's like I could try my best to describe it, but I already know what snow is actually like, you know, versus when it came to Julianne, you know, it's like, did speak in our like, a local dialect.

The so culturally similar to what some of the things that are that I described and stuff I see and most of us see every day, you know, so it was almost it was very liberating writing specifically from what you know, you know, but you know, you can.

And what I found in even though you created this whole world, what I found was when, in reading Julianne, when it was very grounding to read the characters, speaking in dialect, to hear them say, are you and you know, all of that.

And that was very grounding.

And and even though you've created this world of inklings and giant iguanas and all of these fantastical things that immediately placed me in a Saint Thomas, and I said, I know where I am.

Was it hard for you to write in dialect?

there is some difficulties in, you know, compromising between spelling and capturing what I'm trying to capture.

So it's like a little tricky figuring out, like, how do I spell this?

And then even then there's some local words where I'm like, say, my whole life.

And I don't be like, I'm like, how do you spell Jackson?

Yeah, like, what the hell?

Yeah.

You know, I was like, so that was some challenges day and trying to figure out some stuff.

But by and large, it's always been something so freeing when I have to write from like a context, like completely understand.

So now you have three books under your belt.

You started with eight of those.

You have Julianne, Queen of the ruins.

What is next for you?

Well, right now I actually have the next book for Julianne, which is, you know, Julianne on A Secret Treasures.

I got kind of put it out now, basically.

Essentially done.

I'm just waiting on a few small details on once that's done is going to be out.

And I'm already working on the third book.

What it would be, you know, Julianne and a sisterhood.

You know, it's the name so far.

So I don't really plan to stop.

I'm still actively world building, actively putting in work to, like, get this stuff out.

Amazing, amazing.

It's been a pleasure to learn more about our local talent, Howard Jones.

For more information on Julianne, Queen of the ruins or any of the books featured on this program, visit our website.

I w TJX dawg.

We appreciate your support of our local authors, and we'll see you next week when we take another book from the bookcase.