The very first thing that stood out to me about Alretha Thomas was her faith. She uses her platform to sing praises to Jesus whenever great success comes knocking at her door, which in turn brings God's loving favor upon this beautiful woman. As a Christian, this means a lot to me, and I instantly wanted to get to know her more. I met Alretha on Twitter awhile back. She's an Author, Actress, Producer, and Director! This woman is seriously talented, and will soon be coming to a screen near you! She has so graciously agreed to an interview on my blog, and to say I'm just excited is an understatement! You will quickly find a message of inspiration and hope through her words...the Holy Spirit obviously lives strong in her answers and in her life. So without further ado, let's begin the interview!
Can you, for those who don't know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
Thank you, Andrea for interviewing me! I was born in Oakland and raised in San Francisco. I came to Los Angeles when I was fourteen to live with my maternal grandfather after my mother had died due to complications of asthma. She was only 36. That was the worst year of my life, and the only thing that got me through was my faith in God. That experience and other challenges growing up, inspired me to write my first novel, “Daughter Denied.” It’s loosely based on my childhood. I wrote the book in 1999 and after numerous failed attempts to get an agent and published, I self-published the book in 2008. While writing the book, I remembered an incident in the fifth grade, and everything began to make since regarding my foray into writing. My fifth-grade teacher had given the class a writing assignment and she picked mine and read it to the class. They were riveted to every word. Their reaction to my story blew me away. My teacher told me that I had talent and that I should pursue writing. Who knew years later I would have thirteen books on Amazon.
Tell us something really interesting that's happened to you!
After I graduated from USC with a degree in Journalism in the eighties, before I began writing, I decided to pursue acting. I studied for several years, joined SAG and AFTRA, and landed a few roles. But it was difficult to maintain a living and audition. Moreover, my spiritual life was in the slumps, and I needed to get myself together. So I left acting for twenty years, hoping that I would return to it one day. During my hiatus, I got closer to God, worked fulltime, and continued to write books as well as write, produce, and direct plays. In February 2016, I was able to leave my corporate job and return to acting. I was finally living my dream—acting and writing fulltime. This past November, to my surprise and amazement, I was cast as a recurring character on a popular sitcom. I’m not at liberty to disclose the project at this time. I was slated to do four episodes and ended up doing eighteen. I give God all glory for this opportunity. I play a seventies Hollywood starlet who’s struggling with the loss of her career and her youth. It was an incredible experience. I still pinch myself from time to time and look at the pictures I took during the experience to remind myself that it really happened. God is truly a dream maker, even during a pandemic! On a side note, it was when I truly put God first in my life that this miracle took place. I love God with all my mind, heart, and soul. Each day I ask Him to give me opportunities to be a vessel for Him to bless others. I don’t help others to get blessings, I do so because I love the Father. Miracles like being cast in the sitcom are just a spiritual occurrence that happens when you diligently seek the Lord and do His will.
If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
My latest published book is called “The Truth about Gretchen.” It’s about a graduate student film maker who has a recurring nightmare about a dead football player. She decides to write her thesis film about him. She holds auditions and a woman auditioning for the role of the boy’s mother leaves a keepsake behind that features the boy’s picture. Gretchen recognizes the boy from her dreams and tracks down the actress. The actress has a dead brother named Robert who was a football player. She believes Gretchen has stolen her brother’s story. How else could she know so much about him? The two women eventually embrace each other and set out to find out who murdered Robert twenty-five years ago. I thought this story would really take off, but I believe the cover of the book is misleading. If I could do it over again, I would have chosen a different cover. Readers who get past the cover, rave about the story.
Have you written any other books that are not published?
As previously mentioned, I have thirteen books on Amazon. I landed a literary agent in 2014, and she got me a deal for my four-book Cass & Nick Series. It was picked up by Soul Mate Publishing. The books have since reverted back to me, and I’m no longer with that agent. I tried to get an agent and deal for my three-book Detective Rachel Storme series but was not able. I ended up self-publishing. The other six standalone books are also self-published. I have two other books that are not published. One is currently on submission and my new literary agent and I are hoping for the best. The other one is waiting in the wings. They are both women’s fiction with elements of suspense. I am hopeful that I will get deals for both books. They have dual narratives. One protagonist is in the past and the other is in the present and they are mysteriously connected. The connection is eventually revealed. I put a lot into each book and am in love with all the characters.
What is your writing process? For instance do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first?
The first thing I do when I’m ready to write a book is to think about what story I want to tell. I’ll begin thinking about stories, characters, situations. I’ll spend a couple of weeks doing this. I’ll meditate on it, pray about it, make notes. Story ideas will begin flowing. Then characters. I write from the inside. The stories tend to bubble up inside me. Once I have the story idea, I’ll write it down. During that process, I decide how the story will begin and end. Then I’ll start listing and developing the characters. By now I’ll have a title. Once I have all of that, I’ll develop an outline. My stories tend to run between 320 and 350 pages. So I’ll create the outline based on that number of pages. My chapters are usually ten pages long. So my outline will be broken down into about 35 sets of 1-10. With each of those sets, I will write what’s going to take place. This helps me write with flow. And of course, each chapter often veers into a different direction once I start writing. The characters invariably take over and the story goes places I hadn’t imagined, but love. I used to write and printout every twenty to thirty pages to read. But now I never print until I have a completed draft. I do read what I’ve written online as I go along. Then I’ll make edits. This new process has been great because I can make changes at will, not worrying about page numbers or rearranging pages. I can adjust and change and revise freely. It has been such a freeing experience to not print out pages. Of course, I’m constantly saving to my hard drive and to a flash drive. Once I have the completed draft, I print the entire document and continue editing.
Thank you so much, Andrea, for giving me this opportunity to share some of my journey. My advice to aspiring writers is to write what you know and love, what’s in your heart. Don’t try to keep up with the latest trends because they’ll quickly fade. When you write your truth, you can stand strong, no matter how much rejection you get, and believe me, you’ll get plenty. But you’ll also get those who will cheer you on and love your work. Focus on those people! And don’t forget to keep the ultimate Creator first, God!
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