Congratulations on your 13th novel, Cheris!
Check out this snippet from an interview CL's staff news reporter did with Qcitymetro.com:
Q. Tell me about your newest book, “Too Hot for TV”It kind of grew out of this whole reality TV craze. There were all these marriage shows on TV. So, when I was plotting out my next book, I thought, “What if people went on TV and America chose if they got married?” But then I thought it would be too easy to make it two characters who both wanted to get married and were having a hard time meeting someone. So, I wanted to create two characters who were on TV for different reasons.
Imani, the heroine of the book, is an actress. She was in a movie that flopped, and she is trying to raise her level of visibility. She didn’t want to do it [the reality show], but she was about to get evicted. She needed the money.
The hero is Raymond. He’s a doctor who runs a free clinic in Harlem, and after 9/11 in real world, people stopped giving as much. So I wondered, “What would happen with this free clinic that worked with a lot of people that needed medical care but couldn’t afford it if they [the clinic] were struggling as well?” So Raymond’s partner put him in the mix to be on the show.
They both go on the show for different reasons, and when they meet, sparks do fly and they end up seeing that they do want to have a relationship. They just didn’t want to have it on TV. In looking at how reality shows are produced with the editing and everything, I wondered how would you hide what you are really feeling from these producers that are watching your every move.
Read the rest of the interview, by Glenn Burkins, here.
And get your copy of "Too Hot for TV" here.