Tamika Christy, a native of Oakland, California, began journaling in elementary school and writing short stories in high school. She continued to develop her passion in college, where she realized her talent for creating intriguing plots and multidimensional characters. She continued to nurture her love for writing while attending law school where she gave birth to her first novel, Anytime Soon, which won the Next Generation Finalist Award for African American Fiction.
Now a licensed attorney, Christy still devotes time to her love of writing. Rolling out spoke with her about her most recent novel, Never Too Soon.
Tell us about Never Too Soon.
Never Too Soon is a sequel to Anytime Soon, which was my first novel. My books all cover complicated family dynamics, whether it’s extended family, immediate family or blended families. I talk about the triumphs of love, overcoming and forgiving but also some of the difficult trials of family dynamics and laws, divorce, that kind of thing. I think a lot of my personal experiences lend to my writing.
What do you hope people take away from this latest book?
There’s a lot happening in this book. … [In] the first one, there’s a real strong matriarch in that book, and [in] this one you see the family trying to overcome what has happened after the loss of this strong matriarch. And they all have this daughter [who] sort of becomes this de facto matriarch. It’s about pulling the family together and overcoming different things. … We’re all imperfect people, and I think sometimes in life there’s a part of us where we want to compare or we think our lives should be a certain way. And we are exactly where we’re supposed to be. And you just have to keep going one day at a time, one step at a time. And I think what I hope people get from that is that we’re all imperfect.
Click continue to read Christy’s advice to aspiring writers.
