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| Lendy Demetrius, Author |
No one does seduction and suspense like Lendy Demetrius. He possesses an intense voice, and his words bring chills in his writing. A story that is powerful, nail biting and touching. An ingeniously moving story, inspiring, profoundly real.
Gripping, limitlessly creative, going to be read for a long time to come.
After several years in hiatus, author Lendy Demetrius has return to bookshelves nationwide with the release of his second novel, I Live, You Move On. Set in New York City, the story follows the lives of two strong, driven career women who find their love lives will not be as easily conquered as their professional lives have been.
Lendy made his return to the literary scene with the vivid tale of two dynamic women, one Latina and one African-American, seeking to find balance between their personal and professional lives without having to sacrifice one for the other. “As minorities, our lives are so diverse,” Lendy says of his style of writing. “I love to bring to light the challenge in not only revealing that diversity, but also synergizing the layers that take us beyond the collective African-American or Hispanic experience, to the unique individuality of each character.”
A Summary of the Characters
JULISSA LONGORIEZ never intended to let her personal life derail her work. In fact, Julissa made it a point to avoid attachment and love. Besides, getting too close to any man would force her to have to come to terms with a past she has worked so hard to bury. But her latest conquest has a different plan in mind. Despite his current relationship with another woman, Avery knows that Julissa is the one he wants. Moreover, with the rapidly changing circumstances of her life, Julissa must decide if keeping her past secret is more important than building the future she never thought would be hers.
Demetrius’ other protagonist, NAHLA VOYAS, is almost the exact opposite of her friend Julissa. For years, Nahla has played doting wife and mother, ignoring her husband’s philandering ways and sacrificing her dreams to keep their home life as close to perfect as possible. But when the truth about his extramarital activities becomes too much to ignore, Nahla decides she must love herself and her daughter more than this man. She must do what it takes to put herself first and become the role model her child deserves. However, getting there may not be that simple.
As with his first novel, There Could Be Joy and Pain in the Long Run, Lendy Demetrius demonstrates a true mastery of his subjects in I Live, You Move On. He delivers Julissa and Nahla’s first person accounts in an engaging manner that keeps the readers glued to the pages as they discover the circumstances that have made these two women who they are. With each twist of the present and revelation of the past, Demetrius creates a world so vivid that it could very well be unfolding on screen.
An Interview With The Author
Who are your favorite authors? How have they impacted your writing? I would say Eric Jerome Dickey, Victoria Schmidt and Douglass Adams. I liked Eric Jerome Dickey’s book a lot. His books are very well written & I learned a great deal about character development. Victoria Schmidt's books incorporate her incomparable interests in different paths that allow me to imagine things differently about various topics while presenting me with realistic tools to examine things on my own. “45 Master Characters” is like a bible to me, especially if I am stuck somewhere in my writing. It helps me think of the different possibilities. My beloved book has been unquestionably “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglass Adams. His comical aspect is unconquerable and his satire lasts for days. He commences his book by saying he came up with the idea while intoxicated in an arbitrary field in London. He is honest and I find that to be loved in a person’s character.
In the years since you were last published, what has changed in your life? How has that affected your writing? What hasn’t changed! It seems like every facet of my life has changed through the years. Each evolution brought it's own challenges and lessons. Overall, it's caused me to learn to be more submissive and to accept that I can't always be in control. I've learned to relinquish control over the writing process too. Now, I just write. Even if it’s precisely five minutes a day. I realize that everything I write doesn't have to be my best work. I just have to create thoughts and write, without worrying about the outcome or how it will be received by others.
Where did you find the inspiration for Julissa & Nahla? Julissa & Nahla, both came from different aspects of my life and what I see around me. Their being comes from everywhere: situations I find myself in, songs, movies, conversations I’ve overheard. I would sit on the train and watch people and get inspired there. New York has millions of characters and therefore I am able to do my best writing on the rush hour train.
What's the relationship between the two women? They’re high school friends. Nahla is Julissa’s only girlfriend. Julissa is the type that has a problem with almost every other woman. In her mind, all women hate her because of the attention she gets. Julissa normally gets along more with men than women. Nahla is not the type to judge her, which is what has kept their friendship so strong over the years.
How different are the characters in this book in comparison with the ones in your previous effort? They're hard to compare because they evolve in completely different spaces, experiences, and different settings. Also, since Julissa & Nahla are older, everyone involved in their lives deals with situations with more maturely.
Is there any aspect of the book or the characters' lives that you left out of the final product? I took a character out. I didn’t feel I developed her enough. She would have been so overpowered by Julissa and Nahla and the twists and turns in their lives, that writing her in would have been a waste of a good plot line. So I will use her for another project.
What is the one personal thing that has the biggest effect on your writing? My past relationships, from dark to light, and everywhere in between. I use different stages of emotions in my writing, even if it has nothing to do with the situation. I use it to my advantage.
Is there a process or ritual that you use to find creativity when writing? What lesson from your experience with the last book did you apply to writing this book? I normally write on the train. I have to have noise around me or something going on. I guess it reminds me of high school days when I would ride on the train and do homework on my way to school. Or when I would turn on the radio when I am home and do my homework. Once I had created the characters and understood who they were, their lives just unfolded! I would much rather write than edit or revise or even do research. I went a bit deeper in the thought process and the emotions with I Live, You Move On. I learned that the more involved your readers are with the characters' emotional state, the easier it is to take them on the exact journey you want to lead them on.
What advice would you offer to up-and-coming writers today? I would say just do what you do. Write what you know and write for you. It is a lot easier to draw audiences into a story you know how to tell than it is to try to figure out what they want.
About The Author
The oldest of four children, Manhattan-born author Lendy Demetrius was introduced as a teenager to the escape that would become his life’s passion – writing. A high school teacher, who took the initiative to not only provide Lendy with guidance, but also to encourage and nurture his talent, made the introduction. “Mr. Bailey showed me that writing was a way to process and express what was going on in my life,” he recalls. “He showed me how to be still and take time for myself; writing was what made me still in moments of chaos.” Lendy quickly discovered that writing was something he could do and do well.
While in college, though he had not yet decided to pursue writing professionally, Lendy drew inspiration from everything including creative writing courses and the works of his favorite authors that helped to develop his written voice. That voice captures and relates themes of contemporary romance and drama, wrought in the African American and Hispanic experience.
Lendy also infuses his writing with tales of overcoming life’s trials, as he has had to do. “I feel every action we play in our lives leaves an etching, like a drawing,” he says of his writing style. “Writing novels for me is like connecting to a framework composed of our lives, culture, history, our pains, and our indulgences. I want to be able to tell a story that draws the reader in and open their conceptions.” In 2002, at the age of 21, Lendy became a published author, releasing There Could Be Joy and Pain in the Long Run.
Currently working as an accountant for a corporate real estate firm, Lendy Demetrius is also working on a transition or expansion into screenwriting.
Purchasing Links
Amazon
Barnes&Noble
You can check out the Author’s Web Site at
http://www.lendydemetrius.com/
Lendy Demetrius is available for interviews, book signings and readings. For more information, please contact Youseline Obas with the Seline Media Group at
youseline@selinemediagroup.com or (347) 234-6297
