Your book was great. It took so long to find since no bookstore carried it until someone suggested www.blackbookplus.com. Where can people find the book?

A. Thank you for your kind words. My novel DND can be obtained through (as you learned) BlackBookPlus.Com, Barnes&Noble books, Borders Books, and can be obtained on the internet at BlackBookPlus.Com, Barnes&Noble.Com, Amazon.Com, IUniverse.Com. By the way, on the internet, ask for Rudy Gray DND. Don't ask for DND by itself. You'll end up with lots of material on DNA. But Rudy Gray's DND will get you my novel.
Rudy

Mr. Gray: How much of your book is from your own experience? I'm Jess, and I loved the book.

A. I was a junior high school teacher of English for many years. I taught in the Bronx, in Manhattan and in Brooklyn. I conflated many of the teachers I worked with, the experiences I had and the neighborhoods the schools I worked in. Rudy.

Q. I'm Trinibet22 from New Jersey.
How did you create such a wide range of believable characters in your novel? Would you be able to do the same thing in the form of a drama? How would the process be different?
It's OK if you're only able to answer one of the above questions, but I'd appreciate answers to all three if time permits.

A. There are many ways to interpret and react to characters in a work of fiction. One form of characterization has to depend on the reaction of a reader sitting and reading it in the comfort of his (her) living room. The other depends on the reaction of a member of an audience sitting in an auditorium, reacting in a mass way. Thus, two different dynamics take place in the creativity of the artist. The latter dynamic has the help of a director and an actor. It has the power of the spoken word and the emotionality of the actor to sing the intrinsic poetry out from the stage.
The former depends on the active subconscious of the reader to create the essence of whatever the writer is trying to convey. As such, it becomes an inner experience. Rudy

Q. What do you think will be the results or the impact of the negative social conditioning of young people in the Bronx today?

A. This is a tough one. A few contradictory things are happening today at the same time. One, economic conditions are improving in the Bronx. Neighborhoods are being upgraded. New stores (always a good sign) are going up. The same things are happening in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. This is bound to affect the environment many of our young people are growing up in and getting their education in. Thus, young people better prepared for entry into the work world are coming up.
However, the educational situation is NOT improving. Fewer young people are getting into college or, if they do, completing their college educations. Teenage pregnancy has gone down slightly but it's still up.
Crime may go away to a degree in one neighborhood but that often means it has moved to another neighborhood and reestablished itself. And then occasionally the crime rate spikes. Murders (like Reese's) still happen inside and outside of schools and parents still have much to fear when they send their children to school or even just to the store. Even the neighborhood I wrote about in my novel still has problems though much of it has, as I have said, upgraded itself.
Increased funds have to go in these directions (Something not likely under the current Administration and in our current economic state) to help the hardworking parents, teachers and others in the neighborhoods who are doing their best to help out. Parents are still moving away with their childen, many returning to the South.
Rudy

Q. Which character do you most identify with? And - what kind of future would you predict for Hollis and his sister?

A. Hollis and Imogen will most likely turn out all right. I'll let you in on a little secret. There is a lot of Hollis in me though he is a conflation of any number of the thousands of eighth and ninth grade students (and a few college freshmen). I became a teacher, a college professor, playwright, screenwriter, ex-semi-pro ballplayer and now novelist. My sister (Imogen) became a police officer.
I can't be so optimistic about Michael O. He might turn out all right. My wife doesn't think he will. I've had many Michael O.'s who did turn out all right. A few others, if they survived, didn't.
Rudy

Q. Who is your favorite Black Author? and what do you think about the recent comments by Bill Cosby about Black literature and entertainment?

A. Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison. I thought James Baldwin an excellent essayist. I thought his fiction (except GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN) had problems.
I am back and forth about Bill Cosby's comments. Parts of them, I must confess, I agree with. (My wife calls me an old curmudgeon like Cosby here). My years of teaching Latino, African-American and Italian youngsters exposed me too much to a value system in which, to succeed, to achieve in school was to be considered a nerd and was not de rigeur. One young man I remember begged me not to announce his name in assembly when I was handing out the honor roll awards. He didn't want his friends to know he was on the honor roll. I did so anyhow and felt a little guilty after, hoping I didn't make things bad for him. Nothing came of it but the idea of it plagued me for years after...even after I became a college teacher.) There is something deep down in the "street" value system which has to be changed if our kids are to achieve in school. It's not just the teachers or the "system." We've got to read more and not be so accepting of beautiful black women shaking their behinds in the camera lens in videos. I'm also getting tired of bizarre behavior, wide eyes and crazy jiggling about our actors do on TV and in the movies. Rudy

Q. Your book is overall positive and strong in outlook. How DID you decide on that opening line?

A. I wanted to grab the reader's attention immediately by using what is called a narrative hook. I also wanted to set the mood for the book which paints an ugly portrait of the ugly parts of many of our neighborhoods. Rudy

Q. What kind of future do you think Michael O has in America and what is the role of a community in such lives...

A. Not good. There is something missing inside Michael O. which will cause him to come to no good later. Perhaps I'm wrong. My past experience with the Michael O.'s of the world have proven otherwise however. Rudy

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