Author Walter Mosley says his father inspires 'Easy Rawlins' mystery books

Best-selling author Walter Mosley says whenever he writes, he thinks of his father.

"My father is my hero in my life," Mosley tells JET. "My father deeply influenced my writing."

He recalls that his dad, LeRoy Mosley, wanted to be a writer but worked as a supervising custodian at a public school in Los Angeles. His father died 14 years ago of lung cancer at age 77.

"He was his own storyteller. My father filled my imagination. He was a great storyteller and he loved listening to my stories. What made me a writer was my father, who was the greatest storyteller I ever knew. His listening to me made me a writer," Mosley says.

Mosley's critically acclaimed mystery series features the character Easy Rawlins, a private detective. His latest book, Blonde Faith, is the 10th in the series.

He says he likes writing about men who are strong, multidimensional heroes. "It's not written in our culture about how wonderful Black men are. We don't celebrate ourselves in that way in fiction, in literature, in movies."

Mosley says his most famous characters, Easy and his buddy "Mouse," were inspired by his father and his dad's friends. "A lot of my work is based on that feeling that my father was a hero and his friends were heroes. I can write about these characters because of him and his male friends. And all of these people have different ways of being Black male heroes. It's like they are saying 'I am going to love you, I am going to laugh with you, I am going to have a good time with you. The father figure is there for you. I may not be perfect, but I am here for you.'"

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Mosley remembers his father enjoyed Devil In A Blue Dress, the author's first book in the Rawlins series whose film adaptation starred Denzel Washington.

"He said, 'I read your book. People said I am in your book, but I don't see it,'" Mosley recalls with a laugh. "His friends thought he was Easy, but he's not Easy. But there are things about his character that helped me form the Easy character."

Mosley's Wisdom For Writers

Last year Walter Mosley penned a how-to book for "writers-in-waiting," titled This Year You Write Your Novel. Here are challenges for budding authors:

1. WRITING EVERY DAY

The first thing you have to know about writing is that it is something you must do every day--every morning or every night, whatever time it is that you have. ideally, the time you decide on is also the time when you do your best work ... Writing is a serious enterprise that takes a certain amount of constancy and rigor.

2. LEARNING HOW TO WRITE WITHOUT RESTRAINT

The story you tell, the characters you present, will all have dark sides to them. If you want to write believable fiction, you will have to cross over the line of your self-restraint and revel in the words and ideas that you would never express in your everyday life.

3. AVOIDANCE, FALSE STARTS AND DEAD-END THINKING

The most common way to avoid writing is by procrastination. This is the writer's greatest enemy ... For that time you have set aside to write your novel, don't do anything else. Turn the ringer off on your phone. Don't answer the doorbell. Tell your loved ones that you cannot be disturbed. And if they cannot bear to live without you, go write in a coffee shop or library. Rent a room if you have to--just make the time to write your book.

COPYRIGHT 2008 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning