'Seed' with Kenya Moss-Dyme

I would like to welcome a wonderful author who had me shook when I read her book, Kenya Moss-Dyme. Kenya, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. So before we take a deep dive into your book, Seed, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you're from, and what really sparked your interest into becoming an author. Um, so I am from the Metro Detroit area, actually grew up in Pontiac. I've been writing ever since elementary school. I know a lot of people say that, but I really have been writing when we used to have the Scholastic, uh, writing awards every year. That was my thing. I would always hit that with the story. So I've been writing for a long time. I've been mainly focused on horror since 2013 though. Wow. Well, let me ask you this. If you are taking some time for yourself and just reading, would you say horror is your favorite reading genre or do you kind of mix and match to get ideas for your books? No, for me, it's horror and thriller 24-7. It's all my, it's my background noise. It's what I'm reading. I'm watching, you know, true crime to get ideas for my books. Yeah. I'm like, anytime we could fall asleep to true crime, you know, people say, okay, you're not mentally there. I'm like, hey, it happens sometimes. Okay. Yes. Yes. That's my, that's my music all day long. Yeah. And so you, your book, Steve, which I happen to read. And like I said, it was phenomenal from beginning to end, kept me hooked. And it takes place in like a futuristic Detroit, which made it even more interesting. And it's basically about Let's say it's almost like a blood bank, but another form of a bank, and they're breeding, in a sense, and it kind of takes me back to slavery a little bit, but just a modern version of it. So tell readers a little bit about what's in the book, and what was really the motivation behind writing it? So I put an author's note in the beginning that explains that this is a real fetish for some communities. They want, you know, they want the C, they want the mixed babies, but there is a certain level of fetish fetishism about that. And so the book just kind of takes it to another level. It makes it crazy. It's satire. It's political satire. It's horror, but it's also It's also kind of a warning of what can happen when things can go unchecked. You know, and it's supposed to make you laugh, but it's also supposed to be a warning. And in the book, it was true because a lot of people sometimes like they see mixed babies as like accessories. It's like, but there are humans that you're bringing into this world that you're going to have to, you know, train up to be a part of society and everything else. They're not just here for a look or, you know, to fit your aesthetic, which a lot of people like nowadays. And it kind of goes back to, you know, how athletes, you know, when they get with the wives and everything, it just kind of goes into that. And so what would you say was like the best part writing this story. I know one of my favorite parts about reading it was like connecting the dots on, you know, like who's connected to who and how and how some people die. It was just, oh, it was a lot, but it was so good. So what was your favorite part about writing it? I think my favorite part, number one, was introducing readers to a concept that a lot of people don't think about is the mistreatment of Black people in the medical industry. And I put a list of book recommendations at the end. And one of those was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. So I really love digging into that and kind of introducing that theory. But I also had fun kind of throwing in the comedic parts of it as well, because it's so dark. And then in some parts were just laugh out loud, silly. And I thought, oh, that's going to kind of throw them for a loop. And we needed those laugh breaks. Yeah, in between. Because a lot of it, like you said before, it was very heavy. Sometimes like the more you kind of look into it, it's not one of those books where you're just reading through and you're like, okay, like on to the next, like there's going to be chunks where you're reading certain things. And you're like, wait a minute, you know, maybe you've seen examples of it, or you know, somebody that's very similar, maybe to certain characters. And so are there going to be a book to proceed? Or are you going to kind of just let this die down with just the one book? You know, if I can come up with a solid story, I won't do it just to be doing it. But if I can come up with a solid story, I think there's definitely something there. There's some meat there. Yeah, especially with the way you ended it. I'm not going to wait. But how you ended it, I'll just say with the newspaper article, like, hmm, this could be like maybe a prequel or maybe, you know, like a next chapter. So many different avenues. I think you could go with this book. Yeah. Yeah. I have to think on it because just finishing that, it was one of those things where. I was so exhausted and then I was like, Okay, so now let's let it fly. So I have to think on it for a couple of years. Yeah, but I think it was now, did you have to do like a lot of extensive research, when it came to the medical aspect of it? Because how they're kind of like using mutating features when it came to different genes and what they wanted this child to look like. And this child's like, see, when you try to play God, see what happens, stuff towards the end. So what kind of research did you have to kind of do to learn different parts of that? Oh gosh, I absolutely had to do a lot of research into, because you don't want to write something and it's like that absolutely could not happen. Even though it's horror and thriller, you can make things up, but I didn't want it to be silly. I went back and I watched a lot of Black Mirror again, which I absolutely love. And just kind of researching what happens in that process in the lab when they're actually working with the DNA and cloning things. I did a lot of research into that too. Yeah, there were a lot of moments where I was just shaking my head. I'm like, see, this is this is like one of those books where you F.A.F.O. You know, when you plan around with stuff you don't have no business doing, then these are going to be, you know, the end result. And so, Kenya, what's next for you on this literary journey of yours? Oh, gosh. So I'm working on something else that also has some social horror aspects locally based and it addresses environmental racism. Without giving too much away, I love the, you know, the light topics, you know, like fun topics like that. Yeah. But it's good when you can kind of do like a little spin, you know, here and there, because I'm always, I've always been a thriller horror girly. But then I'm like, if I ever want to switch it up, I'll do romance a little bit. But it's like, I just feel like with thriller and horror, because like authors can make so much up. It just takes you into like a different world than what regular reading will take you. Yeah. Yeah, you can't beat being able to make something up. Nobody can say that's not realistic. Well, it's not supposed to be. I made it up. Exactly. Or, you know, where you're playing mini detective, trying to connect the dots. Like, that's how you keep readers engaged and wanting more and more. Which, like I said, I want book two already. And, like, this book, I've already read. So, I'm like, I need more. I need more. So, Kenya, before I let you go, is there anything else that you would like to say to fellow book lovers out there? Oh, gosh, just whatever you think you want to read, we've got it, you know, and that's my mission is reading more books by Black women. We've got all the genres covered completely for thriller, supernatural suspense. It's out there. We have to read books by Black women intentionally. And make sure we're promoting them and recommending them to other people and like reposting, resharing, just keeping the word and getting the word out there. So Kenya, thank you for the work that you're doing and for these amazing stories and taking the time to come and chat with me and fellow book lovers out there. Hey, thank you for having me.