1.) Rue is a complex, pragmatic character who has dealt with many hardships in her life, much of which the average person wouldn’t have experienced themselves either. What makes Rue, Rue? Being the half-mortal, half-god she is and this journey she must encounter to discover her true identity, what is something you know about her — that isn't mentioned in the book — that no one else does?

"Her relationship with her mother. She spends a lot of time with these people [in her community] and they come together on Sundays. The core of who she is is very East Row. Each individual person has contributed to her upbringing, like her neighbors who would bring her meals when her mom wasn’t home to the times when she did family things with Tasha's side of the family. There’s this moment that I bring up later on in the book where I talk about how she goes on a car ride with her mother and there’s this suitcase in the back of her car. There are so many moments that stuck with her that I couldn’t really bring into the pages. A lot of pieces in her childhood that have puzzled her together."

2.) Follow Up: Give us a snippet you wanted to include:

"The 'French Fry Fight.' Rue has this obsession with french fries, particularly Whataburger french fries, which is a fast food chain located primarily in the south (including Houston, where Rue is from). I wanted to make a book true to Houston, and so they went to Whataburger to get fries. It’s like this Old Western standoff; they share everything, but not french fries, which might loosely be based on my mother and I’s own relationship with our fries. [They have these] bickering attitudes in the car and fight over fries and then they break out into ‘can you hold the steering wheel’ [and] ‘you ate more than I did.' Tasha asks for Whataburger fries when they get home and so it’s like this funny moment because if Tasha was in the car it would be all three of them bickering. So, that’s one of the sweet ones that I absolutely love, because it shows that Rue and her mother have a mother-daughter relationship; but they have a friendship, too. [And] I think that really comes through because Rue feels like her mother is her best friend."

3.) “Bullets don’t have names. But if they did, chances are one would have mine. Or someone brown-skinned like me,” is the opening line of the book. Why did you choose such a tense, almost raw, and thought-provoking line to start your book, and what makes this choice so significant to the development of the fantastical universe you create?

"That first line is two-fold. I love first lines that make you stop and think, and are memorable. It can have different layers of significance. It’s also something that my grandmother said, anytime we would hear shootings outside and she would scoot us in the house and say ‘bullets don’t have names’ in the house. For me, it was not just a way for me to make the atmosphere of
my upbringing feel real, [but] I also thought that it was a sage piece of advice and wisdom because there is a lot of violence that goes on in both Ghizon and East Row. Violence doesn’t just do immediate damage, Rue’s mother wasn’t the only one killed, it was the impact her death had on both Rue and Tasha and the [rest of the] community. The layers of complexity in this idea of sitting through the reality and the recklessness/senselessness of violence is so damaging. I thought it was a great way to push readers to really sit with the idea as they considered the narrative of the book and how violence had impacted Rue’s life and community and sort of the reckoning that takes place at the end of the book to bring all of that to a heal."

4.) What inspired you to write Wings of Ebony? Did this idea stem from something you experienced in real life and have taken inspiration from?

"Not from a specific experience, but probably from several experiences over many years. [I noticed] the blatant frustration that had been buried [inside me] that I hadn't dealt with in seeing my community mistreated. There’s so much injustice they face as a whole. [The idea]
just came one day, as I sat on the coach on an early morning, which is weird because I’m not a morning person, and this name ‘Rue’ just came to me. I remember she saw this body in front of her, and felt incredibly sad and powerless about this loss. I felt like a fantasy story could give power to this black girl. I just started typing and the story started to take form. What came out was a girl who realized all that she was capable of and her capacity to create change in her community."

5.) Your book also has themes of recognizing the privilege we have that benefit us in certain situations, what global issues related to such themes are you passionate about?

"The list is long, especially after 2020 and through conversation about Wings Of Ebony, discussing racial injustice in particular along with allyship and privilege. A lot of people consider themselves an ally, without understanding what it means. Those are the people I wanted to challenge with this book, like with the Bri plot thread. For some white allies, it's easier to claim you’re not racist, but when diving into conversations about microaggression, bias, and prejudice, they are not really sure. Privilege is not only socioeconomically influenced, like Bri is not rich, and yet she does have this identity in this world that she’s worked so hard to curate [regarding her identity]. I was setting up this idea that Bri can feel pride in her accomplishments, and when she finds out that the way she’s operated is not what she thought, what do well-meaning allies do in such situations? Claim their privilege? I did a lot of research on processing grief to parallel this idea of grieving your privilege to understand how
it affects you. It’s also not someone else’s job to educate someone either, so readers can see how this is validated through Rue’s response to Bri."

6.) Adding onto this previous question, why is advocacy important to you and why do you feel that writing is a great way to spread such vital conversations that the young adults your book is aimed towards should be having?

"Advocacy is huge to me. I don't think I can have conversations about allyship and privilege without doing some work myself. My activism is writing stories, which is why I chose this avenue because of how personal it feels. Fiction is so permanent, like as long as my story exists in perpetuity, it’s accessible for readers to engage their heart and mind into the story. Stories can make you feel seen in a way that you might not even be ready to talk about. I want teens
to know that they are seen, especially with everything going on, but can also be seen on the pages of a book. There’s a line that Ms. Totsi says to Rue that encompasses this: 'if you ever feel like you have nowhere to go, you come to the book, these pages, and find yourself.'"

7.) Do you have any advice for young writers who are interested in pursuing their passion for writing?

"It depends on the writing, but practice is so important. What I want teen writers and adults to understand is that writing is not ever good when it first comes out. Your job is to make the writing exist — so, write the article, the manuscript, or the chapter, and just let it exist. Once it exists, you mold it, with the help of partners and mentors. Like with a cookie, you don’t just crack an egg and expect a cookie to bake. You need the ingredients to build on each other. Spend time getting the words and don’t worry about it being perfect."

8.) What's your favorite book? Is there a book that specifically inspired you to write?

"I can’t do favorites, but some would be Red at the Bone. It was a very emotional book for me and was so well done, I read it all in one sitting. Like it healed parts of me that I didn’t know were broken, it was so impactful. I am not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter is so good [too]. Counting Down With You is fabulous, reading it feels like a hug, an ice cream, and a warm fire. Dear Martin is also very special to me, it’s one of those books that I have to reread often."

9.) Any plans for writing another book in the future? Perhaps a sequel to Wings of Ebony?

"Okay, so the cover is almost done, the book itself is done, I’ve finished the edits already. So, Jamal gets a lot of love in this book. He plays a huge role in the second book. Rue doesn’t also have to be in a story that’s only centered around her trauma here. She gets a love story. There's a lot happening but she gets to be a black teenage girl, and I love that. There's a lot more breathing and living in book two as well because the love triangle is very central. Some swoony moments in the book that I hope get my readers blushing and then there's also some dark and creepy moments that might get them to turn on the light. I really tried to get my foot in this book in a different way than Wings of Ebony, and I slowed this book down a bit, because it’s Rue’s last book so I want to give you a little more of her."