Jumata Emill

Jumata Emill is a journalist who has covered crime and local politics in Mississippi and parts of Louisiana. He earned his B.A. in mass communications from Southern University and A&M College. He’s a Pitch Wars alum and member of the Crime Writers of Color. When he’s not writing about murderous teens, he’s watching and obsessively tweeting about every franchise of the Real Housewives. Emill lives in Baton Rouge, La.

Emill's new novel is The Black Queen.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

It gives the reader a direct answer to who this story is centered around. Even if you don’t know immediately that she’s being murdered, you at least know that girl, who is black and who is queen of something, is the nexus of whatever action unfolds. The title of this book came before I even knew who the characters were that would inhabit this story. I also think it does a great job of teasing the reader. You hear/see The Black Queen and you want to know more. Who is she? What is she the queen of? What does she do? Or what happens to her? And then the synopsis takes care of the rest.

What's in a name?

Well, for Tinsley McArthur, it’s a privileged, somewhat delusional, rich and tone deaf real housewife. I named Tinsely after Tinsley Mortimer, a socialite and former cast member of The Real Housewives of New York. Mortimer even had a little run-in with the law in 2016, like my book’s Tinsley. The name just sounded so rich and white that I felt it was perfect for my book’s Tinsley, who is kind of the worst when the story begins. When I first started writing it and would tell other people who the characters were their immediate reaction when I said Tinsely’s name was always, “Oh God, I don’t know her but I already hate her.” That’s when I knew it was the perfect name for my pseudo anti-heroine.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

Very, since novels like mine didn’t exist when I was a teenager, which is why I wrote it. I loved mysteries and thrillers as a kid. Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys books were my favorite, but I read them always wishing there were books like them that featured characters that looked like me and were dealing with the same issues I was. I wrote The Black Queen for Black kids like me who deserved to see themselves as “the smartest kids in the room.” The criminal justice system in this country affects brown and black people very differently than it does white people, and I’ve never understood why there weren’t more voices of color in the YA mystery/thriller space.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

The endings come to me almost instantly. Before I even write the first sentence or outline. I have to know “who did it” before I can map out how my sleuth will uncover the truth. I always know where the story is going to end and how the hero will take down the villain, and then I spend months writing to get to the scene that I envisioned. And the endings in my head rarely change.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

True crime documentaries and podcasts heavily influence my work. As does my career as a journalist that covered lots of crime and murder trials. What I learned on the crime beat is sprinkled throughout my debut novel. Honestly, had I not been a crime reporter I don’t think I could have written this story. Knowing how real police officers go about solving crimes helped me devise how my amateur sleuths could stay one step ahead of the police to get to the truth.

Visit Jumata Emill's website.

--Marshal Zeringue