Author and Entrepreneur Vick Breedy is an individual that has been able to build a brand off not being broken by the things that may come against her. She calls it being "Genetically Resilient", and interestingly it finds itself even in her novels like the BITTER series and the lastest called STEREOTYPED. I talked with her about the journey, the work and moving on.
Vick, I think even before you and I had booked this conversation I've been seeing the pictures of people holding your books Bitter, and then of course the new book Stereotyped. I want to talk about this experience for you. What has it been like for you to not only be able to have entertained through your work, but also to get people to talking about your books the way that they have?
It's actually been great. I didn't know that I was actually inspiring people while I was entertaining people. So I've gotten a lot of feedback in that respect. I put my first book out (Bitter) just to tell a story. I thought that people could relate to it, but I knew that I needed to entertain in order for them to continue to turn the page. And from that I just kept writing because people kept asking for more.
So that brings up a good question then Vick. So when you first wrote Bitter you didn't know it was going to be a serious in the beginning?
No I had no intention of writing a series at all. I didn't even know what to do with Bitter once I wrote it. I actually Googled like how to get your book published and took it from there.
Wow, and now here you are with those three books that are out, including of course the book Stereotyped. Are you having those wow moments when you’ve kind of looked at this and think these are the ideas that you've had in your head, and now people around the world can be able to read and enjoy.
Yes, definitely, and you know I say to myself if I didn't get divorced would I be Vick Breedy. The divorce led to book one, so had I not gone through that would I be here four books later? Definitely something to think about.
Vick, what I thought was so interesting about Stereotyped---and I went into it with an idea in my head as to what it was---from the very beginning I found out that it wasn't what I thought it was at all. I actually thought it was a nonfiction work, which I mean of course people will read it and say these are real life situations and it's true. But I love the fact that you're able to kind of take us into the situations with these men. What was that like for you to embrace that men are not as we're always seen, and to be able to share that in a first person account with each one of these guys?
It was definitely a challenge for me to write any first-person narrative with all male characters. I actually had to keep checking in with male relatives and male acquaintances to just make sure that it actually sounds like a man speaking and not a black woman speaking for a man.
I've actually wanted to write this book since my sequel to Bitter, but because people wanted me to finish it and continue on I held off. This has been on my heart to write for at least two and a half to three years. In life you know there's always more to the story, but it's really easy to stereotype somebody until you see the other side.
I want to talk about Courage for a moment, because you know I think you posed an interesting question, because I think a lot of times people begin something beautiful out of a painful situation, or what could be seen as a negative. Writing a book, it is definitely one thing, but actually having the courage to publish it is another. How did you get the courage to put it out, because you know you could have very easily just written it. What made you say this is something that people either one need to read, or two you believe would want to read?
Well while I was writing it I was actually showing it to a few friends. And they actually said like this is great, this is good like you should do something with this. Whereas you know it did start out as me just putting my emotions to paper and then creating characters to them. It was definitely not supposed to be a book, and it was not supposed to be published.
It wasn't until I got the encouragement of others that I said hey, you know this is as good as the other books. And as far as the courage piece, I feel like the only part that required courage was to maybe have somebody outside of my circle review it. That's kind of like where I felt like validated. , \
Outside of the work she is doing as an author, Vick Breedy is also the creator of the Genetically Resilient clothing line and brand which is doing much to inspire others and remind them of their own inner greatness. Stay connected with all things Vick at www.vickbreedy.com.You can also discover her on social media.
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