Essence, US Weekly and Vibe are household magazines, but seldom do we get a chance to put a name to the face of the authors who tell us who’s who and what‘s what in the entertainment industry. 

 

Aliya S. King is proving herself a force to be reckoned with as she makes a creative professional transition from penning news stories and music reviews in magazines to writing a New York Times Bestseller.

A majority of your career has been in print journalism. How have you seen the industry change over the years and how did it challenge your career?
Print journalism has certainly changed. Many of the magazines I started out writing for are now gone or are published less frequently. That makes it challenging but not impossible to get work. I have always been a tenacious worker, and my reputation bears that out. My editors are still calling me for work, so I'm happy. 

While working for The Source and Vibe, how did you feel about the marginalized images of black women in hip hop that was often perpetuated in those publications?
I don't buy into the idea that magazines like The Source and VIBE are the major offenders of marginalized black women in hip-hop or any genre of music. I've worked in restaurants. I've worked at clothing stores. I've worked in tons of non-music related industries, and sex sells in all of them. Women of all colors and ethnicities are marginalized; it's something that needs to be dealt with on a global level, not just how it trickles down to magazines. It's not just urban publications that marginalize women. 

Why did you decide to transition from nonfiction print articles to fiction novels and co-authoring memoirs (Original Gangster and Keep the Faith)?
It was a natural progression. I wrote a feature on Faith Evans for VIBE magazine. After that experience, she chose me to co-author her memoir. My career in books really took off after that. 

Your books are filled with rich details and vivid depictions. Do you have a regimen for developing stories and characters?
I think about my characters for months beforehand. I let them "live" in my head and think about what they would do and say; where they would live. I even Google images of people who look similar to the characters in my head and post them on a bulletin board, so I can see them as I write. 

Platinum, your latest book, focuses heavily on the private lives of hip hop wives. What inspired you to specifically write about the female perspective in a genre of music that is male dominated?
I was inspired by a story I wrote for VIBE several years ago about the lives of real hip-hop wives. I was haunted by their stories after it was published, and I thought it would make a great novel. In this genre, there are so many stories about the women behind the men. A lot of these men wouldn't be where they are without the women in their lives.