Victoria Pilate, Ph.D.




Questions
and Answers



Why did you write Dorm Rooms to Boardrooms?
The book started as a class project in graduate school.  I was interviewing
people and asking them about their “life trajectories.” I was almost sorry to end
the project because I found it so interesting. So I didn’t. I saw great value in the
research.  After the class ended, I continued the interviews and did an email
survey asking people what happened to them when they entered the real world.  
The respondents were at different stages in their careers—some with a handful
of years working and others nearing retirement.

What are you working on next?  
I am working on several projects.  I’m working on a financial management for the
newly employed and working on a book for those entering college on being
successful.  I’m also doing research on scholarships.  The project on which I am
spending most of my time is children’s literature.  I’m writing fiction and nonfiction
for children.

Why are you switching to children’s literature?  
I’d started research on black history about six years ago.  I was researching at
the National Archives and some at the Library of Congress.  I was motivated by
two things, one is that it interested me and secondly, when I started sharing what
I was learning, others also were  amazed.  I expected the books to be for adults
but the research seemed best to fill the needs of young readers.  

The fiction books for children are spinoffs of that research. One of the fiction
titles for children, What Kind of a Name is That?, is actually being released
before the adult book which introduces the story of the parents in the book and
how they got together.  

How long does it take to write a book?
Dorm Rooms to Boardrooms took six years of work.  I actually had been writing it
for the better part of that time and had finished a draft.  Sadly the day I finished
the draft  was the day my aunt died in 2001. It sat for nearly two years with little
progress after that. I finished my dissertation then finished To Happiness. After
that I picked up the draft again and literally rewrote nearly the whole thing.  That
took about seven months of writing and editing to finish it. Uninterrupted, it can
take about a year but that’s treating the book like a full-time job. My friend and
author Cynthia Panton was able to complete her first novel in less than a year.

Is it easier or harder to write fiction or nonfiction?
I find nonfiction much easier to write. I also find writing for adult readers easier.  
With children’s fiction, there are some constraints about plot development and
who’s the hero.

Some of the upcoming children’s titles have unusual names. How did
you come up with the titles?
The black history trilogy is based on quotes about African-Americans in the
military.  Not in Vain, the Civil War book, gets its title from a quote by Union
General Benjamin Butler on needing to raise troops.  He said essentially that he
would call on Africa (black people in the U.S.) and that he would not call in vain.  
The World War I book gets its title from the motto of American flying legend,
Eugene Bullard; he flew for France during World War I. On the side of his plane
was painted in French, “All Blood Runs Red.” The World War II book’s title comes
from a letter from a soldier sitting in a trench writing a letter home to his sister
about the battle that would come in the morning. He wrote that he didn’t know
what would happen if they would live or die but they were headed for “Heaven,
Hell or Glory.”

Why is it hard to find your books?
To Happiness is available only through the website and book signings.  Because
the book’s price is donated in full to charity, there’s no incentive for a bookstore
to carry it.  Dorm Rooms to Boardrooms is available online as well as some
bookstores. Because Crandell & Rose is a small press publisher, it's better for
me to work out the arrangements with each bookstore rather than use a book
distributor which can be pricey.  I’ve sold most copies of Dorm Rooms to
Boardrooms directly to universities who give them to their parting graduates.  

Where do you get your ideas?
For the fiction I write, it varies.  Everything so far is based on actual events or
history.  What Kind of a Name is That? mixes my family history with Civil War
history.  A Fortnight in the Den of the Enemy is based on actual events of two
black pilots who were shot down over enemy held territory during World War II.  

Is there a theme that runs through your books?
With my adult nonfiction, I’m trying to help students and young adults to
compete.  DR2BR was the logical starting point but I am going back to research I
had started many years ago on scholarships.  It’s frustrating to see and know
that students can compete better if they just knew how to compete.  

Have any writing tips?
Read! Then read some more! And read a variety.  After that write. Write anything
from journaling to essays or short stories even if it’s for yourself.  All the advice I’
ve read from Norman Mailer through Octavia Butler is much the same. Read and
write. Often.

What does it take to be successful in the creative arts?
A life in the creative arts can require sacrifice. In my situation, I chose to self-
publish my first two books, taking on all the risks (and rewards) myself, affording
to do so meant working a regular job and also writing in spare hours. It meant, on
some days, working all day and not seeing the sun. I attended a book signing
and speaking engagement by Terry McMillan. During the Q/A session, a woman
asked her how to find time to write.  Her advice was much the same.  Find
pockets of time. It’s hard but that’s what it takes.  J.K. Rowling did much the
same.  She would find pockets of time to write; she even had to sneak into
university computer labs to type out her manuscript for the first Harry Potter
book, dragging her small child along.
"Striving to be the best
you can be isn’t easy but
it is your duty and your
salvation.”  

Aprile Millo
20 year veteran of the
Meteropolitian Opera
"I only have twenty six
letters of the alphabet; I
don't have color or
music.  I must use my
craft to make the reader
see the colors and hear
the sounds."  

Toni Morrison
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