By day, Jewell Rhodes teaches ASU English classes and works at the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. But by night, she converses with voodoo queens and vampires.
Well, kind of.
Rhodes recently published a murder-mystery called “Yellow Moon,” the second book in her New Orleans-based trilogy.
The majority of the 8,500 copies of sequel to “Voodoo Season,” released Aug. 19, have already been sold.
The novel follows main character and voodoo priestess Marie Levant as she tries to discover a murderer who drains the blood of his victims, Rhodes said.
“I really get into it,” Rhodes said. “I feel like my own life has gotten bigger because of the characters.”
In the trilogy, Rhodes said she describes the idea of the “wazimamoto,” which translates into “men who extinguish fire” in Swahili.
In Africa, as well as colonial Europe and America, the meaning of “wazimamoto” became linked to vampires — not vampires as mythical creatures, but vampires as people who steal cultural fire, she said.
“What they’re really talking about are colonizers who sometimes murder and brutalize the indigenous culture,” Rhodes said. “I extended it also to the slave trade into New Orleans.”
As a junior at Carnegie Mellon University, Rhodes saw a new book in the library by a female African-American writer.
“It was the first book I had ever seen by a writer of color,” she said. “When I saw that book I said to myself, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to be like that.'”
She then switched her major from theater to English and studied creative writing, she said.
Rhodes said she stayed at the university and received her master’s and doctoral degrees. Her first novel was published when she was in her early 30s.
“It took me about a decade of hard work before I actually got my first novel published and got my career launched,” she said.
Rhodes has 10 books in her collection, but only eight have been published, she said.
“Hurricane Levee Blues,” the third and final book in the murder-mystery trilogy, will be released next year, as will her children’s book titled “Ninth Ward.”
She said she enjoys writing historical fiction, but she’s also written two texts on writing and a memoir about her grandmother.
Rhodes said her favorite part of writing is pretending she’s all of the characters and bringing in her theater background, as well as the research involved in historical books.
“I get to imagine all these different times and places and all these different characters,” Rhodes said.
Her least favorite part, however, is how long it can take to finish a book.
“It’s like running a marathon sometimes; it takes forever,” she said. “I always say I’ll never write another book because it takes a lot out of me, but of course I end up writing another one.”
Rhodes describes herself as a social person, and said her different jobs at ASU help balance the solitude of being a writer. Aside from teaching English classes, she’s also the Piper Center's founding artistic director for global engagement and the Piper Endowed Chair.
“I love teaching and helping students grow and find their voices,” she said. “It’s a nice circle; everything that I do in the University all feeds into one another. It’s been a nice growth.”
Laurie Joseph, a junior education major focusing in English, said she thinks it’s great someone like Rhodes is able to participate in so many aspects of English.
“Since I want to be an English teacher once I graduate, it’s nice to know that there’s so much else you’re able to do besides just teaching,” Joseph said. “I would love to be able to teach while having a successful writing career at the same time.”
Reach the reporter at charlsy.panzino@asu.edu.
