Painted Black | Debra R. Borys

I am always grateful when given an opportunity to publicize my novel Painted Black, especially when it includes a chance to talk about the issue of homelessness which is so integral to the book. But Quinn Barrett at WiseBearBooks made this interview especially gratifying by saying some very complimentary things about my writing and the book. Listen to the whole interview to hear more, but here are a few quotes from Quinn:

“I was impressed by the quality of the storytelling and found myself immersed immediately.”

“Fiction can be a great vehicle for exposing the darker side of the human experience in ways that are both important and meaningful and I think that Painted Black fits into that category.”

http://youtu.be/f0Be68nkUBM

Carolyn Green and Mike Choby were playing folk music in a Barnes & Noble Cafe in Schaumburg, Illinois the weekend after I moved to the city. I hadn’t yet signed up with The Night Ministry, so when Carolyn took a moment at the break to talk about Emmaus Ministries, it sounded like an opportunity I had to explore. Her husband was the founding director of the program.

Emmaus reaches out to men in prostitution on the streets of Chicago, a group that is even more marginalized than most in the homeless community. Through them I had the opportunity to actually walk the streets in the wee hours of the morning learning more about their mission, and meeting the men they serve.

Chapter 1 in Painted Black arose from this experience and reflects the world I found there–a world they are fighting against. Here is Carolyn singing a song that I feel expresses one of the motives behind Emmaus and their participants.

http://youtu.be/1O7SipXjWms