Jahmal Mayfield: On Stories Leading to Meaningful Conversations

Jahmal Mayfield was born in Virginia but currently resides in New Jersey. In addition to writing crime fiction, he serves as the director of a nonprofit program that provides employment support to people with disabilities. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Jahmal Mayfield

In this post, Jahmal discusses the inspiration behind his debut crime novel, Smoke Kings, his hope for readers, and more!

Name: Jahmal Mayfield
Literary agent: Jackson Keeler at InkWorks
Book title: Smoke Kings
Publisher: Melville House
Release date: February 6, 2024
Genre/category: Crime fiction/suspense and thriller
Elevator pitch: Four young political activists, grieving after a personal loss, begin carrying out their own vengeance, kidnapping descendants of long-ago perpetrators of hate crimes and charging them reparations, a scheme that works until they target the wrong man.

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What prompted you to write this book?

During the George Floyd protests, I came across Kimberly Jones’s viral video, “How Can We Win?” Her eloquence was matched by her rage. At one point she says, “And they are lucky that what Black people are looking for is equality and not revenge.” That got me thinking about scenarios where that wasn’t the case. Many books start with a “What if?” and I thought that was a provocative jumping off point.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I completed the draft that helped me secure my agent in about six months. We then spent another six months working through 13 drafts until we had a manuscript that we were confident enough to put on submission to editors.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

I knew intuitively that the people in publishing working behind the scenes must love books, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the enthusiasm and passion of everyone I’ve engaged with at Melville House.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

One character started out as a different ethnicity in the early drafts, and another character stepped in for what I’d intended as a brief cameo but refused to leave. Both changes challenged me to move outside of my own experiences to craft characters that, hopefully, ring true in their authenticity.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

As a country, we’ve been grappling for a long time with difficult questions surrounding racism, systemic injustices, stolen and/or forgotten legacies, and reparations. Far too often those who attempt to shine a light on these matters are criticized and silenced. I’m hopeful that the entertainment of Smoke Kings can lead to meaningful conversation around these issues.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Read widely and with a keen eye. Which books have you read that really grabbed you? Study those books to determine everything the writer did that worked for you as a reader. I devoured a book recently and the “cast” of characters populating the novel really struck a chord with me. There was a character that was easy to dislike, another who was underestimated because his true identity was unknown to the other characters in the story, and a third that the others unknowingly trusted even though that character was a traitor. The distinctions and interplay between those three led to a very involving story. 

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