Emerging Author Darius Myers Uses a Career in Publishing to Build Black Camelot
Darius Myers lives the life of a working author. Sequestered in a spartan home studio, his days are dominated by writing, editing, re-writing, and doing it all again the next day. He is so dedicated to his craft, he often appears to be living more among his cast of recurring characters than among his neighbors on the Jersey side of the Hudson River.
If, however, you saw the man at work and believed those characters to be the product of a fertile imagination, somehow closed off from the real world, you would be badly mistaken. The well-crafted, three-dimensional personalities who populate his five bestselling Black Camelot mysteries did not, in fact, emerge from his studio. The New York native brought them into his writer’s lair from the very different life he led for most of his professional career.
“Technically, these are my characters,” says Myers. “But they are actually composites of people I know. I happen to have a group of friends who have been extremely successful across industries like banking, sports, and entertainment. Each of them has been a part of my personal support system just as I’ve been for them. Black Camelot is a fantasized version of my real world. In many respects, it’s an homage to a group of people I admire and care about.”
It’s not a coincidence that the mysteries revolve around the fictional Harris Simmons Media Group. Myers was a senior marketing and media industry executive at some of the publishing industry’s shiniest nameplates — USA Today, Hachette Magazines, and Time Warner’s Sports Illustrated and Fortune among others. Minus a series of grisly murders, the world he re-constructs in print is not too different from the one in which he earned a living for several decades.
“The truth is I wanted to be Kwame Mills, Donald Alexander, Tom Wilson and all my characters,” says Myers. “Who wouldn’t? They’re successful. They’re humble. They’re understood as the right people for this place that society too often tells us people of color don’t belong.”
It’s that mix of authenticity and fantasy that has allowed Myers to stand out in a glut of “second career” authors who have emerged on the heels of new publishing models and reading habits. He doesn’t fit neatly into any of the boxes one might be tempted to place him in. While it’s not unusual for a successful executive to pump out a novel in retirement, Myers shatters the mold through sheer productivity — a slick five-novel-and-counting series. He also distinguishes himself from modern mystery writers by his sophisticated cast of African American glitterati and their more traditional counterparts who use them to further their own agenda. Finally, even in the black literature niche, he is unique in his ability to craft twists and turns while taking genuine, but unfamiliar, African American characters through every nefarious corner of big-time business and high society.
And people are noticing.
According to Midwest Book Reviews, the series provides “masterfully scripted action/adventure novels that will have a very special appeal to fans of dystopian suspense thriller fiction.” That outlet also observed, “The Black Camelot series continues to showcase Darius Myers’ impressive and narrative driven storytelling skills.”
Despite that, and other similar notices, Myers doesn’t measure his work by positive reviews, productivity, or sales, even as he continues to produce rich and intriguing page turners. Nor does he see himself primarily as a late-in-life author, a next gen mystery writer, or even another example of the power of literature to speak to specific underserved audiences.
“Of course, I know that only a black man with my life experience could bring these stories to life. But I’ve lived much of my life as the only black person in the room,” says Myers. “That’s taught me to create free from the white gaze. More and more, I find myself inspired by the words of Toni Morrison who wrote about how we should make the job rather than vice versa and how we need to do the work for its own rewards. When everything else is stripped away, it’s all about my work and doing it to the best of my ability. Anything else, would be inauthentic and result in a product that was less than my best.”
“Still, my writing has been both cathartic and purposeful,” he says. “In many ways, I hate to say that. But these are stories about people who look like me and manage to break through. When they become part of Black Camelot, it’s an unfamiliar space for them as it is for most people of color who don’t want to make themselves targets. I think that’s an important element that stands separate from the mysteries.”
The seasoned business executive and nouveau author in Myers intersect as he looks ahead. The graduate of LIU Post’s Journalism program and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University notes, “I realize now I’ve done more than write books. I’ve been creating characters who will live beyond these pages and find their way to Hollywood and other outlets for modern content. I find that incredibly exciting.”
In fact, the early reception for his just-released Skeletons and Secrets, indicates the big screen may be calling sooner than later. The fifth Black Camelot book from the independent Fero Scitus imprint is rife with intrigue and his insider’s look at the publishing industry seems to get larger and more gripping. More importantly, though, the characters jump off the page as they always do in Myers work.
While he stopped short of making any bold predictions himself, Myers did give a nod to the role his characters play — and will play — in his success as an author. “Don’t forget,” he admonished. “These are my characters, but before that, they played a big part in my life. I believe they always will.”