Black Voices blurb for CASANEGRA

BLAIR UNDERWOOD: Bringing Sexy Back to Novels

2007/04/26

Actor Blair Underwood is bringing sexy back to novels. According to Publishers Weekly (PW), the television and movie star has hooked up with husband and wife writing team Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes to pen a new detective novel called CASANEGRA. Isn't that a great picture of the three of them?

Underwood, Due and Barnes met when the actor-turned-producer bought the film rights to Due's 1998 novel, My Soul to Keep. The film is currently in pre-production but the three artists kept in touch and eventually developed an idea that became CASANEGRA.

The novel tells the story of Tennyson Hardwick, a gorgeous actor and gigolo who wants to redeem the seedy history that estranged him from his father, a decorated LAPD captain. In the wake of his father's sudden illness, Hardwick has to save himself from taking the fall for a murder. According to PW, the book will likely become a movie with Blair being the prototype for Hardwick.

This isn't Underwood's first foray into the literary world. In 2005, he edited a collection about the wisdom of children called BEFORE I GOT HERE. Currently, he's shooting his feature directorial debut, an independent drama called Bridge to Nowhere that stars Ving Rhames and is the story of four blue-collar twenty-something men who team up with a prostitute to establish an escort service. The film follows their rise and subsequent fall. Sounds, uh, weird. You can also catch Underwood starring in HBO's anticipated new drama series, In Treatm ent.

If you're unfamiliar with the award-win! ning work of Due and the bestselling-work of Barnes, check out their books Joplin's Ghost and Great Sky Woman, respectively. Both writers were inspired by the late, great Octavia Butler.

I've read the first few pages of my advanced reading copy for CASANEGRA and you know how sometimes you can tell you're going to like a book from the jump? That's how I feel. I look forward to devouring it.

CASANEGRA drops in July and Underwood along with Due and Barnes will make select author appearances around the country. Look out for them!
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FROM STEVE: Just thought I'd share this...