Interview with Desmond Hall

We are thrilled to host Desmond Hall on our blog today. Read our interview with him below:

KLiC: What was your inspiration for Better Must Come? 

Desmond Hall: There are a few but one of the most important ones is the issue of abandonment. So many children in Jamaica and all over the Caribbean are left with relatives, friends of the family or by themselves if old enough--while their parents venture to the “first world” to find work. The reason for this is that the parents can oftentimes make more in two years of work in “foreign” than they can working ten years back home. 

The parents often send home a barrel—usually a 55-gallon round container—filled with everything from cooking oil to blue jeans to cell phone covers and more. And here’s the catch—the kids who get these barrels filled with stuff are sometimes shamed if they complain about missing their parents. Why? Because they received a barrel filled with stuff that others don’t have. But, of course, those kids would gladly trade ten barrels to have their parents come back home. I know this from the research and because my sister and I were “barrel children.” 

So, I thought it would be interesting to explore the way a thriller could be rendered if one of these “barrel kids” came across a dangerous opportunity to improve her life while her parent(s) were away in “foreign.” 
In addition, Jamaica is an island of strong women. And Deja is based on a some of my cousins who shall be nameless.  And Gabriel is based on the lives of a couple of my uncles and some other cousins who made “unfortunate” choices. 

KLiC: Please tell us about your writing process. How long did it take you to write and sell Better Must Come?

DH: I’m a compulsive plotter. I don’t write a single word until I’ve plotted and replotted. I’ve sort of taken what I’ve learned from story guru Robert Mckee, filmmakers Spike Lee and Mike Nicols, the Save the Cat book, and other sources and put them in a “blender” so to speak—in order to come up with my own outlining process. 

Better Must Come is the second book in a two-part deal. I pitched the idea to my beloved editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy when the deal was being considered, but I only started on writing the novel after finishing up Your Corner Dark. So, I’d say that I started working on Better Must Come during the pandemic and now, it’s coming out this June. 

KLiC: What’s the one thing you want teens to take away from your book? 

DH: First off, BETTER MUST COME is a thriller, so I want it to be thrilling. So, I wrote it to be an action-packed YA thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangle the lives of two teens who want to change their fate.  

But if there’s one thing that I’d like teens to take away it would be an understanding of the link between money and limited opportunities. So many times, kids see images of people either doing desperate things or living in desperate situations. However, in reading BETTER MUST COME, I hope they’ll see how a nation whose dollar once had more buying power than the American dollar could slip into tough circumstances—and how those circumstances can lead to the aforementioned desperation.  

KLiC: Do you have any tips for pre-published authors? 

DH: Writer Richard Bach said, “Professional writers are amateurs who didn’t give up!” 

KLiC: What’s next for you?  

DH: I’m doing a rewrite on a middle grade historical fiction/fantasy story where a brother and sister go back in time to the Tulsa Massacre to use their powers to try and help a young girl secure her legacy. 
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I also just finished a new draft of a YA historical fiction novel set in WW2, where a group of teenage school kids in occupied Denmark rise up to fight the Nazis because the grownups aren’t.  

KLiC: Is there anything else you want readers to know about you or your book(s)?
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DH: Both YOUR CORNER DARK and the upcoming BETTER MUST COME are thrillers that will have readers flipping pages and discovering new things about Jamaica society. And I always hear about how my books are cinematic, in that readers tend to lose themselves as if watching a riveting movie. Hopefully, your readers will feel the same.  

​Link more about BETTER MUST COME here.  


Desmond Hall was born in Jamaica, West Indies, and moved to Jamaica, Queens. He has worked as a high school biology and English teacher in East New York, Brooklyn; counseled teenage ex-cons after their release from Rikers Island; and served as Spike Lee’s creative director at Spike DDB. Desmond has served on the board of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and the Advertising Council and judged the One Show, the American Advertising Awards, and the NYC Downtown Short Film Festival. He’s also been named one of Variety magazine’s Top 50 Creatives to Watch. Desmond is the author of the gritty YA novel Your Corner Dark which confronts the harsh realities of gang life in Jamaica and how far a teen is willing to go for family. He lives outside of Boston with his wife and two daughters.


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