Alicia Coston was born and raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Her father worked two full-time jobs to raise she and her brother while her mother held a low-salaried job in the public school system. Alicia spent most of her early childhood visiting her grandfather who was an avid Christian-they spent the majority of their time reading from the Bible. Ironically, this would hone Alicia's reading skills for the world of adult fiction. At the age of eight, the first book she secretly read was her father's copy of Louise Meriwether's "Daddy was a Number Runner". It was then that Alicia realized every story wasn't just full of magic and happy endings, but also the harsh realities of life.
Alicia was seventeen-years-old when she became involved with a fellow high school boy who turned out to be an alcoholic. She endured physical and emotional abuse during what would become a five-year relationship and was forced to grow up quick, fast, and in a hurry. Alicia tried to cope by pouring her feelings onto paper. She worked feverishly on her poetry and spoken word. Alicia, sharing the vocal talent of her father, began to write music as well and record a variety of songs in the studio to release her growing stress. By this time, she had already started her first semester at Old Dominion University while working three jobs in order to pay for school-though Alicia was in love with writing and literature, she was intrigued by the way people interacted and felt that a career in psychology would be more practical.
Even after being on the Dean's List for two years, Alicia began to think twice about wanting to be in college and decided to drop out. Afterwards she worked a variety of dead-end jobs while living in her parent's home, watched as her friends moved towards degrees and success, and was still caught up in the same terrible relationship. When the abuse from this relationship caused Alicia to fall into a deep depression and eventually led to a nervous breakdown, she broke free and decided to make some changes in her life.
Alicia started a job during her early twenties working with people with disabilities which she surprisingly enjoyed. She had also started a hip-hop/r&b group with a male friend from New York-they called themselves DiverCity. Alicia's full-time job helped pay for their studio time and she pursued her musical career between New York and Virginia Beach in 2003 and 2004. Alicia knew that she liked to sing, but her true talent showed in her songwriting. It seemed that her passion for writing wasn't going away any time soon. She put her musical career on hold for a few years and decided once again to pursue a practical career which was to continue working with the disabled. She started to clean houses on the side to supplement her income but was asked to leave a client's home after an eight hour day with no pay for doing an "unexceptional job". Angry, Alicia went home and began to do what she always had-she wrote.
The client helped her envision a character that she would be able to lash out at in the novel. Later she would thank that client, because what started as a ten-paged rant became Alicia's first novel, "She's Killin' Me". She finished it in one year and took the giant leap of self-publishing. "'She's Killin' Me' shows the extremes to which some women want to go when they deal with the issues we all have to deal with in life...and the extremes to which some women DO."
Today, the best-selling author runs her own publishing company, Indigo Press, and tours frequently. Once Alicia pushed her debut novel, "She's Killin' Me", into the book industry and realized that thousands of people would actually read what she had to write, she knew it was always meant to be. Alicia knew that she didn't need anyone to determine what she could be except herself. Alicia married the other half of DiverCity, Jusbizness, in 2007; her husband helps run her business and is also featured on the "She's Killin' Me" and "The Men Who Sleep With My Husband" soundtracks with the author herself.
"I'm living my dream," Alicia says. "I was too busy worrying about playing it safe. I was too blind to see the ambition that was always there." Alicia now resides in Virginia Beach with her husband. She mentors at-risk youth about the importance of literacy and hopes to open up a performing arts center in the future for young women. Her second novel, "The Men Who Sleep With My Husband", is in stores now. Alicia is currently working on her third novel and a stage play.
About Indigo Press
Indigo Press LLC is currently accepting email queries for full-length manuscripts for all genres but has a special interest in African-American fiction, urban fiction, thrillers, and romance. Please direct all email queries to Alicia Coston at acoston81@hotmail.com; please do not send your email query as an attachment because attachments will not be opened. All queries will receive a response within 2-3 weeks. Thank you for your interest and continue to strive to be the best!
