(typing) (bell rings) (light calming music) - I'm Walter Mosley and this is Blood Grove.

I think what Blood Grove is doing is connecting one of the many groups that Easy belongs to, you know he's an American, he's a man, he's a black man, he's a war veteran.

And I think being a war veteran makes him belong to yet another group that he feels strongly about.

- It's so exciting that you are continuing the Easy Rawlins series.

You created a black male hero at a time when few such heroes existed.

Tell us what makes Easy so unique, so likable that even I fall in love with him every time I read one of your Easy Rawlins mysteries.

- He comes out of my love for my father and for all those black men who were so important to me when I was child.

I'm supposing that because I like him so much, I feel so deeply about him and he feels so deeply about the people in his world, that other people might like him.

(light calming music) Easy is dealing, you know, with black people in their lives.

And he's trying to, you know, protect them, he's trying to represent them.

He's trying to live a life in which he and his brethren are equals.

He's actually a real detective and also Easy has a lot of trouble maintaining relationships.

He has a daughter, you know, he has a dog.

He has a house up on top of a mountain.

But there are times that he just disappears.

That his whole life is committed to this profession of his.

(light calming music) I want you to read it to experience it.

I want you to feel it.

If you see Easy's life, you see something human.

- Thank you, Walter Mosley, for being with us today.

And thank you for watching A Word on Words.

For more of our conversation, please visit awordonwords.org.

I'm Alka Joshi, keep reading.

(light calming music) - [Walter] I realize that nothing that comes from your heart is made up.

It's not make believe, it's real.

What you feel is for real.

That's what I'd like people to know about these characters.