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[music] These Tennessee authors are just 17 years old.

They're twin brothers, who have a passion and gift for drawing.

They recently graduated from high school, and get this, they entered college as juniors.

Straight ahead on Tennessee Writes, were meeting authors Jacob and Jacobe Smith.

Brothers who get along so well, they wrote a novel together.

It's the first time Tennessee Writes has interviewed co-authors or twins together.

Grab a fresh cup of coffee or two and a comfy chair because Tennessee Writes starts right now.

Books about Tennessee.

Books that come from Tennessee Authors.

Books and stories with a Tennessee twist.

West Tennessee PBS presents, Tennessee Writes.

[music] Welcome to Tennessee Writes, the show that gets up close and personal with Tennessee authors.

I'm Peter Noll.

This is the show that goes beyond the book to learn about its author, or authors in this case, from their childhood to where their stories come from.

They'll even offer advice if you want to write your own book.

Plus, we put the authors to the test of the stopwatch in trying to answer questions in the lightning round.

Tennessee Writes, welcomes authors Jacob and Jacobe Smith.

Twin brothers from Jackson, Tennessee.

They're 17 years old and have co-authored a graphic model.

They graduated from GCM Early College High and will be attending Middle Tennessee State University.

Tennessee Writes welcomes Jacob and Jacobe Smith.

Welcome to the show.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Welcome, guys.

Have a seat and let's talk.

How did you guys get into graph?

Have you always been drawing?

-Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

It's Jacobe and Jacob?

-Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

I got it right.

You've always been drawing?

Yes, sir.

Ever since elementary school, we.. liked doing different types of artworks.

We used to make different cars and robots out of cardboard boxes that our granddad gave us.

Really?

Do you have memories of that?

Yes, sir.

When we were younger, we were just strap RC cars underneath cardboard boxing and just drive them around like that.

It's really just very creative from a young age.

-Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

What is your favorite color to draw in?

Just any type.

I will adapt to anything.

It really depends on the character or environment I'm trying to draw.

If I want to draw a happier environment, I use more warm colors like lellow and orange.

If I'm trying to get more of a mellow, I use dark blues and saturated blues like that.

Your mom told me that you guys just get along extremely well.

Have you ever gotten into a fight?

Yes, sir.

Every day [chuckles].

Every day?

What is that about?

Nothing.

Just nothing.

Just stupid stuff.

Yes, sir.

-Yes.

-We get over it.

Like who takes a shower first, who eats first [laughs].

Who usually wins those fights?

-Me.

-Me.

No.

[laughter] At what point did you decide, "We're pretty good storytellers, let's do a graphic novel."

It started when we were in freshman year of our high school year.

I was in gym class while he was in another class.

We just decided we should, instead of drawing video game characters, we should start drawing our own characters and build stories behind them.

We started filling up sketchbooks of sketchbooks of hundreds of characters and we're like, "Maybe we should actually finally finalize this story and bring it out."

In freshman year, when I was in personal financing class, I thought of this one character, and how so many people are doing so many different stories, and there's not enough Black creators out there that are doing the stuff that we're doing now.

We thought we should try to do something like that and bring our story to life.

At first, in the story, there's seven regions, but the first draft of it, it was actually seven dimensions.

We decided that was too complicated for the readers that we wanted to do, so we changed it to seven regions instead of seven dimensions.

We've talked to another author who wrote a science fiction book and talked about growing up and not seeing superhero characters that looked like him.

He decided to draw his own and create his own.

At that point, when you started drawing it, did you think, "We can put a story together with this."

Yes.

Sometimes we'll just sit.. and just start talking about the story.

Most of the time, we were just in our bedroom about to go to bed and we were just pacing circles in our room just talking about, "Oh, blah blah should be doing this or blah, blah should be doing that."

I assume you share a bedroom?

-Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

All our lives.

Pardon me?

-All our lives.

-All our l.. Are one of you better at drawing and one better at storytelling?

-No, sir.

-No, sir.

It's a joint thing.

Now, your mom told me, and I didn't know this, that you are mirror twins.

What does that mean?

I can be in one room and he can be in another room and we're doing the same exact thing.

We just got a mental connection so strong that even stuff-- We can unconsciously be doing the same thing without knowing.

Give us another example of maybe where you've been at different places, but you could feel what the other one in pain.

My brother was in the hospital, and I was in the waiting room.

He was getting surgery done on a certain body part.

I think his-- My stomach.

Yes, his stomach.

I felt like a sharp pain in my sto.. when I was in the waiting room.

Sometimes when we were younger, we'd have the same dreams.

Jacob said that he was being chased by a polar bear.

Then I was like, "Wait, I had a dream with a polar bear chasing me also."

On the same night?

-Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

Have you talked to other twins?

Is this a common phenomenon?

No, sir.

Most of the twins we spoke to are either fraternal or just identical, but most of the time, identical twins want to have their own separate thing going.

I heard that, at one point, a teacher or counselor suggested that you should be separated to develop your own identities and it did not go well.

Tell me about that.

In the elementary school that we went to, that's right next to early college, it's called Alexander, they started doing a new rule that identical twins needed to be split up so they can develop their own personalities, but let fraternal twins stay in the same classes.

Then that went on to middle school because of our mama's job, we had to go to West Bemis so our grandparents can take us to school.

They also influenced that rule, that twins can't be in the same classroom.

When we went to early college, they thought that was the dumbest thing [chuckles] they ever heard.

What happened when they tried separating you?

Why did it not go well?

Teachers would get mad at the wrong one, and then people would get confused and get mad at a different one and not know that we're twins.

They didn't know that we were twins until we were walking down the stage graduating elem.. Sometimes when we're at the playground-- One time a teacher tried to grab my brother to tell him to get in line with my class, but then another teacher who already knew me and my brother from a previous year, she had to run up and yell at her telling her, "Those are identical twins.

That one is not in this class."

It had a whole full-blown argument for like 10 minutes about it.

Wow.

That sounds like something out of a sitcom.

Now, your mom said that there's one way to tell you apart.

Is that a secret?

Do you not share that with anyone?

-Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

I got a mole on my lip, and that's it.

As he got older, it started fading more and more away so it's not as prominent as it was when we were younger.

Now no one can tell us apart.

Have you ever tried to pull the wool over on someone's eyes?

No, sir.

Never?

It was like completely.. You're never playing the Switcheroo game?

-No, sir.

-No, sir.

Where do you guys see yourself 10 years from now?

We already got a small business of making custom shirts and drawing stuff for people.

I'm hoping that we can progress that even further, create our own studio so we can match produce our comic, make sure it's in the best quality that people can ask for and probably rival Marvel and DC, hopefully, one day.

Do you see yourselves being in business and partners in that business forever?

-Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

We already been planning on how are we going to get through college, how are we going to get through when we finally graduate and all that.

How we're going to manage money, how we're going to save money.

How we're going to have joint bank accounts for our business, but then we also separate some of it, so when we individually finally find someone to marry, we'll be able to sustain our own lives, but then also keep our lives together.

[music] Jacobe and Jacob, let's delve into your book, Rewritten Blood.

You call this chapter one, right?

-Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

Powered Blood?

-Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

It's about two brothers, correct?

-Yes sir.

-Yes, sir.

Is it based on you guys?

Actually, no.

A lot of people ask that.

It's actually going to be two other characters in the second chapter that are actually based off me and my brother.

The two twins that you're seeing right now are who we want to be, and the other two characters are who we are.

How long has this story been germinating in your minds before it got to a polished book?

Four years.

Then we finally released it December of last year.

We're still just trying to get the story out there.

Because of our senior year of high school, we haven't been able to do a lot of promotion.

Now, since we're finally out of high school, we can probably start doing a little bit more promotion for a book.

How do you explain the book to someone who's never heard of it?

I would tell them that it's just a world of different things.

There's two brothers just trying to figure out how they fit.

Are there things in the book now that you would've changed looking back?

-Yes.

-Yes, sir.

We're actually planning on redoing the first chapte.. making a whole volume.

The form that we're doing is called Manga.

Manga because that's the form of artist that makes the comic, is that they release chapter by chapter.

After they get 200 pages worth of content, they put it all together in a volume.

That's what we're planning on doing.

We're going to redo chapter one when we start making the first volume, but we're going to release chapter two and three hopefully before that.

I heard chapter two's getting close to being published.

Hopefully by the end of this year.

Yes, sir.

Tell me about that process.

You guys had this on Amazon.

How did this all come about?

First, we start with a rough draft.

We just pull up a Google Doc and just start writing out how we want the story to go.

Then we start writing all the dialogue and scenes so we have a good roadmap to draw.

When we was in our last year of Jackson State in Social Problems class, we just wrote the whole time just writing our chapter two because the class is mostly listen and do.

I had plenty of time to just sit down, write and focus on what I want for this story.

With Google Docs, you can have multiple editors.

What I'm writing, he can see in real time when I'm writing, and I can see what he's writing and have any suggestions on what to do.

It made it really easy to get everything out in a quick fashion.

With the art, the art is the shortest part, but it's the most stressful because it takes a lot of mental motivation to just sit down and draw the same character over and over again.

Probably with this, it took me and my brother three months just to draw a few pages because it was so strenuous.

We didn't expect that, but me and bro have friends that created comics themselves.

One of them, he created a comic book and released two chapters.

He gave us the rundown on how strenuous it is.

He told us it took him two years just to release one chapter.

Me and bro just try to find ways to efficiently get it out and produce what we want, but never cut out any quality.

[music] Jacob and Jacobe, we have come to the segment of Tennessee Writes we call The Lightning Round.

We put two minutes on the clock, and we ask you a series of questions about books, literature, and writing, and see how many you can answer in two minutes.

If you can't think of an answer, just say, "Pass."

The clock will start ticking after my first question.

Are you ready to play?

-Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

How many pages would the book about your lives be?

Ongoing until we die?

What animal best represent your book?

A tiger.

Last time you checked out a book from a public lib.. Never.

Favorite TV show based on a book.

One Piece.

How many pages is your latest book?

69 pages.

What is the font used in your book?

Pass.

What celebrity would you want to narrate your book?

Samuel Jackson.

Name a book you're reading right now?

-[?].

-[?].

Name a food item or drink that helped you write and draw your book?

Gatorade.

If you could have a book signing event in any city in the world, where would it be?

Nashville.

What author, living or dead, would you most like to have dinner with?

Akira Toriyama.

-and Oda.

Where would you go for dinner?

LongHorn's.

I'll go to the next question.

Do you prefer paperback books or eBooks?

-Paperback.

-Paperback.

What actor would you want to star if your book was turned into a movie?

Michael B. Jordan.

Where is your favorite place to read books?

Bedroom.

What book has most influenced your life?

One Piece.

What book are you embarrassed to tell your friends you read?

Chainsaw Man.

Do you own more comic books or hardcover books?

-Comic books.

-Comic books.

What's your favorite movie based on a book?

[buzzer] [rumble] [music] We always love to hear the authors speak the words that they came up with and wrote, and with you guys the pictures you drew.

Would you mind giving us a little reading from your book?

Yes, sir.

Your graphic novel?

Yes, sir.

Rewritten Blood, Cha.. "Before the time of this story, 600 years ago in the year 2024, our world has been called to judgment by the gods due to the surplus of unbalanced forces caused by war, violence, and other forms of dreadful act, causing the God of order and destruction to make the final verdict of rewriting the world.

With this new world, he hoped to create a place where everyone and everything will live in peace and order.

When the world wars reconstructed, all living beings' genetic codes were morphed, bringing people with powers, changelings, nightmares, spirits, and other unique forms of life.

To home all this new life, seven land masses called regions were created.

Each region houses unique cultures in life that sets them apart from each other.

To protect these regions, unique individuals are chosen, but the greatest of the protectors were known as the first five Guardians.

All of them had skills that set them apart from all others.

They saved countless lives, while also bringing life into the regions.

The strongest and most unique of them was known as the First Guardian.

Then on one fateful day, the first guardian found a tremendous power known as the Great Rewritten.

Knowing the dangers this power could bring to the regions, she destroyed it and hid its fragments across unknown areas, but she disappeared without a trace in the process.

After the pillar of the first five left, the others fell and followed suit, breaking any ties they had with each other.

Without anybody to keep control, an uprising began in the regions for the search of the Great Rewritten, allowing for a government to form and take control, birthing the world that we sadly know today.

Hey, get back here, you little brats.

You two have to pay for this.

We got the bread.

Now, keep running.

Right behind you."

Jacobe and Jacob, what advice would you give to anyone out there?

Maybe they're watching and they have a graphic novel in their head, or maybe they've got a grandson, granddaughter, a son or daughter that is really good at drawing.

What advice would you give them on how they could make their idea a graphic novel?

Firstly, think what you want.

Are you willing to commit?

How are you going to commit?

Then figure out what type of story do you want to tell?

If you want to tell the story, or if you're feeling comfortable to do so.

During this time, books are being just shot down for the stuff that they're saying.

Sometimes they don't even make it to bookshelves because of critics are not liking it.

I would just tell them, are you willing to do it and face judgme.. Nobody's here to knock you down.

Every day is just a new day and you should just keep on pushing, no matter who tells you what you can't do or who you're supposed to be.

In Meilberg's story, we always use the Northern Star as a representation of keep moving forward.

We use the term "Guide the way" as the Northern Star.

A set of our characters use that symbol just to keep their mindset correct in the times of war.

They know who they're fighting for, to fight for their loved ones, and just to keep a happy face even when times get rough.

I also wanted to mention, you graduated JCM Early College High with an associate's degree from Jackson State, part of their dual enrollment program.

-Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

You published a graphic novel.

How did you handle all of that?

With the support of my art teachers.

We call him Mr.

Clark and he's always been there for us.

Shout out to you, Mr.

Clark.

He always been there for us during freshman to senior year.

He was just like a second grandfather to us.

Then our actual grandfather, he read the first rough drafts.

He'd been seeing our drawings ever since four years ago.

He would just sit down, stop what he's doing, and just listen to us and look at the drawings that we had created throughout the week.

He still does that to this day.

He's the reason why me and my brother have this go-getter mindset, motivate people, stay happy, even though other people might bring you down, and just keep living no matter what.

He told us a while ago, "Just keep smiling no matter how rough things get, because everything is going to be okay."

If people want to buy the book, buy Chapter 1 of Rewritten Blood, where do you send them?

We usually tell them, go to Amazon.com and type in Rewritten Bl.. and it will be one of the first options that pop up.

How can people contact you?

You said you have a T-shirt designing.

You do that.

Do you have a website?

Or how should they get with you guys?

Through Instagram.

We have two Instagrams.

One is for him, one is for me.

You can contact either or, if you want something.

What are those on Instagram?

Mine is cobe_7147.

Mine is jay_jay7147.

Jacob and Jacobe, 30 minutes goes by really fast, especially when we got twins on the show.

First of all, congratulations, 17 years old, published your first novel.

That's incredible.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

We wish you nothing but success.

We thank you for coming to Tennessee Writes, and sharing your story, how it started, and your advice for others given to you by your grandfather.

Good advice.

We have a gift for each of you.

It's a messenger bag, and a latte cup, and notepad, and pen for future chapters of Rewritten Blood.

-Yes, sir.

-Thank you.

-Yes, sir.

-Thank you.

Thank you.

Before you go, wo.. -Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

The first time me and bro started signing things were actually probably in middle school.

Me and bro's uncle told us we should start signing things, just to make sure that none of our stuff gets copyrighted or just stolen, and to just mark down the dates so we know how much progress we've made throughout our years.

This is, "Guide the way," a message that everybody should always know for future endeavors, for people that don't feel like they're enough.

Always be that person that can guide the way.

This is just our big-- We always sign this just to make sure people know who we are.

[music] For comments about today's show or to suggest a Tennessee author for a future program, email us at tennesseewrites@westnpbs.org.

Tennessee Writes.

On air and streaming now.

[music] The program you've been watching was made possible through the generous financial support of West Tennessee PBS viewers like you.

Please visit westtnpbs.org and make a donation today so that we can continue to make local programs like this possible.

Thank you.

[music]