Zondra Hughes earned her stripes as an associate editor at Ebony magazine, a position she held for more than six years.
In this capacity, Hughes penned sex and relationship articles every month, each article requiring lengthy interviews with sex therapists, relationship experts and everyday men and women who happened to fit that month’s dilemma.
Usually, that month’s dilemma centered on what women could do and should do to keep their mates happy, satisfied and at home.
And then it happened, the one assignment that would change her outlook on men, women and relationships forever. The article, Double Jeopardy, What do you do if your best friend steals your man? (April, 2006) required Hughes to interview women who had been double-crossed by the very people who were supposed to love them. She also interviewed the double-crossers. The most memorable was one female betrayer that, despite sleeping with her friend’s husband, still longed for the friendship to remain intact. The betrayer was in pain, but she was not willing to let her friend’s man go.
Hughes realized that some women had sacrificed their friendships, their sisterhood, for the sake of sex or companionship, and a modern-day feminist emerged, setting the groundwork for her first novel, The M.O.O.D. Lounge. Erotica that empowers was the vision; rebuilding the universal sisterhood was the mission.
Currently, Hughes is the editor of N’Digo magapaper, the largest urbane alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago. She spends her personal time mentoring journalism students.
