So,
I’ve already seen one incarnation of this story and I believe it’s been around
even longer than that. Can you tell us something about how it came to be?
If
Crows Could Talk started life as a short story called Colourblind in
2004. It was part of my first attempt at an adult novel. It was centred around a
tribe of Crow Indians on the eve of Columbus's discovery and it had short
stories woven into it, all warnings about a future USA. The crow theme permeated
all these stories in one way or another, and in a novel about American history,
it would have been so wrong not to have included one about Jim Crow and the
history of the American Civil Rights movement. I later felt it was too big of a
story to be so short so I developed it into my second novel. The first one I now
see as more of a practice novel. I did submit it to agents, but I was far from
ready! I had no idea if the Colourblind novel was any good which is why I sought
a critique and how I found you, the lovely Gill. I have to say how helpful that
was and encouraging and I have an awful lot to thank you for in my writing
career. Though I knew the rewrite based on that critique made it so much better
and the rejections from agents was a lot more encouraging than my first novel, I
also knew I still had so much to learn. It was a big story set in a different
country, written about a different culture and I needed to be a better writer to
really do that justice. That is why I decided to rest it and develop as a writer
before I attempted to rework it. But somehow I always knew I would. There was
something about that story, I knew it had to be told one day.
I
rewrote it in 2020 while recovering from breast cancer surgery, and it just
poured from me. It took seven months and I knew it was finally ready when I sent
it to my agent. I was so so happy when I learned of Walela, a new literary
imprint, and my agent submitted it for consideration. And so thrilled when
Walela took it as their inaugural acquisition! Gill, you were the only person
apart from a few agents back then who had seen the original version and knew how
much it had been developed since then.
What
was it like rewriting it? Without giving any spoilers can you tell us what some
of the major changes were? I note Alice has become April.
It
was so wonderful to revisit this story after so long. I didn't edit the previous
version -- I wrote from scratch. I kept the premise the same, what I changed I
know enhanced it. I did change Alice's name because we meet her older in this
version and when people read it they will see why I needed her older. I could
have kept her name but Alice sounded younger somehow and more old-fashioned and
that is really the only reason I changed it. By making her older it meant she
had a voice in this which I really felt she needed.
I
changed some important elements of her story, including her dilemma that we
learn in the prologue and also in her family. This was important as I was never
happy with the voices I used to tell her story in the original version. George's
story also changed a fair bit. This is really a story about family and his life
and spans over fifty years. I didn't do it this way in the first version. I did
have the same two-tiered chapters where we had the two story-lines, but this time
I started on both April's and George's fifteenth birthdays, fifty years apart,
same town, and then followed April's story over a year (2003) and George's over
fifty years (1953 to 2003) until the timelines converge in a dramatic climax.
The most important change I have to hold back on telling you because I don't
want to give anything away but I knew when I realised it, it was the only way to
go. All I will say is it's to do with how April's story connects to
George's.
Can
you tell us some more about some of the characters? Without spoilers, of
course?
I
love George. He is complex, shy, a poet and he has his demons. But he is a
family man, with Molly at his side and though he is troubled, I feel such a deep
connection to him and what happened to him.
It's
strange how everyone loved Lydia in my first novel, also African-American.
People even asked me if I was going to write anything else with her in. I
thought about that. I thought about that a lot. You see there was a mysterious
character I had used in the first version of this story who appeared at
pertinent moments and played a vital role in the story, especially at the
climax. I wanted to use him and I have a feeling he will appear in a book
somewhere, but I realised Lydia could fulfil that role here. She is a psychic
after all. Not only that, without every realising it until I looked closer, I
had said that Lydia had a cousin who lived in Atlanta! And that it seems was
Molly, George's wife. So the connection had already been made subconsciously
which for me is one of the spooky things that often happens when you write.
Trust me, there were a lot of spooky things that happened when I wrote this
one.
April
is a troubled very intelligent teenager and I feel for her plight. It's actually
her teacher Ruby-May who recognises something about her and is the one who
helps, because she has known something like this before. I felt very connected
to her and her husband Randolph.
What
do you say when people ask you what the book is about?
I
say it's a literary American mystery about an African-American man living in the
shadow on Jim Crow and a teenage white girl born fifty years later in the same
town. That they need to find one another to put George's demons to rest. But
it's actually so much more than that. It is a story about love, grief, family
and the power of secrets. And what beats at its heart is a mission for justice.
Had April not been there, George would have carried his deepest secret to the
grave.
It’s
the first book to be published by the new imprint Walela? What is Walela all
about and why is If Crows Could Talk such a good fit?
I
have been the queen of spectacular rejections with the big presses. I have an
amazing agent and since the first novel While No One Was Watching, I have
written another nine novels. I get such near misses with wonderful compliments
and it seems the main reason none have been picked up (yet!) isn't to do with
the quality of the work, but more to do with what the big publishers plan to
print in the next two to three years. It's so subjective at that stage. What
happens is some great well-crafted novels fall through the net and we all know a
lot of fast-tracked authors (some already celebrities) whose books do make it,
that perhaps might not if they didn't have a name. I get it; it's when art turns
to business. The big presses decide what you see on the shelves in the
bookstores and what is front of house on the tables in these stores and what you
see advertised everywhere so you buy them. But this leaves a huge gap of
wonderfully written novels that are nowhere. So when you told me you thought
Bridge House needed a literary (not commercial) imprint for books of that
quality, the seed was planted. Indie presses are wonderful and more likely to
take a chance on writers like me. You also told me you sought high quality
fiction, either from writers Bridge House already knew and knew their work was
at that standard or writers submitting through agents. I asked if you would
consider what you'd always known as Colourblind and you said yes. But though
connected to Bridge House, as a freelance editor, I still had to submit it via
Camilla and it wasn't guaranteed. So I was thrilled you thought it a good fit as
I do know you had very specific ideas on what you wanted and it needed to be a
book with sufficient literary merit to set the standard and tone. And phew, it
seems it did! I hope!
I
know you had a rather spectacular launch. I was there. Can you tell us about
some of the highlights?
I
loved it! The launch took place on October 4th at St Nicholas Church
on Canvey Island, where I launched my first novel (that one also had a launch in
Wales) and where I got married in 2019! We had over sixty people come along. My
agent gave an introduction and was very complimentary and we showed the book
trailer for the first time. You then interviewed me about the book and the
characters much as you have here and I gave short readings for some of the key
characters. We then had a short Q&A and then refreshments in the foyer area
while I signed books. The comments were all very complimentary and everyone said
they had a great evening. We sold a lot of books! I love book launches and I
think we so need to celebrate our successes in an industry with so much
rejection. I have found the informal 'in conversation with' interview
usually works very well.
Do
you have any more events planned? (List them all, with links if possible)
Oh
yes! Unless you are a fast-tracked author selected by your BIG publisher, you
have to do a lot of promotion for people to know your book even exists. Walela
is a fabulous indie press, who do publicity but it falls upon the writers'
shoulders to do a lot. So I made a plan long before the book was out. It
included a social media assistant and a small affordable PR company for reviews
(I hope!)... And lots of planning.
This
is what the current diary looks like (I have already had 4 events since the book
launch!
I
also have plans afoot in some local bookshops if possible before Christmas but
some in the new year.
I
also plan to visit cities across the UK one a month to do signing events in as
many places as I can: Bath, Bangor, Brighton, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham
etc!
And
all being well will be in LA in February/March for black history month in the US
(which is February, it is October here so the book was launched at the right
time!)
Are
you working on any more interesting writing projects?
I am working in a collaborative
writing project with Canvey Writers that we hope to publish next spring, a
charity book for Young Minds.
I have a new novel out on submission
and I am planning a domestic literary thriller that I will start writing in the
new year!
I want to say a massive thanks to
you, Gill, for being an instrumental part of my writing career, which all
started with this novel back in 2007 when we first met. For giving me my first
publishing break with my short story Jigsaw in 2008 and encouraging me to
do my MA and work as an editor and at one time a marketing asssistant at Bridge
House to learn the ropes. This novel, for me, is the most special one and the
fact it was Walela, your press, who finally published it feels so right. What an
honour. Thank you doesn't seem enough. And thanks of course to my lovely agent
Camilla Shestopal for not giving up on me! Let's hope this is the beginning of
something special with my novels. How do you measure success? For me it's
knowing these stories that come from the heart live in other people's hearts,
especially the characters. Then I will have done my job.
