|
 I
never thought I would write one novel, much less have completed
my sixth one. The first book, What Looks Like Crazy On
An Ordinary Day, came about because I had an idea for
a story that wouldn't fit into the structure a play requires.
It was a very different process for me creatively, but I enjoyed
it and was eager to try it again. At the time, I had no idea that
some of the characters would stay with me for the next ten years!
Aretha Hargrove is first introduced in What Looks Like
Crazy when she's only sixteen.
She appears in Seen It All and Done the Rest,
as a woman of twenty-six, recently divorced and struggling to
balance her artistic life and the responsibilities of motherhood.
She has grown up in the pages of these books! The first two novels
take place in Idlewild, Michigan, a once thriving resort that
didn't survive the integration of America's formerly segregated
vacation spots. Too many of us thought that because we now could
go elsewhere, we should go elsewhere. I used to go to Idlewild
as a child and writing about it took me back to those days in
a way that felt like home. The other four books are all set in
southwest Atlanta where I've lived since 1970. Placing my characters
in my own neighborhood was challenging. I knew if I didn't get
it right, my neighbors wouldn't hesitate to let me know it! But
it was fun to take a little poetic license without sacrificing
the essence of the West End community I know and love. When Atlanta
mayor Shirley Franklin told me she had given my books to some
of her international visitors to give them some of the flavor
of really living in Atlanta, I couldn't have been prouder. |
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NEW! Seen
It All and Done the Rest
March 2008, Ballantine/One World
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Baby
Brother's Blues
2006, Ballantine/One World
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We Speak
Your Names
2006, Ballantine/One World
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Babylon
Sisters
2005, Ballantine/One World
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Some
Things I Never Thought I'd Do
2003, Ballantine/One World
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I Wish
I Had A Red Dress
2001, Avon Books
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What
Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day
1997, Avon Books
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