On Sunday I got back from the Romance Writers of America convention loaded with a huge bag of free books and the email addresses of some very cool authors who I met there. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to meet Carleen Brice whose book I’m touring today. But I have no doubt she is as great as her new novel sounds!
Bestselling Oprah-picked author Jacquelyn Mitchard admitted she read Carleen’s Children of the Waters in just five hours and she described it as a “fresh, free-rein novel about mothers’ secrets and children’s sorrows.”
Here’s the full skinny on the book. I haven’t read it yet, but I have it on order. It sounds somewhat like one of my all time favorite books, Danzy Senna’s Caucasia.
Can two strangers become sisters? Trish Taylor’s white ancestry never got in the way of her love for her black ex-husband, or their mixed race son, Will. But when Trish’s marriage ends, she returns to her family’s Denver, Colorado home to find a sense of identity and connect to her past.
What she finds there shocks her to the very core: her mother and newborn sister were not killed in a car crash as she was told. In fact, her baby sister, Billie Cousins, is now a grown woman; her grandparents had put her up for adoption, unwilling to raise the child of a black man. Billie, who had no idea she was adopted, wants nothing to do with Trish until a tragedy in Billie’s own family forces her to lean on her surprisingly supportive and sympathetic sister. Together they unravel the age-old layers of secrets and resentments and navigate a path toward love, healing, and true reconciliation.
Carleen is the author of the novel Orange Mint and Honey and Lead Me Home: An African American’s Guide Through the Grief Journey. Her book Walk Tall: Affirmations for People of Color sold over 100,000 copies. She lives in Denver with her husband and two cats where she writes, gardens, and blogs about writing and gardening.
Carleen took some time out from writing…and gardening (!) to answer some of my questions.
Tell me a little about what inspired your book?
The idea came from a story my sister-in-law told me. She’s biracial and was given up for adoption and raised by a white family. Her birth sister, who’s also white, found her when they were adults. I wondered what would happen if she had been adopted and raised by a black family.
Who’s your favorite character and why?
One is Fletcher who’s a senior citizen pot dealer and sells to other seniors—for obvious reasons! Another is Zenobia Bailey-Cousins, who’s the mother of one of my protagonists. She’s really together and accomplished and I sort of wish she was my mother.
How long did it take you to write the book?
A year and a half. This was the 2nd of a two-book deal.
When do you write (mornings, evening, lunchbreaks)?
I prefer mornings, but can also do afternoons or evenings depending on what else it going on.
Where do you write? Describe your writing space – is it a cluttered mess or minimalist heaven?!
A cluttered mess would be a kind description.
My number one tip for new writers is always to join a writer’s group, either online or in the real world! Are you a member of a writer’s group? If so, how has it helped your writing?
I have been a member of writing groups before and have also workshopped both my novels. It definitely helps to have readers! I’m working on a 3rd novel right now and I’m not sure if I’ll take a class or join a group or what.
Thanks, Carleen!
