In my last blog I reviewed Sundee Frazier's contemporary novel, The Other Half of My Heart. Now Sundee shares the story behind the story, and a chance to win a personally autographed copy.
Carol: I'm curious as to why you chose to write your book from Minni's point of view.
Sundee. I know this point of view best. As a biracial
African-American with light skin, I have often been labeled “white” like Minni.
I “get” what it feels like to blend in with and be accepted by whites, and yet
have this deep, abiding sense of being psychically and emotionally connected
with black people. Over the years I learned, like Minni, that I could align
myself with my darker sisters, use my voice to speak the truth, and have a
beautiful heart, no matter what my color. Telling the story from Minni’s point
of view required less effort, in that it’s substantially my point of view, but also required more transparency and emotional
vulnerability.
Carol: Did you consider telling the story from both girls POVs?
Sundee: Not while I was writing it. After the
fact, I received feedback that some readers would have liked to hear Keira’s
perspective.
Carol: I think you did an excellent job of showing your readers what
Keira thought and felt through her words and actions. How did your own growing
up years influence writing this book? Did any of your experiences make it into
the book?
Sundee: I’m glad you asked this, because while Minni and I have
similar racial experiences, Keira is certainly a part of me, too! I enjoyed
performing as a kid, like Keira (although I can also be shy and
performance-averse like Minni), and experienced my share of “achievement
programs” as a teen. (See my website for pictures of me wearing ridiculous
pageant gowns and outfits—or maybe don’t!) In terms of racism, as a young
person I was only a direct target of racist comments a few times. I’ve never
been followed in a store or asked not to handle goods, as Keira. I know that in
our society’s messed-up paradigm of race, I’ve been afforded a certain
protection by the lightness of my skin. But I also know that being
African-American has sensitized me to racism and that’s why I write about it:
because I know it’s real.
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| One of the experiences that informed her book was Sundee's experiences in scholarship pageants. Here she is as Miss Washington's Junior Miss First Runner-Up in 1985. |
My black
grandmother’s experience directly influenced Grandmother Johnson’s character,
particularly the pain Grandmother Johnson carries related to skin color. My
grandmother was essentially raised by her
grandmother. (Her mother was a domestic worker who traveled with the white
families she served.) This woman (my great-great-grandmother) was the daughter
of a slave and a master, and had very light skin. My grandma told me about
visiting the South with her grandmother, and how shocked she was when they had
to go to the back of the bus. (In the Northwest, where she was born and raised,
there wasn’t legal Jim Crow, although there was still plenty of prejudice and
socially enforced segregation.) This anecdote inspired the story that Grandmother
Johnson tells about her white-looking grandma taking her on a bus. I never
experienced my grandmother as someone with internalized racism—to me, she was
extremely proud of her ethnicity, and passed that along to me.
Carol: Can you share some of the backstory about writing this book,
getting an agent, and getting a publisher?
Sundee: I am fortunate to be represented by the inimitable Regina Brooks of Serendipity Literary Agency. My final advisor in the Vermont College
of Fine Arts MFA program, Carolyn Coman, introduced me to Regina after I
graduated and she has been a force on my behalf. When Regina sold my first
novel, Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It, which also happened to be my MFA creative thesis, to
Delacorte Press (Random House), she garnered a two-book contract, although I
didn’t yet have a second book written! When it was time for the second book, I
pitched an idea that I’d hatched and drafted during NaNoWriMo. My editor rejected
that manuscript, but then told me about a news item she’d seen out of the UK
about twins who’d been born to a multiracial couple: One looked black and the
other white. She pondered aloud, “I wonder what their lives will be like when
they’re 12.” Then she asked, “Do you think you could write a story about that?” Eager to please, I responded with,
“Uh . . . sure!”
I always
believed I was uniquely poised to write such a story, but I have to say, it was
an extremely challenging process getting from beginning to end. I had the
pressure of a contract for a book I hadn’t written, and subject matter that I
cared about passionately and wanted to get just right.
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Sundee's parents married one year after the Supreme Court outlawed the remaining laws against inter-racial marriages.
I had over 600
pages of draft writing, just trying to find my way to the characters and the
plotline. For the longest time Minni’s name was actually Serenity and her
family lived in Seattle; Grandmother Johnson lived in Atlanta; there was a
garbage collector named Lester, a friend they made in Atlanta with synesthesia,
and a little fatherless boy named Marcus (none of whom appear in the final
novel). The parents were on the verge of getting a divorce and the twins were
always at each others’ throats! The breakthrough for me came when my agent
asked whether I wanted to write a story about “sisters against each other” or
“sisters against the world.” And that’s when I knew: the girls would be
indefatigable and their common enemy would be Grandmother Johnson. It still
took many drafts to get to the finished product, but that was the crystallizing
moment for me.
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Carol: It’s great hearing how your book evolved, Sundee. That
gives me hope for my own WIP! It’s also interesting to discover how much your
own life experience informed your writing; you were definitely in a unique
position to write it.
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Sundee is giving away a personally autographed copy of her book to one fortunate reader! Here is how you can win it:
1. Leave me a comment with your email address, if I don't have it. For every time you share this post on a social media site, I'll enter your name an additional time. Make sure you tell me what you did!
2. If you are a new follower to this blog, I'll enter your name another time.
3. Winner will be drawn on Friday, February 21--so enter soon!
