How I Began Writing My First Novel

Keshia Thomas (L)  shown with Karen Simpson (R) at the University of Michigan in March, 2013. 

About 12 years ago, I read about a heroic incident that happened in1996 in which a young woman, Keshia Thomas  lived up to her values of  hope and love during a Klan rally in our  hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan.  

With nothing but a picture and a few paragraphs I started on my writing journey.  I used my imagination to contemplate how much courage it would take to shield someone who is full of hate. My novel, Act of Grace developed into a paranormal,  speculative fiction taking on race relations in America. 

Although my novel departed from the original story, I still often wondered about what happened to Keshia. March of this year I was able to help bring Keshia to the University of Michigan to speak about her experience via the Understanding Race Project.  I was over the moon to finally meet her and grateful for the experience.  

I was elated this week to see Keshia and the wonderful photographer who took those historic photos, Thomas and Mark Brunner spark positive thoughts about race relations across the globe.

Please take time to read about Keshia and her wonderful act of bravery.

All the Beautiful Horses

Next novel is about horses and the women of all colors who love them. The plot is still revealing itself to me but I'm a good bit into writing it. I have more research to do.

This is one my favorite pictures. Took it at the Kentucky Horse Park one summer day about 2 years ago. I Remember thinking the horse and the woman were so majestic and graceful. I ride but not this well. Maybe I'll take up some more horseback lessons this coming fall.

A Book Grows in Michigan

I went to my favorite independent bookstore the other night and found my novel Act of Grace nestled next to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. The 14 year old girl that still lives inside me was in giggly open mouth awe as I took this picture. Betty Smith's novel was one of my absolute favorites when I was a teenager. I still have my food stained, yellow paged, dogeared copy. I remember dreaming of being an author as I read it over and over again. Never thought I would get to sit on the shelf next to my hero but book dreams can come true.

Next week I'll be hosting a give away of my novel and a CD of the blues music that helped inspire my character, Grace Johnson . Stay tuned for details !

MY FAVORITE WRITING QUOTE

One of my favorite writing quote is by the poet Sharon Doubiago. Sharon was was once my mentor for a writing program called Split Rock. Sharon was a gentel but sometimes hard taskmaster. She could spread praise like jam on warm bread, but man, she would lean into my writing like no one else. Chastising me when she knew I was pulling my punches, telling me off when my love of metaphors threatened to strangle my work. I always knew the worse was coming when she would start an edit line with "Ms. Simpson, really you know better. "

I love how she describes a successful work of literature:

A successful work of literature is one that fuses spirit and craft equally, has
linguistic, emotional, psychological, intellectual, philosophical, aesthetic
integrity, involves the full self of the writer, is more honest than clever, is
not primarily an artifice, is not primarily from a program or formula, is not
primarily for selfish gain in the world, brings pleasure which usually has to do
with recognition, is more from generosity than hate (the exploration and
highlighting of hate being part of the task, but as Wallace Stevens says “Love
tips the scales”), is somehow a contribution to human survival (the writer’s as
well as for all); is the best that it can be. Is soul work.

Some writers are born gifted in language. Their hurdle is glibness. Some writers stutter and stammer to the end; their hurdle is in saying it. A successful work of literature fuses the poles of muteness and the gods speaking."


I know I lean toward glibness. How does your writing roll?

Book Launch

THE OFFICIAL ACT OF GRACE NOVEL CAKE. A GIFT FROM MY SISTER, DELPHIA.

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since February. Well at least it's not because I didn't have anything to report. All I can say is birthing a book is hard and like any newborn entity there is even more work after it's born.

It has been a wild ride getting the book out into the various distribution streams of Indie bookstores, and the online outlets of Amazon and Barnes and Noble. All kinds of glitches and minor problems popped up, nothing that couldn't be resolved, but the kinds of things that left me and my publisher saying," Damn how did that happen?"

But it's hasn't been all work and no wonder. To the day I die I will remember my Act of Grace book party as one of the highlights of my life. On a semi warm April Friday night, I had the official christening of my novel. It was an amazing launch party, better than anything I had daydreamed about when I was writing the novel.


I spent most of last week cooking because I wanted the food to reflect the food in the novel and the only way to do that was to prepare it myself. So the menu included, pound cakes (two different kinds), peach cobbler (huge) , two flour less chocolate cakes, chocolate covered oreos, spicy gingerbread cookies shaped like rabbits, lemon tarts and other treats.


Over one hundred people showed up, so many there was standing room only. My younger brother introduced me which was special. I thanked everyone, then I gave what I hoped would be the first of many readings. After questions I signed books and chatted with my readers. Yes I am living the dream of every author and I feel truly blessed.

Round One

Where I’ve Been

Sorry I've been away so long, but I had some fighting business to take care of . This last couple of months it been me and 75 pages of the second novel alone in quiet places. One of us was going to drop. One of us was going to get knocked out. The novel thought she was going to win, she thought she had the stamina to make me throw up my writing fingers and quit. But ha. ..ha... ha..I took her out. The novel now has a name(Canter) and she's wearing a exciting coherent plot plus a couple of nice new chapters.

I’m the winner at least until the next round.

The Case for More African American Books

I Heart Black Authors

I've been away awhile, revising, yet again, my first novel so that my agent can send it back out into the world. Now, I have been around on other blogs commenting about life and writing, but I really need to work on my own stuff. So let’s talk about the bane of every writer’s life – REJECTION.

Rejection hurts, but sometimes rejection letters are important because they reveal important truths you have to learn to deal with as a writer, be it the quality of your work or the nature of the publishing industry. Rejection letters make you face truths you knew were out there but preferred to ignore because they were well…depressing.


Last year ,in my quest for representation for my first novel, I received the following rejection letter from a well-known African American agent:


Dear Karen

Thank you for your query and I apologize for the delay in my response. This is an indication as to how overwhelmed I am by the numerous submissions that we receive on a daily basis. It would not be as bad if publishers were a bit more receptive to diverse works by African American writers.

In most instances the editorial direction at many publishing houses is based on whatever is trendy or the pre-selected categories that represent only a narrow segment of African American reader’s interests.

I am certain that if you survey any bookstore you will quickly determine that there is little diversity among the overall titles representing African American writer of fiction and nonfiction… much of it poorly written.

It is truly an unlevel playing field and one that necessitates my having to decline representation of many worthy projects such as yours, simply because each submission requires an enormous amount of time and effort to garner the interest and support necessary to achieve the objectives of acquisition, publication, marketing and promotion.

Signed

Now, I consider this letter a gem of knowledge, even though, at first, it stung my soul. I consider it important because I needed to know the truth about what I and other writers of color of are up against. This letter also now serves to remind me to appreciate my agent’s hard work and her own frustration about not being able to place my novel.

As with any business, publishing is about the numbers and cash.” You have to be able to make them(publishers) money.” My agent once explained. All publishers can see, especially in these hard economic times, are the dollars they can get from selling only certain kinds of book written by and for black people. Art and the beauty of the written word about African American life and culture be damned since they believe people will only purchase certain kinds of more titillating fiction .

The lack of diversity in African American fiction and non fiction is a problem, but problems can’t be solved unless some of us are willing to step up and take action. Carleen Brice, author of Orange Mint and Honey has started a movement to level the playing field on her blog White Readers Meet Black Authors .The goal of the blog is to introduce people of all colors and cultures to books by African American authors. Because the truth is, change can only come for black writers and authors if people spend more money on a variety of African American books. So take a look at Carleen's new blog, veiw the video and buy a few copies of her wonderful novel to give as gifts.

Soul Work

I’m getting restless waiting for more responses from editors. I use to think I was a patient woman but now I’m being tested. So, to easy my anxiety I thought I would explore some quotes about writing.

My favorite quote is from the poet Sharon Doubiago who taught me how to correctly use poetic language in a novel. She was a wonderful mentor and is a wonderful poet.I love how she describes writing as “soul work". To read more about her click here. I definitely tend toward the hurdle of glibness she speaks about in the quote below.


A successful work of literature is one that fuses spirit and craft equally, has linguistic, emotional, psychological, intellectual, philosophical, aesthetic integrity, involves the full self of the writer, is more honest than clever, is not primarily an artifice, is not primarily from a program or formula, is not primarily for selfish gain in the world, brings pleasure which usually has to do with recognition, is more from generosity than hate (the exploration and highlighting of hate being part of the task, but as Wallace Stevens says “Love tips the scales”), is somehow a contribution to human survival (the writer’s as well as for all); is the best that it can be. Is soul work.

Some writers are born gifted in language. Their hurdle is glibness. Some writers stutter and stammer to the end; their hurdle is in saying it. A successful work of literature fuses the poles of muteness and the gods speaking.

SHARON DOUBIAGO