I must have looked at that word on the first page, third paragraph of my novel, PROVENANCE, at least 100 times.
A young black man, caught after dark in a sundown town, is running for his life.
“We’re Richard Whitaker’s boys, you know us!” he shouts over his shoulder as he tries to escape what could be a fatal consequence for just arriving in town on the late ferry. The racist sheriff responds,
“Then you know! No niggers ‘llowed in town after sundown.”
There it is, the N-word. For the time, 1909, the place—a fictional coastal town in southern Virginia—and the situation, the language is authentic. However, in today’s still racially challenged world, like other racial slurs from our recent past, the word still stings. Today, it is not politically correct to use the N-word; I debated whether to change that word to one that was more palatable, more attuned to today’s sensitivity. I decided to leave it in because it is so visceral, to serve as a reminder of how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go when it comes to matters of race.
There are still places where people of color are considered a threat like they were in sundown towns throughout the this country; though the blatant signs once posted with the message, “Nigger, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on You In (fill in the name of the town) are thankfully a thing of the past.
There are still people who hurl the N-word around to demean and hopefully destroy. Though not my intention, some will say I perpetuate the power of the word by using it. Outside of this literary context I believe that may be a valid argument. However, in PROVENANCE, my novel about a family’s determination to survive and thrive despite the overt racism that scarred the early 20th century, my goal is to demonstrate that the N-word is powerless in the face of self-determination. It becomes meaningless if you realize it defines not one single thing about you.
Racial identity in American has never been just Black or White. Long before the idea of post-racial, there was Passing. In her novel, PROVENANCE (Creative Cache; $26.00; October 15, 2015), Donna Drew Sawyer explores America’s third race—Americans whose ambiguous looks allow them to pass, virtually undetected, into another racial group.
With the art world as its backdrop, PROVENANCE weaves historical fact with fiction to paint a vivid picture of race in America from the perspective of one family across three generations. It is a sweeping, complex, art infused coming-of-age story like Donna Tartt’s THE GOLDFINCH; akin to Lalita Tademy’s CANE RIVER as a family saga; its flawed yet captivating characters evoke Philip Roth’s THE HUMAN STAIN and in its haunting tale of fear and racial secrets, PROVENANCE is reminiscent of Nella Larsen’s seminal classic, PASSING. Perfect book club fiction, PROVENANCE is a page-turner that keeps readers pondering long after the final page. For additional details on the book and author click on the link below.
My novel, PROVENANCE, is now available in bookstores. It has taken me the better part of eight years to get from Page One to Published. Family and friends who knew I was on this journey had stopped asking about the book—it had gotten to that awkward stage where they wondered if I’d ever finish. I did finish, and today I’m happy to let everyone know the book is available from all major booksellers!
A Little About Provenance
The title of my novel is a term for the history and origin of a work of art; the provenance determines that work’s value to the world. My novel, PROVENANCE, uses the art world as a backdrop as well as a metaphor to paint a vivid picture of three generations of a family who deny their history and origin in order to shape their own destiny. It is a story about the value of family, friendship and culture, and how it all determines our value to each other and the world.
I hope you’ll be intrigued enough to learn more about PROVENANCE: A Novel, read it (there’s a preview on Amazon) and please share the news with your friends and family. It is available through all of the major booksellers in hardcover, paperback and eBook editions. If you click this About Provenance link, it will take you to a the retailers carrying PROVENANCE.
I’d love to know what you think of the book. Please leave me a review on Amazon or Goodreads. You can also leave me a comment on my website, because then, we become part of each other’s provenance.
From my publisher’s publicity department! I like it!
PROVENANCE ON SALE NOW!
Sweeping Debut Novel Explores America’s “Third Race.”
In America, racial identity has never been just Black or White. Long before the idea of post-racial, there was Passing. In her epic debut novel, PROVENANCE (Creative Cache; $26.00; October 15, 2015), Donna Drew Sawyer explores America’s third race—Americans whose ambiguous looks allow them to pass, undetected, into another racial group.
With the art world as its backdrop, PROVENANCE weaves historical fact with fiction to paint a vivid picture of race in America from the perspective of one family across three generations. It is a sweeping, complex, art infused coming-of-age story like Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch; akin to Lalita Tademy’s Cane River as a family saga and, its flawed yet captivating characters evoke Philip Roth’s The Human Stain. PROVENANCE’s haunting tale of fear and secrets is also reminiscent of Nella Larsen’s seminal classic on race, Passing. PROVENANCE is perfect book club fiction—a page-turner that keeps readers pondering long after the final page.
“So, what’s your book about?” From the moment you tell anyone you’re writing a book, that is the first question they ask. I struggled with that question. I knew what my book was about, what I had trouble with was trying to wedge my saga—three generations of a family, over five decades, with multiple characters, male and female, all integral to a story about racial discrimination, passing, coming of age, sex, love, friendship and lies; that takes place in Virginia, New York, Paris, Florence and Montego Bay—into a succinct description that will pique someone’s interest and, can be delivered in about 15 seconds. I never did learn to do that elevator speech thing well.
Now I have to deal with the ultimate “what is your book about” challenge. In the crowded world of fiction, an author gets just a couple of chances to answer that question for a reader. What can I do to get someone who doesn’t know Donna Drew Sawyer from Adam or Eve, interested enough to consider reading a book by moi?
The first hurdle, getting a prospective reader to notice, then pick up the book in a bookstore or choose it from an online bookseller’s array of literary fiction, is accomplished by the cover. Initially, we all judge a book by its cover. The second hurdle—which is higher—is the marketing blurb, those few words that grab a reader’s attention and compel them to want to read more.
Blurbs are used everywhere; book covers, dust covers, catalogues for online and brick and mortar bookstores, book reviews, items and mentions, publicity pitches, author introductions and more. The blurb, sometimes shortened to a couple of paragraphs, sometimes used in its entirety, is the way you talk about a book in almost every context—it is a key part of that extremely important first impression. If the cover and the blurb do not do sell your book, your book does not sell!
Many of you have already told me how much you love the cover for PROVENANCE, I love it too. I was fortunate to work with a couple of wildly talented designers, Francesco Di Biase and Federica Quadrelli, in Milan, who understood the book’s essence and were able to distill it into a cover that makes you want to pick it up and turn in over. Now the blurb must work its magic.
After input from some wonderful marketing people and my dear beleaguered friends who know the book from the fifty-eleven-dozen times I’ve asked them to read it, we’ve crafted the blurb for PROVENANCE that appears below.
I would love to know if we accomplished the job – would you pick this book up and take it home? Please let me know what you think.
PROVENANCE is an exciting and emotional tale about the redemptive power of love, the healing influence of the arts and the ultimate aspiration—freedom. In an expansive saga that weaves historical fact with fiction across five decades and three generations, PROVENANCE is about an American family determined to escape the barriers of race, class and gender.
By challenging a privileged society designed to make it impossible to achieve anything, PROVENANCE’s flawed and captivating characters succeed by gaining unparalleled access to everything. However, they must ultimately come to terms with who they are—evoking Shakespeare’s caution, to thine own self be true—or pay the price for living a lie.
On his death bed, Hank Whitaker confesses to his wife, Maggie, and 18-year-old son, Lance, that he is a black man—passing for white. Hank’s revelation changes everything for his family. Richmond’s racial integrity laws make Maggie a criminal and, despite his racially ambiguous appearance, Lance must now abide by the brutally restrictive laws that govern the lives of Negroes in the segregated south.
Lance and Maggie, at the insistence of her indomitable mother, Charlotte, flee the provincial south for Paris; hoping to defy racism like many African Americans did in the early 20th century. Seeking solace in the cafés, clubs, salons, galleries as well as the boudoirs of the City of Light, Lance finds purpose within the vibrant community of talented artists and wealthy expatriates who define the art world after World War I. Like his father before him, Lance’s glorious life, based on secrets and lies, eventually begins to unravel, exacting a heavy toll on him and everyone he dares to love.
Writers by nature seem to be a solitary bunch, much more comfortable face-to-face with a blank page than the prospect of talking to strangers. Authors on the other hand must be bold, engaging and engaged in order to bring an audience to their book. I am in the process of making the transition from writer to author and I took a bold step down that path this weekend.
After hearing Lalita Tademy, one of my favorite authors, gave a talk at the National Book Festival last Saturday, I went up to her to tell her how much I enjoyed her talk. After a couple of minutes of chatting I surprised myself and asked her if she would consider writing a blurb for my book. After she told me how to contact her, I thanked her and left wondering when I became that bold author I need to be to bring an audience to my book.
With book lover, Tina, at the 2015 National Book Festival
My audacity was further rewarded when a woman named Tina from a local book club, who overheard my conversation with Ms. Tademy, followed me out and asked me about the availability of my book so they could consider it their November selection. Wow!
I was with my tribe last weekend, among the many DC booklovers at the 15th annual National Book Festival on Saturday, September 5th. This year I went not only as a booklover, but as an author. My novel PROVENANCE, comes out in October, and I wanted to see how the pros engaged with their readers. One of the sessions I attend was with author Lalita Tademy where she read from her latest novel, CITIZENS CREEK. Tademy is a favorite author of mine for many reasons—I love her writing, we are both happy refugees from the corporate world, we both came to writing later in life and, after achieving success in one career, we had to learn a completely new profession—writing—on the job.
Another important similarity, that I can now give name to after hearing Tademy speak, is that we both write “fact-ion”—a term Tademy explained as fiction based on fact. She explained that when something piques her interest, as did her ancestral past for her novels CANE RIVER and RED RIVER, she deeply researches her subjects and weaves the facts of people, places and time into a compelling story. She has done that again for CITIZENS CREEK, an epic story of the slave, Cow Tom, who became the black chief of the Creek Indian Nation.
While Tademy’s oeuvre deals with aspects of the history of slavery in 19th century America, my novel, PROVENANCE, moves that history forward to aspects of the African-American struggle for freedom in the 20th century. Like Tademy, I use historical figures, places and facts to tell the story of fictional characters who, because of their light-colored skin, believed they could escaped the tyranny of racial discrimination only to find that their freedom was not truly free.
In response to a question about the topic of her work, Tademy said her writing enables her to tell the stories of people whose lives are for the most part unexplored in American history. Through PROVENANCE, I hope to do the same thing, share unique American “fact-ion” that illuminates a cultural aspect of history that rarely reaches an audience.
THE END – I typed the final two words and six letters of my novel PROVENANCE and burst into tears—which I now realize was the appropriate response—but not for the obvious emotional reason. I thought, after seven long years of writing and rewriting, that I had reached my goal, I had a completed manuscript, a book, better yet, a best seller! All I had to do was hand it off to my publisher and they would get it to booksellers who would then supply clamoring readers. As the author, my work, was done.
Those of you who have already published a book can stop laughing now. What I’ve since learned is that The End, is just the beginning of being a published author. When the writing ends, the next phase of being an author begins, the publishing and promotion part.
Once upon a time, in a publishing era not so long ago, authors gladly relinquished all aspects of publishing and promotion to the publisher. They did the editing, proofreading, interior design, cover design, pre-launch promotion, publicity, post-launch promotion as well as whatever hand-holding was necessary to make an author’s book a success. They planned and paid for the launch party, they scheduled interviews, book signings and appearances at book festivals. They got the author on television, radio or whatever broadcast media was available. But that was then, this is now. Today—and it doesn’t matter whether you are traditionally, self- or hybrid published—if you what an audience to discover your book, YOU, the author, have to get involved in all of those previously outsourced publisher responsibilities. That is how you make your book a book a success. Now writing a book almost seems like the easier part.
I realized I can’t do all this publishing and promotion part alone – I need you to come along with me for advice, counsel and moral support. At least a couple of times a week I’ll write about what’s going on in this process of becoming a published author. I hope you’ll read, contribute, commiserate, celebrate and support me as I blog my way to publication and beyond. You can subscribe to my blog (see info on the right) or LIKE my author page on Facebook to see my linked posts there.
Seems THE END was not the finish line, it is just the beginning of the next chapter.
UPCOMING POST: What’s Your Book About? From story, to synopsis, to elevator speech.
This is Jon Stewart’s last day on The Daily Show. I will miss his humor but most of all I will miss his insight. He loved to skewer politicians and policies but I watched his show because he saw past incidents to uncover intent. One of my favorite recent examples was when Stewart called out the news media for repeatedly showing the images of the murders of Black men as entertainment for the masses. In a piece that preceded Freddie Grey and Sandra Bland, he made the point that using video of the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Eric Harris, 12-year-old Tamir Rice and many other African Americans as background, or wallpaper, for newscasts inures us to the fact that these are images of the last seconds of human life, not just fodder for the 24-hour news cycle.
News coverage fills the airwaves, and our minds, with a steady and unbalanced diet of primarily negative images of people of color; in altercations with the law, face down in the street after their lives are taken, families contorted in anger, grief and pain. The explanation or justification of just why and how this happened comes later — if it comes at all. However the image leaves an impression that endures. When violence is all we see of people of color, that is what we know of people of color and, when that is all we know, that is all we can see. Fortunately, there are people like Jon Stewart who can see past all of that, however most don’t command a half hour of television every night.
Images are how we learn about each other – that picture is worth a thousand words thing. When images are edited to exclude everything except the negative, it is impossible to see the wisdom and beauty of Black women, the dignity and grace of Black men, the elegance and power of a Black ballerina, the brushstroke of an artist of color, the excitement of young black scholar. All of this and more is supplanted by the media’s targeted focus on Black bodies dead or dying in the street. In the words of Marshall McLuhan, “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and our tools shape us.” We need advocates in media so that the focus on people of color can broaden, the picture can be reframed, the dialogue redirected.
Jon Stewart, in his unique way helped encompass more of what we are as a nation. Thank you, for seventeen years of training your well-focused lens on the essential picture of America. We will miss your wit, wisdom, whimsy and your heart. As you leave to explore other opportunities, please continue to share your valuable insight with us – if not nightly then as often as you can. You are the kind of advocate America needs.
