Accidents of Birth

Yesterday, someone reading my recently released novel, Accidents of Birth – A Novel in Two Parts asked me a question readers don’t often ask an author. “How did you write this book? You aren’t Black. You aren’t Southern. So how did you write it? All I could reply to her was, I’m not entirely sure myself. It felt almost like this was a story that wanted to be written, and it had to use whoever was available

How it came to be is a conundrum, but the outcome is a vivid tale told through a quirky, gritty, illiterate yet discerning Black housekeeper who talks to her cart horse, Polly, and God with equal aplomb. Born in 1928 in what remained of a freed-slave enclave called Small Town, Imogene Ware is confronted with a racially charged, politically divisive world. She becomes increasingly embroiled in the consequences of such an environment as she attempts to protect not only her own children, but also one of the children she looks after in the Sutton household.

What adds a twist to this story is what happens the night Miss Imogene’s mother is dying. Mama Curtis alluded at times to a tradition among her people that she felt was what kept them alive through centuries of suffering and injustice—a deathbed behest from mother to daughter. The selected daughter was asked to give her word that she would live loving the world. Miss Imogene was the one who took that vow, and the reader watches this choice frighten her, bewilder her and finally mature her as she fights for the lives of many she loves.

If ever there was a love story, this is it. If ever there was a character you wished lived next door to you or was your best friend, Miss Imogene is it. If ever you wanted an honest, peaceful way to live revealed to you, this book is it. See for yourself.

Available in Kindle Format and Paperback

Meet a Dear Friend of Mine

Imogene Ware and  Shunryu Suzuki lived during similar times. Shunryu Suzuki was the Zen monk who brought Buddhism to North America. He once said, "The point is to attain complete composure," and his was a life that modeled, in spades, that lack of entanglement with himself and the world. My friend, Imogene Ware, on the other hand, was an illiterate, Black housekeeper during that same time span, earthy, funny, talking with God with the same familiarity as with her car horse, Polly, but I suspect Shunryu Suzuki, had he known her, would have regarded her as very Zen. The only difference is that Imogene Ware walked through the pages of a novel while Suzuki Rossi walked this earth. But once you get into the novel ACCIDENTS OF BIRTH, I sense you might forget that one small difference.

Suzuki Rossi was once asked to summarize Buddhism in one sentence. Everyone  waited to hear the response to what seemed an impossible question. His reply was: Everything changes. 

Miss Imogene, when talking about life said something very similar: So it be with life, each piece, each bit whether a flower, a bird, a sin or a song pass on, fo’ life be motion, an motion be change.

Unfortunately, Shunryu Suzuki has left this life, but Miss Imogene lives on. I know Suzuki would have delighted in her company. I bet when you get to know her, you will too.

Accidents of Birth 
A Story in Two Parts

 Summary: The greatest influence in setting the course of anyone’s destiny is where and to whom they’re born. What we’re taught to believe, what is asked of us, the burdens we’re given, the lies we share all start there. Through the eyes of an illiterate Black housekeeper, Imogene Ware, born in 1928 in the post-Civil War enclave of Small Town in rural Mississippi, the reader gets to view the last half of the racially charged, politically divisive 20th century through her eyes.

Available in Kindle Format and Paperback (very soon)