Everything Girl

Breena Clarke is the author of the best selling novel River Cross My Heart, which was chosen by Oprah as one of her “Book Club” books. We recently chatted about her upcoming novel, Stand the Storm, which will be published on July 28, 2008.

Tell the readers a little about your background as well as your new book Stand the Storm.

Washington is my home town and my feelings about Washington are part of what motivates me and informs my fiction. I am a native Washingtonian and African American. Washington has a unique status as the Capitol, but people have always lived there. I personally think it has a poorly understood history, it’s just that the government being there overshadows much of what has happened to the people making the city their home. There is a vibrant community of Washingtonians and (for example) until the 1950’s, the neighborhood I grew up in was diverse. Its history has had far more diversity, both economically and racially, than most neighborhoods. It was never just a black neighborhood.

“Washington D.C. during this time was the kind of place where there was a lot of danger, but it was an urban center and had the opportunity for someone trying to purchase their freedom or free themselves.”

Stand the Storm is set in the years leading up to the Civil War and a few years after. Washington D.C. had a unique history in that time period because Abraham Lincoln tried an idea of compensated emancipation - that slave owners could get paid by the government to free a slave – as a way to take some of the steam out of the confederacy. Now, that is a simplification of the idea, but the basis of parts of the book. There were those in Washington D.C. who were previously enslaved and freed about six months sooner than those who were in other areas of the South (those areas in conflict with the Union). The Emancipation Proclamation only freed those who lived in states that had succeeded and were part of the Confederacy. Washington D.C. during this time was the kind of place where there was a lot of danger, but it was an urban center and had the opportunity for someone trying to purchase their freedom or free themselves. That is why the novel was set in Washington D.C.

Was the tailor shop Gabriel operated a real place?

The tailor shop is fictional and it wasn’t based on a particular place, however, businesses like that existed in Washington D.C. Skilled laborers have long been a part of the history of slavery. A lot of the large plantations, like Mt. Vernon, operated like their own village. George Washington had blacksmith and many semi-skilled laborers. He also employed people that didn’t need to work because there were ready made goods that could be purchased, but not up to the needs of such large group of people, who would either have to purchase or make clothes. It was traditional on these large plantations that, if they were able to afford it, they owned enough slaves to have skilled laborers, like Annie and Gabriel, as part of the industry.

Tell me more about the main characters of Stand the Storm.

As to the part of Gabriel, he exhibits talent and there is a profit to be had from this. While it is not typical, it was also not unusual for salves to be hired out to yet another person. The slaves were working for someone else, but the profit was going to the slave owners. At times, there were offers to the enslaved for the opportunity to earn additional money and come in contact with other slaves who were in similar circumstances. The wider the circle, the more you could improve your circumstance.

“If you will grant her full intellect and humanity, it is not difficult to find her voice.”

The mother, Annie Coats, is critical to the book. The point that I was trying to achieve, for all the characters, was a full recognition of them as human beings, not as slaves. I don’t take contemporary feelings and try to grasp them ont the 19th century characters, but tried to typically understand. I read diaries and other written materials. There were a lot of challenge to research the lives in slaves because limitations with literacy for them. It wasn’t a racial issue, but it was pertinent to the circumstances of slaves, because education was something slaves were anxious to acquire, but slave owners tried to strictly keep control of the access, so communication was a challenge. I wanted to think about those issues, the elements of that life, and Annie became a full character, considering those circumstances. But there is also a universality which makes it possible to understand. If you will grant her full intellect and humanity, it is not difficult to find her voice.

Tell us a little about the relationship between Mary and Gabriel

Circumstances for women are different. One thing that was important in creating the character Mary, and her relationship to Gabriel, was also to illuminate the ways in which being enslaved, being black, and in particular, being a women, put her in a particular type of jeopardy, vulnerability and victimization. This is a different form of victimization no matter what a woman’s race, position of freedom or economical level experienced. Being a slave, black, and a woman led to show that it was not just white men who were oppressing her, but white women and black men were also part of the oppression of a woman in her position. So, because of the circumstance, this is a large part of the dynamic of the relationship between Gabriel and Mary.

Gabriel is a man who influenced by a strong an intelligent woman – his mother - so he has insights that his contemporaries do not have. He should be allowed some of those insights. Annie is practical and clever enough to see that there are times when the gender imbalance can be used to advantage if you can see a way to do that. She set him up as am umbrella - he becomes a rallying point and his masculinity gives him advantages in his work and as a source of protection for them. Not using it, but clearly sees it. He does live in the world of men and can negotiate that.

And what about the child, Delia, that Ellen took as her own?

The child was not free. The only circumstance in Delia’s case that is not - cannot speak of common or widespread – the mixed slave person – is not uncommon at all – one of the things that is illuminated in Stand the Storm is what the impact is if a white woman who has a child who is not white. It is, in fact, Delia’s mother, who cannot be the child’s mother as it won’t be allowed – she creates enough trouble bearing the child. The circumstance is not only murky, but also troublesome that has a part of it. But that contributes to the murkiness to the freedom - - who does she belong to – she came home with Ellen – and thus belonged to Jonathan Ridley. People who were not white had to make themselves free one way or another. Had to prove they had been born free, purchase themselves, escape,

Talk about history and in particular, black history.

“Our history is complex and unfortunately I think what we tend to do with the culture is stop at the high school level – everything you get is it – and all that can be covered in that period of time is very general things.”

Our history is complex and unfortunately I think what we tend to do with the culture is stop at the high school level – everything you get is it – and all that can be covered in that period of time is very general things. Then you get into individuals (and a broad brush)and also a lot of educators and political types who use our American history as a way to advance a particular political idea. People in South Carolina who may not want to acknowledge the full gamut of slave past – as a country, we don’t acknowledge a slave past – and this doesn’t affect just the black people, it also affects the whites. All of us are involved in the slave past, not just the slaves and slave owners. People who traded in cotton futures, textiles, goods from textiles to rum to sugar – but other commodities – mining, industrial, slaves were heavily used maritime professions. As a society, we seem to have a romantic idea of slave labor – limited – for agricultural. Many slaves lived in large cities like Washington DC, Richmond, etc. The circumstances of urban slavery were different from rural. Large plantations are our image, but the typical was not large, but a smaller. There were a lot of people involved. So, the motive to express the more complex image was not to upset, but acknowledge, the past. An enormous amount of land was cultivated by slave labor, not to mention just cotton and sugar. My pulpit is always to let them tell the stories of everyone, let them out and hear them all. Let’s hear about the other folks, too.

Tell us about your first novel (River, Cross My Heart) being chosen by Oprah as one of her book club books.

It was great. The book was coming along nicely before the Oprah announcements. The first printing of 50,000 was selling well and we were already discussing a second printing when the call came form Oprah’s people. It was extremely important because it brings the book to a much wider audience. Anytime you can increase the book’s audience, it’s wonderful. It was such an enormous big 2nd printing – and brought the book into a lot of places that not would have reached. It was a very besides a successful for the book – it was a nice experience interacting with some readers the way they did. There were some really good reviews before the Oprah thing, but it absolutely put the book into another realm, just with the name association. Since there are repeats of Oprah’s shows, that’s kind of fun as well. Oprah understands it is hard and she makes a connection with people, giving them an opportunity to do things, and treats them like they belong. That is an elusive quality, and Oprah has it.

Writing can be such a solitary career. How do you balance in your family and your friends while being true to your needs as a writer?

There is balance as a writer. It is a solitary profession in many respects. One thing that has been fortunate for me is that before my first book was published, I worked full time in an office and part time at my writing. After River, Cross My Heart, I was able to write full time. I do have a lot of buddies and friends, I’m married and I have my dogs. I have a nice little social circle, and when I was working full time, I used public transportation. Having contact with people, just looking at them and watching them, is a great asset. It’s interesting to try and read what they are thinking, seeing their faces and bodies and attitudes and being sketch out them as characters. I have continued to do that when I can. Now that writing full time, one thing that was most difficult was (took an early retirement) was the thought I could write all day. I thought how fabulous it would be, but it doesn’t work that way. No one works twenty-four-hours a day. It took me quite awhile to achieve a schedule. For the first time, I was in charge of my whole schedule. I started swim lessons and aqua aerobics, so I see people regularly. I have some opportunities to get out and get my blood flowing – to get the oxygen flowing to the brain. Now I have found little hang out places where you become a regular. Usually get up early and wind down towards the end of the evenings.

“For the first time, I was in charge of my whole schedule.”

What advice would you give to want-to-be writers?

Well, just do it. That’s the best advice. You want to write it, then write it. There is a point in which you quit talking about it. But recognize that thinking is part of it (that) woolgathering isn’t a waste of time and you will have times that you will sit and not write. Also, write it, don’t try to fix it as you go. Just write, and go back to edit. Just do it. I went to a writer’s conference several years back and Earnest J. Gaines was a teacher at the workshop. I submitted something, was accepted, and was just happy as a clam. He (Earnest Gaines) liked my story and that is how my novel began. I wrote it as a short story, but it really wanted to be a novel. And he told me, so, you go and write it as a novel. He also told me to not come back to a writer’s conference next summer, but to go and write on vacation. Very practical advice. This idea is good; it wants to be a novel. Just sit down and do it. It’s hard and scary. But it’s worth it.

What other projects are you working on?

I am working on a new novel, which is well under way. And as always, I have other ideas percolating in the drawer – just waiting in queue. I haven’t penned down a rigid time table, but have discussed them with my agent. As to why I am not on a rigid time table, it’s because long fiction needs a little room to rise. I’m not a particularly fast writer – or quick to develop a novel. I am, however, working on something that is exciting now, so it’s beginning to move briskly for me. This is a novel that is set in the same time period, but a different area of the country. It’s an estate novel, about a young girls escape, her development and her maturing.

For more information on Breena Clarke, visit her website. You can also check out the ATG Review of Stand the Storm. Watch the blog for your chance to win a copy!

Deb Smouse is the Editor in Chief at All Things Girl. She’s is fast approaching 40…and spends her life fulfilling her roles as a consultant, mother, friend, reader, and writer. She loves to read…and appreciates the opportunity to hear from writers…. Find out more about Deb on our About Page.

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