The pandemic serves as a backdrop for author Suzetta Perkins’ latest release. I recently spoke with her about Black Diamond.
Tell me about your latest book.
Black Diamond is the sequel to Fallen Leaves, which follows my main character, Reese “Gypsy” Shackelford, as she navigates life through the pandemic of 2020 and the killing of George Floyd in the same year. While her life hasn’t been a bed of roses, she finds purpose in life as she joins the Black Lives Matter movement and becomes a voice to be reckoned with.
In Black Diamond, Gypsy’s life has done an about face, as she entertains an opportunity she never expected. Her move from Fayetteville, North Carolina to Los Angeles, California to work for the movement has given her life. She’s a diligent fighter for justice for Black people, pushing to get laws changed in the Los Angeles Police Department due to their unfair treatment of Blacks, while also fighting for fair housing and labor laws due to discrimination. However, due to another new element in her life, she ventures to Europe and discovers that the movement is alive across the globe.
Gypsy learns that fighting for the rights of black and brown people in both hemispheres comes with casualties, and when it hits home, the toll is great for Gypsy and her family.
Why did you decide to write it?
The year 2020 captured a time in my life, the lives of my family and friends that many of us had not experienced before. COVID-19, a harmful and deadly disease that became a pandemic, touched the lives of most everyone living during that year and thereafter. And as we watched to see if we could go back to work, staying in our silos, hoping not to contract the disease, we hibernated with family oftentimes with the television entertaining us twenty-four-seven. And then came that fateful day in May when George Floyd was killed at the hands of a white Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer while the world watched because we were passing the time in front of our televisions.
Many black souls were brutalized by police and at the hands of other hateful people prior to George Floyd, however, George’s death affected me and countless others in ways I hadn’t conceived of. I became an angry sister. It made me want to get up and fight for the movement, be an integral part of freeing our people from the hands of the enemy. While I’ll admit, I didn’t engage in that way, I let Gypsy fight for me, although her story isn’t my story. I owe Gypsy a great debt of gratitude, despite how desolate her life was at the time of Floyd’s death. She didn’t have anything to lose, but she found purpose, and that’s what I wanted to convey by writing this story. The race for equality isn’t given to the swift, but those that endure to the end.
What do you want readers to learn from this story?
In order to effect change, we have to be part of the solution.
What do you want readers to learn from your life?
That you can be the voice of change. I love to see people excel, and if I can be the catalyst to effect a change by helping someone along the way, unselfishly, I say be that person. I volunteer and give countless hours, pro bono, to authors who are seeking to publish their stories but don’t know how. That isn’t to say that there isn’t a time and place to hang out your shingle. I hope people see the good in me. And while I’m serving my fellow man, I’m not looking for anything in return. God always rewards when you’re least expecting it.
If you could pick another profession, what would it be and why?
I’m doing that now—writing. I was a secretary for many of my working years, climbing to the top of it in my area of expertise, by becoming the secretary of the university under a chancellor. While I loved that job working with boards of trustees and major administrative personnel, I’d rather be writing…books that is.
When did you fall in love with the written word?
I fell in love with the written word at an early age. I’ve always had a book in my hand. My siblings and I were fortunate enough to have parents that subscribed to the Book of the Month Club for young readers and other periodicals that we procured through school. When I was a young teen, I’d go to the library every week and get a book, and the romance magazines for other reasons. I was nosey and wanted to know what the world was saying about this and that.
What’s something readers would be surprised to know about you?
I loved to play sports. I was an avid racquetball player and ran track and played basketball in high school.
What books have you read lately and loved?
As a book club president, I’m a constant reader. I read The American Queen by Vanessa Miller and The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson. I loved both of those books immensely.
What books are you excited to read?
Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride and A Right Worthy Woman by Ruth Watson.
What’s next for you?
I’m in the throes of writing my 19th novel entitled L-Hyde Place about a minister’s fall from grace. I’m also writing screenplays; I’m a beginner screenplay writer and have taken courses for which I have a certificate. Other than that, I’ll be promoting Black Diamond.
Do you have anything you’d like to add?
I thank you and appreciate the opportunity you’ve given me to get the word out about my novel. Black Diamond and its predecessor Fallen Leaves were a slightly different direction for me, although the content is fiction. I do import social, current, and national interests events in my stories from time to time, but these two books were quite different, as I felt a deep sense of portraying my feelings on the pages of the books.
Use the Black Fiction Addiction link to purchase your copy of Black Diamond.
To learn more about author Suzetta Perkins, visit her website or connect with her on social media.
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