For author Leslie Gray Streeter, there’s nothing like family. I recently spoke with her about her latest release, Family & Other Calamities.
Tell me about your latest book.
Family & Other Calamities follows veteran journalist Dawn Roberts and her momentous trip home to Baltimore, where she must bury her late husband’s ashes, heal some family wounds and defend her name and reputation from a former friend turned nemesis whose latest project casts her as the villain.
How long did it take you to write it?
Which version? The original as Dawn as a 90s pop star chasing her former band’s tour was something I started in 2021. But in 2022, I changed settings to journalism, and it took me about another year and a half to get it right.
Which character could you relate to the most and why?
There is a lot of me in Dawn, not just because she’s a Black journalist whose late husband was Jewish, but because we have a similar fierceness about the people we are loyal to while alternately allowing self-doubts to make her more self-focused than she realizes. Also, she has too many 90s references at the front of her brain. Like me.
How are you celebrating the book’s release?
I am doing the tour that I was unable to do for my first release, 2020’s Black Widow, because Covid lockdown hit a week later. I was able to do very little in-person promotion and celebration then, and I’m making up for it now.
Who is your author best friend (either in your head or in real life)?
I know it sounds imaginary, but I am proud to say that James Patterson has been incredibly supportive of me. We met when I was a columnist at the Palm Beach Post, in 2002, because he read my column and wrote me that he liked it. I thought it was a prank at first. But he supported my first book, was a part of that launch and is always an email away to give me advice. I also have become friendly with Mikki Kendall of Hood Feminism fame, and I’m in awe.
What is the most valuable piece of writing advice you’ve received?
To just write. Get the words and your insecurities out of your head and just do it.
What books have you read lately and loved?
I recently read Martha S. Jones’ The Trouble of Color, a powerful memoir about race, identity, and skin color, in which she traces her family’s history from Southern plantations to New York. It’s honest and very appropriate for the times.
What books are you excited to read?
I have been busy with my own stuff, but I have been meaning to get to Zora Neale Hurston’s The Life Of Herod the Great, an unfinished manuscript released with modern commentary. She was such a complicated and influential figure with a singular voice. I am sad she left so much unfinished.
What’s next for you?
I am working on a third book while doing my day job as a columnist at the Baltimore Banner and promoting Family. Busy!
Do you have anything you would like to add?
Just that I’m proud of this book and honored to be speaking to you!!
Use the Black Fiction Addiction affiliate link to purchase your copy of Family and Other Calamities by Leslie Gray Streeter.
To learn more about author and Baltimore Banner columnist Leslie Gray Streeter, visit her website, www.lesliegraystreeter.com.