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Searching for Tina Turner novel
Totes tote bag for a laptop PC
2012 Paris calendar
1 Paris note cards
1 Paris memo pads
1 Waiter's corkscrew
1 Box of Harry and David's truffles
1 Shabby chic floral photo frame
1 Small leather journal
1 Heart-shaped wine stopper
1 Box of 6 wine glass charms
3 Floating sunflower candles
Nicole-Marie Handy has loved all things French since she was a child. After the death of her best friend, determined to get out of her rut, she goes to Paris, leaving behind a marriage proposal. While there, Nicole chances upon an old photo of her father-lovingly inscribed, in his hand, to a woman Nicole has never heard of. What starts as a vacation quickly becomes an investigation into his relationship to this mystery woman.
Moving back and forth in time between the sparkling Paris of today and the jazz-fueled city filled with expatriates in the 1950s, Passing Love is the story of two women dealing with lost love, secrets, and betrayal...and how the City of Light may hold all of the answers.
Passing Love will be available online and at major and independent bookstores everywhere. We encourage readers to ask a bookstore to order copies of PASSING LOVE if they cannot find it in their local store. Preorder available now.
Publishers Weekly Book Review
It’s midnight in Paris, now and in the mid 20th century, in Luckett’s second novel (after Searching for Tina Turner). In this dreamy and lyrical paean to all things French, a restless African-American woman with a French name (Nicole-Marie Roxane, 56), shucks routine and expectations to live out her dream of traveling to Paris. But her exotic getaway turns into a relentless search for a beautiful woman known to Nicole only from an old photo, Ruby Garrett, whose race and connection to her father are both mysterious.
In alternating narratives, Nicole uncovers secrets long held by her difficult parents, as the ferociously independent Ruby describes the freewheeling Paris of the early 1950s, where ambitious black musicians found an appreciative audience and colorblind acceptance. Luckett skips surprisingly smoothly across six decades as the narrative unfolds the mystery of Nicole’s identity.
But the mystery is hardly the point:
Luckett weaves a fascinating portrait of women of color who defy family and tradition to follow love and chase success. Ruby’s unflinching, unapologetic choices—even her lies about her race—unsettle Nicole. But Ruby is equally puzzled that Nicole would choose the ordinary over adventure. In the end, it’s the soulful, headstrong, romantic Ruby whose passion resonates in this story of discovery and acceptance.
(Jan. 25)
Inside Passing Love
by Jacqueline E. Luckett
Genre: Women’s Fiction; Literary Commercial Fiction
Target Audience: Women, travelers to Paris, jazz history lovers
Primary Topics Discussed
Paris, Langston Hughes, jazz, musicians, women traveling alone, love, race, passing, and family relationships.
Listen to the audio preview of Passing Love, click
here.
Purchase Passing Love by Jacqueline E. Luckett
ASIN: B004RCNGY4
ISBN-10: 0446542997
ISBN-13: 978-0446542999
Book Reviews for Passing Love
Jacqueline E. Luckett
“C'est magnifique! A delicious read, brimming with hope, love, and light.” —Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow
"Luckett is a writer to watch and admire." —ZZ PACKER, author of Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
"Lush, evocative and seductive. Only read Passing Love if you're willing to give yourself over completely to the excitement of the jazz scene of post-WWII Paris, and a woman's determination to find her place in the present-day City of Light." —Lalita Tademy, author of Cane River and Red River
“Passing Love is everything a novel should be: a story as complex, multilayered and rich as a French pastry and just as deceptively simple...until you take a bite. Settle back, get comfy and enjoy the journey Nicole, Malvina and Ruby (and their men) take you on through Post-WWII and contemporary Paris.” —Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant, authors of Uptown
“Luckett has written our Paris dreams come true--between two lives and two generations, this story delivers the romance and the heartbreak of all that the City of Lights has to offer. You will escape with this novel and question or embrace your own unlived lives.” —Heidi W. Durrow, author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky
Purchase Passing Love by Jacqueline E. Luckett
ASIN: B004RCNGY4
ISBN-10: 0446542997
ISBN-13: 978-0446542999
As a teenager, Jacqueline enjoyed telling stories to her younger cousins. To this day, they describe her as a master storyteller. So, it wasn't a surprise to her family when she began writing a novel. Through her teenage years, she kept diaries, wrote poetry and had stories published in a local newspaper. As an adult, Jacqueline put writing aside and worked in corporate America.
In 1999, she took a creative writing class on a dare, from herself, and happily found her love of writing re–ignited. By a lucky coincidence, that same year she discovered the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and participated over the next four years in workshops with Christina Garcia, Danzy Senna, Junot Diaz, Ruth Forman and Terry McMillan. VONA provided a safe haven for a new writer still unsure of her abilities, yet eager to learn. She attributes much of her growth as a writer to the VONA workshops.
In 2004, Jacqueline formed the Finish Party (featured in O Magazine, October 2007) along with seven other women writers–of–color. Jacqueline calls these outstanding women her mentors and advisors, her friends and the toughest (and most loving) readers around.
Jacqueline is an avid reader and lover of books, an excellent cook, aspiring photographer, and world traveler. She lives in Northern California and, though she loves all of the friends there, she takes frequent breaks to fly off to foreign destinations.
SEARCHING FOR TINA TURNER (2010, Grand Central Publishing) is her first novel. Her second novel,
PASSING LOVE was
released in January 2012.
Passing Love will be available online and at major and independent bookstores everywhere. We encourage readers to ask a bookstore to order copies of
Passing Love if they cannot find it in their local store.
Searching for Tina Turner
by Jacqueline
E. Luckett
Lena Harrison Spencer
is in her mid-fifties, and the time has come for her to face the hard truths of what it means to have it all and still find oneself unfulfilled.
When Lena determines that what she needs is the strength to change directions, Tina Turner becomes the icon from whose story she derives strength, even as everyone else tells her she's crazy for giving up her cashmere cocoon.
"The reader will wish she were the best friend who joins Lena in search of Tina Turner!"
—ELLEN SUSSMAN, author of French Lessons
Passing Love, the story of two women dealing with lost love, secrets, and betrayal...and how Paris may hold their answers,
released January 25, 2012.
Excerpt from Chapter 3
Impatient in the spacious seat of the transatlantic flight, Nicole tinkered with every button and switch on her armrests until she found a comfortable seat position, pleased she’d upgraded to business class. After two movies and five chapters of a forgettable book, she gave herself permission to daydream. Whenever Clint popped up in her head, her stomach knotted in protest. Taking a cleansing breath, she dismissed this musing and what she characterized as his proposition; he’d called it a marriage proposal.
It was bad enough that her mother hadn’t taken to the idea of Nicole’s going to Paris when she told her three weeks earlier. The older woman sidled into her kitchen on frail legs and jerked her cane at Nicole as if she was a displaced animal in the older woman’s glass menagerie needing to be reminded of her place. Clint didn’t simply think she lacked follow through; he didn’t believe in her. Queasiness proved her own uncertainty. The airplane began its descent. Nicole peered out the window at the unfamiliar territory below, released the negativity and let her thoughts drift to the blue book.
Over the years, the memory of the dictionary refused to fade and rendered the navy cover, the languages and pronunciations, the tissue-thin pages larger than they had been. If she felt comfortable with the man sitting beside her, she might have poked him and described the book that generated her love of the French language. She giggled, reverting to her nine-year-old self first discovering the blue book.
Yesterday she’d spoken a few words to her father. Not since the dictionary disappeared had they toyed with French. No recognition of the language they’d shared. If he were healthier, he would have opened an old book and celebrated her trip with a Langston Hughes’ poem written in the city where the poet had spent time or a recited a verse of his own composition. Instead, her father settled into his plastic-covered recliner and recommended she take along an umbrella. “I’m going to speak French in France, Dad,” Nicole tried to jiggle his brain and make him remember when they’d shared the language and he promised Paris was in her future. “I’ll be fluent when I get back.” Nicole teased. Her father had focused on his daughter in a single moment of clarity. “Oh, baby, your mother will be happy.”
She missed that blue book. She missed her father.
The flight attendant’s announcement alternated between French and English. It wasn’t the ten-hour flight, the drone of the engines steady and low, the tremor in her foot that cramped her calf, or the bona fide French that marked themselves as the sensations and images to remember years from now. It was her body’s reaction to the pilot’s downward turn toward the City of Light —a hint of motion sickness and what Nicole understood was anxiety. How far would reality fall short of the dream?
About Jacqueline E. Luckett
As a teenager, Jacqueline enjoyed telling stories to her younger cousins. To this day, they describe her as a master storyteller. So, it wasn't a surprise to her family when she began writing a novel. Through her teenage years, she kept diaries, wrote poetry and had stories published in a local newspaper. As an adult, Jacqueline put writing aside and worked in corporate America.
In 1999, she took a creative writing class on a dare, from herself, and happily found her love of writing re–ignited. By a lucky coincidence, that same year she discovered the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and participated over the next four years in workshops with Christina Garcia, Danzy Senna, Junot Diaz, Ruth Forman and Terry McMillan. VONA provided a safe haven for a new writer still unsure of her abilities, yet eager to learn. She attributes much of her growth as a writer to the VONA workshops.
In 2004, Jacqueline formed the Finish Party (featured in O Magazine, October 2007) along with seven other women writers–of–color. Jacqueline calls these outstanding women her mentors and advisors, her friends and the toughest (and most loving) readers around.
Jacqueline is an avid reader and lover of books, an excellent cook, aspiring photographer, and world traveler. She lives in Northern California and, though she loves all of the friends there, she takes frequent breaks to fly off to foreign destinations.
SEARCHING FOR TINA TURNER (2010, Grand Central Publishing) is her first novel. Her second novel, PASSING LOVE releases in January 2012.
Jacqueline Luckett
has been writing since 1999 when she took her first creative writing class on a dare, from herself. She attributes her growth as a writer to the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and to the members of her writing group,
The Finish Party (featured in O Magazine, November 2007). Jacqueline is the author of
Searching for Tina Turner
and Passing Love (releases January 25, 2012).
BPM: How did you initially break into the publishing industry?
In the middle of finishing my last draft of Searching for Tina Turner, I began to research agents. I divided my list into choices based on what I knew and wanted from an agent, and then I started sending two or three query letters at a time. I contacted about a dozen agents before one said yes, but it took about six months of rejection letters (which I kept).
Once I got an agent, the second round of submissions began. This is where an agent tries to sell the book to a publishing house. We worked on a list of editors who liked the kind of story I’d written and then the agent pitched the book. There’s nothing a writer can do at this point, except wait to hear from the agent. I wish I could say there was a bidding war for my novel, but there wasn’t. I’ll always remain grateful to my agent (who no longer represents me) and Karen Thomas (an editor at the time) for putting together a book deal with Grand Central Publishing.
BPM: How has your writing style evolved over the years? What stimulated your growth?
When I look back at some of my first short stories, I cringe not so much at the writing, but at the craft—or lack of it. But I admire the guts I had to send the stories out. The rejection letters strengthened my determination. Since those days, my style is the same, but my writing has become more polished. I don’t have an MFA, but I’ve taken many workshops and writing classes. I worked hard to learn craft, and that’s an ongoing process. My writing has gotten stronger in the two years since I wrote my first novel.
The Finish Party, my writing group, has had a great influence on me. I’m blessed to be in this group of eight women who are masters of craft and critique. They’ve been both teachers and avid supporters. We workshop each other’s projects and that process has improved my writing. I admit that there are times when I didn’t like their feedback, but once I returned home, I'd rethink their comments and realize that, nine times out of ten, they’re correct and my writing is all the better because of them.
BPM: What have you realized about yourself since becoming a published author?
Occasionally, I suffer from the old demon of self-doubt. Author Carleen Brice (Orange Mint and Honey) recently asked a group of authors how they fought self-doubt. I was surprised by the responses of the authors, who were all very accomplished. At first, my doubts were about my writing. Now I feel more comfortable about my ability to write and tell a good story.
BPM: What are some of the benefits of being an author that makes it all worthwhile? Searching for Tina Turner emphasized the importance of self-worth, reinvention and accepting new challenges. I wanted readers to know that life doesn’t end when you get divorced or reach your fifties. I want them to accept the challenges and possibilities offered by these new chapters in life. It took me about two years to write my first novel. Knowing that readers “get” my messages, love my descriptions of settings, and are eager to see what comes next for me, makes all the writing effort worthwhile.
BPM: Do you have any advice for people seeking to publish a book?
It’s still a challenge to get published. Persistence is vital. For the most part, writers need agents to present their work to publishers. Even before you look for an agent, make sure that your story is tight, your craft is on point, and your manuscript is in good shape. If editing isn't a strong point, find someone to edit for continuity, grammar and typographical errors.
Research agents who represent authors whose work is similar to yours in style, story and genre, and develop a list. Know an agent’s submission guidelines. Then start sending query letters. Your query letter is as important as your manuscript, so make sure to write a compelling (but short) letter to the agents you choose. If an agent takes the time to offer a few suggestions, consider revising your manuscript and move forward. Agents know what it takes to sell a book in today’s market. Don’t be discouraged by rejection. There are plenty of stories about bestsellers that were rejected multiple times (Harry Potter, for example) before the right agent saw the potential for success.
BPM: If you were not a writer, what would you be? What are you passionate about?
I recall having this conversation with my sister a few years ago. At the time, I felt like my many passions were posts in a pinball machine, and the ball never landed or stuck to one spot. I addressed my concerns about having so many areas of interest in an article for the Huffington Post (February 2010). When my sister suggested I could pursue of all the things I loved but that, for the time being, I needed to focus on one, I felt as if a burden had been lifted from my shoulders.
Besides writing, I love photography, cooking for my friends, and interior design. When I dabble in these little passions, I’m able to expand my creativity. I take hundreds of pictures when I travel. I love to photograph people in the midst of daily life. In many ways the camera invades privacy, so I’m always considerate and polite. I engage potential subjects in conversation and ask permission, but I’ve also been known to sneak a few candid shots every now and then.
View my Flickr Slideshow of Paris , click here.
Design is another form of creativity for me.
Sometimes I work with a friend to stage homes for sale and that helps to satisfy my urge to redecorate. As far as cooking goes, I don’t enjoy cooking for one as much as I do putting together meals for my friends. Fortunately, they love my cooking. I don’t have a specialty, but I’m well-known for my apple pie.
BPM: Will the digital age or social media usage change the face of publishing?
In discussions about industry trends with my editor and publicist, I’ve learned the answer is probably and more than likely. Publishers are encouraging writers to Tweet and post on Facebook on a regular basis in order to promote their books and build a following. Some editors are checking the number of followers writers have as part of their consideration to take on a new projects. As far as the impact of digital is concerned, I’m of two minds. I prefer the tactile experience of reading. I love to mark up my pages and move back and forth in a story, or reread passages. I’d use an e-reader for research materials. More and more readers are switching to Kindles, Nooks, and IPads to read. Bottom line, for me, format doesn’t matter. It’s just important that people continue to read.
BPM: How much does “word of mouth” play into the success of your book? What grassroots strategies have you used to spread the word about your book?
“Word of mouth” is important. It informs people, but it should also encourage people to buy and pre-order now (you can do this online and at your local bookstore). Just as we’ve discussed the effect of digital publishing and social media, the way to spread the word is different. If readers like my books, say so and why on Facebook, Goodreads etc..
Tweet about the book using hashtags such as #Paris, #travel, #jazz, #women’s fiction, #world war II, #readers and any other topics you think of after you’ve read the books. I’ve done contests and giveaways. I’ve donated books to silent auctions at charities along with a visit to a book club meeting. That’s my grassroots strategy. Any other ideas are welcome.
BPM: Introduce us to your book,
Passing Love and the main characters. Do you have any favorites? What genre is the book? On Kindle or Nook?
I’m so excited about PASSING
LOVE. I love the all the characters, and I love the setting—Paris, it’s one of my favorite places in the world. In PASSING LOVE the reader follows the story of two women who go to Paris believing that that city will change their lives. From the start, I knew the story would be about two women, one in the present and the other in the past.
Nicole is the character in the present who’s discontent with her ordinary life and her married boyfriend. She’s not a timid woman, just a procrastinator who has always wanted to go to Paris. With the encouragement of a friend, she finally makes up her mind to go.
Ruby’s story is told in the past and post World War II Paris when Black Americans were drawn to that city for the racial freedom they couldn’t find in the United States. Ruby is the complete opposite of Nicole. Ruby is gutsy and can't wait to leave her tiny southern hometown and see the world. She’s a risk-taker daredevil, and she’s my favorite because she does whatever it takes to make her life an adventure. Unfortunately, she steps on people in the process.
My goal was to make Paris come alive and to share history and details about the city. I want my readers to become impatient and as excited about Paris as Ruby and Nicole are. Some might define
PASSING LOVE
as women’s fiction, and while it definitely is a story about women, there’s history and a story that’s not just for female readers. PASSING LOVE will be available to readers in all formats: electronic and trade paperback. The Audio version releases in March, 2012.
Passing Love will be available online and at major and independent bookstores everywhere. We encourage readers to ask a bookstore to order copies of
Passing Love if they cannot find it in their local store. Preorders are available now.
BPM: Who do you want to reach with your book and the message enclosed?
When I read, I love books that are good stories that suspend reality, challenge my imagination and make me think. As a writer that’s what I’ve tried to accomplish in PASSING LOVE and those are the readers that I’m trying to reach. Both Ruby and Nicole learn is that no matter how much we plan and scheme to organize our lives, they can still be unpredictable. How we manage that unpredictability is what differentiates us humans from one another. Perceptions and reality also come into play as the two women begin to understand what it means to live an ordinary life. Does one settle or accept?
BPM: Share with us your latest news or upcoming book releases. How may our readers follow you online?
I’m still trying to figure that out for myself. I’ve written a play that I’ll try to get produced. I’m working on idea for my third novel and I’d love to have more speaking engagements.
Heidi Durrow (The Girl Who Fell From the Sky), Tayari Jones (Silver Sparrow) and Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant (Uptown, Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made) have written wonderful blurbs that will appear on the cover of PASSING LOVE.
Also, PASSING LOVE, has been selected as a featured novel for Black Expressions Book club,
January, 2012!
"The reader will wish she were the best friend who joins Lena in search of Tina Turner!" —ELLEN
SUSSMAN, author of French Lessons
Lena Harrison Spencer is in her mid-fifties, and the time has come for her to face the hard truths of what it means to have it all and still find oneself unfulfilled. When Lena determines that what she needs is the strength to change directions, Tina Turner becomes the icon from whose story she derives strength, even as everyone else tells her she's crazy for giving up her cashmere cocoon.
Discovering Creativity In The Wake Of Divorce
by Jacqueline E. Luckett
New Year's Eve of 2003 was my first time alone in 20 years. I guess you could say it was a celebration of sorts. The difference was that I greeted 2004 as a single woman with nowhere to go and no one to go there with.
If it's true that time fades memories and heals all wounds, then I have to believe that it also must be true that time offers new chances and new beginnings. That's what divorce was for me, a new beginning. I didn't see it then, but in retrospect the message was clear. At the time, I simply saw an ending. The decision wasn't easily made. But more than that, it was hard to figure out what came next.
That period of time I'll call purgatory, though it felt like hell. My then husband and I separated our selves and our assets (and yes, our dreams for a future together), I cried every day. I called my sister nearly every night. I wrote in a notebook that I'll never look at again. For 20 years, I trusted in someone else's decisions. I'd changed. Marriage made me feel secure. The confident me was gone. I was lost and full of fear. I didn't know what came next or what to do with my emotions or the rest of my life.
I'd dabbled at writing since 1999 and had received good feedback in workshops. In considering the possibilities of my new life, I returned to my writing classes and tested new waters, one toe at a time. Corporate America only offered a return to the instability of a commission-based sales position. I investigated franchises and considered culinary school. I tried real estate (one transaction), catered two parties (good food, bad timing, and, oh, did my feet hurt!) and tested my interior decorating skills (details and meticulous measurements). During one of our many midnight conversations, I asked my sister (for the thousandth time) which one of these jobs I should stick with. In her wonderful wisdom she told me, "You can do whatever you want. Just pick one, and do that first."
So, I took more writing classes and every time I churned out a story or a sappy poem rooted in love gone wrong, I felt good. I still moped. I still doubted my abilities, but I wrote.
It took two lawyers, a mediator, innumerable pints of chocolate ice cream, boxes of Kleenex, and a final hour-long document-signing session to end my marriage. With our signatures inked on a hefty stack of papers, 20 years of my life were instantly nullified: sorting his whites from my delicates, intimate lunches carved out of his crazy day, cleaning the goop from his electric toothbrush, trying to make my family happy--none of that counted any more. And in the midst of this, yes, I let myself get depressed and whiny. I beat myself up for the failure I believed was all mine. I spent days in bed. I lost track of time. I drove too fast and without regard to anyone else on the road. I couldn't concentrate, couldn't read, and couldn't eat.
On a day I remember only as sunny, I was talking to my friend on the phone and hiding, yet again, in bed. She demanded I stand up and draw an imaginary line on the floor. With tears in my eyes, I slipped from beneath the covers and stood beside my bed. Trusting my friend completely, I visualized that line. "You have a choice," she said. "Stay where you are and wallow, or cross that line and never look back." I can see myself now, teetering before that imaginary line. I saw my old life, the good times and the bad. I saw me, a 56-year-old woman who had worked hard to be the best wife and mother. My foot was heavy; my toes tingled. But I did it. I lifted my foot and stepped across. With that simple action, I began my new life. The truth was that I didn't know anything about anything. I just knew I didn't want to be a victim. The symbolism of stepping over that line pushed me in the direction of my future. I chose writing as the way I wanted to make my mark on the world, as the way to be the best I could be.
It didn't happen overnight.
Divorce took me outside my comfort zone and forced me to learn to trust myself all over again. I had to look at where I'd been and where I wanted to go, to put together new dreams, to rediscover and shine as me, not just a wife on her husband's arm. I went from fearing an unknown future to building one that I loved, a bittersweet victory, but a victory nonetheless.
In struggling to emerge from depression and self-criticism, each step I took set up my reinvention and new career. I set intentions and posted them all over my home, made dream boards, took more classes, joined a writing group, and made new friends. Yes, there have been (and still are) stumbling blocks: fear and uncertainty nag at me nearly as regularly as my periods used to. They sneak up on me, threaten to knock me down, and I have to battle them. This is what many divorced women are trying to do. It's what my novel's character, Lena, does. It's difficult to start over, to adjust to a new life but, by moving forward one step at a time, we can.
When my aunt saw my photo on the cover of a magazine, she raved with pride. "But then," she said, "Maybe if all of this hadn't happened, you wouldn't have written a book!" There was truth in what she said. I didn't know six years ago -- or maybe I suspected and, for sure, I hoped -- how time would lead me down another path. Different, but joyful. By declaring myself victor not victim, I used the changes that came with divorce to catapult me into a future of my own design. Time has done that for me. I'm a writer.
Meet The Author
Jacqueline E. Luckett is the author of Passing Love and Searching for Tina Turner. A San Francisco Bay Area native, she lives in Oakland, California. For more information, and to read her blog, you can visit
www.JacquelineLuckett.com. Follow Jacqueline Luckett on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jackieluckett
Jacqueline Luckett:
The Gift That Keeps on Giving
As the author of PASSING LOVE AND SEARCHING FOR TINA TURNER, Jacqueline Luckett has established herself as a writer to watch. In the touching post below, she reflects on the strong influence of her mother, who, while not an avid fiction reader herself, cherished Jacqueline’s first novel.
I don’t think I ever recall seeing my now 88-year-old mother read a book. Oh, she’s a reader --- newspapers, newsletters, and magazines. But a book? Never. Until I wrote one.
Between her jobs with the Federal government and caring for our family, I’m not sure she had time for much else.
In 2010, I gave her a copy of my first novel. She fingered the glossy cover and my name printed on the spine. Behind her glow of maternal pride, I sensed that my mother must love books as much as I do.
In the following days, she faithfully reported her progress. “I’m on Chapter 5,” she would tell me, the chapter number changing as she moved through the story.
“Where did you get all those ideas?” she often asked, laughing. She is clear-headed and high-spirited and when she laughs, I don’t think about her age or her arthritic knees or the frown that crosses her face when she struggles to get out of her favorite chair. I think of my playful, beautiful mother who migrated with her three sisters to California from Mississippi after World War II, who once won a beauty contest, and who loved my father for more than the 56 years they were married.
Not long after I gave her my book, she called to tell me she was sad. Thinking she was missing my Dad, who passed in 2002, I tried to comfort her. “Oh no,” she said, “I finished your book, and now I have nothing to do!” She hadn’t wanted the story to end. I wondered if, years ago, I’d been so self-absorbed that I neglected to notice when she picked up a book. Had she taken books to the bathroom and hid there, her only place of quiet without distractions? “Your book is beautiful,” she added. There was so much pride in her voice, and her unspoken message, I knew you could do it, was praise for my book and joy for the direction my life has taken since my divorce.
There’s not a time in my life when a book hasn’t been close by: on my nightstand, in my purse or pocket, or shelved in a room of wherever I’ve lived. How, I’ve often wondered, did the child of a mother who never read much become a storyteller, avid reader and lover of books? My father was a reader, determined to work his way through our set of The Great Books of the Western World. But I’m not like my father. I’m like my mother --- my eyes, my voice, my mannerisms are hers, and now, I’m beginning to believe so, too, is my love of books.
She is the one who encouraged me, and my sister (a writer, also), to send our stories to the local newspaper. Hers is the hand I held on visits to the Children’s Room at the Berkeley Public Library. I remember the mounting excitement as we climbed the marble stairs, the musty smell of books, the thrill of holding them in my arms barely able to contain my excitement.
I’ve always assumed that my vivid imagination brought me to my love of books. Recently, I asked my mother, “Why do I love to read?” On the other end of the phone line, she paused, reaching, I supposed, for the memory of the days when her daughters depended on her for everything. “Oh, I read to you while you and your sister bathed.” Sadly, I have no recollection of those times. “I don’t know,” she continued, “your father loved to read. I took you girls to the library, and I bought books. You just loved reading.”
But there was so much more. I was a child spoiled and blessed with uninterrupted time to read. A home filled with encyclopedias, collections of short stories, fairy tales, and poems. Never once do I remember my mother chiding that reading was a waste of my time, not even while she grumbled at my reluctance to help around the house.
“When is your next book coming out?” my mother asked the other day. “I need something else to read.”
Looking back, I understand she wanted her daughters to have a different, and perhaps better, life. She encouraged me, not by example, but with her actions. In her own way, my mother gifted me a love of reading, the gift that keeps on giving, and I’m pleased that I can return the gift to her.
Meet The Author
Jacqueline E. Luckett is the author of Passing Love and Searching for Tina Turner. A San Francisco Bay Area native, she lives in Oakland, California. For more information, and to read her blog, you can visit
www.JacquelineLuckett.com.
Photo: Jacqueline with her mother, Bernice. Original post source URL, here.
Paris. Not how she’d intended, but Paris nevertheless. Sixty-one hours before boarding
the nonstop flight from San Francisco to Charles de Gaulle. Twenty-nine whole days in
France, plus one to get there and one to come back. Vacation hoarded over the years.
Nicole poured a tall shot of one of Mexico’s finest añejo tequilas into a crystal glass.
Years ago she’d bought the hundred-dollar bottle for a special occasion. If this trip didn’t
count as special, she figured she didn’t know what did.
A smattering of travel paraphernalia topped the coffee table: luggage tags, an
airline itinerary, a shuttle service schedule, emer- gency numbers and security codes for
the rental apartment, her brand-new passport, five hundred euros in denominations of five
to fifty. And a notebook, Tamara’s gift—a combination journal, address book, and log of
miscellaneous events and information. A means to capture Paris. Nicole ran her fingers
over her friend’s angular cursive.
Even as they planned their trip, Nicole realized Tamara must have had a clue that
her health wasn’t the best. The last time she saw her, Tamara had looked years older than
her forty-three: bloated middle, face drained and spent. Beneath Tamara’s loose gown,
her collarbone jutted and a bone poked where a rounded shoulder should have been. A
white canister hung from a slim pole on the opposite side of the hospital bed. It beeped—
a persistent and unwanted reminder—and administered intermittent doses of morphine, a
nurse in a plastic box.
“I’m not afraid, Nicki.”
Nicole pressed a glass of water to her friend’s lips. Over the course of a few
months, weight had dropped from Tamara’s heavy frame. After her biopsy, the doctor
pronounced the diagnosis with certainty—pancreatic cancer. The discovery was too late,
and the insidious disease had reached her liver.
“Did I tell you my daddy preached? I delivered a sermon every now and again. I
was pretty good. Tonight, I’m going to preach to you. I figure me in this bed, acting
pitiful, is the perfect setup to get you to change.” That was when Tamara pulled out the
note- book and wrote on the inside cover, Be wild. Dance in the streets. Take French
lessons. Walk the wrong way home. Don’t play it safe. “This is your mantra, Nicki.
Promise me you’ll go to Paris, no matter what.” Determination edged Tamara’s tone like
a mother’s counsel to a confused child.
Nicole sat on the edge of Tamara’s bed, straightened her back, and repeated the
pledge. “I promise to go to Paris, no matter what.”
The shock, the cancer’s rapid consumption of her friend’s body, and the isolated
grieving accelerated this decision. The afternoon of Tamara’s funeral, the dam burst sure
as the rain started when the pallbearers lowered the casket into the ground. Tamara’s
death did what years of procrastination hadn’t. Nicole got the lesson—live; play, don’t
watch.
She settled on the floor beside the fireplace’s deep hearth and stuffed newspaper
under the manufactured logs. Four matches held to the edges and smoke burst into
dancing flames; a frolicking light show of yellow, orange, and red tipped with blue. The
real estate agent had hesitated to show her the run-down 1940s bungalow, but she fell in
love with the house, the garden filled with hydrangeas, the turquoise blue lanterns tacked
under the eaves, cooing rock doves, and the morning sun shining through the windows.
The fireplace cinched the sale; visions of frosty nights stretched out in front of it, the
toasty scent of burning wood, crack- ling flames, and her man’s arms around her.
Married, divorced, or single, she could count the evenings she had snuggled there in the
twenty-one years she’d owned the place; not one man had turned that image in her head
into a long-term reality. Hand to heart, she held the place that ached with the need to rest
against the shoulder of a full-time someone who cared.
The tinny ding-dang-dong of the doorbell’s chime broke the quiet and caught
Nicole off guard. Only one person had the gall to stop by this late at night without calling
ahead.
Nicole first met Clint Russell when she was twenty-three and he was twenty-eight,
compact and husky, irresistible and charismatic beyond his years. He’d sized up the
volunteers at the conference registration desk, then swaggered to her station. “You know
you have simmering eyes,” he’d whispered and requested directions to a meeting clearly
posted on a sign behind Nicole. “You mean shimmering,” she’d corrected, thinking he
referred to her makeup. “I meant exactly what I said: simmering. Bubbling underneath
that crisp blouse.” Not her first love, but her first lover, they spent ten months together.
Three and a half decades since he left Oakland for the East Coast and his failed
promise to return and pick up where they left off. Even though her beloved friend was no
longer present, Tamara’s voice was in Nicole’s head, nagging, as she often had. “Forget
Clint. If you kicked him out of your life, you wouldn’t even know he was gone. What
does he do for you?” Never had she answered her friend and now Nicole sat motionless,
while the doorbell chimed nonstop, frustrated that she could both love and not stand (or
resist) this man. Forgetting him, her ex-husband, all the men who’d failed her—awkward
loose ends of her past— was what she needed to do. Maybe she’d figure out how in Paris.
Maybe not. Nicole poured a second shot of tequila into her glass, sipped, and considered
a third.
Maybe she wouldn’t open the door.
(Continues...)
Purchase Passing Love by Jacqueline E. Luckett
ASIN: B004RCNGY4
ISBN-10: 0446542997
ISBN-13: 978-0446542999
Jacqueline Luckett
has been writing since 1999 when she took her first creative writing class on a dare, from herself. She attributes her growth as a writer to the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and to the members of her writing group,
The Finish Party (featured in O Magazine, November 2007). Jacqueline is the author of
Searching for Tina Turner and
Passing Love (releases January 25, 2012).
BPM: What is your definition of success?
Success comes in stages, and we have to take the time to appreciate (and celebrate) each one. The first time I printed out a copy of
Searching for Tina
Turner, I felt successful. I’d accomplished my goal. I wanted to write a book, and I did. That was the beginning of my journey and I celebrated success at every point—from getting an agent to seeing my book displayed on a shelf in a bookstore to writing my second novel.
Success is fan mail, it’s Googling your name and giggling over all the positive hits, it’s a Facebook fan page with followers. It’s the inner peace I have because I’m doing what I love.
At the National Book Club Conference this past July, a woman came up to me. “Miss Luckett,” she said, the smile on her face beautiful and wide. “I just loved your book!” That, to me, was success—acknowledgement and appreciation of my work.
BPM: Introduce us to your book,
Passing Love and the main characters. Do you have any favorites? What genre is the book? On Kindle or Nook?
I’m so excited about PASSING
LOVE. I love the all the characters, and I love the setting—Paris, it’s one of my favorite places in the world. In PASSING LOVE the reader follows the story of two women who go to Paris believing that
that city will change their lives. From the start, I knew the story would be about two women, one in the present and the other in the past.
Nicole is the character in the present who’s discontent with her ordinary life and her married boyfriend. She’s not a timid woman, just a procrastinator who has always wanted to go to Paris. With the encouragement of a friend, she finally makes up her mind to go.
Ruby’s story is told in the past and post World War II Paris when Black Americans were drawn to that city for the racial freedom they couldn’t find in the United States. Ruby is the complete opposite of Nicole. Ruby is gutsy and can't wait to leave her tiny southern hometown and see the world. She’s a risk-taker daredevil, and she’s my favorite because she does whatever it takes to make her life an adventure. Unfortunately, she steps on people in the process.
My goal was to make Paris come alive and to share history and details about the city. I want my readers to become impatient and as excited about Paris as Ruby and Nicole are. Some might define
PASSING LOVE
as women’s fiction, and while it definitely is a story about women, there’s history and a story that’s not just for female readers. PASSING LOVE will be available to readers in all formats: electronic and trade paperback. The Audio version releases in March, 2012.
Passing Love will be available online and at major and independent bookstores everywhere. We encourage readers to ask a bookstore to order copies of
Passing Love if they cannot find it in their local store. Preorders are available now.
BPM: What inspired you to write this book, Passing
Love?
I wanted to explore what it takes to live a life filled with risk and how risk played into race, love and personal interactions. When I first started writing, I worked on a collection of short stories about a small town in Mississippi. Ruby comes from that town. I was curious to see what kind of female character rebelled against the south, Jim Crow and her mother’s religious beliefs, and what she would do once she escaped those confines.
BPM: Have you ever experienced writers block?
I'm not sure if getting stuck in the direction of the story is the same as writer’s block, but there were times when I had to stop and try to balance out the two women’s stories so that they were both equally interesting. But, that’s part of the writing and revision process.
BPM: Are any scenes from the book borrowed from your world?
Except for the little knickknack shop that Nicole visits, all the places in Paris are real—the cafés, the jazz clubs, the Opera and the crepe vendors. Because I enjoy Paris so much, I wanted to give Nicole that same sense of wonder and awe that I have every time I visit the city. I took several tours of Paris to learn the history of black expatriates and jazz. Most of my research took place in 2008. I travelled to Little Africa and wandered the streets amazed at the culture within a culture. I explored the streets and buildings and took lots of pictures in order to recall images and places.
During my visit to Paris, I stayed in a beautiful apartment on the quai next to the Seine in the 6th arrondissement (one of 20 municipal administrative districts), which I used as a model for the apartment that Nicole rents. Though I’d stayed in this area twice before, it was amazing to learn all the Black history of that area.
BPM: In writing your novels, how do you develop the plot? How much research was required?
I usually know the beginning and end of my stories. From those two points, I have to work my way through the story. It’s quite easy to stray from the storyline, but for the first draft, I let my characters go wherever they want. That works best for me because it helps me to learn what they want and what they’ll do to get it.
PASSING LOVE required a lot of research.
I wanted to understand European, and particularly the French, reaction to the black soldiers they encountered during World War II. I wanted to know what Langston Hughes, James Baldwin and Richard Wright thought about the city. It was also important for me to know a bit about jazz and the attitudes and lifestyles of the Black Americans who came there to play, the racial climate and the black history of Paris. It was a fascinating story and there was more that I could have included, but that would have made the book more historical fiction and that was not my goal. I listed a few of the books I used for my research in the Reader’s Guide.
BPM: Who do you want to reach with your book and the message enclosed?
When I read, I love books that are good stories that suspend reality, challenge my imagination and make me think. As a writer that’s what I’ve tried to accomplish in PASSING LOVE and those are the readers that I’m trying to reach. Both Ruby and Nicole learn is that no matter how much we plan and scheme to organize our lives, they can still be unpredictable. How we manage that unpredictability is what differentiates us humans from one another. Perceptions and reality also come into play as the two women begin to understand what it means to live an ordinary life. Does one settle or accept?
BPM: What should readers DO after reading this book?
They should take a look at their own lives and figure out if they are living the best life they can—according to no other plans or ideas but their own. Then they should go to Paris or any other place that makes their heart sing. Do it now.
I’d love the support of EDC Creations and readers. Here are a few ways you can help:
• pre-order PASSING LOVE now,
• spread the word online and through your network,
• recommend the books to your book club members,
• if you blog, review the book (no spoiler reviews, please),
• make sure your local public library has copies of the books,
• buy PASSING LOVE
and SEARCHING FOR TINA TURNER as gifts,
• recommend friends buy both SEARCHING FOR TINA TURNER and PASSING LOVE,
• write positive reviews on Amazon and Goodreads—it helps to improve sales and ranking
BPM: Share with us brief excerpts from the most powerful chapters.
Again the action of the story depends on both the chapters. Here are excerpts from Nicole and Ruby’s chapters that let you know all is not well.
From a Nicole chapter: The question was the question: not how did the snapshot get to Paris, but who was it for? Not all men were saints—her philandering ex-husband and married boyfriend were proof—and that could include Squire Handy. Though her father’s past wasn’t any of her business, curiosity spurred Nicole. . . Her mother answered the phone on the seventh ring. “You won't believe what I found.” Nicole described the soldiers, the insignia . . . “How do you think it got here?”
From a Ruby chapter: The door opened without a creak or a knock. Martha in her white nightgown, the unlit hall behind her, resembled an oversized haint that on any other night would have tickled Ruby. A switch wobbled in her hand, the very one from behind the kitchen door . . . She picked up Ruby’s shoes and fingered the damp, mud-speckled soles. “Did you think I was born a fool, RubyMae? Did you think good folk wouldn’t talk? Did you think I wouldn’t smell the liquor and the smoke?” Dropping the shoes onto the floor, she raised her right hand. “That man with his sugar-coated lies for a fool girl. You think I didn't see? You’ve been with him.” The switch fell first on Ruby’s back, snagging her dress . . .
BPM: Share with us your latest news or upcoming book releases. How may our readers follow you online?
I’m still trying to figure that out for myself. I’ve written a play that I’ll try to get produced. I’m working on idea for my third novel and I’d love to have more speaking engagements.
Heidi Durrow (The Girl Who Fell From the Sky), Tayari Jones (Silver Sparrow) and Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant (Uptown, Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made) have written wonderful blurbs that will appear on the cover of PASSING LOVE.
Also, PASSING LOVE, has been selected as a featured novel for Black Expressions Book club, January!
Sankofa Literary Society
Evening with Jacqueline Luckett
Jacqueline Luckett
has been writing since 1999 when she took her first creative writing class on a dare, from herself. She attributes her growth as a writer to the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and to the members of her writing group,
The Finish Party (featured in O Magazine, November 2007). Jacqueline is the author of
Searching for Tina Turner and
Passing Love (releases January 25, 2012).
BPM: How did you initially break into the publishing industry?
In the middle of finishing my last draft of Searching for Tina Turner, I began to research agents. I divided my list into choices based on what I knew and wanted from an agent, and then I started sending two or three query letters at a time. I contacted about a dozen agents before one said yes, but it took about six months of rejection letters (which I kept).
Once I got an agent, the second round of submissions began. This is where an agent tries to sell the book to a publishing house. We worked on a list of editors who liked the kind of story I’d written and then the agent pitched the book. There’s nothing a writer can do at this point, except wait to hear from the agent. I wish I could say there was a bidding war for my novel, but there wasn’t. I’ll always remain grateful to my agent (who no longer represents me) and Karen Thomas (an editor at the time) for putting together a book deal with Grand Central Publishing.
BPM: How do you feel about self-publishing?
I have several friends who have chosen to self-publish. Their reasons vary from the desire to avoid traditional publishing bureaucracy to wanting an aging parent to see their work in print. Self-publishing has changed. Companies such as Lulu and iUniverse produce high-quality books and offer services to create a professional product. They assist writers with editing, artwork, book style and more. After writing, an author’s sole job is to work as his or her own publicist to increase visibility and generate sales. Yet, in that area, I feel that the self-published and first time, conventionally-published authors face the same challenges.
Even though my novel was published by a major publisher, as a first-time author, when it came to publicity I had to be involved. It’s the author’s responsibility to form a partnership with her publisher and to actively participate in the publicity campaign. Regardless of how a writer’s book is published, it remains his/her responsibility to make sure that the manuscript is in tiptop shape before submitting it to a prospective publisher.
BPM: Do you have any advice for people seeking to publish a book?
It’s still a challenge to get published. Persistence is vital. For the most part, writers need agents to present their work to publishers. Even before you look for an agent, make sure that your story is tight, your craft is on point, and your manuscript is in good shape. If editing isn't a strong point, find someone to edit for continuity, grammar and typographical errors.
Research agents who represent authors whose work is similar to yours in style, story and genre, and develop a list. Know an agent’s submission guidelines. Then start sending query letters. Your query letter is as important as your manuscript, so make sure to write a compelling (but short) letter to the agents you choose. If an agent takes the time to offer a few suggestions, consider revising your manuscript and move forward. Agents know what it takes to sell a book in today’s market. Don’t be discouraged by rejection. There are plenty of stories about bestsellers that were rejected multiple times (Harry Potter, for example) before the right agent saw the potential for success.
BPM: If you were not a writer, what would you be? What are you passionate about?
I recall having this conversation with my sister a few years ago. At the time, I felt like my many passions were posts in a pinball machine, and the ball never landed or stuck to one spot. I addressed my concerns about having so many areas of interest in an article for the Huffington Post (February 2010). When my sister suggested I could pursue of all the things I loved but that, for the time being, I needed to focus on one, I felt as if a burden had been lifted from my shoulders.
Besides writing, I love photography, cooking for my friends, and interior design. When I dabble in these little passions, I’m able to expand my creativity. I take hundreds of pictures when I travel. I love to photograph people in the midst of daily life. In many ways the camera invades privacy, so I’m always considerate and polite. I engage potential subjects in conversation and ask permission, but I’ve also been known to sneak a few candid shots every now and then.
View my Flickr Slideshow of Paris , click here.
Design is another form of creativity for me.
Sometimes I work with a friend to stage homes for sale and that helps to satisfy my urge to redecorate. As far as cooking goes, I don’t enjoy cooking for one as much as I do putting together meals for my friends. Fortunately, they love my cooking. I don’t have a specialty, but I’m well-known for my apple pie.
BPM: Introduce us to your book and the main characters. Do you have any favorites? What genre is the book? On Kindle or Nook?
I’m so excited about PASSING
LOVE. I love the all the characters, and I love the setting—Paris, it’s one of my favorite places in the world. In PASSING LOVE the reader follows the story of two women who go to Paris believing that that city will change their lives. From the start, I knew the story would be about two women, one in the present and the other in the past.
Nicole is the character in the present who’s discontent with her ordinary life and her married boyfriend. She’s not a timid woman, just a procrastinator who has always wanted to go to Paris. With the encouragement of a friend, she finally makes up her mind to go.
Ruby’s story is told in the past and post World War II Paris when Black Americans were drawn to that city for the racial freedom they couldn’t find in the United States. Ruby is the complete opposite of Nicole. Ruby is gutsy and can't wait to leave her tiny southern hometown and see the world. She’s a risk-taker daredevil, and she’s my favorite because she does whatever it takes to make her life an adventure. Unfortunately, she steps on people in the process.
My goal was to make Paris come alive and to share history and details about the city. I want my readers to become impatient and as excited about Paris as Ruby and Nicole are. Some might define
PASSING LOVE
as women’s fiction, and while it definitely is a story about women, there’s history and a story that’s not just for female readers. PASSING LOVE will be available to readers in all formats: electronic and trade paperback. The Audio version releases in March, 2012.
Passing Love will be available online and at major and independent bookstores everywhere. We encourage readers to ask a bookstore to order copies of
Passing Love if they cannot find it in their local store. Preorders are available now.
BPM: What inspired you to write this book,
Passing
Love?
I wanted to explore what it takes to live a life filled with risk and how risk played into race, love and personal interactions. When I first started writing, I worked on a collection of short stories about a small town in Mississippi. Ruby comes from that town. I was curious to see what kind of female character rebelled against the south, Jim Crow and her mother’s religious beliefs, and what she would do once she escaped those confines.
BPM: In writing your novels, how do you develop the plot? How much research was required?
I usually know the beginning and end of my stories. From those two points, I have to work my way through the story. It’s quite easy to stray from the storyline, but for the first draft, I let my characters go wherever they want. That works best for me because it helps me to learn what they want and what they’ll do to get it.
PASSING LOVE required a lot of research.
I wanted to understand European, and particularly the French, reaction to the black soldiers they encountered during World War II. I wanted to know what Langston Hughes, James Baldwin and Richard Wright thought about the city. It was also important for me to know a bit about jazz and the attitudes and lifestyles of the Black Americans who came there to play, the racial climate and the black history of Paris. It was a fascinating story and there was more that I could have included, but that would have made the book more historical fiction and that was not my goal. I listed a few of the books I used for my research in the Reader’s Guide.
BPM: What particular scenes will stimulate spirited discussions?
Nicole and Ruby’s stories are told separately. Nicole’s last night with her so-called boyfriend is interesting because she rejects and loves him at the same time. Ruby’s first encounter with a saxophone player, at the age of sixteen will surely provoke conversation because her age and her boldness are pretty forward for the time. There are a few key scenes that will surprise the reader, but I hesitate to tell them for fear of giving the story away. Readers should think of the beginning chapters as threads intertwining to tell a bigger story, they’ll be grabbed and surprised by many scenes.
BPM: What should readers DO after reading this book?
They should take a look at their own lives and figure out if they are living the best life they can—according to no other plans or ideas but their own. Then they should go to Paris or any other place that makes their heart sing. Do it now.
I’d love the support of EDC Creations and readers. Here are a few ways you can help:
• pre-order PASSING LOVE now,
• spread the word online and through your network,
• recommend the books to your book club members,
• if you blog, review the book (no spoiler reviews, please),
• make sure your local public library has copies of the books,
• buy PASSING LOVE
and SEARCHING FOR TINA TURNER as gifts,
• recommend friends buy both SEARCHING FOR TINA TURNER and PASSING LOVE,
• write positive reviews on Amazon and Goodreads—it helps to improve sales and ranking
BPM: How do you avoid the temptation of interjecting your own morals or value system in your writing?
It’s important to know as much as one can about a character before the writing starts. I put together character sketches that include everything from what the character likes (or doesn’t like) to eat and drink, what they believe in to their astrological sign to their favorite flavor of ice cream. This sketch becomes a working document that I add to as I discover more about the character. In that way, I understand how a character will respond when presented with a challenge. It takes a while to separate writer from character. For me this happens in revision.
In SEARCHING FOR TINA
TURNER, once I changed the main character’s name and switched the sex and ages of the children, I was released into their fictional world. Those simple changes made me look at each character differently. Revision helps me to understand what characters want so that by the time I’m finished they’re their own people and personalities.
BPM: What insight does the book give readers on LOVE within relationships ?
Each character in PASSING LOVE has a different response to love, whether its for a spouse, a lover, a friend or a child. Each character has the choice to make about what they will or won't do for love. That choice is not always an easy one. Love is a personal and private emotion. When we share love with another person, we open our hearts. It’s a fragile feeling that the novel explores.
BPM: Share with us brief excerpts from the most powerful chapters.
Again the action of the story depends on both the chapters. Here are excerpts from Nicole and Ruby’s chapters that let you know all is not well.
From a Nicole chapter: The question was the question: not how did the snapshot get to Paris, but who was it for? Not all men were saints—her philandering ex-husband and married boyfriend were proof—and that could include Squire Handy. Though her father’s past wasn’t any of her business, curiosity spurred Nicole. . . Her mother answered the phone on the seventh ring. “You won't believe what I found.” Nicole described the soldiers, the insignia . . . “How do you think it got here?”
From a Ruby chapter: The door opened without a creak or a knock. Martha in her white nightgown, the unlit hall behind her, resembled an oversized haint that on any other night would have tickled Ruby. A switch wobbled in her hand, the very one from behind the kitchen door . . . She picked up Ruby’s shoes and fingered the damp, mud-speckled soles. “Did you think I was born a fool, RubyMae? Did you think good folk wouldn’t talk? Did you think I wouldn’t smell the liquor and the smoke?” Dropping the shoes onto the floor, she raised her right hand. “That man with his sugar-coated lies for a fool girl. You think I didn't see? You’ve been with him.” The switch fell first on Ruby’s back, snagging her dress . . .
BPM: How do feel about selling digital books vs. selling in a brick and mortar store? What impact do you think electronic book sales will have on black authors? On indie authors?
It’s exciting to go into a bookstore and see shelf upon shelf of books. Typically, the staff in independent stores are knowledgeable and accessible. They’re important to authors because they can direct readers to your books. There’s no one to do that in an online store. It’s probably true that most major publishers will sell books in both digital and hardcopy versions for a long time. Publishing profits are higher because labor is less intensive and not as time consuming. It’s my hope that authors will be well compensated as well. Often many black and indie authors are not able to sell their books to major houses. Smaller publishers or university presses may not be willing or able to make the investment in digital books. That would reduce readership as more and more readers switch to e-readers.
BPM: What has been your most difficult hurdle to leap? Marketing, promotions or gaining media exposure, etc. How can EDC Creations and our readers help you?
It was difficult to get the word out about my novels only because I was new to the industry and didn't understand all the channels available to me. Locally, I’ve done three TV programs.
Some bookstores were reluctant to buy quantities of
SEARCHING FOR TINA TURNER because it was my first novel and I hadn’t been published before. Even though SEARCHING FOR TINA TURNER was named an Essence selection, I’m not sure how that selection translated to sales. It was an honor to be chosen and helped me to gain name recognition. PASSING LOVE will be released as a trade paperback, making it more affordable both for readers and bookstores.
BPM: Share with us your latest news or upcoming book releases. How may our readers follow you online?
I’m still trying to figure that out for myself. I’ve written a play that I’ll try to get produced. I’m working on idea for my third novel and I’d love to have more speaking engagements.
Heidi Durrow (The Girl Who Fell From the Sky), Tayari Jones (Silver Sparrow) and Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant (Uptown, Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made) have written wonderful blurbs that will appear on the cover of PASSING LOVE.
Also, PASSING LOVE, has been selected as a featured novel for Black Expressions Book club, January!
Searching for Tina Turner in bookstores now. Lena Harrison Spencer is in her mid-fifties, and the time has come for her to face the hard truths of what it means to have it all and still find oneself unfulfilled. When Lena determines that what she needs is the strength to change directions, Tina Turner becomes the icon from whose story she derives strength, even as everyone else tells her she's crazy for giving up her cashmere cocoon.
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Founder & Editor In Chief Black Pearls Magazine
As a teenager, Jacqueline enjoyed telling stories to her younger cousins. To this day, they describe her as a master storyteller. So, it wasn't a surprise to her family when she began writing a novel. Through her teenage years, she kept diaries, wrote poetry and had stories published in a local newspaper. As an adult, Jacqueline put writing aside and worked in corporate America.
Jacqueline Luckett
has been writing since 1999 when she took her first creative writing class on a dare, from herself. She attributes her growth as a writer to the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and to the members of her writing group,
BPM: Introduce us to your book,
Passing Love and the main characters. Do you have any favorites? What genre is the book? On Kindle or Nook? 
I don’t think I ever recall seeing my now 88-year-old mother read a book. Oh, she’s a reader --- newspapers, newsletters, and magazines. But a book? Never. Until I wrote one. 
Jacqueline Luckett
has been writing since 1999 when she took her first creative writing class on a dare, from herself. She attributes her growth as a writer to the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and to the members of her writing group,
BPM: What inspired you to write this book,
The
Black Pearls Magazine 