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Ursula, E. Lynn and Mirranda
Many, many thanks to "the
sisters gumbo" for granting SCBC an interview!
-SCBC, Inc.
Where are you all from?
We are truly sisters and originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana but now
reside outside of Fort Worth, Texas, in the country which by the way is
sooooo enjoyable after the hustle and bustle of city living.
Tell us your latest news.
We just signed a two-book deal with St. Martin’s Press. Everything has
seemed to fall in place for us just like the pieces of a puzzle and
believe us, we are the first to realize how extremely blessed we are.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
Being that we are sisters and the book is about the experiences of
different women, we feel that just like gumbo is a mixture of some of
everything; you have your crabs, your sausage, your shrimp, your rice,
every woman’s life is made up of something different and when you put it
all in the pot you have gumbo, hence the name Sister Gumbo.
Is there a message in your novel that you want
readers to grasp?
Yes and that message is that you are not alone. There is always somebody
else out there who has gone through a similar experience that you have.
Some other woman has had an affair; some other woman’s husband has cheated
on her, etc. You are not alone in what you have experienced so don’t feel
like it’s something to be ashamed of! The thing is we need to learn from
our experiences and turn the negatives into positives. We need to use what
we learn to make a “gumbo” that’s perfect for us as individuals, and then
pass that knowledge on to other women when they need help.
How much of the novel is realistic?
The whole novel is realistic. We actually interviewed women between the
ages of 20 to 60 something. We created background stories and changed the
names and ages of course because we didn’t want nobody getting into any
trouble if you know what we mean.
If you had to choose, which writer would you
consider a mentor?
Ursula: I loooooove myself some Terry McMillan. I’ve been reading
since as long as I can remember. In the summers we used to go to Louisiana
to visit our grandmother and the book mobile would come through her
neighborhood every week. For those of you who are too young to know what a
book mobile is, it’s a library on wheels and I would love it when it came
time for my weekly visit to the book mobile. As much as I read, none of
the books I enjoyed reading featured women of color so it was like opening
a gift when I got older and laid my hands on my first Terry McMillan book.
Mirranda: I love Tina McElroy-Ansa, and Terry McMillan also. I
didn’t read much as a young girl because I was always moving around. I’m
kinda high strung and don’t like to sit in one place for too long, so it
was hard for me to settle down enough to read. As I’ve matured, I’ve
learned to make the time to read because it’s so relaxing and informative.
You can go places in a book that you may never go in real life, and I like
that.
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What books have
most influenced your life?
Ursula: The books that influence me to write are books by Terry
McMillan. Anytime I read “How Stella Got Her Grove Back” I feel like
sitting down in front of my computer and writing, every time.
Mirranda: The books that have most influenced my life are mostly
inspirational, like “The Secret to Staying in Love”. That’s a book I read
when I was at that 10 year point in my marriage and wondering, “What’s
next?” I was also influenced to write when I first read “Disappearing
Acts” because it seemed as if I was listening to a friend talk about her
experiences. At that point I began to think I could do the same thing.
What are your current projects?
We are currently revising “Sister Gumbo: Life, Sex and More Sex” for
re-release with St. Martin’s Press (just adding a little more seasoning to
the pot) and completing “Mister Gumbo”.
Name one entity that you feel supported you
outside of your family members.
I know you asked for one but we had to list two and those are the book
clubs (including The Sistah Circle, Rawsistaz and GRITS) and ALL the Black
bookstores (especially Emma at Black Images in Dallas, Vera at the
Community Book Center in New Orleans, and Til and Milton at Jokae’s
Bookstore in Dallas).
How does your family and friends feel about your
writing in general?
We have two of the most supportive husbands any women could EVER want.
They are behind us 200%. Our children don’t think we’re all that special,
yet. All they want to know is when we’ll make big money so they can help
us spend it. Our mother is so proud that she just brags to everybody she
knows about her “girls”.
How do you feel overall about self-publishing?
Go for it!!! We went the query letter route and got the usual “We’re not
interested in this project at this time” letters. We’ve learned a lot
about the business this past year and a half and experience such as this
is priceless. If you feel that your project is worth it, go for it. Can’t
nobody push your book like you can! Also, self-publishing is a great way
to get into the book-writing business, but authors should still strive to
put out a quality product if they ever want to do it as a full time thing.
Negative press goes much farther than positive, so if you put junk out
there, your name will always be associated with junk and you’ll have an
even harder time getting an agent or a publishing house to push your work.
What do you feel is one major benefit to
self-publishing your book?
Well, self- publishing gives you first hand experience that you can only
gather from going through the process. We were able to test market the
book in a few key areas and we got the attention of an agent with a major
New York agency that was able to shop the book around to get us a book
deal. We don’t regret self-publishing at all. If you have a good product
(because that’s actually all a book is), you can make more money if you’re
self-published at first because once you make back the money you invested,
the rest is “gravy”. Again, the key words are “good product”. You can
spend all the money you want in publishing your book but if it’s not good,
the word will spread fast and you will have wasted your time and dollars
because people will not buy it.
Self-publishing is hard work, but it was also good to find out what we
could do on our own. Now the sky is the limit. |
