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Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Author Interview - Laila Ibrahim

Image of Laila Ibrahim

Do you plan to publish more books?

I have another idea that I am working on.

What else do you do to make money, other than write? It is rare today for writers to be full time.

I have three other sources of income:  I am a birth doula, the director of Children and Family Ministries at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, and I manage property that we own.

What other jobs have you had in your life?

Preschool teacher, director and owner.

If you could study any subject at university what would you pick?

Fine art.

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Permanently:  Berkeley;  Temporarily:  just about anywhere.  We took our kids out of school and traveled for 5 months.  We loved it.  I am scheming about how to do it again.  We saved for years to pay for the trip.  And now we are paying for college.  So it may have to wait awhile.

How do you write lap top, pen, paper, in bed, at a desk?

Mostly on a lap top.  When I feel particularly stuck or insecure I write in a note book.  It feels like it does not count so I am more free.

Where do you get support from? Do you have friends in the industry?

Friends who admire my work.  It means a lot to me when people ask about my writing.  And fan mail or good reviews are a great boost.

Yellow Crocus 

In 1837, Lisbeth Wainwright is born to the white mistress of a sprawling Virginia plantation. Seconds later, she is delivered into the arms of her black wet nurse, Mattie. For a field hand like Mattie, her transfer to the big house is supposed to be considered an honor—except that the move tears Mattie away from her beloved grandfather and her infant son, Samuel. But Mattie is a slave, with no say in the matter, and so she devotes herself to her master’s daughter, though she longs to be raising her own child. Growing up under Mattie’s tender care, little Lisbeth adopts the woman’s deep-seated faith in God, her love of music and black-eyed peas, and the tradition of hunting for yellow crocuses in the early days of spring.

As the years pass, Lisbeth is drawn slowly back into her white parents’ world and begins to learn the ins and outs of life for a high-born young lady. Still she retains her connection to Mattie, befriending Samuel and drifting comfortably between the two worlds. She accepts her parents’ assertion that their slaves depend upon them for guidance and protection, yet that notion becomes more and more difficult to believe as she gains awareness of the inequality of life in the big house versus the slave quarters. When, on the threshold of her society wedding to debonair Edward Cunningham, Lisbeth bears witness to a shockingly brutal act, the final vestiges of her naiveté crumble around her. Just twenty-one years old, she is forced to choose between what is socially acceptable and what is right, a decision that will change her life forever.

This compelling historical novel chronicles young Lisbeth Wainwright’s coming-of-age during one of the most difficult chapters of American history. Lisbeth’s powerful bond with Mattie makes her loss of innocence in the face of society’s ugly secrets all the more heartbreaking, and yet it is the courage she learns from her stand in mother that enables Lisbeth to blaze a new path for herself. Yellow Crocus offers moving proof of how the greatest social change often blooms forth from small personal acts of love.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre - Historical Fiction

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author and the book

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