Author Interview ~ Sharon Ewell Foster, Part II

Sharon Ewell Foster is a critically acclaimed, award-winning author, speaker, and teacher. She is the author of Passing by Samaria, the first successful work of Christian fiction by an African American author, the book that blazed the trail for other African American Christian fiction authors. She has received three starred reviews--which is a rarity among writers--and is winner of the Christy Award, the Gold Pen Award, Best of Borders, and several reviewers choice awards. For all this, Sharon gives God the glory! He has done great things for her, whereof she is glad! (Psalm 126)

What’s something you wish you’d known earlier that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

Finishing the manuscript is just the beginning. Your baby has just been born and there’s so much to do. You’ve got publicity, yada yada. And you have to trust your baby into other people’s hands. So, it’s important to know them, the publisher, and if they will make good caretakers for your baby. It’s a marriage and they get custody. You don’t want to leave your baby with crazy people.

Is there a particularly difficult set back that you’ve gone through in your writing career you are willing to share?

I wrote this book called Riding through Shadows. It’s book about spiritual warfare, a really strong book. It’s not about battling some great behemoth or battling some entity that’s from another country. It’s about the spiritual implications of things we do in our own backyards. It’s about how we terrorize ourselves and one another. It’s very well written.

I know it is, because the English teacher who taught me the most about writing, the one that was the most demanding and pulled no punches, told me it was. (What do critics know?)

Anyway, most of the critics raked me over the coals! Read the reviews at amazon.com. They were vicious and personal.

A lot of Riding through Shadows is autobiographical. So, I shared the story of being a black child in a newly integrated community. One of the things that happened to me was that my teacher assigned me to teach a reading group, rather than be in one. So, at eight years old, I was teaching these poor white kids. There were three of them, all of them older than me. But they couldn’t read. And the teachers didn’t want to be bothered with them. Everyone called them cooties. That’s when I learned how cruel white people could be to other white people. That’s when I learned that white people aren’t superior, they’re just people. Some excel, some struggle, and most are somewhere in the middle. White people are human, like black people.

I guess I wasn’t supposed to know that or say it out loud. It was my worst nightmare come true: public humiliation concerning the thing about which I felt most vulnerable.

I thought about not writing anymore. I cried. My feelings were hurt. I thought about writing responses. Then one day, I heard Jesse Jackson on television. You know, he’s not my favorite hero. But the truth is that in the sixties, he and other people put their lives on the line for what they believed in. I caught the program midway, so I don’t know who he was really speaking to, but he said, “We had to risk our lives. You just have to get your feelings hurt. You can take it. Don’t give up what you’ve gained.”

He was right. I started writing again. Bad reviews didn’t kill me. So, now, I know I can even survive bad reviews. Anyway, what have the critics written? Just a bunch of haters. Someone else said that the arrival of those who say mean things about you just means that you’re flying high enough to show up on their radar.

What are a few of your favorite books? (Not written by you.)

Of course, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and The Prophet. I love Carson McCullers’ The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter and Member of the Wedding. I read To Kill A Mockingbird over and over again. Larry McMurtry’s a great writer and Stephen King is the master of narration and characterization. I love John Steinbeck—if he was alive I’d be a groupie (LOL)—and I read East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, and Of Mice and Men at least once a year. I also like J. California Cooper. Lately, I’ve been reading E.L. Doctorow. All of these writers teach me something about writing. They give me the freedom to tell good stories, but to also wrestle with social and spiritual issues. They are all honest writers. I love that. That’s what I want to be when I grow up.

What piece of writing have you done that you’re particularly proud of and why?

Hmmm. That’s hard to say. Passing by Samaria and Abraham’s Well are both historical, my first and last books. I’m proud of the research I did and that I was honest. Both of them make me proud that I’ve told the story and the truth about little known events, and even the stories of my own people—like my great grandmother Emma Erwin Ewell.

I’m proud of Riding through Shadows because it was honest, I lived through bad critiques, and it’s a good story. I told the story because we have to embrace all the pieces of our quilts, even the tattered pieces. I’m proud of the sequel, Passing into Light, because it was translated into Russian. Can you imagine? That’s pretty cool. A book written by a black woman—as Oprah says, a poor little colored girl—raised in the ghetto of ghettoes translated into Russian! I think that’s pretty sweet!

Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

I hate this thing they do in some publishing houses, writing by committee. A book is an artist’s vision. You don’t willy-nilly tell people take out this character and that character. Scripts are treated that way because movies are a collaborative effort. But a book is like a painting, you don’t say, “Monet, I don’t think you should use that pink. The focus group likes green. So, we’d like to see you use more green.” Yuck. If you listened you’d have a completely green canvas.

Writers have to fight for their voices and integrity.

Can you give us a view into a typical day of your writing life?

In the morning, I rise, wash my face, journal and talk to God. Then I think about writing, eavesdrop, or write. I do interviews, speaking engagements, and think about how blessed I am and how much happier my life is, even though my money is some-timey. It’s a pretty cool life.

If you could choose to have one strength of another writer, what would it be and from whom?

I think would probably like Terry McMillan’s confidence. She has tons of chutzpah! I admire her for that. Maybe she’ll mail me some. LOL.

Do you have a dream for the future of your writing, something you would love to accomplish?

Oh, can I say it out loud? In a secret place, you know that don’t-say-that-to-anybody-or-they’ll-think-your-crazy-place, I would love to win a major award like a Pulitzer or a Nobel Prize. There, I said it.

My writing has done pretty well across markets, though I’m not marketed that way. The books have done as well in the general market as in Christian, among whites as blacks, among old as young, and I have a substantial number of male readers. I would like to be acknowledged and marketed as a real writer—not just a black writer or a Christian writer or a women’s writer. And I’d like to do for little known history what Carl Sagan did for astronomy.

There are Christian bookstores that don’t carry my books because I’m black; I’ve had bookstore owners tell me that. I’ve had readers who don’t know that they’re invited to read my books because they think they’re for black people only. So, I’d like people to know that they’re invited! Y’all come! I write for readers of all colors. What better way is there for us to get to know each other? Books help us to build bridges to reach each other. I speak to audiences and writers of all colors. I like to see my books on the shelves of all colors!

I’m pretty equal opportunity! LOL.

And I want to visit foreign lands, like Beverly Gray.

Was there ever a time in your writing career you thought of quitting?

Yes, after the Riding Through Shadows reviews. (My daughter thinks it’s my best book.) Also, I was having a hard time with a publisher. But, it’s water under the bridge and I don’t want to talk about it. My thinking of quitting probably lasted fifteen minutes. I opened my email and there were about four messages, “Please, don’t ever stop writing.” Besides, what would Jesse Jackson say? Not that he even knows me. LOL.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?

I just love the whole process of actually writing, wrestling with the story, researching—I really love to research—I just love the whole thing.

Marketing. Sales. They’re my least favorite. But, I’m getting better. A high school friend told me, “Timid salesmen have skinny children.” I got it. Also, I’ve been channeling my Inner Fiddy. That’s a reference to the rapper Fifty Cent, who I never liked at all until I had a dream about him. In the dream, I married him. He was all pimped out and I was conservatively dressed. But inside, his house was tastefully appointed and he had done some thoughtful things. I still don’t like his music, but he’s a hustler. He believes in himself and demands and expects what he wants. That’s so far from who I am. Since that time, I still don’t like Fiddy’s music or his message, but I remind myself to marry my artist to the part of me that I have kept hidden—the showman, the businesswoman—and to be more assertive.

Or maybe the dream was just telling me that I should not be afraid of wild passionate men! Hmmm.

How much marketing do you do? Any advice in this area?

Writers have to market. If you don’t, it’s like making a record and hiding it under your pillow. There’s no nobility in hiding, that’s what I have to remind myself. And, because I write in service to the Lord, my discomfort with selling myself has nothing to do with it. It’s easy to hide, but it doesn’t get the job done. Singers that hide don’t heal anyone’s heart. Teachers that don’t interact with students don’t help anyone learn.

Don’t get mad; I’m stepping on my own toes.

Embrace your inner Fiddy!

Parting words?

Thank you. Great questions. Blessings to you all. If you see Fiddy, tell him I said thanks! LOL.