JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Sarah Gordon Weathersby, author of Adventures in Blackface: and other shorts
(Sarah Weathersby Publisher)
Adventures in Blackface is a short story, and one of a selection of “shorts” retrieved from the cutting room floor. The short story centers on a black college freshman, Ruth, one of six black students in an otherwise white university in the 1960’s. Ruth faces the challenge of the romantic advances of a white male student and the racism of white faculty.
Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the inspiration to write Adventures in Blackface: and other shorts?
Sarah Gordon Weathersby: I was inspired by the movie Selma released in 2014, as well as my personal experiences as a college freshman in a time and place when people didn’t talk about race and often excluded black students from mainstream activities.
JP: What sets Adventures in Blackface apart from other books in the same genre?
SGW: This is a Young Adult story with a protagonist who struggles with a love/hate relationship with a man who loves her, but she denies the love she feels for him.
JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to Adventures in Blackface getting out to the public?
SGW: I have been public about the books I write, telling my social media friends what I’m working on, and posting excerpts from my books.
I feel blessed to live in Wake County, North Carolina, where we have librarians who help authors by providing an annual venue called, “Authors in Our Backyard.” They give us a platform to speak from and space to sell our books.
In addition, living in an area with so many universities, the cultural landscape is so rife with opportunities to show off.
JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take you to start and finish Adventures in Blackface?
SGW: Adventures in Blackface is my third book, and as a “short” it almost wrote itself. It took about six months to complete the manuscript and send it to my favorite editor.
JP: What’s next for Sarah Gordon Weathersby?
SGW: I’m now working on a sequel to my Baby Boomer romance, Tell Them I Died, published in 2012. The sequel is entitled The Bodyguard’s Secret. I really hope to finish my manuscript in 2017.
http://www.sarahweathersby.com
http://www.facebook.com/saraphen
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+SarahWeathersby1saraphen
https://www.instagram.com/saraphen98/
Sarah Gordon Weathersby is the youngest of seven siblings and the first to migrate back to the South after living in DC, New Jersey, and New York. She is a retired Information Technology professional. Sarah lives in Raleigh, NC, with her husband, and their imaginary dog, Dusty.
Sarah is the author of a memoir Motherless Child – Stories from a Life, the baby boomer romance novel Tell Them I Died, and she is the publisher of a family saga The Gordons of Tallahassee, written by her sister LaVerne Gordon Goodridge.