Today’s special guest is writer Lea Rachel and we’re chatting about her memoir, Seeking Forgiveness.
Bio:
Lea Rachel is the author of The Other Shakespeare, The Coloured Shakespeare, I Promise, and a number of short story collections. She teaches at the University of Missouri, St. Louis and lives in St. Louis with her husband and son.
Welcome, Lea. Please tell us about your current release.
Seeking Forgiveness tells the story of interracial adoption in the United States today, from the perspective of a white mother who adopts a Black son, and finds she has no idea what the hell she is doing.
Rachel, the adoptive mother of Miles, receives a call from the police in the middle of the night informing her that her son has been arrested. She rushes to the police station to help Miles, consumed with worry that she has failed to protect her son from events beyond his control.
For the next eight hours, as Rachel desperately tries to get Miles out of jail, she recalls their life together and the events that have led them to their current situation. In so doing she questions her competence as a mother, the viability of interracial adoption, and whether her son will ever forgive her for the mistakes she made as his adoptive mother.
A rich commentary on motherhood, adoption, and race relations in America today, this suspenseful narrative memoir will linger long after the immediate tension of the novel has been resolved.
What inspired you to write this book?
Seeking Forgiveness is inspired by my own life, as a white woman who adopted a Black son and raised an interracial family in St. Louis, MO. While it is inspired by events from my own life, fictional elements are embedded throughout the story in order to protect the privacy of my son. Seeking Forgiveness is written from the mother’s perspective and is primarily about motherhood itself, so while my son and our life together were the inspiration for much of the novel, my son’s back story is fictionalized to protect his privacy. Who knows, maybe one day he will want to write his own story about growing up in St. Louis, from his perspective!
What exciting story are you working on next?
After four novels in a row, I am currently taking a break from longer works and editing a few short stories instead. I am enjoying the return to a shorter form before I will, most likely, return to novel writing again.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I’ve been writing short stories since I was a little girl. I probably first thought to consider myself a writer the first time I got published, in a small press in college.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I do not write full time as it doesn’t pay the bills just yet! But I do write every single day. I can not imagine waking up in the morning and not immediately sitting down at my desk with a cup of coffee by my side, and a pad of paper in front of me, working on a novel or a short work of fiction. I write for at least two hours every morning, and then I get dressed and go to my day job as a professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
When I have writer’s block, I give in to it. And giving in to it usually means cleaning the bathroom. After a quick toilet scrub, I’m often able to get over the writer’s block and put something down on paper – it works like magic for me!
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An author. I’ve wanted to be an author from as early as I can remember.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I would like to give a big thank you (!) for taking the time to read about me and my latest novel, Seeking Forgiveness. I very much enjoy interacting with my readers, so if anything I write touches or inspires any of my readers in any way, I hope they won’t be afraid to reach out and let me know about it: lea@learachel.com
Links:
Website | Twitter | Before Ferguson Beyond Ferguson
Thanks for being here today, Lea.
A much-needed book. I am a adoptive parent myself with family and friends who have adopted interracially. Your experience will resonate with many of them. Thank you for sharing it.
Thank you Jeff.