We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Wendy Shaia a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Wendy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later?

I wish I had started writing earlier in life. I tried writing in my twenties, but I was not successful. I now know I didn’t have enough life experience; thus, I didn’t have much to write. Twenty-five years later, life has given me a lot of material to write about – some good, some not so much. I read a story about a woman who began writing in her seventies and wrote tens of books before she died. That story inspired me so much that I decided it wasn’t such an odd idea to begin writing later in life. I would love to write full-time (while still being able to eat and pay my bills), and I hope to grow towards that someday, hopefully before retirement.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

When I became an author, I was over the age of 50. I didn’t plan to write a novel – I just reacted to the viral images of the murders of Black people by the police with an outpouring of grief. It just so happened that I poured out words while many poured out tears – onto a page. Well, onto 430 pages. That’s a lot of grief!

At the time, I had no idea it would turn out to be a book. I just knew that holding onto the words and images inside me was painful and that if I didn’t release them, they would kill me. It all started with Freddie Grey and the emotions his very public murder evoked. Over the next few years, each time a new image of the abuse of a Black body flashed across my screen, I saw my own sons and imagined that it could easily be one of them. Every Black mother is familiar with the fear, anger, and stress of keeping her children safe.

After I started writing, I quickly realized that I didn’t know how to write a novel, get published, or even the mechanics of writing dialog. After all, as a university professor, my writing is all about theories and research – academic writing is very different from writing for the general public. To learn more, I took some classes with people in their twenties, had earned graduate degrees in writing, and had been writing since high school. I was more than a little intimidated, but I learned a lot. My high school English teacher would be proud to know that I have finally learned the difference between lie, lay, and laid – well, at least I know I should check my cheat sheet to ensure I have used the correct word.

One reviewer called my novel, The Black Cell, “an outraged howl.” It is a cross between a dystopian fantasy and Afro-futurism. Everything that happens in the book is based on actual events from history or recent news. Set in the near future, 2024, it imagines a white nationalist president coming to power in the United States and the resulting rising tide of white supremacy. After all, when the person with the most power in a country tells his constituents that it is time to “take America back from the people who don’t belong here,” many feel released from the pressure to pursue equity. They may instead set out to do everything in their power to rid the country of “those people” or, at the very least, remove whatever power the “intruders” may have. Doesn’t sound so far-fetched, does it?

The book has four main characters – all Black people with differing views on race. Some have suffered the effects of structural racism without ever understanding what they were experiencing or why. Others thought their education and socioeconomic status would shield them from feeling the effects of racism. All four characters eventually have to come to terms with the fact that racism transcends education, wealth, and relationships. And each character must find their own path within an ever-changing environment where the idea of being in chains is no longer a distant memory or something one reads about in history books but a very real and present danger. I hope this book will inspire discussion about what our society needs to do for Black people to truly experience liberation.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

People often say they wrote a book but couldn’t find a publisher. When I ask how many publishers they submitted their book to, they may say 15-20. I wrote and sent individualized queries to 98 publishers and agents before I was offered a contract for publication. I was so excited — and then my publisher went out of business, and I had to start all over again. I was offered another contract by another publisher pretty quickly, but I often think that my life would be very different had I stopped after a couple of dozen attempts to get published.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I love the writing itself. It’s like watching a movie and writing down what I see. My husband says he can tell when I’m in the “writing zone” because my lips move as I write the dialog, and my face is very intense. During those times my family steers clear of me — maybe walking past every once in a while to push a plate or a mug in front of me. I am grateful that they don’t let me starve while writing. Afterward, I feel my characters’ emotions in the scene I wrote. Sometimes it takes me a long time to get back to myself or whatever is happening in real life, but I am grateful for the ability to step in and out of my characters’ lives. It is a privilege they would not be afforded were they real people.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wendyshaia.com
• Instagram: @wendy_shaia2024
• Facebook: The Black Cell Series
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-shaia-edd-msw-37516134
• Twitter: @wendyshaia
• Youtube: Wendy Shaia
• Other: Tik Tok – @wendyshaia

Image Credits
Ruthie Skillman Matthew Paul D’Agostino/University of Maryland Baltimore Juliet Young William Oleszczuk