Welcome, friend! Today I am chatting with author, Leslie Gray Streeter, about her book, Family & Other Calamities, that released this month. Enjoy the interview and let me know in the comments if you will be reading the book!
Family & Other Calamities
A successful journalist returns to her hometown just as her biggest mistake becomes headline news in this vibrant,
funny, and heartfelt novel about facing the past, and its secrets, head-on.
Entertainment journalist Dawn Roberts has a lot to work through: a widow’s grief, betrayals of family and friends, and scandals that almost tanked her reputation. Not that Dawn dwells on the past. Well, hardly. When she returns to Baltimore with her husband’s ashes, she can’t avoid it. In fact, she’s diving into decades of backstabbing and treachery for her first trip home in years.
She’s looking at you, Joe Perkins. Her former mentor, whose explosive exposé about big-city corruption is being turned into a slanderous movie, is also back in town. The villain of the piece? Dawn. The good news is that this could all be a chance to reset―heal family wounds, admit to her own mistakes, and maybe even reconnect with the one who got away. Oh, and get even with Joe any way she can.
With the surprising help of an up-and-coming journalist and a legendary R & B diva, Dawn will finally set the record straight. Returning home might just be the biggest story in Dawn’s life, a fresh start―and happy ending―she never expected.
Get to know the author: Leslie Gray Streeter
Hi Leslie! It is a pleasure to have you on Armed with A Book. To start us off, can you tell my readers a little about yourself?
I am a journalist and author living in Baltimore, Maryland, where I was raised. I am a widowed single mom of an almost-12-year-old, and honestly that’s been harder than writing books, which isn’t easy, either. Both are labors of love. I’m also a very slow runner and a former vegan who sometimes eats a crabcake, because I live in Baltimore and it would be rude not to.
Dawn Roberts is a seasoned entertainment journalist returning home under very public scrutiny. As a journalist yourself, what’s your favorite part about writing journalism into fiction?
I loved being a cheering section for this industry, this way of life I’ve been part of more than half my life. Journalism is in serious trouble, and I’m willing to fight for it. It was fun to create someone who is as passionate about it as I am.
What’s something you’d love readers to better understand about the journalism process as they read this book?
That very few of us started doing this because we were trying to ruin people’s lives or lie. Do I know some people who’ve lost their way or their integrity? I do. But most of us, at least from the era that I am from, went in like crusaders. We were all Lois Lane.
What does “going home” mean to you—personally or creatively?
This is a delightful question! Going home, when I was living in Florida, was just coming back to Maryland where my family was, and now it’s specifically Baltimore City, where it’s very urban and friendly and has a lot of people who look like me. But I also feel at home anywhere I can see water. I’ve written a lot of my two books by the water, internationally, even. Part of this one was written on the beach in Jamaica, with a drink and a vegetable patty. Something about the flow of it is calming but also makes you feel purposeful. You’re calm enough to get down to it.
What’s one quote or scene in Family & Other Calamities that feels especially meaningful to you?
When Tonya and Dawn are arguing in the back yard before their mother’s party. It was such a relief to write it, because it had been coming not just for the entire book but for their whole lives. Avoiding people does not mean you can avoid the pain you’ve caused, and there was something symbolic about this 50-something woman hiding in her mother’s basement after that fight because she has nowhere else to go and has to deal with herself. Sometimes you have to.
Grief and loss are prominent themes in your books. Are there other books you’d recommend to readers looking to find books that also address those themes in creative ways?
Oh, so many. My friend Nora McInerny’s “Hot Young Widow’s Club” and “Bad Vibes Only” are great because we have similar senses of humor about grief, which is to say that sometimes, you have to laugh your way out of it. Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche’s “Notes On Grief” is so short and devastating and raw. I also adore “From Scratch” by Tembi Locke, because it’s a love story, like my memoir was. Memoirs just open a door in your soul. Very cathartic.
What’s been the biggest surprise about your shift from journalism to fiction writing?
I think I’ve enjoyed making stuff up more than I thought I would!
Who was the hardest character to write—and who came easiest?
Brent was hard to write because I have never been a white man. I wanted to make him three-dimensional, and not just a rote antagonist who becomes nicer. You know that stock white man voice Eddie Murphy used to do, where he sounded like a newscaster or something? I wanted to respect that character the way I wish more non-Black writers would respect their Black characters, you know?
Miss Vivi, on the other hand, was the easiest to write because she’s so much fun. She knows herself and she’s never apologizing. I had a ball coming up with her show business stories and how absolutely tickled she is with herself.
What kind of reader do you think will most connect with Dawn’s journey?
I think people over 45 will understand it the most because this is a journey about time. You have to have decades to look back on and consider whether your part in that history is as you’ve imagined it was. I guarantee you someone else sees it differently, at least slightly. And you’d be shocked which parts you disagree on. I also enjoyed writing about a middle-aged Black woman, because we are not centered like this in a lot of books and movies and such. I’ve heard that’s been appreciated.
What advice would you give to someone trying to write about personal experience without it becoming a memoir?
Wow, that’s a good one! Having written both a memoir and a novel that has at least some basis in parts of my life, I think it’s important to figure out what you want to say, and how much. There are people who know me who believe that Dawn is me, and she’s not. She certainly has some similarities, but the departure, to me, was the key. I never had anyone rip a story from me, nor have I had a mysterious diva call me randomly. But I have interviewed many real-life divas and it was fun to imagine what it would be like to have them as my cape-wearing Jiminy Cricket. Just kind of run with it. It also helps to be in my 50s because I’ve had all sorts of experiences and I’ll write something and just know how that person might feel. Life gives you such a well to draw from.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
If you write, you are a writer. That’s it. You might to be a published writer, or one who is paid for your writing, and these are good things. But if words are coming out of your brain onto paper or a screen, you’re a writer.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me and share with my readers.
Thanks for joining us! Add this book on Goodreads. It is available wherever books are sold!
Many thanks to Over The River PR for coordinating this interview. Head to their blog to find out who else has joined the tour.
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