My journey to Midnight began over coffee in Farringdon in 2002. I was recounting the story of my Mississippi grandmother’s funeral, to the editor of Observer Magazine, showing some of the photos I’d taken, when he said, “You should write about this.”
I wrote about my grandma the matriarch’s life, as a defiant black woman who broke the mold in the segregated Deep South, by owning not one, but two houses at a time when most blacks rented and playing her part in the grassroots Civil Rights movement. I included the story of how my parents, from wildly different backgrounds, met and fell in love.
The piece, Mississippi Yearning, did well. Strangers stopped me in the street to say how much they’d enjoyed it. I was invited onto BBC Radio 4’s Home Truths to talk about it with the late John Peel, was offered representation by an agent, who pitched the idea of a memoir without success. I was told a memoir would be a tough sell because I wasn’t a celebrity.
My agent suggested the idea might work better as fiction, so I enrolled at City Lit for a term of Fiction workshops.
In a weekly group of peers, unhampered by the need to ‘stick to the facts’, my story began to sprawl across generations, locations and even gave rise to new characters, with distinct voices and desires. Anxiously, I shared my concern that the story seemed much bigger than I had the skills to write. I remember our tutor’s response : a wry laugh but no comment.
I managed to complete the first draft of the novel. My agent pitched that, but without success.
After dusting off my disappointment, I took more classes, redrafted the novel, then realised I needed more historical and topographical detail, so applied for, and to my astonishment, was awarded, an Arts Council grant.
That funded three unforgettable months in Mississippi, where I drove miles of local highways and dirt roads, explored forgotten towns – pored over library and local newspaper archives, got caught in a tornado, picked cotton and spoke to anyone who would talk to me, about their Southern ways of life.
After returning to London, amid mountains of notes, and a backdrop of audio interviews, I wrote a new draft of Midnight, then tried to find a publisher. Lots of (positive) rejections my agent enthused, and then (understandably) dropped me and told me to keep at it.
Meanwhile, some special people in my life died, I switched jobs, gave birth to my wonderful son and subsequently discovered that being a nine-to-five, working, single mother, is not an easy fit with the writing life. Struggling to parent and find reliable childcare, I lost sight of my publishing dream. I stopped mentioning Midnight – hell, even to me it seemed delusional – and those closest stopped asking.
And yet… Midnight would not leave me alone. It whispered and nudged me to find ways – any way- to write. In the car, while my baby son napped beside me in his car-seat, on the side-lines at his swimming lessons; then later, when he was out on play dates, and eventually, despite the odds, opportunity found a way to reach me.
Just one example: I stumbled on an old acquaintance, Esther Poyer, who’d become a writing coach. She gave me free, weekly calls –what I needed at that point – in return for a testimonial and encouraged me to apply for a Spread the Word bursary. A turning point.
I received a partial read-through from Anna South, who gave me sterling advice, and crucially, believed in Midnight and my ability as a writer at a time when I doubted. As a resut I didn’t give up hope, even when I had no time to write.
Then in 2020, after recovering from long Covid, and attending online writing sessions hosted by TLC, I realised how much I needed a writing community. In real life. I applied to and was accepted onto the MA in Creative Writing: the Novel, at Brunel University, London.
From Bernardine Evaristo and Benjamin Zephaniah – to name a few luminaries – I learned the elements of fiction and was forced to write new material, which was oxygen to my creativity.
In my final year, I went to LBF23 and saw close-up, that publishing is a business and what I was up against. I saw too, that Midnight is commercial, timely and that I needed a whole manuscript read-through to get it market-ready.
I applied to Spread the Word – but didn’t bank on that, since competition is so fierce- and was stunned therefore, as well as thrilled and grateful, to find I had won.
Now, thanks to Aliya Gulamani’s incisive and savvy feedback, I have a roadmap of edits and an end of August finish line in sight. Wish me luck with the publication leg!