This post is directed to my newsletter readers but you can read it too :-)
I wanted to explain the rationale behind my young adult historical novel, As Gray As Black & White.
If you've been following me on other platforms you know that I start every book idea with 'What If?'. And this book was no exception. Believe it or not, I was in the Wendy's about to order and I noticed they had some large photos on the wall that dated back to the 1930s.
The most interesting thing to me was the photo was of a young African-American boy behind a car in Detroit, Michigan. He wore suit! So I went to the web and discovered that this photo was part of a collection commissioned by the Library of Congress as part of the WPA program (it was a way for President Roosevelt to employ artists during the depression).
Anyway, while I looked over all the photos I saw another one of four kids in Alabama. The caption said they kids were African-American but let me tell you there was NOTHING black about these kids that I could see. That is when the 'what if?' popped into my head: What if a blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy discovers he is black in the segregated south?
But this wasn't the only inspiration. I had been toying with the idea of writing a novel about my husband's experience on a little league baseball team as the only black kid in 1967. So there you have it!
By the way, here is the photo of the kids. What do you think?
