Do you believe that you have become more intuitive with age? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
As young adults, Gen X and baby boom sisters enjoyed a renaissance of female-centered fiction by Black authors—partly because general-market publishing houses realized how much money they were leaving on the table. Remember all those extra-colorful covers appearing at bookstores in the 90s? Literature lovers have enjoyed Diane McKinney Whetstone’s writing since then. The bestselling author of Tumbling, Blues Dancing, Leaving Cecil Street, Trading Dreams at Midnight, and Lazaretto has blessed us again. “Family Spirit is a beautifully written exploration of intergenerational power and longing. Diane McKinney-Whetstone’s fascinating premise and sure-handed storytelling will put readers under a spell," Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory, observes in praise of her latest work.
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Synopsis from the publisher
Ayana has inherited the Knowing gene that the Maces believe has been passed down to at least one girl child in every generation from as far back as they can trace. But her mother has tried to convince her that she is nothing like those weird Mace women. To keep the peace, Ayana lies to everyone—to the Maces, insisting she’s never felt a Knowing, to her mother about participating in the rituals, and to herself about her relationship with a man who helps her recover time and time again from the mania she experiences after seeing into the future. Ayana’s aunt Lil, banned from the Mace home decades ago after violating a sacred vow, has returned to Philadelphia for a medical procedure. She settles into the chaos of her brother’s home, where Ayana, a failing college senior, has also returned.
After a harrowing premonition, Ayana must decide whether to deepen family schisms by enlisting her aunt’s help, even as she learns the shocking details of Lil’s breech.
Meanwhile, Nona [a metafictional character who is the author of the family’s story] becomes more of a participant than a creator as her own drama is deftly interspersed throughout. She, too, yields to the power of the Mace family and its indomitable spirit.
Dian McKinney Whetstone chats with Sisters
Many Sisters From AARP Readers who are 50 and older have been reading your work since the 90s. How has your relationship with your longtime readers informed or inspired your work?
It is incredibly validating for me as a writer when longtime readers express that a character, a theme, or an idea explored in my fiction is rendered in a way that helps them grapple with challenges in their own lives. It could be about the complexities of growing older, or the mishmash of relationships between romantic partners, or parents and offspring, siblings, girlfriends, and communities; but also, it’s about the internal push-pull of obligation versus freedom; unspoken desires; the climb to reach for their better selves, faltering, triumphing, ultimately experiencing joy. The responses I get from readers remind me that fiction can impart universal truths—that’s a compelling undertaking for me; it makes me work harder, and it makes me a better writer.
The setting of this book, your eighth, is Philadelphia—same as in your first novel and subsequent fiction. What about this city brings life into your characters?
I often don’t know where a story will take me when I set out to write a novel. The characters are seeds of what they will become; the plot is nonexistent. So, I generally begin with what I do know: the setting, Philadelphia. The city‘s contraries help inform the characters. Philly is neighborhood-centric, even as it strives to be cosmopolitan. A lot of old money in Philly, a lot of entrenched poverty too. Welcoming and safe on one block, gun violence erupting on the next. Philly is imperfect, both good and bad, and I love it because it’s home. I use those contraries present in the backdrop of the story to bring the story to life. I allow the imperfections, the good and bad present in each character, to mix it up. I never know what the result will be, but the process of allowing the characters to feed off the setting, and the setting to be enhanced by the characters, is fascinating.
What inspired you to explore clairvoyance in your latest work?
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found myself becoming much more intuitive. Or maybe it’s just that I rely more on intuition that’s always been there. As I’ve gotten older, I also think more and more about my grandmother and how smart she was, even though she didn’t have a lot of formal education. She just knew things about things, about people, about the world; she could predict the weather. So, I was crafting a character with those attributes, and the character nudged me—yes, they do—to take it to the next level, which birthed the whole notion of the Knowing, a clairvoyant gene passed down to at least one girl child in every generation of the Mace family. My imagination took over, resulting in the Family Spirit.
You became a novelist at midlife. What was that process like, and what advice do you have for women feeling the pull of a buried passion amid life’s realities and responsibilities?
The process was intense: messy, scary, enthralling. I was doing the life-evaluating thing people often do as they enter mid-life, asking myself at the end of my life what things I would regret never having tried. Writing fiction topped the list. The problem: I did not have the time. I worked full-time, was raising twins, and was otherwise involved in community activities.
I realized that if writing was important to me, I needed to make the time; I needed to set aside time that I did not, would not, negotiate with all of life’s pulls. For me, that time was early in the morning. I began getting up before the sun, writing until it was time to wake my husband and children for work and school. I was so overtaken by the process, the magic of it, the feeling of surrender to this thing I was so passionate about, that I’d lose track of time. My children were often late for school during that period. I found myself calling in to try to get the day off from work. I had allowed this desire to write to become central. I advise anyone feeling the pull of a buried passion first to feel it, allow it to make you uncomfortable.
Acknowledge the fear, the trepidation, the doubt, the lack of time or resources; acknowledge all those things that we allow to impede us from embarking on a different path. Then set aside a time that is for you alone. Just for you. Show up at your designated time. Even if nothing else happens initially, showing up consistently lets your soul know that you are serious. Surrender then. Things happened for me when I did, and for other people who’ve had experiences like mine. Some talk about it in religious or spiritual terms, others describe it more intellectually. Whatever your bent, allow that thing to become central, unburied.
Enter here for a chance to win a copy of FAMILY SPIRIT
Do you believe that you have become more intuitive with age? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
