I plan to return to their families' ongoing journey after I finish my current novel-Paper Wife. The story of finding faith in hopeless times really resonates for me. I LOVED returning to Mattie, Lisbeth and Jordan for Mustard Seed. I hope you will come to love these characters as much as I have.Īt face value Living Right seems like a big leap from Yellow Crocus, but it deals with the same themes: a caregiver loving across a huge societal barrier. For my fortieth birthday, I began the personal marathon of writing my first novel. Though I had never written anything, I was being called to tell this story. Then I imagined what the experience would be like for Miss Anne, the birth mother, to have her own child twist away from her to get into Mattie's arms. I wondered how it would feel for Mattie to be forced to abandon Samuel, her own child, in the slave Quarters. I thought about what it would be like for Lisbeth to dearly love Mattie and then be taught by society that she wasn't a full person. Then the image of Lisbeth, a white baby, breastfeeding in the loving arms of Mattie, an enslaved wetnurse came to me in a flash. It's a basic part of the attachment process.' You form your core identity in relationship to your primary caregivers. I thought to myself, 'Of course he does, his mother is Asian.

Someone mentioned that he identifies as much as an Asian person as an African-American person. The idea for the story came to me in 1998, I was with a group of people talking about Tiger Woods. I was surprised when the writing bug bit me. I'm very grateful to be a full time writer starting in 2015. Our young adult children are our pride and joy. I live in a small co-housing community in Berkeley, California, with my wonderful wife, Rinda and our beloved dog, Hazel. Spiritual themes that cross over multiple religious traditions come directly from working as the Director of Children and Family Ministries at the First Unitarian Church in Oakland. You can see that my birth experiences are reflected in my novels. There are scenes in Yellow Crocus that were largely influenced interactions I had with children from Woolsey.Īs a birth doula I had the privilege of witnessing the intensity and joy of childbirth. I was the founder and director of Woolsey Children's School where I had first hand experience loving children that were not my own. My passion for early childhood education, child birth and religious education are reflected in my writing. My education and experience in multiracial, developmental psychology and attachment theory provide ample fodder for my novels.

The yellow crocus book review