Ask the Author: Lucinda Roy
Answered Questions (5)
Lucinda Roy
One of the mysteries in my own life that could be a plot for a book is related to a few instances when I sensed something was about to happen, or I dreamed it occurred before it did. I think it's one reason why in THE FREEDOM RACE and in FLYING THE COOP, the next book in the series, dreams play a central role in the psyches of characters. The epigraph that opens the book "Dreams are promises the imagination makes to itself," assigned to the mysterious Toteppi tribe, is true for me. Dreams and imagination are linked in mysterious and magical ways. The episodes where I appeared to foresee an event shook me enough that I took careful note of them. I briefly mentioned the first dream I remember in my poem "Carousel" about my father's death when I was five years old. The line in the poem is simple: "I dreamed you died." It's true. The next morning when I awoke, my mother stood next to the bed and said simply, "Daddy's dead." I replied, "I dreamed it," even though I had no idea how sick he was prior to that moment. (Children weren't allowed to enter wards in the UK in those days, and there was a lot of prejudice directed at biracial children and at mixed marriages in particular.) I'm glad you asked this question. I think as writers we often work through the mysteries that haunt us in our novels. It's how we come to terms with our own ghosts.
Lucinda Roy
Jellybean "Ji-ji" Lottermule, the biracial, enslaved protagonist in THE FREEDOM RACE, wouldn't leave me alone. She kept prodding me in the back and ordering me to tell her story. I've focused on historical slavery before in my poetry, political commentaries, paintings, and keynotes. But I wanted to look to the future this time and imagine how slavery would likely reconfigure itself in an age plagued by other crises--climate change, pandemics, labor shortages, and social unrest. I also wanted to do something else--something grand and daring. Something only speculative fiction would permit. I wanted to reclaim myth and infuse it with something both magical and real, something powerful enough to challenge suffering. My editor describes the book as a story of race and resurrection. She's right. So I suppose, in a way, I wrote THE FREEDOM RACE to discover what those of us who trace our lineage back through slavery have the power to reclaim.
Lucinda Roy
I'm working on the second book in my speculative slave narrative novel trilogy THE DREAMBIRD CHRONICLES. (The first book is THE FREEDOM RACE, due out from Tor in July 2021.) Apparently, a trilogy is three books. Who knew?
Lucinda Roy
Etch your passion onto every page. Dare to do the unexpected. Let your characters sing to you--rebel anthems and lullabies both.
Lucinda Roy
The best thing about being a writer is being able to invent new worlds to live in. Whether they are embedded in speculation or realism, the characters in these worlds have the capacity to empower and inspire, as if they created themselves and had absolutely nothing to do with me. I can't think of anything I would rather do than write...except eat...and sleep...and lie on a beach with a strawberry daquiri....
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