“ Why didn ’ t you tell
me your characters were black ?” knew that black people wrote books . All the books she had previously read were written by white people about white characters . That same week , she went to see the dean and asked to change her major to English so she could write stories , too .
She told herself she was going to learn to do this . She had a lot of fun and a wonderful creative writing teacher who encouraged her . At that time , if someone had told Jewell she wasn ’ t any good , she probably would have quit . Unlike today , she was extremely insecure .
Her classmates were all white . “ Why didn ’ t you tell me your characters were black ?” they would ask . She would answer them by asking why they didn ’ t tell her their characters were white . At the time , the assumption that all the characters were white was expected , and she was expected to signal if they weren ’ t . She realized that she , too , had learned to read all characters as white unless the story told her otherwise .
That year , she was asked to write a short story for her creative writing class . “ I love to cook ,” Jewell said . “ so I went home and got my cookbook on Creole and Acadian cuisine . It had all kinds of information about the voodoo queen Marie Laveau and about the landscape of New Orleans .” She stayed up all night creating a story about a grandmother who used a voodoo spell to protect her granddaughter from an abusive relationship .
During the process of writing this story , she discovered Marie Laveau , who became the topic of her first novel , “ Voodoo Dreams .” Jewell spent the rest of her college time and the next few years submitting it to various publishers . There were all sorts of rejections . Most of them said things like , “ What is this ?” or “ How am I going to sell this ?” or “ This seems like Toni Morrison meets Charles Dickens .” In the meantime , she buoyed herself up by treating herself to a whole education in black literature and discovering things about the African-American traditions .
Jewell persevered , and finally “ Voodoo Dreams ” was picked up by St . Martin ’ s Press . The editor said that she had kept the manuscript for over a year , wanting to send it back , but something always stopped her . At one point during that time , Jewell told her husband they should get that book back so they could resubmit it elsewhere . “ I was getting older by the minute , and I needed to find a publisher .” He told her he had a good feeling about St . Martin ’ s and that they should give it some more time . Her belief in feelings and signs told her they should wait .
About four months later , she got a fax from St . Martin ’ s . The editor explained that she didn ’ t know who would buy the book , only offering $ 2,000 . Her agent negotiated St . Martin ’ s up to $ 3,000 , and Jewell accepted the offer . It took ten years and many rejections but getting “ Voodoo Dreams ” published launched her career as a writer .
Jewell says she also learned a lot during the process . She discovered that she liked history and historical fiction . She learned how to write and rewrite and revise . She published her first novel , wrote two textbooks , and taught creative writing , but she knew she always wanted to write for children . She waited for the time when she could write for youth .
The day Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans was the publication date for her book “ Season ,” which was one of a trilogy of Marie Laveau mysteries .
30 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE