27
Aug
2002
Marti MacAlister is not a real person. But she might as well be, for both her creator and the people who read about her life. She's a tough cookie, and not just because she's a cop.
"I pull everything out of Marti," Eleanor Taylor Bland told an audience of her readers on August 23 at the Martin Luther King Center in Rock Island. "She makes me work. ... I don't even know her maiden name."
MacAlister is the lead character in Bland's well-regarded series of mystery novels, an African-American detective in the northern-Illinois town of Lincoln Prairie - a stand-in for Bland's home base of Waukegan. (The 10th MacAlister mystery, Windy City Dying, is due in December.)
Bland came to the Quad Cities last week for the latest in a series of Ebony Expressions dinners and book discussions. (She also led writing workshops for both young people and adults.) The author is a pioneer, among the first wave of African-American mystery writers, a group that now numbers more than 15. Just as importantly, she's a fine writer.
Bland lent a warm presence to the book discussion, eager to talk about her work but also clearly interested in the community. She said she plans to write a short story based on a Quad Cities beauty shop, and sounded shocked that the idea had never come to her before. "Ten books, no beauty shops?" she said. "It's like the next thing to church."
The topic of discussion at Friday night's event was Bland's 1998 novel See No Evil. In its review, Booklist said, "With this sixth installment of the superior series, it's high time she [MacAlister] graduates into the ranks of the best known" female detectives. "Bland has succeeded here in producing her most sophisticated, complex, and successful work yet." The book hits its stride immediately, deftly establishing several plot threads and opening with menace, from the perspective of an intruder planning to kill MacAlister and her family.
Although the Marti MacAlister books are mysteries, the whodunit aspect seems to provide Bland mostly with a framework. She seems as interested in the lives of her characters and her town as the mystery, and she doesn't consider her creations to be subservient to the needs of the plot. "They tell me their names," Bland said to a group of approximately 65 people. "They tell me who they are. It's not me having my way with them."
That's probably one reason that readers seem to have an intense connection to Bland's characters, her semi-fictional town, and her books. "Your books are so touching," one reader said, adding that she was so affected she couldn't even finish the book. "I couldn't get past the ninth chapter. Your characters are so real."
MacAlister's development seems a point of pride for Bland. Marti's husband is dead, and as the series has progressed, she's gone through different stages of grief. At first, Bland said, MacAlister remembered her mate as a saint - "When you first meet her, her husband is perfect," she said - but in See No Evil, she compares her current boyfriend to her dead husband, finally seeing his flaws. MacAlister also questions her fitness as a parent in See No Evil, an appropriate concern given the person who's stalking her and her family.
The townspeople also feel lived-in, rather than stock characters. In different novels, previously minor characters take on new importance, and Bland doesn't judge them. That's one of her goals. "What we perceive of as nothing is not nothing in God's eyes," she said.
The characters remain interesting to Bland, at least partly because she still doesn't know everything about them. "I know people who are bored to death of their characters," she said. "Marti has no constraints. I don't have any profile of her. That's why she stays fresh."
Shellie Moore Guy, organizer of the Ebony Expressions events and a local poet and storyteller, put it differently: "Their lives happen, and she writes their lives." Because she's written 10 MacAlister books, Bland has shared space with the characters for a long time. "These people live with her now," Guy said.
And with her readers. Bland said that she forgot to mention a particular plant in one of the mysteries, and several readers sent e-mail messages asking whether the plant had died. (It had not.)
Just as her characters seem to live outside of Bland's head, so do the stories. Bland has a roll-with-it way with her plots, and she does not know how the story is going to end when she starts writing.
As the discussion got underway, one audience member gushed, "There was no room for getting bored. And the ending ... I had no idea."
Bland was quick to note that she was just as surprised as her readers. "I don't plot" beforehand, she said. "I don't anticipate the end. I was probably three chapters ahead of you."
One of the most refreshing aspects of the discussion was that the audience engaged in little fawning. They said what they liked about the book, but they were also free with their criticism. One reader said she was unhappy that the bad guy survived. Bland said she didn't know why he lived; it just turned out that way.
As engaging as Bland was at the book discussion, she didn't offer much insight into the craft of writing. When asked why Marti is a cop, Bland attributed the decision to convenience. "This is a murder mystery, and you need a body," she said. "Marti is a cop because she has a reason to find a body. She provides me structure."
At the time she began writing the MacAlister books, Bland had a full-time job, was enrolled in a master's degree program, and was taking care of a child. She left graduate school to devote more time to writing, but she didn't want to spend her time coming up with a novel way for a character to find a dead body. A cop was the easiest choice. (That the cop is an African-American woman, though, was something unusual. Marti MacAlister is no Jessica Fletcher, and we should be thankful for that.)
As its name would suggest, Ebony Expressions is geared to African-American authors and audiences. Certainly, the group at Friday's discussion was primarily (but by no means exclusively) black, and dominated by women.
Bland's discussion was the fifth that Ebony Expressions has held, and the second featuring an author. The dinners and discussions typically draw about 20 people, but having the author present attracts more people. Guy noted that the audience included a range from Head Start parents to college professors.
That level of diversity "really knocks me out," Guy said. But she wants more. "I'm not satisfied with the mix," she said. Guy added that she wants to see more people overall, but also more men, more whites, more people from other ethnic groups, and more younger adults. "I want that total mixture of people," she said. "This is not a club. It's a community gathering."
Ebony Expressions held its first book discussion on August 23, 2001. It was an accident that Bland's discussion fell on the one-year anniversary of that first gathering.
Ebony Expressions sold 60 copies of See No Evil prior to the discussion, using Ms. BriMani's Hair & Beauty Supply in Rock Island and Images of You Hair Designs in Davenport as outlets. Guy said there were two reasons for using local businesses: to bring the books to neighborhoods, and to bring people to businesses with which they might not be familiar.
What's sad is that while Ebony Expressions has provided access directly to several noted African-American authors, local bookstores don't have much to offer people interested in African-American literature. People who want to read See No Evil won't find the novel at local booksellers Barnes & Noble, Borders, or Readmore Book World. (It is, however, available at local libraries.) In fact, people interested in any of Bland's work will be scouring the mystery section in vain. "That's true in every genre," Guy said. "This is what we deal with as people who want to read African Americans." Only the best-known African-American mystery writer, Walter Mosley (author of the Easy Rawlins series), is easy to find on local store shelves.
When Bland started writing her books, Mosley was virtually the only African American writing mystery novels. "We had no role models," Bland said. "We had no nothing."
Bland can now serve as a role model, and she did while in the Quad Cities. She held a writing workshop for children on Thursday, and she said the important thing is to establish an environment without censorship.
"Adults are thrown off by the things that come out of children's mouths," she said, and she wanted to ensure that the kids knew that there were no boundaries.
Two sisters at the workshop, Bland said, wrote poems about their mother dying four years ago, and Bland used that to illustrate that adults are wrong in thinking that children recover from traumas quickly. "We have this fairy-tale view of children," she said. "That's garbage." Children use play and storytelling to order their worlds because they have so little control over what happens to them.
(And that's not unlike what many writers, Bland included, do. "I am probably ordering my life," the author said. "I write about things that upset me that I can't change.)
At the book discussion, Guy pointed out to Bland the woman who's raising those two girls. Bland went over and hugged the woman.
And there's probably no better example of how Ebony Expressions is much more than a series of book-discussion events. That's the stated purpose and the basic framework, but Ebony Expressions is just as much about community-building.
At the end of the discussion, Guy related that Bland made a promise to her when they were planning her visit: "I won't come just one time," she said of her trip to the Quad Cities.
Bland piped up. "I want the children back."
The Ebony Expressions book discussion with Eleanor Taylor Bland will be broadcast at noon on Friday, August 30, and Friday, September 6, on KALA, 88.5 and 105.5 FM.
MacAlister is the lead character in Bland's well-regarded series of mystery novels, an African-American detective in the northern-Illinois town of Lincoln Prairie - a stand-in for Bland's home base of Waukegan. (The 10th MacAlister mystery, Windy City Dying, is due in December.)
Bland came to the Quad Cities last week for the latest in a series of Ebony Expressions dinners and book discussions. (She also led writing workshops for both young people and adults.) The author is a pioneer, among the first wave of African-American mystery writers, a group that now numbers more than 15. Just as importantly, she's a fine writer.
Bland lent a warm presence to the book discussion, eager to talk about her work but also clearly interested in the community. She said she plans to write a short story based on a Quad Cities beauty shop, and sounded shocked that the idea had never come to her before. "Ten books, no beauty shops?" she said. "It's like the next thing to church."
The topic of discussion at Friday night's event was Bland's 1998 novel See No Evil. In its review, Booklist said, "With this sixth installment of the superior series, it's high time she [MacAlister] graduates into the ranks of the best known" female detectives. "Bland has succeeded here in producing her most sophisticated, complex, and successful work yet." The book hits its stride immediately, deftly establishing several plot threads and opening with menace, from the perspective of an intruder planning to kill MacAlister and her family.
Although the Marti MacAlister books are mysteries, the whodunit aspect seems to provide Bland mostly with a framework. She seems as interested in the lives of her characters and her town as the mystery, and she doesn't consider her creations to be subservient to the needs of the plot. "They tell me their names," Bland said to a group of approximately 65 people. "They tell me who they are. It's not me having my way with them."
That's probably one reason that readers seem to have an intense connection to Bland's characters, her semi-fictional town, and her books. "Your books are so touching," one reader said, adding that she was so affected she couldn't even finish the book. "I couldn't get past the ninth chapter. Your characters are so real."
MacAlister's development seems a point of pride for Bland. Marti's husband is dead, and as the series has progressed, she's gone through different stages of grief. At first, Bland said, MacAlister remembered her mate as a saint - "When you first meet her, her husband is perfect," she said - but in See No Evil, she compares her current boyfriend to her dead husband, finally seeing his flaws. MacAlister also questions her fitness as a parent in See No Evil, an appropriate concern given the person who's stalking her and her family.
The townspeople also feel lived-in, rather than stock characters. In different novels, previously minor characters take on new importance, and Bland doesn't judge them. That's one of her goals. "What we perceive of as nothing is not nothing in God's eyes," she said.
The characters remain interesting to Bland, at least partly because she still doesn't know everything about them. "I know people who are bored to death of their characters," she said. "Marti has no constraints. I don't have any profile of her. That's why she stays fresh."
Shellie Moore Guy, organizer of the Ebony Expressions events and a local poet and storyteller, put it differently: "Their lives happen, and she writes their lives." Because she's written 10 MacAlister books, Bland has shared space with the characters for a long time. "These people live with her now," Guy said.
And with her readers. Bland said that she forgot to mention a particular plant in one of the mysteries, and several readers sent e-mail messages asking whether the plant had died. (It had not.)
Just as her characters seem to live outside of Bland's head, so do the stories. Bland has a roll-with-it way with her plots, and she does not know how the story is going to end when she starts writing.
As the discussion got underway, one audience member gushed, "There was no room for getting bored. And the ending ... I had no idea."
Bland was quick to note that she was just as surprised as her readers. "I don't plot" beforehand, she said. "I don't anticipate the end. I was probably three chapters ahead of you."
One of the most refreshing aspects of the discussion was that the audience engaged in little fawning. They said what they liked about the book, but they were also free with their criticism. One reader said she was unhappy that the bad guy survived. Bland said she didn't know why he lived; it just turned out that way.
As engaging as Bland was at the book discussion, she didn't offer much insight into the craft of writing. When asked why Marti is a cop, Bland attributed the decision to convenience. "This is a murder mystery, and you need a body," she said. "Marti is a cop because she has a reason to find a body. She provides me structure."
At the time she began writing the MacAlister books, Bland had a full-time job, was enrolled in a master's degree program, and was taking care of a child. She left graduate school to devote more time to writing, but she didn't want to spend her time coming up with a novel way for a character to find a dead body. A cop was the easiest choice. (That the cop is an African-American woman, though, was something unusual. Marti MacAlister is no Jessica Fletcher, and we should be thankful for that.)
As its name would suggest, Ebony Expressions is geared to African-American authors and audiences. Certainly, the group at Friday's discussion was primarily (but by no means exclusively) black, and dominated by women.
Bland's discussion was the fifth that Ebony Expressions has held, and the second featuring an author. The dinners and discussions typically draw about 20 people, but having the author present attracts more people. Guy noted that the audience included a range from Head Start parents to college professors.
That level of diversity "really knocks me out," Guy said. But she wants more. "I'm not satisfied with the mix," she said. Guy added that she wants to see more people overall, but also more men, more whites, more people from other ethnic groups, and more younger adults. "I want that total mixture of people," she said. "This is not a club. It's a community gathering."
Ebony Expressions held its first book discussion on August 23, 2001. It was an accident that Bland's discussion fell on the one-year anniversary of that first gathering.
Ebony Expressions sold 60 copies of See No Evil prior to the discussion, using Ms. BriMani's Hair & Beauty Supply in Rock Island and Images of You Hair Designs in Davenport as outlets. Guy said there were two reasons for using local businesses: to bring the books to neighborhoods, and to bring people to businesses with which they might not be familiar.
What's sad is that while Ebony Expressions has provided access directly to several noted African-American authors, local bookstores don't have much to offer people interested in African-American literature. People who want to read See No Evil won't find the novel at local booksellers Barnes & Noble, Borders, or Readmore Book World. (It is, however, available at local libraries.) In fact, people interested in any of Bland's work will be scouring the mystery section in vain. "That's true in every genre," Guy said. "This is what we deal with as people who want to read African Americans." Only the best-known African-American mystery writer, Walter Mosley (author of the Easy Rawlins series), is easy to find on local store shelves.
When Bland started writing her books, Mosley was virtually the only African American writing mystery novels. "We had no role models," Bland said. "We had no nothing."
Bland can now serve as a role model, and she did while in the Quad Cities. She held a writing workshop for children on Thursday, and she said the important thing is to establish an environment without censorship.
"Adults are thrown off by the things that come out of children's mouths," she said, and she wanted to ensure that the kids knew that there were no boundaries.
Two sisters at the workshop, Bland said, wrote poems about their mother dying four years ago, and Bland used that to illustrate that adults are wrong in thinking that children recover from traumas quickly. "We have this fairy-tale view of children," she said. "That's garbage." Children use play and storytelling to order their worlds because they have so little control over what happens to them.
(And that's not unlike what many writers, Bland included, do. "I am probably ordering my life," the author said. "I write about things that upset me that I can't change.)
At the book discussion, Guy pointed out to Bland the woman who's raising those two girls. Bland went over and hugged the woman.
And there's probably no better example of how Ebony Expressions is much more than a series of book-discussion events. That's the stated purpose and the basic framework, but Ebony Expressions is just as much about community-building.
At the end of the discussion, Guy related that Bland made a promise to her when they were planning her visit: "I won't come just one time," she said of her trip to the Quad Cities.
Bland piped up. "I want the children back."
The Ebony Expressions book discussion with Eleanor Taylor Bland will be broadcast at noon on Friday, August 30, and Friday, September 6, on KALA, 88.5 and 105.5 FM.
