SPECIAL GUEST Author Eugenia O’Neal

In celebration of Black History Month, I’m participating in the Black History Blog Hop and highlighting black authors this week. The first three authors are guests who will tell you about their books and offer some goodies in appreciation of your participation in this weeklong event.

My third guest is author Eugenia O’Neal. As you know, I’m from the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Eugenia is from a neighboring group of islands called the British Virgin Islands. She’s here to tell us all about her novel, Jessamine.

Tell us about yourself.

I’m from the British Virgin Islands, a small group of islands not far from Puerto Rico. Reading books took me far away to other countries, places, worlds, so from the time I was very young, I was a devoted library goer and I also remember haunting the one bookstore we had at the time on Main Street. I knew I wanted to be a writer but it wasn’t until I finished the thesis for my M.Phil degree in Political Science at the University of the West Indies that I really sought publication. My first book was a non-fiction history of women in the Virgin Islands and I’ve followed that up with two romances.

What do you do for fun?

Travel. I love to travel. I also like watching movies and playing games like Pictionary with my friends.

What type of music do you listen to?

Reggae mostly – dancehall and old school, but I like other types of music, too. I listen to calypso, reggaeton, soca, and I love singers like Nina Simone, Tom Waits and Oumou Sangare.

What are your favorite types of movies to watch?

I watch most types of movies but I like political and psychological thrillers like The Constant Gardener, The Usual Suspects, Paradise and Sorry, Haters.

What types of books are on your bookshelf at home?

All kinds. I read anything once it’s good, so you’ll find authors ranging from Walter Mosley to Jerome K. Jerome to Edwidge Danticat. I’m also deeply interested in history and in the lives of the people who went before so I’ve got a lot of history books and non-fiction books that cover my other interests such as gardening or books I’ve needed for research or which cover a topic I’m curious about.

Short answer favorites:

Dessert – Pusser’s Mud Pie

City – London

Hero – Take-charge and action-oriented

Heroine – Resourceful

Actor – Benicio del Toro

Actress – Angela Bassett

Singer – Bob Marley

Color – Purple

Cuisine – Mexican

Is there such a thing as too much sex in a romance novel? Explain.

Yes, I think there can be if there’s not enough plot or character development to go along with it. Authors have to balance that or else, I think, you get a boring story or book.

Finish this sentence: I’m addicted to…

…chocolate and cheese, of course. Isn’t everyone?

What inspired you to write your latest release?

I went to a beautiful old church in St. Lucia where biblical characters had been painted as black people and the scenes were like those you’d see on any Caribbean island: market women with baskets of fruits and vegetables, fishermen bringing in the catch of the day, and the character of Arabella just came to me and so did the barebones of the story.

Is there a scene in the book you particularly enjoy? Tell us about it and why.

One night Leando takes Arabella to see the ruins of a Great House that is half-hidden by vines and they make love among the old stones under a half-moon. Afterwards, he crushes scented flowers on her body and she realizes how much she loves him, but when he asks her to leave Jessamine and come live with him, she refuses. Both Leando and Arabella are haunted by their pasts but they’ve responded differently to their challenges. This scene symbolizes that the ruins represent everything Leando hates, while Arabella is willing to give him her body but is fearful of being too assertive in taking what she wants.

We have a few things in common. I love to travel, too, and don’t get me started on chocolate and cheese. One word: yum! Now tell us about your upcoming book, Jessamine. 

Blurb

My novel, Jessamine, will be released in June as an ebook.  Jessamine tells the story of Grace Hylton, an African-American, who arrives on the Caribbean island of St. Crescens full of doubts about her husband’s political aspirations, doubts about her marriage and doubts about the wisdom of relocating.  Her native-born husband, Julian, has lived most of his adult life in the States but has come back to St. Crescens, determined to pull his country out of the cauldron of corruption, nepotism and crime into which the leading political dynasty has taken it.

An architect by training, Julian buys and restores Jessamine, an old Great House.  What the Hyltons don’t know is that Jessamine is home to the ghost of Arabella Adams who lived there as a governess during the late 1800s.

Jessamine is told from the alternating viewpoints of the two women – both foreigners, both married to local men.  An old injustice binds them across the century that separates them, but can Grace discover its roots before St. Crescens is plunged into violence and chaos?

Excerpt

Arabella

She draws nearer, nearer.  I can feel her in the air like a disturbance, a shiver.  It is like how I know when rain is coming long before it sweeps in from the sea beyond Headley Point.  She is coming and we will speak.  We have a lot in common, we two, though she is alive and I am not.

Grace

The heat body-slams me as I emerge from the plane; a heat like the island is on fire, the flames around the corner, just out of sight.  I don’t know how I will stand it but Julian is waiting for me in the Arrivals area, a smile on his face, his arms wide open.  I drop my bags and run to him.  I hold him tight and I breathe deeply, loving the musky man-smell of him.

“Is this all your stuff?” he asks, looking at my two suitcases and my carry-on.

“They will do until the container gets here.  The shipping company promised me three weeks.”  I have not let go of him.  I’ve not seen him in six months and I’ve missed him as much as I think I’d miss my eyes were a thief to take them from me in the night.  He kisses me and I know he knows everything I’m feeling.  A little smile plays around his mouth as if this knowledge is a secret sweet to him.

He nods to a man in a red polo shirt who picks up the suitcases and follows us to the car.

“Yo, Mr. Hylton.”

“How’s it going, Mr. Hylton?”

People watch me and call out to him as we walk over to the airport’s small parking lot.  Julian waves to them, answering some by name.  Their expressions range from a calculating curiosity to mischievous lechery.  Foreign women are seen here either as status symbols or sexual doormats.  Julian blames it on tourism.

“Do you know everyone now?” I ask to distract myself.  I have never lived in a city of less than a million people and I think that will probably be the hardest adjustment.  St. Crescens’s fifty-two thousand worry me.

Ooh…sounds interesting. Where can readers find you online?

Blog: http://eugeniaoneal.blogspot.com/

Amazon book list: http://www.amazon.com/Eugenia-ONeal/e/B001KDI74W

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/eugenia.oneal

Thank you, Eugenia, for being my special guest today! Readers, leave your thoughts and questions for Eugenia in the comments  below. 

Giveaway details: 

Mandatory: Leave a comment on any of the five (5) blog posts during this week. Each blog post you comment on equates to one entry. Optional: If you follow my blog or my Facebook page, let me know because that earns you one extra entry for each place you follow me. Winners will be chosen at random. There are four chances to win.

Prizes: 1) W. Lynn Chantale is giving away a book from her back list and a coffee mug of goodies; 2) Raynetta J. Stocks is giving away a copy of her debut novel, The Grim; 3) Eugenia O’Neal is giving away a hard copy of Dido’s Prize (mailing address required; available for international applicants) and a few extras; 4) I’m giving away an e-copy of my Valentine’s Day short story, Subordinate Position.

Contest ends 11:59 pm EST on 2/25/12. Winners will be chosen by Random.org and their names posted on my Contest page by 2/27/12 at 8:00 am EST. Each winner will have 72 hours to contact me to claim their prize(s) before the next person on the list is chosen.

Click the image to visit the other blogs in the hop:

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