Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds

Season 7 Episode #20 My Debut Novel: A Journey of Purpose, Culture, and The Orange Blossom

• Jebeh Edmunds • Season 7 • Episode 20

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What happens when a folktale whispered by your mother becomes the novel your heart can't stop writing? In this deeply personal episode, I pull back the curtain on my transformation from educator and podcast host to debut novelist with "The Orange Blossom."

For years, I've carried the story of the Orange Vendor Woman—a Liberian tale about finding your purpose and refusing to be diverted from it. This story became more than just a teaching moment for my student teachers; it became the seed of my creative rebirth. When one student teacher named Angel gifted me a painting of oranges, little did she know she was planting the visual reminder that would eventually bloom into my first novel.

My manuscript journey wasn't without its struggles. Those first 33 pages sat untouched in my Google Docs for three years while self-doubt whispered in my ear. But with the encouragement of my mastermind group and a transformative writing retreat, I developed a disciplined writing routine complete with character mood boards, family trees, and personalized playlists for each character. The novel spans decades of Liberian history, honoring the multidimensional nature of my culture that too often gets flattened in Western narratives.

This isn't just fiction—it's preservation. "The Orange Blossom" is my love letter to Liberian women, to our resilience, and to anyone questioning their path. Sometimes our purpose isn't flashy or loud; sometimes it's sweet and sun-ripened, just waiting to be harvested. Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly updates as we approach the fall publication date, and join me on this beautiful journey from classroom to bookshelf. Your support means everything as I step into this new chapter of my creative life.

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Speaker 1:

Hey friend, welcome back to the Cultural Curriculum Chats. I'm your host, jeva Edmonds educator, storyteller, podcast host and now debut novelist. Yep, you heard me correctly. Today I'm taking you behind the scenes of something deeply personal my journey riding the orange blossom. My Journey Riding the Orange Blossom, my very first novel inspired by Liberian folktales and a woman's quest to find her purpose. This episode is for anyone who's ever had that story tug at their heart, waiting to be told. I'll share how this novel came to life, what inspired it, how I stayed motivated and what it means for me and hopefully for you. Let's get into it.

Speaker 1:

I've always been a storyteller, whether I was teaching in a Title I school, giving DE&I workshops and cultural curriculum insights to school districts, or chatting with you here on this podcast. Stories are the center of my work, but the orange blossom be with my mom. She shared this beautiful story of a woman who was an orange vendor in Liberia and I will have the link of the story so you can learn more about it in the show notes. I did a little TED Talk style speech about my purpose as a teacher and that will give you more of the background of the Orange Vendor Woman, the theme of the Orange Vendor Woman story was to find your purpose and not let anybody divert you from what God had in store for you. And so, 10 years ago, I had a student teacher named Angel. Yes, angel, shout out to you, girlfriend, isn't that the most fitting name? She was a beautiful artist. She still is doing her art, and she gifted me a painting of oranges. It had a beautiful turquoise background and just bright orange with the slices. Because when she heard that story before I helped her get through the course of student teachers, I would do the tradition of sharing that orange vendor woman story with all of my cooperating student teachers at the university and the biggest question for them is to say you know, is this truly your purpose? Is to teach our future generation. Let's buckle up and let's work on this, and I will guide you through this together. Angel was so touched by that Orange Vendor Woman story that she was inspired to paint these oranges for me as the end of the year gift After she was done with her student teaching semester with me. She gifted me this as her thank you. And, angel, I'm thanking you because that painting is still on my desk in my home office and every time I look at that painting, I think of you, my dear, that painting that was looking at me, created by Angel, a real angel. It really made me think to myself three years ago what happened to the orange vendor woman story. If I could create a novel that talks about the orange vendor and the people she encountered, what would that look like, sound like and feel like? So I love a good fiction and I love coming up with these characters that are multidimensional to create something profound. If you are curious to hear more stories like this, subscribe to my weekly newsletter where I share behind the scenes author updates and inspiration to help you infuse culture into your classroom and your life. Head to wwwjebaedmondscom to join our list.

Speaker 1:

When I sat down to write this book, I started it three years ago and I was so nervous. I had a lot of self-doubt, I had a lot of what will people think? And all this stuff. So I actually wrote 33 pages of this novel three years ago. Yep, I had it in my Google Doc. It was just looking at me when I was doing all the things for my company and working on my slides and all this stuff. It would still have the Orange Blossom, a novel by Jeba Edmonds and I'd look at that cover sheet and I was like, ah, not today, not today, not today. And so I it really sparked again a fire in me this last fall when I looked at that same cover sheet and I said, you know what, jeb, let's go. And I had a lot of help with my business mastermind group. We meet once a month and I started that journey with them last fall and they really, you know, stoked that fire in me and saying, jeb, you already wrote 33 pages. Like who can say they started a novel but you need to finish it. And so they challenged me and they also encouraged me.

Speaker 1:

I went on an awesome, awesome writing retreat in the beginning of this year. Shout out to you Diana O'Shryke. She is an awesome author. She already published her own memoir. And so we went up the shore, spent the weekend in Grand Marais in northern Minnesota and we kind of sketched out what does this plot look like? And Diana helped me create an outline.

Speaker 1:

I had my vision and I even created my main character. Her name is Jovia and she was on her journey of purpose. So I knew she came from a Liberian family like mine, but very different, and I also wanted to honor my home country of Liberia. Too often African stories are told from outside perspectives and I wanted this to feel like home from the food, the cadence of our dialogue, to the generational wisdom passed down from a grandmother to her granddaughter. I needed a reminder that my own purpose might not always be flashy or loud. Sometimes it's sweet and low and sun-ripened, just like an orange blossom.

Speaker 1:

So I got to writing y'all. I blocked out time every day after that writing retreat and I would dance. I even made a family tree of my characters. I even went to Pinterest oh yeah, I love a good Pinterest board and I found all these stock images of characters, which would be stock images of people African people from Pinterest, and I would have the character's name and a stock image so I could visualize who that person looked like and elements throughout the story. You know, using my five senses and stories that I heard from relatives and anecdotes and things that I've researched about Liberia's history. And how did I weave that into the multitude of characters? So I've got Jovia, I've got Boykai, I've got Beatrice, I've got Kebe, I've got Fula, I've got Peter and many more, I've got Ma Eliza, and each of these characters were on this beautiful page, big butcher paper, and I had elements of the textures, the outfits that they wore, archival pictures of Liberia at that era of the 70s to 2011. And that's the framework of where my book plot takes place.

Speaker 1:

And so, you know, having a writing routine was so important to my discipline. So many people are like, jeb, is there anything you can't do, girlfriend? I said, well, let me get back to you on that. But I was really disciplined on finishing this book. So every chapter, I would, you know, just block out just a couple hours, looking at my outline of what the character was and coming up with scenes and playing music. I love music, especially when I'm writing, and so I would have a playlist of each character y'all. Yes, oh, I went really deep in my character development and I would play the soundtrack of this character and I would write in that character's position and their cadence and how they would walk and talk and enter a room, and I really had so much fun. It got to the point where my husband oh, he was so supportive he would text me and say, okay, when you're done with the chapter, text me a picture of you with your finger. You know that showed the chapter that you finished, so I sent it to him. I sent it to my mom and my sisters and my you know business mastermind group and they give me fun little memes and keep going. Jeb, you're almost done and I finish my manuscript this May May 5th and I sent book proposals to lots and lots of publishers and I met with independent publisher Heather Wild.

Speaker 1:

She owns Hezzy May Book Publishing and she's just amazing. I pitched my book in three hours and that evening I signed my contract. It just felt good. We were aligned with how we wanted this book to be launched into the world and this book is coming out y'all this fall, when I was going through the process of writing, like I said I would write, you know, monday through Thursday took Fridays off and I had a big chunk of time to discipline. You know I had everything on Do Not Disturb any client work it would be after my writing and really had that space where the kids were at school, hubby was out of the house at work and I could really really hunker in and, you know, bring my characters to life.

Speaker 1:

There are days I'm gonna tell you straight up, no chaser, that I stared at the screen unsure of you know what the story would make it in the end, how it would end. How do I tie things together? But the support of my community mattered so much. I would share snippets with trusted friends on a text and they would give me so much encouragement. And, ooh, this is juicy Jeb. I can't wait to read more and that's what kept me going. You know, and if you are listening, you are in my space, in my community. Thank you, thank you. Thank you for keeping me going.

Speaker 1:

And speaking of motivation, if you are an educator or creative ready to center culture in your work, check out my mini courses. There's all kinds of courses that talk about empowering your BIPOC students and who's in the Room are courageous conversations about race. It's a wonderful mini course about understanding power dynamics, learning how race, privilege and identity affect who is included in our critical conversations and decision-making processes. So you don't have to be a classroom teacher to take these courses, but if you are an educator, there are lots of wonderful courses for you. If you are a community leader or working in an organization, or even a small business owner who wants to do the work intrinsically for themselves, go to my website, jebedmondscom, and you'll see all of the descriptions on the website to help you be that advocate for positive change.

Speaker 1:

So why does this story, the Orange Blossom, matter? It's more than a novel. It is my love letter to Liberian women, to our resilience, to anyone who's ever questioned their path, and it's a reminder that our stories, especially those passed down across generations, are worth telling and preserving. And I want readers to walk away feeling seen, nourished, engaged and a little more spicy after they read it. Trust me, y'all, this is not for the kiddos. This is for the grown people, you know, ready for the beach, having their coffee, sitting and reading or listening to me, because you know I'm going to put an audiobook into this, because you know you like listening to my voice and just really understanding that Liberians aren't a monolith, that we are multidimensional people and there's humor in us, there's strength in us and there's a path of moving forward, and I'm so excited for you to get a copy of this book. So I'm in the process right now. I just met with the cover designer. Shout out to you Shani. She is a wonderful graphic artist who is going to design the cover of my book. I am so excited. We had a wonderful meeting and I'm in the stage right now of editing and polishing up my book to get ready to publish.

Speaker 1:

My goal is to launch Orange Blossom before the end of the year, but I will continue to share some sneak peeks and reflections every Tuesday in my email newsletter. So sign up. I have the link in the show notes so you can sign up and get updates every Tuesday. And hey, if you are enjoying this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your feedback helps others find the show and it supports my transition into authorship. Yes, you know it. Thank you so much for being part of this journey with me. Whether you're a teacher, a reader, a fellow creative or all three, honey, your presence here means the world to me. Until next time, keep learning, keep listening and keep honoring your story. Bye-bye.