Season 7 Episode #31 The Orange Blossom Book Launch Special

In this heartfelt episode, I celebrate the launch of my debut novel, The Orange Blossom. 🌺 This story is a love letter to Liberia—woven with family legacies, secrets, resilience, and the search for purpose. I share the behind-the-scenes journey of writing the book, the inspiration drawn from my heritage, and what I hope readers will take away.

✨ Whether you’re a book lover, educator, or advocate for cultural storytelling, this episode invites you into the heart of a story that’s been years in the making.

👉 Grab your signed paperback copy now and join me on this journey of resilience and love. www.jebehedmunds.com/book

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Transcript

0:36

Welcome back to the Cultural Curriculum Chat podcast. I'm your host, Jebeh Edmunds and today is such a special day, y'all. My heart is overflowing because we are celebrating the launch of my debut novella, the Orange Blossom. This book is my love letter to Liberia, my homeland, and to the generations who have shaped my story. You've heard me talk about cultural competency and resilience and storytelling on this podcast for years, but this book, it just hits different. The orange blossom is where my heritage meets fiction, where folk tales meet modern struggles where love and betrayal and purpose intertwine. Cross generations. And I'm gonna give you just the behind the scenes of why I wrote this book. What are the overall themes, um, behind the scenes of my writing process, as well as my message to you, my readers. So if you are new to this podcast, welcome, welcome. I am an educator at heart, but a storytelling has been one of my biggest passions and why I wrote this book was to honor my parents. My father passed away six years ago. And my mother is still living and they were the catalyst of me growing up. I mean, they shared with me their stories of what life was like in Liberia before and after. Um, our co deta, I was born four months after this horrible Liberian coup, which means the overthrowing of the government. Um, and trust me, the country was very stable for over a hundred years. Prior to that and when things overtook and the government completely collapsed, my parents made the ultimate sacrifice to leave everything they knew and their family members behind to live, as refugee students, to go to school and. Further their, education and their degrees and had my sisters, uh, years later. So that's how I grew up, was listening at these kitchen tables and dining room tables and hearing the conversations of my extended family when they would start to trickle in and come in, um, from back home and they would share the news of what was going on, what wasn't being filmed on BB, C, or. CNN or other big news outlets, and I had the front row seat of watching my parents, um, struggle and build that resilience in them and seeing them for their, their life and education. And it was an amazing upbringing. Um, and just seeing that pride, our mother would make us these beautiful African captains. And I remember when I was in the fifth grade, we had this, this huge concert, you know, for the holiday concert. And the song was called Love in Every Language. And my mom spent, oh, she spent a long time, but she made me this beautiful bright. Pink and purple African print caftan, it's a dress, very wide, but it, it kind of goes over the top of your head and, and flows down like a gown and a matching head tie. And, um, we even had a sash that she made that said My home country of Liberia. And it was really a beautiful moment because all the other students in, our fifth grade class that year were able to wear something of their heritage and had a sash from their countries of origin. And so that is my love letter to them. You know, hearing my mom's stories and, and my father's stories of what life was like back home. And it was so good. You know, they were young, newly married, but even when they were children. And how positive and loving. My parents were never bored. They were born into very large families with a ton of siblings. Like in the teens, y'all, this is not just six. Six is kind of like modest, but back home we had lots and lots of aunts and uncles that grew up with my parents. So just hearing those stories, it always made me feel like, what if I could write a story that. Depicts the love, the energy, and the light of. The African families in Liberia when everything was good before, you know, the first governmental collapse and war and destruction. So many of us, when we talk about learning about Africans, especially Africans in the diaspora, there's so many. Racist stereotypes and, biases about, oh, they must not have any money. Um, oh, African people are, they always seem destitute. Um, or it's so riddled with violence and things, and that, that was in Liberian history, yes, every country has its highs and lows, but the way that it moved in so swiftly, that was a thing that was so tragic. And I wanted to paint this story of the Collins family. That's the, where the book, um, arrives from, was how things were so good until things took a turn. And the test of resilience, the test of strength, the test of sacrifice. In order for people to move on to the United States to immigrate and leaving all behind was something I really wanted my readers to grasp. And that goes into the themes. You know, family legacies. A lot of us in this human experience know their family legacies, either through stories, recipes, traditions. There's so many things that people can read through the pages and go, oh yeah. My grandmother did that. Oh. Oh yeah. That's how we would do that ritualistic thing, getting ready for, um, church every Sunday. There's gonna be those similarities when you read this story as to, wow, I can see the importance of family legacy in these characters and why we grasp onto them so, so tightly and to make sure we don't lose that because. Material things come and go. Tangible things come and go. But the legacy bringing on from generation to generation is so vital and important in this human experience. You're also gonna learn a lot about Liberian culture. I woven in some Liberian slang and how we use to call it qua. Um, but to me, I'm not very good at the qua, so you're gonna see some qua light and how we kind of, you know, would be teased and I still get teased would call me like, oh, jba, you're speaking Siri. Um, but again, that is something like. More or less of, you're going to hear some of the vernacular just so you can understand, um, some of the wording. And don't worry, I got you covered. You know, Liberia is a very, rich country that has 16 different ethnic groups, but their national official language is English. So when you're reading the story. It's in English. You can even, um, decipher and get those context clues of the Liberian slings that are woven within the story. And you're also gonna learn, I love that word of resilience, especially in this day and age of learning how to see and feel when things are out of your control, how do you step up and do what's best for you and your family? And I think that is something, is really big in this story. You're gonna see the lives and behind the scenes of. A lot of characters, I wanna say about six to eight, um, featured characters in this story. And you're gonna learn a lot about their background and understand where people are coming from, when situations, again, in the midst of chaos arise, and how do they triumph? Or how do they fall? And that's something I really love for you to, um, learn about while you're reading this story. Another thing I also want you to, um, think about is when I was writing this story, this wasn't something that I woke up. One random morning and I was like, yes, I'm gonna write myself a novel, y'all. I'm going to get this going. It took 10 years. Just let that sink in. A lot of people are like, wow, this is so quick. Jeb, you just said you're writing this book and you finish within a year, not even a year yet. And it was something that's been on my heart for 10 years. There was this wonderful story about an orange vendor woman who. Worked so hard to survive for her family, and she was an entrepreneur. She was with her other entrepreneurial friends that were also women. So many of us, when we are learning about developing countries. Seeing women working the markets. These women are the entrepreneurs. They are the breadwinners of their families, no matter how their family structure is made. And I really wanted to focus on those market women, those unsung heroes that get up and work tirelessly. And those women get up every morning, they beam with pride saying, yeah. I've been working the stand for how many years and I put my kids through school and I'm doing all the things without the help of others in the sense of depending on someone else to help take care of my children. And so those are the things that I really wanted you to learn more about those women. Another thing too, when I was going through this writing process, I thought about this Orange Men woman, and I said to myself. Hmm. I wonder what would happen when she encounters certain people at her market stand. How does she interact with people and how are they intertwined with her family back home? Because Liberia is a little country, and I feel like growing up in, in the United States and seeing extended family and even seeing, um, my parents' friends that they grew up with, in boarding school, in Liberia, in private schools, in Liberia and living in the united. States, it's like a little big town. You know, people recognize you by your last name. Um, they recognize you by the ethnic group you belong to. And there's just that kinship and that comradery. And I wanted my readers to understand, oh, you must have. This upper echelon in society because we know that last name. Oh yes. We've heard of those, that family before, and I really wanted to interpret that. So when I was working on this story, I wanted to emphasize on this powerful family, the Collins's with the other families that weren't as powerful. Maybe they were middle class, but they knew that divide within society, kind of like a cast. System of the upper echelon group of people and the working class and just seeing how things and the underpinnings and the, the division starts to unravel and, when it ultimately leads to war and destruction. And so you are really going to enjoy that. And I tell you, I have to give a huge shout out to my business Mastermind, uh, the Desert Rose Mastermind Group. It's a wonderful collection of women who we meet once a month and we go through our entrepreneurial dreams and goals, and we keep each other accountable. It's a wonderful accountability group. And this group, um, I brought to them at one of our meetings. I will never forget it. It was literally this March and I looked to them and I said, okay, I've had this story. I wrote 33 pages of it 10 years ago, and I started adding a little more, during, COVID and three years ago, but I kind of put it aside and focused on my cultural consulting business full time. And just something was aching in me. Like, I wonder what happens with this orange vendor woman, and how she, um, interacts with the people around her and they said, go for it. And they said, in order to keep me accountable, they said, after every chapter, you are gonna take a selfie with your number finger of when you're done with each chapter. And they held me to a Y'all. They did. They're like, when are we doing the next one? Come on, when's chapter six coming? And that's what I did. I took a picture and sent it to them and I sent it to my husband and I sent it to my sister-in-law and my. Sisters and my mom, and they were all like cheering me on, like, yes, keep going. And what I love to do, y'all, when I'm writing, I love playing music of that era. So the story begins in the mid to late seventies of Liberia. So a lot of, um, James Brown, a lot of. Fifth dimension, Funkadelic, George Clinton, just kinds of things where, um, Bob Marley, Fila Kuti, I mean, all of these things in musicians and rhythms and Afro jazz. What I heard from my parents growing up and seeing them dancing in the living room with me and my sisters. That helped me encapsulate the feeling, the emotion of what was happening in Liberia at that time. And so having my, my music going and, lighting a candle, saying a prayer, to be authentic in my words and in my writing, and to honor my ancestors. And just write. And I tell you, it was the best creative flow I have. Ever experienced in my life, and I know you know this because of listening to me so far, this is the first of multiple books and novellas coming from me. So I'm gonna have a little garden of secrets. That's what I'm calling it now. So there's gonna be some characters from this first novella that are gonna start making their way through others. So, um, this is the first of many of my friends. I can't wait. And from your lips to God's ears. I'm hoping for a lifetime movie channel. Uh, Netflix, you know, a series. You know, we're gonna make the white lotus look shame. That's what I'm saying. I'm putting it out there. I'm manifesting that for myself. But if you can help bring that up the list, that would be great. And my message for your readers, because this book is fiction. It is an example and an invitation for you to step into another world and reflect on your own story. Think about, you know. How you would decipher your life and your experience. What have you done to step up to the plate in the face of chaos and things that are out of your control? And it's a very. Beautiful story my main character, her name is Jovia Collins, and she's kind of like me, not fully okay, but she was born in Liberia like myself, and because of the coup she emigrated. As a toddler like myself and was raised in the Midwest like myself, but I, you know, I have to give myself some literary license and I, I played it a bit, you know, and you've heard of this before. I love watching soap operas, like the Young and the Restless. So there's a lot of soap opera, novella esque things. That's why I wanted it to be a novella. So. I really want you to step into your own story and just really dive in and oh, it's gonna be so good. And like those young kids, it's gonna be fire. It's gonna be fire. You can order your signed paperback copy for just$22. Shipping is included on my website at jebehedmunds.com and if you're an educator or a book club leader, I'd love to join your group virtually for a live q and a session. So let's keep this conversation alive. Oh, I cannot wait for you to read about Miss Jovia, the rest of the Collins family and all of the inner workings of the orange blossom. She is out, she is blooming, and this book is ready for you to experience it. Every page by page. Thank you so much for being part of this journey with me. My prayer is that the orange Blossom will plant some seeds of courage and compassion in every reader's heart. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with a friend who loves powerful storytelling. I'll see you here same time next week. Bye-bye.