Meet Awesome Romance Author Savannah J. Frierson

I am excited to start the new year by interviewing multi-published, award-winning, USA bestselling author, Savannah J. Frierson. She is here to tell you about what she writes and why.

Welcome Savannah!

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Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m originally from South Carolina, and I realized I wanted to write as a career during my junior year of high school. I completed my first original work, Reconstructing Jada Channing, as my senior thesis at Harvard University, earning the Dorothy Hicks Lee Prize for most outstanding thesis concerning African or African-American literature. In 2007, I released my first novel, Being Plumville, which earned several SORMAG Readers’ Choice Awards in 2007 and an Emma Award nomination for Debut Author of the Year at the 2008 Romance Slam Jam Conference. Since my debut, I’ve published over twenty works ranging from short stories to full-length novels. In addition to writing, I also enjoy reading, traveling, and singing.

How did you choose the genre you write in?

I chose romance because I wanted to read about unconventional women getting their romantic happily ever afters, and I chose to write it because I wanted to envision unconventional Black women, in particular, getting their happily ever afters. Also, I primarily write interracial romances featuring Black women because so often Black women are told either 1.) nobody wants them; 2.) only Black men will genuinely want them; 3.) if they date outside their race, they’re traitors who hate themselves. As a Black woman who is very proud of her heritage and who is also attracted to not just Black men, I want to explore what that means, because those comments flew in the face of “love is love” and all the other platitudes we tell ourselves about romance. “Love isn’t political; love overcomes all.” And yet, that’s not true in real life. However, because I can create worlds and narratives, I can make that true in my stories and hopefully give a blueprint or a glimpse into how readers can make it true for them too.

Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?

It was 2005/2006, and I was writing an interracial romance set in the late 1960s on a newly integrated college campus in a fictional Georgia town. Agents . . . weren’t having it. One even said I talked about race too much in my novel! And I was flabbergasted because when you sub to agents, you have to give them a query, a full synopsis, and the first few chapters/pages of the manuscript. This agent had ample time to realize what the story was about and, therefore, why discussing race was crucial to it. But that rejection set me on the path of indie publishing and I’m glad it did. This is your work. You have to trust that the person who will represent you understands you and your aims. And I’m frankly glad indie publishing wasn’t the perceived death knell it was a decade ago (almost two now!). And that manuscript eventually became Being Plumville, which is my most reviewed work by far.

Have you written a book you love that you have not been able to get published?

There are so many! But I currently have two that have been placed further and further on the backburner. One is a story that has some epistolary features and is set during the Vietnam conflict. I’m torn with whether to bring it up to a more current time period or keep it where it is (especially since there’s one reader out there who keeps me honest about that project—shout out to Keisha!). The other follows the best friend of the male protagonist from my debut novel Being Plumville, but that hasn’t been published (over ten years later) because I realized the story I thought I was telling isn’t that story at all, so I have to reset and start afresh. So, timing, mostly, why those two stories haven’t been officially published, but I hope in the next few years I can get them together.

What project are you working on now or what book will be next?

I am working on the next story in the Be Mine series called All Mine. It’ll take place a year after the events of Be Mine. It’s about how the foursome continues to adapt from a friendship to the romance, especially after the honeymoon phase is over. But a new, unanticipated shift may be on the horizon.

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Be Mine by Savannah J. Frierson

Ingrid Harris has never had a Valentine, but she’s determined to change that this year. Luckily, she has three housemates she can ask to be her boo for the day, but she doesn’t realize asking one can lead to having them all, and well into the night.

But only if she wants.

And why wouldn’t she want? Why settle for one Valentine when she can have three? And maybe for longer than just a day or a night?

 

 

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Buy Links

Be Mine:  AMAZON | BOOKS-TO-READ

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Learn More about Savannah J. Frierson

Savannah J. Frierson is a USA Today best-selling and award-winning author who crafts full, happily-ever-afters for the independent women who are late-bloomers in love. She taps into women’s softness to show this vulnerability as a strength to be embraced and celebrated. Savannah’s characters find empowerment through love, and she hopes her dear readers do too.

Savannah is represented by the wonderful Saritza Hernandez at The Corvisiero Agency and is also a PAN member of the Romance Writers of America. She is the current vice president of the Lowcountry Romance Writers of America Chapter and a member of CIMRWA and Carolina Romance Writers Chapter.

Website https://www.sjfbooks.com

Facebook https:www.facebooks.com/savannahjfrierson

Twitter  https://twitter.com/sjfbooks

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Savannah would love to hear from you.

Please post your questions and comments below.