By The River is brought to you in part by, The University of South Carolina, Beaufort learning in action discovered.

The ETV endowment of South Carolina.

Community Foundation of The Lowcountry strengthening community.

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at USCB.

The Pat Conroy Literary Center.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator 2] An award-winning author of contemporary romance novels with an Afro-Filipina twist, Preslaysa Williams shares her culture and love of Charleston history with readers.

Her book, "A Lowcountry Bride" follows Maya in a journey of love, forgiveness, and new beginnings set in the beautiful South Carolina lowcountry.

- I'm Holly Jackson.

Join us as we bring you powerful stories from both new and established Southern authors as we sit By The River.

♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ Well, you have found us on another beautiful day here at our lowcountry studio in beautiful Beaufort.

Thanks so much for joining us for By The River.

I'm your host, Holly Jackson.

This is our love letter to Southern writing.

We're bringing you powerful stories from both new and established Southern authors and joining us today, is the author of "A Lowcountry Bride", this is Preslaysa Williams.

Thank you so much Ms. Williams for joining us and coming to Beaufort.

Is it your first visit?

- This is my first visit to Beaufort, but it's not my first visit to South Carolina.

- Of course not because we're talking about the Lowcountry Bride.

I wanna hear all about it.

Let's start off with just telling us what is the story about?

- Well, this story is a contemporary romance and it's about a bridal gown designer named Maya Jackson, who is established well, not so much established, but she's living and working in New York City and she wants to make a name for herself in the bridal gown industry in New York.

Well, her father who is based in Charleston breaks his hip, and she has to go down south to take care of him.

And while she does, she ends up working at a small bridal boutique in downtown Charleston, which is owned by the hero of the novel named Derrick.

And as she works there, she comes into her own as a bridal gown designer, she learns to trust her own design aesthetic, and she also falls in love.

And as she does, she has to kind of make a decision about whether or not she wants to remain in Charleston and follow her heart, or if she wants to continue her ambitions, her career ambitions in New York City.

- And there were a few things going on in his world that made it seem like, well, maybe this shouldn't work, maybe this isn't supposed to work.

- Yeah, that's true.

He has a lot of issues that he's going through.

He's first a single dad, he's a widower, his daughter, Jamila, he's trying to rebuild his relationship with his daughter, but it's strained for multiple reasons.

One of the reasons is that, he was former military and he used to go on deployment a lot.

And so he didn't have that father daughter time that we would all love and cherish and would love to have.

So he didn't have that.

And also he's a widower, like I mentioned, and first his wife, she passed away in a tragedy that happened at a church in Charleston.

And so he has to decide whether or not he wants to love again, but also he has to help his daughter, Jamila work through that grief.

- And tell me where this inspiration for the storyline came.

- Oh, wow.

So the inspiration for the storyline came when, well, the story is like 10 years old.

So I started this book like maybe like 10 or 11 years ago.

And so I remember I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom, folding laundry, and my son at the time who was an infant, was sitting in his little baby carrier.

And the first line of the story came to me.

And that first line is now the first line of chapter two.

And I just kind of pictured this man who's a fish out of water, who's working in this bridal shop and he's trying to keep it together, but he's not.

And I was like, I wanna follow this path or follow this story.

And so I originally had it as a uplifting sweet romance that is wedding themed, which it still is today.

But as time went on and as I grew more interested in Black history and after living in Charleston for many years, I grew to love the Black community in Charleston.

And what I noticed was that a lot of the romance novels, contemporary romance novels that are set in the low country, don't feature Black and Brown main characters.

And so I said, you know what?

I want to not only write this love story with this wedding themes, with this man who's a fish out of water in his bridal shop.

But I also wanna live in some of the Black history and the Black heritage of the lowcountry.

And so that's basically the main inspiration for this story.

So, it developed and it grew and changed over the years, but it still kept that same sweetness that it has today.

- Besides a great story, what do you hope that some of those readers who are not African-American or not Filipina, because that's the twist you give.

What do you hope that they learn from the story?

- I think that all novels teach empathy.

When we are able to as readers, engage and connect with the characters and their plights, in their struggles as they reach their goals of the narrative and as they grow and change, my hope as a writer is that the reader, regardless of their ethnic background, that they gain empathy.

So I think what I would love for all readers, no matter their racial background, I would love for them to have empathy for people who may not live the same lives that they do, for people who may not have to deal with like the same microaggressions that maybe people of color have to deal with every day.

- All right, tell me who your readers are, your first readers.

Like I'm talking about a draft one at home maybe a parent, a friend, a spouse.

Tell me who gets the first look at your work.

- The person who gets the first look of my work is usually my spouse.

And he gives me like a lot of like cut and dry feedback.

And when I write from the male point of view, he also gives me some helpful feedback on that.

So, he's usually my first reader.

And then I also have critique partners who are also writers and they read my stuff and they'll go into a little bit more detailed with my books.

And they'll like, go line by line and they'll say, oh, I love this or can you like add in a more description here?

Or things like that.

So, yeah, my husband and then my critique partners.

- Okay, I'm always interested in that.

And also you've already touched on just how long from start to finish it took.

And from that moment, whenever you were folding those clothes and you got that first line till the very end, whenever snapshot is in stores.

You said that's about 10 years?

- Yeah - Wow, that's a long time.

So are we talking about every night at the computer or just whenever you can?

Because you're a mom too.

How do you make that happen?

- Oh, wow, so that's a big question to answer.

So I wrote this first draft and when I wrote it back, like 10 years ago, my craft wasn't really on, it wasn't there.

I was new and I was learning.

And so I learned how to write a novel as I wrote this book.

And then I would submit it to writing contests or agents or editors.

And like every other writer, I would rack up my stack of rejections.

But after a while, I was kind of getting exhausted by the whole querying and submission process.

So I set it aside and I actually focused on other projects.

And I also got my masters in fine arts and writing.

- Oh my gosh.

- I'm a little overachiever.

- Yeah, it sounds like it.

Do you sleep?

- Yes I do sometimes.

Sometimes I do.

- Because we haven't even mentioned that you're homeschooling kids too.

This is just wowing to me.

So, do you set a limit for yourself?

Like I have to write so many thousand words a day or you just find pockets of time and make it happen?

- Well, I have like a pre pandemic and then a post pandemic.

- Yeah, we all know how that varies.

- Okay, so pre pandemic, I would go to the Y.M.C.A.

and they thankfully have childcare like two to three hours of childcare for members.

So, during that time, I would be writing in the lobby of Y.M.C.A.

So I wrote a lot of books that way.

And then pandemic happened and like, Y.M.C.A.

shut down, all kids activities shut down.

So I didn't really have a place to go.

So, during the whole year of 2020, I didn't write anything new.

'Cause I was still trying to find my way with doing edits and going through the editing process for this book and then like adjusting to quarantining.

So I didn't write anything new in 2020.

What I did do in 2020 was I brainstormed a story and I got a little, well, I can't say I didn't write anything new.

I did write like the first few chapters of a new book, but it wasn't like a finished novel, but I was still trying to find my way during quarantine.

Now, as we're like, the world is opening up again, I'm still waiting for my children to get vaccines, so I'm not really going to lots of different places.

But now I dictate my book on my phone.

So I have a dictation app that I use, I hand write whenever I can, in some pockets of time.

Usually I like to write and dictate while I'm writing.

I mean, while I'm writing while I'm walking, walking.

So when I walk and dictate and that gets me a lot of words.

So whenever I go on like long walks, I think.

- So you are those people who looks like they're talking to themselves, and like what is that person doing?

That's you, okay, so maybe those people are writing books, interesting.

- Yes, yes, I'm like walking around in my neighborhood.

Open quote, da da da da, close quote.

- Was writing a book always a goal?

Was it something that you had in mind because let's back up a little bit, I know I asked you a question, but I do wanna back up and say, people watching might say, that lady looks familiar.

Tell us a little bit about why that is so, and then whether you always wanted to do this.

- Well, I am also an actor and I started acting when I was around eight or nine years old.

So, I am a professional actor also.

My first big gig was getting a roll on Nickelodeon's, "The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo".

So I was a costar there on the role of Cindy and that show also featured the late Pat Morita.

So if anyone from the '90s watches any Nickelodeon shows, they may recognize me from that.

And then I took a little break to do like the mom thing and I tried writing and I tried my hand at that.

And then after a while, then I started auditioning again and I got some small roles in some other TV shows as well.

So, writing wasn't like my first path into being an artist, acting was.

And then as I grew older and I wasn't auditioning as much, I wanted to find another creative outlet and writing became that creative outlet, 'cause all you need is a laptop or a notebook, or now for me a dictation app.

- And I was also interested to hear you say that you do hand-write some, because I feel like I never hear that anymore.

Is there something kind of special about that pen and paper I believe?

- Yeah, I think what it does for me, is it allows me to just get all of the criticism, the internalized criticism out of my brain.

'Cause if I stare at like a blank computer and I say to myself, okay, write a whole book, like 75 to 100,000 word book or whatever, that's really intimidating.

But if I just have a notebook with a pen and I'm just writing, then I'm just writing and no one really has to look at it, I don't even have to look at it after I turn the page.

And it's just something to help me get that first barrier of criticism, that internal critic out of my head.

So, it's helpful in that way.

- Very good, tell me about your research process because you actually lived in Charleston for a short while.

So, you had that understanding of what life was like there, but what was your research process like for this book, or did you have any?

- Oh yeah, so as I worked on revising the book, so this may have been like years into when I first wrote like that first chapter, when I first got that first line, I started becoming more interested in Black history and Black heritage and especially as it related to Charleston.

But what I did was around like 2018, 2017 maybe, I started visiting plantations around the south just to get a feel for what it was like for enslaved people during the antebellum era.

So there would be people there called historical interpreters who would play or mimic those roles.

And then I would learn as I was going through and visiting the different plantations.

And what that helped me do was for writing like an own voices story for writing a story that features like people of color and I'm sharing that same identity.

It kind of helped me gain like a greater respect or deepen the themes of the book by doing that.

And so that's like one of the main things that I did.

Another part of my research as far as like more specific to Charleston was basically just my time of living here.

When I lived here, I attended a church in Somerville and I grew to love the people in the community.

And so I just really just wanted to write, write that way of life.

- And how about your character's names?

Can you give us any maybe secrets as to why you chose some of this?

- Okay, so Maya is named after Maya Angelou, so that's where I got Maya from.

Derek, I didn't really have like any kind of inspiration, I just liked the name Derek.

So I said, okay, Derek.

Jamila was another name that just kinda popped up into my head, I was like, I liked Jamila, yeah she looks like she'd be a Jamila.

And like when I pictured her in my head.

Pops is just Pops.

Yeah, the only one that, the only name where I was like, oh, I wanna name this person after someone, it was Maya.

- Okay, tell me about the readers who are especially readers of color, who are finding out, that this is a beach read that, I can identify with.

What kind of response are you getting?

- I'm really getting a really great responses, especially when I go on Instagram and all the bookstagrammers are on there.

- Oh, bookstarammers, I didn't know that was a word, okay.

- It's a whole community on Instagram, yeah, bookstagrammers all they do is talk about books, promote books, review books.

- Oh me, I have a new word, I should've known that by now.

- Yeah, bookstagram.

So a lot of the Black bookstagrammers, really love the story.

Some of the feedback that I've heard from them is they love that I feature sickle cell anemia in the book because they don't see a lot of novels that feature that, or have characters that have, or live with sickle cell anemia.

Some of the other things which they said that they liked is they liked the positive portrayal of a Black hero, a Black man.

'Cause a lot of times we don't see that, especially in like romance or beachy type stories.

So they love the positive portrayal of the Black hero.

Other things that they love.

They love to see Maya being in situations where she has to navigate living and working in like an all White setting with her Caucasian boss and dealing with like microaggressions and all of that.

And like the internal thought process that she has to go through or think about as she's like interacting with her peers who are her White peers in like the corporate world, corporate bridal design.

So yeah, they really liked that they can identify with all those things.

- Okay, so where do we go from here?

Is this the end of the story or does it go on?

- Well, for Maya and Derek, I would say that their love story, they got their happily ever after and they're done.

But I do have plenty of ideas and I'm working on one now for more love story set in the lowcountry.

- All right, tell us about your role as a mom and I'm sure reading and writing, you push that in because you're the teacher too all day.

So what kind of books are you reading to your children?

- Oh wow, so one of the books that my children have read is "A Lowcountry Bride".

So they've read that.

There's another book, I'm trying to think about it.

What's the name of it?

I can't think about it off the top of my head, but it's a middle grade fantasy novel written by a Black author and my son loved it and he fell in love with him, I can't, yeah, so that.

Then there's I think another middle grade fantasy.

My son really loves middle grade fantasy, "Ronan Boyle".

My daughter's reading "The Boxcar Children".

- Oh, great classic.

- Yeah, and she's reading the "The Baby-Sitters Club".

- Oh, I love those, now the newer ones or the older ones.

I love those older ones.

- Well, she's reading the newer ones with like the new covers, but I think the story, the older stories, but new covers.

- Oh, I got it.

All right, well last question is, I just wanted to know if you could name a teacher.

I didn't prep you for this, I'm sorry.

If you can think back of a teacher who may have inspired you in some way, sometimes I feel like my professors and even about grade school teachers every now and then it's like, I hear their voices talking to me and they're saying the same things that they said back then.

And you realize how it sticks with you.

Do you have a teacher that maybe you can kind of give a little shout out to for maybe some inspiration they gave?

- Yes, I would say my teacher, my western civilization teacher in high school, John O'Connor.

One of the things that he taught me was think for yourself.

So we would spend a lot of time in our classes, like reading, like all this like philosophy and history.

And so we would be inundated with lots of ideas and concepts and thoughts, but at the end of the day, he wanted us to form our own opinions and ideas about what we were reading.

So, the takeaway that he taught me, and which I keep to this day is think for yourself.

- Very good, all right.

Well, thank you so much for joining us here in Beaufort.

We look forward to what's next Preslaysa Williams, beautiful name and "A Lowcountry Bride", so we'll look for that.

Thanks so much for joining us and thank you everyone for joining us here on By The River, I'm your host, Holly Jackson.

We are gonna leave you now with a look at our Lowcountry Poets' Corner.

We'll see you next time, By The River.

(upbeat music) Diving Deep.

This is the season of our diving deep.

This is the time of the unveiling and this is my story.

I am mermaid since my birth, my first breath, my enchanted childhood at folly beach with long flowing brown hair, big brown trusting eyes and a shimmering emerald tail under the protection of my family and the sun.

But I loved the moon.

Her strong magnetic rays pierced my soul.

I longed to swim beneath the surface of the waves to the place where mysteries lie, especially in my dreams at night in the deep dark.

And I was not the only one attracted to hidden things.

There was a boy, a beautiful boy.

The one I adore, with the bluest eyes and raven hair, eyes that could drown you, collecting hearts like the little plastic green soldiers on his window sill next to the army green porch cots swinging back and forth rhythmically like the ocean.

Mesmerizing in his ability to both create a fortress around his life and invite you in at the same time.

And one day, this boy, this beautiful boy became a man, a thief, a pirate, (indistinct) love of innocence, gathering them like the shiny gold coins in his treasure chest.

He wore a web of deception with mist and fog, intoxicating and dangerous capturing us at our most vulnerable with a charm that hid his true identity.

Hoping we would forget, but mermaids, mermaids always remember every whisper in the air, every kiss stolen or given freely.

And we will always rise above every storm that seeks to remove our anchor, that seeks to shatter our peace.

This is the season of our diving deep.

This is the time of the unveiling and no one, no one is set free, truly free until every shadow and every act in secret meets the blinding sun in a moment of truth.

- I need to get this dress right, more than right.

I need to get this dress perfect.

Maya Jackson dug into the plastic bins, set a top her ironing board/dress design table in her tiny living room.

Yeah, an ironing board doubled as her workspace.

Once she made enough money, for her wedding dress design job, she'd buy a real work table, but this would do for now.

A wave of dizziness overcame her.

And she wiped the sheen of sweat from her forehead.

Not now she whispered, I have to finish this dress.

But sickle cell anemia flare ups, didn't wait for bridal gown designers.

10 to 15 years that was what the doctor had said.

She had 10 to 15 years left on planet earth.

Maya had to make the most of it.

(upbeat music) ♪ By The River is brought to you in part by, The University of South Carolina, Beaufort, learning in action discovered.

The ETV endowment of South Carolina.

Community Foundation of The Lowcountry strengthening community.

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at USCB.

The Pat Conroy Literary Center.