And so I think, “I’m entitled to ask for people’s time and attention for this book because it’s not about me.” One reason I like historical fiction is that it helps me feel like my ego isn’t a part of it: It’s like I’m a vessel for my protagonist’s story. I’m quite a self-critical person, and very aware of what other people think of me. It was only when I started writing my first novel, “River Sing Me Home,” which is set in the Caribbean just after the abolition of slavery, that I found my voice. She’s very generous with her advice but, because she’s so independent, she’s also a big advocate of leaving me to deal with things myself. Even before I started reading her work, the way she spoke shaped the way I use words - carefully and deliberately. She was caught up in traffic behind an accident, and when she told the police she was attending a home birth, they mistook her for a midwife. Eleanor Shearer: Jeanette got a police escort so she could be there when I was born.
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