1 Author, 7 Questions: Veronica Chambers
You might know Ida B. Wells as legendary civil rights crusader, she was also a romantic young woman who loved to flirt almost as much as she loved fashion! Her life (and loves) are now brought vividly to life by Veronica Chambers in her new novel Ida, in Love and in Trouble! We got to sit down with Veronica to talk all about her writing process for this novel, and we even get a little glimpse into an inspirational night in Paris that involves Beyoncé and some literary mavens!
What was your initial inspiration for Ida, in Love and in Trouble?
I’m an editor at The New York Times and in 2020, I led our coverage of the 100th anniversary of suffrage, when women got the vote. Ida was forefront of that storytelling, so I began thinking deeply about her around that time. What did it mean to be an activist and how was journalism a tool for women to get their voices heard when they did not have the right to vote?
As I dug into Ida, I came across the diaries she kept as a young woman. I am such a big Jane Austen fan. And I love books like The Age of Innocence. And it kind of astonished me to realize that oh, Ida was all the things we think of—warrior woman, pioneering investigative journalist, suffragist—but she was also a young Victorian woman, very concerned with the idea of meeting a man who could be her match. I knew at that moment that there was something there for me.
Can you describe your writing process? Are you more of a pre-plotter or do you let the plot develop as you write? And how does that differ when working with the life of a real historical figure?
Soooo, first of all, I write every draft by hand. I also am a big fan of one sentence outlines. So I have dozens of these very specific writing pads where I’m just working and reworking the shape of the book. And then, of course, there’s all this historical research that changes things.
The hardest, hardest part was realizing that I needed to leave out a *ton* of real-life characters and moments that were part of her extraordinary life. I didn’t want to lose the reader so I tried to tighten the focus on a handful of characters they could really care about. Suitors like Isaiah Graham and Charles S. Morris but also real-life figures like Lewis Latimer, the American inventor and Frederick Douglass, who is this amazing father figure to Ida. But one she’s not afraid to argue with. I LOVE their friendship.
You bring Ida and her world of the post-Civil War South to life so vividly, while staying so true to the real-life history of her life! What was it like striking that balance between true historical fact and descriptive writing and plotting?
I can say with confidence that there were months when if I wasn’t working or taking care of my family that my head and heart were firmly entrenched in the late 1880s. I thought about and researched everything—from what Ida might have cooked and ate, to the fashions she might wear (she loved clothes!). She loved theater so I made sure to only mention shows that had come to Memphis, if I veered outside of the shows she mentioned specifically in her diaries.
She really did live in the Gilded Age, which is a wonder—and so much fun to write, and, I hope, to read.
What was your research process like? What was your favorite discovery during the research process?
Thankfully, there’s a lot of great nonfiction about Ida. My cornerstone was Paula J. Giddings’s amazing book, Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching.
I was 16 when I first read Paula’s work, and I remember sitting on the back of a bus and just weeping at the power of her words.
A funny story: I’ve had the good fortune to meet with Paula a few times. Last spring, it turned out a bunch of us were going to be in Paris for the Beyoncé concert. So the day after the concert, I organized a brunch for Paula and several other women I knew were going to be in town.
At the lunch, I gave a toast to Paula, talked about being in the midst of writing Ida, and I just BURST into TEARS. I couldn’t believe that I was sitting, in Paris, with this amazing woman. That I had just danced all night to Beyoncé. And that I was writing my first historical novel about Ida B. Wells. It was like Black Girl Magic on turbo. It was the best.
We need to discuss the ROMANCE in this book! Because it was swoon-worthy! Who was your favorite of her suitors to write?
Oh my gosh. Well, first of all, thank you. I loved writing Ida’s love letters and I have to say Charles S. Morris really felt like he was the one. Then Ferdinand Barnett came into her life, seeing Ida fully and offering her a chance at both marriage and a career in a way that I think few men of his generation could.
I loved writing the wedding chapter. It was a ground-breaking, momentous occasion so much so that Ida’s wedding made the first page of The New York Times. In 1892!
What’s one thing you’d like readers to know about the novel?
I make a playlist for every book I write. I still listen to the Ida one all the time—it has everything from Cassandra Wilson and Kate Bush to Tems and Fireboy DML.
A lot of times when I finish the book, the playlist is dead to me. But I love the Ida playlist; it’s a mix of songs that are all about dreaming, becoming more of who you want to be, falling in love, and being willing to take risks. I’m going to share it on my IG account soon, and I would love to know what songs people would add to the list!
What are you working on now? Any exciting ideas you can share?
My next historical YA will be about Josephine Baker. As many people know, she was a spy as well as a dancer and performer. I love spy novels almost as much as I love Jane Austen.
Graham Greene famously said, “A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.”
I’m working at my desk but I feel like Josephine is letting me watch the world in a whole new way.
Ida, in Love and in Trouble
For fans of Bridgerton and The Davenports comes a sweeping historical novel from bestselling author Veronica Chambers about courageous (and flirtatious) Ida B. Wells as she navigates society parties and society prejudices to become a civil rights crusader.
Before she became a warrior, Ida B. Wells was an incomparable flirt with a quick wit and a dream of becoming a renowned writer. The first child of newly freed parents who thrived in a community that pulsated with hope and possibility after the Civil War, Ida had a big heart, big ambitions, and even bigger questions: How to be a good big sister when her beloved parents perish in a yellow fever epidemic? How to launch her career as a teacher? How to make and keep friends in a society that seems to have no place for a woman who speaks her own mind? And – always top of mind for Ida – how to find a love that will let her be the woman she dreams of becoming?
Ahead of her time by decades, Ida B. Wells pioneered the field of investigative journalism with her powerful reporting on violence against African Americans. Her name became synonymous with courage and an unflinching demand for racial and gender equality. But there were so many facets to Ida Bell and critically acclaimed writer Veronica Chamber unspools her full and colorful life as Ida comes of age in the rapidly changing South, filled with lavish society dances and parties, swoon-worthy gentleman callers, and a world ripe for the taking.
