The Why in Why I Write with Yvonne Battle-Felton -95

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Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:01

Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us 15 minutes of your time and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know your new favorite author in a new light. I'm Shawna Rodriguez, one of your hosts, a fellow author, host of The Grit Show and Authenticity Amplified Podcast, and the founder of of Authentic Connections Podcast Network, which makes this podcast possible. Let me tell you a little about today's guest. Yvonne Battlefelton is an author, academic, host, creator, producer, and writer. Just a couple of things to keep straight there. Her debut, Remembered, was long listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2019 and shortlisted for the Jelich Prize in 2020.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:57

She is a winner of a Northern Writers Award in Fiction in 2017. Yvonne has 6 titles in Penguin Random House's, The Lady Bird Tales of Superheroes, and The Lady Bird Tales of Crowns and Thrones. She has received a British library Eckley Centre fellowship and a Camillo fiction fellowship. Yvonne is a senior commissioning editor at John Murray press in the UK and academic director of creative writing at Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education. She's also the host of Write Your Novel with Yvonne Battlefelton and Bookable Space. Her second book, Curdle Creek, an American Gothic, about a sinister town with a strict population policy, will be published in October 2024 this month coming out very soon. So y'all need to make sure you're pre ordering that. There will be a link in the show notes with dialogue books in UK and Henry Holt in the US.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:01:53

And we are so excited to get to know her a little bit today. Welcome, Yvonne. Thank you for being here.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:01:58

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so looking forward to talking to you.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:02

Yes. So the first thing we start off with every episode is for you to tell us something interesting about where you are from.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:02:09

You know what? I never know how to answer this question because when I think of where I'm from, I was born in Philadelphia. I was there till I was like 4 or so. I really can't say that I'm from Philly. And I grew up in South Jersey and spending weekends and summers and holidays in my grandmother's house in Atlantic City. Oh. He also moved to Somers Point, New Jersey, which is still South Jersey. And then we lived in Sweetwater, New Jersey, which is still South Jersey, but just very rural. And if I had to pick a place that Curdle Creek had reminded me of, it would probably be Sweetwater.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:02:43

When I think of where I'm from then I lived in Maryland for 20 years in Baltimore before I moved to the UK. So I think an interesting thing about where I'm from is that I'm from quite a lot of places, and I still don't know where I would consider a home.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:58

Oh, that is actually very deep and very interesting. And how have you been in the UK now?

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:03:04

We've been in the UK for 12 or so years now.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:03:07

Yeah. That's a considerable chunk of time. But you still but you feel like you're from East Coast, Central East Coast, Northern East Coast?

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:03:17

I do feel like I'm from East Coast. I feel like if I was to go back to the US right now I have no idea where I would go. But I do think it would be somewhere in the north and somewhere on the East Coast. Then even in the UK, I live in the north of England, and we are considering moving closer to Cambridge so I don't have to commute as much, which is in southern east.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:03:41

Yeah.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:03:42

But even then, yeah, I move a lot, I think.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:03:44

It sounds like it. And it sounds like with Cordele Creek and, like, some of the area that there's more rural pieces, even though, like, you kind of referenced some more, like, you know, Philly, some more urban areas, but, like, more rural even in the east.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:03:57

Definitely. So when I look at Remembered when I debut, part of it is set the 19 10 set of part of the book, which is the present narrative is set in Philadelphia. And then the past of that is set in Maryland. So I felt like I played around a little of those places that even if I fictionalized, like, parts of Philly for that book. And then for Coral Creek, I think it's more the feeling of Sweetwater that I mean, it was a rural town, especially living there at a time when we had been used to when I say me, my sister and I had been used to slightly larger towns or slightly larger cities, so that Sweetwater felt very remote. And it felt almost I remember always considering it like Little House on the Prairie. Even though we didn't have a farm and there was a farm that was, like, nearby, there was one main street, and thankfully we lived on it. And the other ones were, like, dirt roads and stuff like that, and it always seemed like a great place for a murder.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:04:53

I love that. A great place for a murder. I can see that. So this is a good lens into your childhood.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:05:01

I thought, you know, it's a shame. Like, my childhood was really good. Like, I had you know, there were things going on, of course, around the world, but I had a really good childhood. I had a really Mhmm. Good relationship with my, my family, or at least, like, with my mom and my sister and I, you know, fought as sisters sometimes too. So there's nothing I could pinpoint to be like, when did murder mysteries become so interesting? And I have to say, they partially maybe it was like reading Nancy Drew and stuff like that. But if you I don't wanna use the word blame, but I think a lot of it has to do with that long, windy road and the creek that was on Sweetwater and its ability to smell like nothing else, like eggs. And it was, like, reddish water.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:05:47

And if the sun hit it, like, just right at the right time, there'd be, like, fog, like, lifting up into the air. And it looked, I guess you could say beautiful, but also just really sinister.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:06:00

Yes. Ominous and sinister. I definitely see that. And I love that your imagination can, like, find those pieces from your past and find their way into your books. I love it.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:06:10

They definitely do. I think they haunt my books in a way. Maybe it's because I'm always thinking about home and what that's like and where that is, that these snippets of the past will come through. And I think I write about them to kinda figure out what they're trying to tell me.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:06:25

Yes. That was fabulous. And so my question for you was actually, how would one of your siblings or your sister, how would she describe you growing up? Like, what would she if she was gonna describe the young version of you, what words would she use?

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:06:38

Well, sir, as the younger sister, I think she would probably describe me as a bit of a terror. I I believe I was most likely her nemesis. Sometimes her, like, coconspirator, but other times, it would just seem like anything she liked. I like the opposite. Anything she wanted to do, I wanted to do the opposite. Even if I wanted to do it at the time, if my mother said, oh, you know, if as long as you agree on the movie, then we can, you know, go to this movie. We would never get there because there was no chance I was gonna agree on the movie even if it was what I would have been. Like, I see I remember going to see, like, quirky and best or something.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:07:14

I think it was some it must have been a lot of different plays or musicals or something. And I went with my must have been not even middle school, so, like, grammar school. I've been here too long. I'm like, is it primary school? But, like, so I can't even remember what age I would have been, and my sister's 2 years older. Mhmm. I went, and singing was never quite my thing, which didn't make me stop doing it. And I was singing the song and as many songs as they had for this whole production, there was, like, two lines that I remembered from Ricky and Bess. And I don't think they would've I would've forgotten them eventually, except that it annoyed her so much that I would be able to sing these two lines. And, like, and I would sing them, like, you know, like, drag them out and do high notes I had no business doing and low notes and be like, la la la la.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:08:05

Like, it was just hilarious to me. And she would tell she'd tell my mom and be like, she's singing. But you know how ridiculous that sounds. Right? Like, she'd be like, mom, she's singing. So what was my mom gonna say? She's just like, what are you talking about? She's singing. Let her sing. And it was so hilarious. I wasn't even trying to sing well and hadn't, like, I had no motivation to because it was just, like, striking every nerve of hers.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:08:30

I don't know if she remembers that. It would crack me up if she could ever forget it though. But I do think even if she did forget it, then all I'd have to be like is, Martha, and, like, the the hairs on her, like, on her neck would just rise up.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:08:47

So she was your earliest psychological experiment in torture, essentially.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:08:53

Definitely. Absolutely. Definitely. But it's great because she's, like, my biggest supporter now.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:08:58

Aw.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:08:59

Yeah. It's just so lovely, but she and my cousin, though, were also the reason that I really wanted to go to school. And we were living affiliate at the time. My sister is 2 years older. My cousin was 1 year older. And they would tease me about going to school and how they were learning to read and learning to write. And there I was, like, scribbling and coloring and, you know, like, outside of lines and being all reckless. And I was like, they would look this for I mean, every day, every day, every day, and I would just get so upset.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:09:28

And then when they got to go to school that year, like, the next year they were ready to go, and my mom was like, we were gonna go. And I guess by we, she met them. Uh-huh. At the school, they called their names, and they called all the kids a name. So we were in there, we were waiting, and they didn't call my name. And I was like, what's going on? I was crushed. And I would like I did with anyone any responsible, respectable 4 year old would have done.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:09:58

I cried. And like and then the the administrator came over and was like, if if I could take this test if I could pass this test that would prove that I was, I guess, like, ready to go to school, then they would, like, let me go. But I had to pass the test, and I was like, okay. And that's enough said. And I took the test and passed it, and I got to go to school.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:10:20

Oh, which is amazing. That's quite exciting.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:10:23

All because my sister and my cousin teased me about not being able to go to school. I just might be more competitive than I thought.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:10:32

You might just have a slight competitive edge. There might be a little bit of competitiveness there. That is an awesome story, though. I love that story. That's fabulous. I love how you, like, you made that happen. Like, you're like, no. I won't be tortured.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:10:43

I will make things happen based on this.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:10:46

Exactly. I think that, like, I wanna say that they didn't think that I would pass it. I think she thought that, you know, she's poor, and she's clearly not ready because she just she's having this meltdown.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:10:57

Yeah. This meltdown would show. Yes.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:10:59

And it wasn't just, you know, like a little cry. It was like a full on, like, with the, you know, it was a full body cry. I embodied the cry. And, like, I felt that no. And so I don't know who she thought I was, but she learned that day.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:11:13

She you showed up. You showed up and showed them who you are. I love that story. I love that story. And it's actually really good to experience your emotions fully. So that was a good life lesson that experience emotion fully and then showed up and made things happen because you experience that fully. I love it. It's a good life lesson.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:11:30

Exactly. Who was gonna cry for me?

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:11:32

You did. You did. I love it. So tell us about your book. So tell us about Colonel Creek and a sentence or 2.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:11:41

Colonel Creek is a story of a Saira, who is a 45 year old wool follower of Colonel Creek. And until her luck runs out, she believes everything that she's told, and she doesn't begin to question anything until her luck runs out. So it's a story about finding a home, finding out who you are, but also finding yourself maybe at 45 years old.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:12:04

Oh, I like that. I definitely like that. And so tell us I wanna hear more about your journey with genres, because it sounds like you've touched on a few different things. Can you tell us more about your journey with your writing around that?

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:12:17

I actually started writing murder mysteries when I was first writing, and I loved them. But it was also I was working through some things emotionally and working through a relationship, and I can't tell you how many times he died fictionally, but he made a habit of dying. And it was wonderful for my soul and for my creativity to be able to just work things out on the page. And then once, like, that relationship, like, truly ended, I actually felt like maybe I don't need to write murder mysteries anymore. So it was weird. It was it had done its thing at that time. And then I was writing short stories and remembered is historical fiction. And I always knew that was gonna be historical fiction because it started with question.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:12:58

And I wanted to know how families might have reconnected after the emancipation, but also what happened to the people who never found each other. So I had so many, I think, unanswered questions that I wanted to explore. And I wanted my characters to kind of answer these questions in ways that were logical to their individual journeys and personalities and circumstances. So Remembered was kind of always going to be that it was not always going to be a ghost story as well until my mother-in-law was saying, I'll read anything you write as long as there's no ghosts in it. And I felt like this is one of my characters who I loved. I knew she was gonna die because I had this image of her on flames in flames, and I knew that she couldn't survive it. And Mhmm. It just seemed like it was painful.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:13:50

I cried. I was so, like, upset about that, but also felt like it was outside of my control. And I was thinking, I'm not ready to say goodbye to her yet. Like, her story, even though she doesn't get to live and tell it, it just doesn't seem complete yet until she said that. And I'm like, oh my gosh. Yeah. Good idea. So that one became a bit that.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:14:10

And then with Colonel Creek, I initially thought I was going to write about the 1919 Tulsa Race Massacre, and then I realized I could not emotionally write about that or write about that experience. I couldn't write that book. And I also felt like it wasn't my role or my aim to traumatize or retraumatize the, descendants of people who had lived through that trauma. Mhmm. So for a lot of reasons, I realized that that wasn't the book I was gonna write. And then I had been writing some characters. A friend of mine here in the UK had given me a chance to write last fiction for a crime anthology that they were doing for an organization called Common Word. And with that one, it was inspired by the lottery.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:14:55

Yes.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:14:56

And You know, when you read Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, there's no sense of ethnicity or even, like, age. And I thought, like, it means it could be anybody and anywhere, and all the characters can be anything. And I really like that because it's like you can step into even though it's not the sort of story you wanna be in. But you could, like, set yourself or the characters could be anyone. There was room for everyone. But then I looked at the YouTube version of it which of course she, you know, wasn't involved in. But in the YouTube version, it was everyone was white. And I'm like wow, like where did they even get that from? Like why? So then it made me ask like well what would happen if it was a similar structure but it was in an all black town and that's what helped me to write Colonel Creek.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:15:37

It was just imagining. But I wanted my characters to be able to have a full range of emotions to be capable of doing like, good things for bad reasons and bad things for good reasons, and, like, just to really enjoy writing it. And so that's when it became definitely more and more gothic. And then the things that the characters were doing to each other, the things they were willing to do to each other made it actually more and more gothic horror than I had initially thought it would be. But I love how it took these twists and turns. There was in some of the drafts, there were, I guess elements of humor. I can say that they were things that I wrote that cracked me up at the time. And then the editors, we were like, about the humor, could you like, you know, maybe dial it down a little bit? And then sometimes I'd be reading it, that's like, what humor? Just don't see it.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:16:30

And it was like my own writing. And then other times I'm reading it and going, what was I thinking? I have no like some of the things that I like had to take out because I just they were so complicated and so complex.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:16:40

Yeah.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:16:41

That it was like all these rituals and some of them only made sense to me. But I think more and more just kind of working through lists and memory and identity and belonging and all those things, maybe it was always gonna be a bit of gothic horror.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:16:57

Yes. No. That's so fascinating. I love, like, how much of you and your perspective is in it and how it, like, grows around that. And I think that readers always understand that amazing journey that authors go through that bring together that it's not like authors are genre specific. They're like, they bring themselves to the story, and then it kind of fits into all these other pieces that bring it together. So I'd love that you took us on that journey.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:17:21

Thank you. And you're 100% right. When I first this short story that it was inspired by that I wrote, she was much younger and it was her, it was Osyraa and her best friend, although her name was different then. And they were on the cusp of their first moving on. They were 16 in both versions and then writing the novel, I'm like, why would I write a book that's like, I'm not 16? And so, I definitely wanted them to be older because don't or at least I don't always get to see characters who are like close to my age, just exploring and having adventures at being the protagonists and being like just all these different things I wanted for her. And I thought, well, who's gonna write that? Who's gonna write that story that has someone my age doing, you know, different things and outside of all the different roles we might have. And who's gonna write that for me? Well, I have to write that for me.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:18:12

No. That's amazing. I love it. And I'm so excited. I'm so glad that, like, it's coming out any day now. And so folks can preorder it and have the satisfaction of having it very soon. So thank you so much. What is the best place for folks to find you and connect with you and keep up with you and your adventures?

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:18:30

Well, I feel like I'm all over social media in places I have no business being. So I am on X as Y Battle Felton, and I'm on Instagram and TikTok as @whyiwritebattlefelton. So @whyiwritebattlefelton. I'm even on Substack. So, yeah, if you and I have a website, www.yvonnebattlefelton.com. So please, I love when people connect with me and I love getting to know people through stories, but also I feel like that's how people get to know me is through my stories.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:19:02

That's perfect. And we'll definitely have all of that in the show notes so folks can follow-up with you. And so our final question for you is what is the story or book that's inspired you most?

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:19:13

I would probably go with Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I feel like it's one of these books that I can read and reread at different points of my life, but I could find something in them either as a writer, a technique that I wanna try as a reader, as a person, something that touches me. But it's also that reminder that sometimes it's not always about you. And I sometimes need to be reminded of that. So that's what that book does for me.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:19:40

That's so wonderful. Thank you for sharing that, and thank you for being here. And congratulations on your latest book coming out. And it has been lovely to chat with you, get to know what you, so thank you for being here.

Yvonne Battle-Felton [: 00:19:50

Thank you so much for having me. It's been such a thrill to talk to you.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:19:56

Thank you for joining us. I hope you take a second to give us stars or a review on your favorite podcasting platform. It really makes a difference in folks being able to find us. We'll be here again next Wednesday. Follow us on Instagram at authorexpresspodcast to see who's coming up next. And don't forget, keep it express to keep it interesting.