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Leslie Gray Streeter is the author of the new novel Family & Other Calamities. She also has written the memoir Black Widow, and is a columnist for the Baltimore Banner. She lives in Baltimore.
Q: What inspired you to write Family & Other Calamities, and how did you create your character Dawn Roberts?
A: I actually created Dawn in a screenplay I wrote when I was 23, that no one ever read but myself and my twin sister, who kind of had no choice.
I was a little baby journalist with aspirations to go to film school, and this woman not unlike me emerged – a smart, talented soul at the beginning of adulthood, trying to balance her own dreams with the expectation that she was always going to do the right thing for other people.
Dawn was originally a singer in a band led by her dashing boyfriend Joe, who’s very clear that he’s the star and she’s backup. She meets an aspiring talent agent named Dale who convinces her that she deserves to be in the spotlight, and at the end she must decide if she wants to be the nice, reliable one or the leading lady, both musically and romantically.
Decades later, when I was looking for ideas for my first novel after the publication of my memoir, Black Widow, I combined some things I knew very well – grief, journalism, and Dawn.
Now, she’s a successful Los Angeles journalist in her 50s, Joe is a former friend who stole a story from her in their youth that he’s ridden to international fame, and Dale is a star entertainment manager.
But now, Dale has died of cancer, and Dawn is headed back home to Baltimore to bury his ashes. She makes an unpleasant discovery – Joe is back, too, making a movie about his celebrated story. And she’s the villain.
I could not have predicted, when I created Dawn 30 years ago, the turns that my life would take. But some familiar themes remain. It’s still about figuring out the version of yourself that is really you and not what people expect of you.
You’d think it would be easier to figure that out in your 50s, but age, regret and hard lessons are not guarantee of that. Dawn is still learning and changing, and I love that this is possible at any age.
Q: How was the novel's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The title was a suggestion of my agent, Alex Glass, after many, many creative ideas from me that were close but no cigar, so to speak. It was perfect, because in Dawn’s case, her family is a calamity, in part, of her own making.
Although they’re pretty outspoken in their own right, Dawn’s decision to leave her sister Tonya, the whistleblower in her big story, high and dry, has driven a wedge between them. Coming back to bury Dale’s ashes, she also must deal with her family-in-law, including Dale’s brother Brent. They’ve never liked each other.
But trying to prove all these years later that Joe stole her story requires the assistance of all those relatives she’s burned bridges with.
In real life, I’ve found that your story about how you fit into your family probably differs greatly from theirs, because you’ve created your own narrative. Having to unravel and reconcile that is the hard work.
Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Dawn and Joe?
A: In a word? Complicated. In more words? They’re people who used to genuinely care for each other back when they’re young and hungry.
But Joe’s early rise as a wunderkind is threatening to peak, and once he realizes that Dawn doesn’t understand how good she is, he exploits the really stupid decision she makes to tell him about this big story she’s working on. That’s reporter 101 – don’t ever do that. And once he opens that door, he’s choosing his career that he thinks he’s destined for over her.
Over the next several decades, they loom large in each other’s minds – for Joe, Dawn was a necessary stepping stone who couldn’t hack it, and for her, he’s both the betrayer who ruined her job, but also the impetus for leaving town with Dale.
They’ve not had to deal with each other until Joe writes this movie to rescue a career he’s afraid is flagging, and dirties Dawn up in case she’s tempted to claim the original story. Somewhere in there, they respect each other’s work. But there’s so much hurt and nastiness there.
Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: The story changed so much – at one point, Joe and Dawn had dated when they were young. But the more I wrote, and the more that Eddie the cute photographer emerged, it became obvious that he was perhaps the one that got away, at least before she ran away with Dale.
In a lot of ways, making her and Joe platonic friends makes the betrayal even deeper – they have chosen to lean on each other as fellow purveyors of the truth, and then one of them lies. A lot. The one constant was always Miss Vivi. She was always my mysterious diva soothsayer with lots of wisdom and many capes.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am working on a few new novel ideas, as well as some fun pop culture nonfiction stuff, which is my bread and butter. I do too much, historically, so I may write them all. We will see whose voice is loudest.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: My first book was published a month before my 49th birthday, and my second will be released two months after my 54th. I’ve been writing all my life as a journalist, but it’s been so rewarding and challenging to discover a new way of telling stories. It’s never too late to do that!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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