A faithful wife for over thirty years all Anna Manning wants out of her divorce is the house where she raised her family. The only thing Edward Manning refuses to give her is—the house.
After a year of battling he abruptly chances his mind. Knowing him too well, Anna seeks the source of his sudden change of heart. What she discovers reroutes carefully laid plans for her future. It also opens the door to candor and insight from her children who will share their points of view regarding their parents and their own relationships.
Utilizing strong characters Ms. Floyd skillfully draws the reader into an intriguing story of what happens when we allow others to disrespect us and the consequences suffered by others because of it.
CHARACTER SKETCH: Meet Serine Manning
Have you ever wondered how a writer comes up with her characters? Author Anjuelle Floyd provides a peek inside the profile of one of the Manning’s children.
Like individuals in life, protagonists are known by the company they keep. The supporting cast of a story or novel reflect aspects, most often shattered, of the narrative’s main character.
Interactions with these characters unearths undiscovered aspects of personality, often times flaws, that the stand or lay too close upon the central character and thus out of range of their awareness.
I recently read an author’s statement that, “Plot is but an externalization of the central character’s deepest internal conflict.”
While on the surface, Anna’s dilemma sits squarely with Edward’s infidelity throughout their marriage. Coupled with her decision and her ultimate achievement of gaining his agreement to her requested divorce, and that they sell the house.
At outset of the The House, we see that Anna, in fact gains more than for which she fought. Edward does not simply agree to the divorce, he deeds her the house to do with as she chooses.
Anna has many choices. She could have divorced Edward, and sold the house. She could have sold the house and not divorced Edward. She chooses to focus on Edward and her children. In so doing, she does not divorce. She does not sell the house.
The night after of arrival Serine, Anna and Edward’s youngest child, puts many questions to Anna concerning not just Anna’s decision to divorce Edward, but mainly Anna’s desire to move to France.
One can only imagine the experience of having been the youngest child of a four, in a family where the father, thought responsible and loving of the children, had shown infidelity to their mother in the midst of providing well for his family.
My youngest daughter recently expressed fear and concern about her father and my husband choosing to abandon us. Her anxieties rose from having seen him in a bookstore reading Playboy Magazine.
He happened to be reading and article on football, something she did not see. Her eyes and attention had remained firmly focused on the cover containing a provocatively dressed, or perhaps undress woman.
Our youngest daughter is eleven. Where the middle child or children present as the rebels, to that of the elder serving as the mascot and carrying the family banner or the royal standard, so-to-speak, the challenge of youngest children is gaining respect from those elder and eldest to her or him.
They want not only to be heard, but their words considered and weighed not so much for actual and literal truth, though they possess that too, but ultimately the emotional truth their words and ideas, observations and imaginings bear not simply for themselves, but for the family at large.
No, my husband is not having an affair, something I pointed out, not by saying it, but in stating, that if her father was having an affair I wonder how much time he was spending with this person, or how he ever got to be with them since he is always so busy doing things with and for her and her two older sisters, and for me.
On considering my question, our youngest child grew calm. I had presented a perspective of which she had been otherwise unaware. I also pointed out that the magazines about which she was speaking are usually wrapped in plastic and kept out of the reach of minors and children her age.
My husband has a continual physical presence in our family. He likes being home and talking with the girls, hearing what they have to say, playing board games and watching movies, television shows and sporting events with them. He also likes to be near me when I am writing. Often times he lies on the couch in our study while I write in the wee hours of the morning.
Our daughters know this, have seen this occur.
And yet my youngest held this concern when observing him read Playboy Magazine, to which she had attached certain meanings that held instability, disrespect, and lack of love and commitment.
Out of the mouths of babes...
The youngest child in a family stands in a unique position, one that allows them to observe the various machinations within a family that seal and protect it, and sadly, many times, rips it apart.
WIN A FREE KINDLE!
To celebrate the release of her novel, The House, author Anjuelle Floyd is offering a (1) Kindle Wi-Fi (retail value: $139.00) as a part of her promotional blog tour. A WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED DECEMBER 1, 2010.
Anjuelle Floyd is a wife of twenty-eight years, mother of three, licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in mother-daughter relations and dream work.
A graduate of Duke University, she received her MA in Counseling Psychology from The California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco. She has attended the Dominican Institute of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, California, and received her MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, Port Townsend, Washington. She has received certificates of participation from The Hurston-Wright Writers’ Week and The Voices of Our Nations Writing Workshops.
A student of Process Painting for the last decade, Anjuelle has participated in The Art of Living Black Exhibitions 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 held at the Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California.
Anjuelle facilitates writing groups and provides individual consultation of fiction projects. She also gives talks on The Need for Family, the Writing Process as a Path Toward Self-discovery and Healing.
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Kadir Nelson, one of this generation’s most accomplished, award-winning artists, has created an epic yet intimate introduction to the history of America and African Americans, from colonial days through the civil rights movement. Written in the voice of an “Everywoman,” an unnamed narrator whose forebears came to this country on slave ships and who lived to cast her vote for the first African American president, heart and soul touches on some of the great transformative events and small victories of that history. This inspiring book demonstrates that in gaining their freedom and equal rights, African Americans helped our country achieve its promise of liberty and justice—the true heart and soul of our nation. 
THE OTHER CITY 
