Category: Kristen Terrette (2024)

​#1. What was the inspiration for this book?
Watching a documentary started it all, revealing the little-known historical facts of the massive role Mississippi landowners played in the Civil Rights Movement and Freedom Summer. In the 1930s, sharecroppers became some of the first black landowners under Roosevelt’s New Deal and became essential to the civil rights movement. The documentary is called Dirt and Deeds in Mississippi (https/vimeo.com/ondemand/dirtanddeeds/). As I watched it, I couldn’t help but think, there’s a story here. And this thought led me to think about all the families before and after 30s and 60s this would’ve affected. And so, the story of Mia was born.

#2. How long did it take to finish writing this book?
Six months.

#3. What drew you to write in this particular genre?
Not sure, but I’ve always read a lot in this genre, and I have two teens myself, so that could have impacted my desire to tell a story they needed to hear.

#4. Do you have favorite character(s) in this book?
Not really, but one character is super witty, so I’ll say him— Drew.

#5. What do you hope your readers will take away with them when they read this book?
Holding unforgiveness and bitterness is never the answer. It only causes more pain.

#6. How did you name your characters?
I love asking on social media what my characters’ names should be. I find visual inspiration for what they might look like, toss out some options, and see what my followers decide. From there, I make sure every first name in my stories begins with a different letter. Because I write timeslips, there are a LOT of characters. So I will fill in the characters’ names based off what letter if the alphabet isn’t taken yet.

#7. Tell us something funny, sad, embarrassing, whatever, that happened involving this book.
There are so many characters (because the story goes “back” in time) that I had to keep a very accurate Family Tree for BOTH sides of Mia’s family. It was hard to remember the names I’d given each character without going back to it. The family trees, both maternal and paternal, made it into the book!

#8.Tell us a little about yourself, your family, friends.
My husband and I have been married for twenty years by the grace of God. We have two kids, one in college and one beginning high school next year. I’ve been doing ministry in some capacity for over fifteen years. I am also a literary agent with Martin Literary Management, and I love every minute of working with my clients (fellow authors) and playing a role in their dreams coming true.

#9.If you could change one thing in your life, past or present, what would it be?
I really wouldn’t change anything. But if I had to answer, maybe sticking with writing right from the start versus having four careers before I committed to writing and joining the publishing world full-time ten years ago.

#10.What one piece of advice would you like to give readers?
Something that I still work on everyday— Holding bitterness inside is like a festering disease. Release it and forgive! And, what you see or hear or even think is not always true.

​All you need is a spark.
​
When people find out I’m an author or have read one of my books, I’m often asked how I came up with the story. My answer is always the same. They all begin with a spark, a small idea, sometimes even taking root first in a remote corner of my mind, that says, “There’s a story there.” And that one spark lights, then it quadruples, over and over until it ends up a bright and thriving fire.

The spark forFences Left Brokenwas a documentary from 2016 called Dirt & Deeds in Mississippi which told of “the largely unknown and pivotal role played (in the Freedom Sumer Movement and the Voting Rights Act) by black landowning families in the deep South who controlled over a million acres in the 1960s.” This documentary was fascinating and linked generations who had no idea just how important they would end up being in a much-needed and changing time in history. Black sharecroppers who benefitted from an agricultural program during Roosevelt’s New Deal became landowners overnight. Skip ahead a few decades, and these same landowners, or their heirs, had the power to force change.

In the sixties, Mississippi law said that if you were a landowner, you could vote, which opened doors for black families. But, also, these black landowners had leverage. Land was king. Land was also collateral. So when Freedom Summer came along and the wave of black Southerners tried to register to vote, these black landowners had a unique advantage.
Blacks and whites who were volunteering for the Freedom Summer Movement were arrested, often on bogus charges like disrupting the peace and put in jail. But guess what? Black landowners put their land titles up as collateral and got these people out on bond.

Even crazier, out of the hundreds of arrests and bail bonds issued that summer, not ONE failed to follow through and appear in court. Not ONE person charged with a bogus crime was found in default, their bail revoked, and the bond kept. This means not ONE black family who put their land up as collateral lost it.

Historians have gone so far as to say the success of Freedom Summer and the result of the Voting Rights Act wouldn’t have been possiblewithoutthese families risking it all for the sake of justice and equality.

This documentary was my spark. I got to thinking about these families. They were real people, now generations of people, living in these intertwined communities. What would this have looked like through the years? What became of these families? Where are they now?

And the rabbit trail of my mind began. That spark ignited, and I followed it, outlining potential events that could have happened to families in Mississippi before and after the 1960s, and it all led to my main character, Mia. AndFences Left Brokenwas born.

I hope you enjoyed learning some little-known history, and a little tidbit of my writing inspiration. And I hope you are curious to find out more about Mia’s story!

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