Respect UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

Black people, do not sneer at Uncle Tom or his creator, Harriet Beecher Stowe.

The 1800s were an era of intense abolitionist fervor in the United States. Half the nation had read about the horrors of slavery, but it took one final spark to light the tinder of the Civil War, and that spark was a book called Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1851.  Uncle Tom, as portrayed by Stowe, was not a rebel, but a saint, a Christ figure, an obedient, God-fearing, forgiving man who tried to serve all of his masters well, no matter how cruel they were. Fiorella, who read Uncle Tom's Cabin in her youth, cried when he died at the end of the book and vowed to speak up against racism whenever she encountered it, and so did many readers in the 1800s. As Abraham Lincoln said when he finally met Stowe. "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!"

So Fio repeats--black people of today, do not sneer at Uncle Tom or his creator. They provided the impetus that set you free.

Like Mother, Unlike Daughter

Whenever Fiorella's mother had to go in for surgery, she carefully explained to the medical crew that if she used vulgar language when she was under anesthesia, it was because she had been reading Steinbeck.

If Fiorella spouts vulgarities when she's under, she hopes someone will write them down so she can use them in a book.

The Three Shocks of Fiorella

The road to becoming a published author is a learning experience--a rough one.

Fio's first shock was when her agent asked for revisions.  Revisions? Didn't Liza sign Fio on because the book was perfect?  After all, it had been written out of Fio's heart and soul.  But heart and soul don't always sell so Fio revised, and her book became deeper because of it.

Fio's second shock was when her editor asked for revisions.  Fiorella went into shock for two weeks before she even attempted to follow through.  But again, editors know what sells.  And Fio was not being asked to change the plot in the least.

Fio's third shock was when she leafed through the book after it had been published.  Ye Gods!  Why hadn't she noticed she'd used the word "children" in two successive sentences?  And that the construction of the sentence on the following page was so clumsy that she changed it when she was giving a reading?

Now you know why authors drink.