Season 7 Episode #20 My Debut Novel: A Journey of Purpose, Culture, and The Orange Blossom

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What happens when a folktale whispered by your mother becomes the novel your heart can't stop writing? In this deeply personal episode, I pull back the curtain on my transformation from educator and podcast host to debut novelist with "The Orange Blossom."

For years, I've carried the story of the Orange Vendor Woman—a Liberian tale about finding your purpose and refusing to be diverted from it. This story became more than just a teaching moment for my student teachers; it became the seed of my creative rebirth. When one student teacher named Angel gifted me a painting of oranges, little did she know she was planting the visual reminder that would eventually bloom into my first novel.

My manuscript journey wasn't without its struggles. Those first 33 pages sat untouched in my Google Docs for three years while self-doubt whispered in my ear. But with the encouragement of my mastermind group and a transformative writing retreat, I developed a disciplined writing routine complete with character mood boards, family trees, and personalized playlists for each character. The novel spans decades of Liberian history, honoring the multidimensional nature of my culture that too often gets flattened in Western narratives.

This isn't just fiction—it's preservation. "The Orange Blossom" is my love letter to Liberian women, to our resilience, and to anyone questioning their path. Sometimes our purpose isn't flashy or loud; sometimes it's sweet and sun-ripened, just waiting to be harvested. Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly updates as we approach the fall publication date, and join me on this beautiful journey from classroom to bookshelf. Your support means everything as I step into this new chapter of my creative life.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey friend, welcome back to the Cultural Curriculum
Chats.
I'm your host, jeva Edmondseducator, storyteller, podcast
host and now debut novelist.
Yep, you heard me correctly.
Today I'm taking you behind thescenes of something deeply
personal my journey riding theorange blossom.

(00:22):
My Journey Riding the OrangeBlossom, my very first novel
inspired by Liberian folktalesand a woman's quest to find her
purpose.
This episode is for anyonewho's ever had that story tug at
their heart, waiting to be told.
I'll share how this novel cameto life, what inspired it, how I

(00:43):
stayed motivated and what itmeans for me and hopefully for
you.
Let's get into it.
I've always been a storyteller,whether I was teaching in a
Title I school, giving DE&Iworkshops and cultural
curriculum insights to schooldistricts, or chatting with you

(01:04):
here on this podcast.
Stories are the center of mywork, but the orange blossom be
with my mom.
She shared this beautiful storyof a woman who was an orange
vendor in Liberia and I willhave the link of the story so

(01:24):
you can learn more about it inthe show notes.
I did a little TED Talk stylespeech about my purpose as a
teacher and that will give youmore of the background of the
Orange Vendor Woman, the themeof the Orange Vendor Woman story
was to find your purpose andnot let anybody divert you from

(01:47):
what God had in store for you.
And so, 10 years ago, I had astudent teacher named Angel.
Yes, angel, shout out to you,girlfriend, isn't that the most
fitting name?
She was a beautiful artist.
She still is doing her art, andshe gifted me a painting of
oranges.

(02:07):
It had a beautiful turquoisebackground and just bright
orange with the slices.
Because when she heard thatstory before I helped her get
through the course of studentteachers, I would do the
tradition of sharing that orangevendor woman story with all of
my cooperating student teachersat the university and the

(02:29):
biggest question for them is tosay you know, is this truly your
purpose?
Is to teach our futuregeneration.
Let's buckle up and let's workon this, and I will guide you
through this together.
Angel was so touched by thatOrange Vendor Woman story that
she was inspired to paint theseoranges for me as the end of the

(02:54):
year gift After she was donewith her student teaching
semester with me.
She gifted me this as her thankyou.
And, angel, I'm thanking youbecause that painting is still
on my desk in my home office andevery time I look at that
painting, I think of you, mydear, that painting that was

(03:15):
looking at me, created by Angel,a real angel.
It really made me think tomyself three years ago what
happened to the orange vendorwoman story.
If I could create a novel thattalks about the orange vendor
and the people she encountered,what would that look like, sound

(03:37):
like and feel like?
So I love a good fiction and Ilove coming up with these
characters that aremultidimensional to create
something profound.
If you are curious to hear morestories like this, subscribe to
my weekly newsletter where Ishare behind the scenes author
updates and inspiration to helpyou infuse culture into your

(04:01):
classroom and your life.
Head to wwwjebaedmondscom tojoin our list.
When I sat down to write thisbook, I started it three years
ago and I was so nervous.
I had a lot of self-doubt, Ihad a lot of what will people
think?
And all this stuff.

(04:21):
So I actually wrote 33 pages ofthis novel three years ago.
Yep, I had it in my Google Doc.
It was just looking at me whenI was doing all the things for
my company and working on myslides and all this stuff.
It would still have the OrangeBlossom, a novel by Jeba Edmonds
and I'd look at that coversheet and I was like, ah, not

(04:43):
today, not today, not today.
And so I it really sparkedagain a fire in me this last
fall when I looked at that samecover sheet and I said, you know
what, jeb, let's go.
And I had a lot of help with mybusiness mastermind group.
We meet once a month and Istarted that journey with them

(05:05):
last fall and they really, youknow, stoked that fire in me and
saying, jeb, you already wrote33 pages.
Like who can say they started anovel but you need to finish it
.
And so they challenged me andthey also encouraged me.
I went on an awesome, awesomewriting retreat in the beginning

(05:26):
of this year.
Shout out to you Diana O'Shryke.
She is an awesome author.
She already published her ownmemoir.
And so we went up the shore,spent the weekend in Grand
Marais in northern Minnesota andwe kind of sketched out what
does this plot look like?
And Diana helped me create anoutline.

(05:47):
I had my vision and I evencreated my main character.
Her name is Jovia and she wason her journey of purpose.
So I knew she came from aLiberian family like mine, but
very different, and I alsowanted to honor my home country
of Liberia.
Too often African stories aretold from outside perspectives

(06:11):
and I wanted this to feel likehome from the food, the cadence
of our dialogue, to thegenerational wisdom passed down
from a grandmother to hergranddaughter.
I needed a reminder that my ownpurpose might not always be

(06:31):
flashy or loud.
Sometimes it's sweet and lowand sun-ripened, just like an
orange blossom.
So I got to writing y'all.
I blocked out time every dayafter that writing retreat and I
would dance.
I even made a family tree of mycharacters.

(06:52):
I even went to Pinterest ohyeah, I love a good Pinterest
board and I found all thesestock images of characters,
which would be stock images ofpeople African people from
Pinterest, and I would have thecharacter's name and a stock
image so I could visualize whothat person looked like and

(07:15):
elements throughout the story.
You know, using my five sensesand stories that I heard from
relatives and anecdotes andthings that I've researched
about Liberia's history.
And how did I weave that intothe multitude of characters?
So I've got Jovia, I've gotBoykai, I've got Beatrice, I've
got Kebe, I've got Fula, I'vegot Peter and many more, I've

(07:37):
got Ma Eliza, and each of thesecharacters were on this
beautiful page, big butcherpaper, and I had elements of the
textures, the outfits that theywore, archival pictures of
Liberia at that era of the 70sto 2011.
And that's the framework ofwhere my book plot takes place.

(08:02):
And so, you know, having awriting routine was so important
to my discipline.
So many people are like, jeb,is there anything you can't do,
girlfriend?
I said, well, let me get backto you on that.
But I was really disciplined onfinishing this book.
So every chapter, I would, youknow, just block out just a
couple hours, looking at myoutline of what the character

(08:23):
was and coming up with scenesand playing music.
I love music, especially whenI'm writing, and so I would have
a playlist of each charactery'all.
Yes, oh, I went really deep inmy character development and I
would play the soundtrack ofthis character and I would write
in that character's positionand their cadence and how they

(08:44):
would walk and talk and enter aroom, and I really had so much
fun.
It got to the point where myhusband oh, he was so supportive
he would text me and say, okay,when you're done with the
chapter, text me a picture ofyou with your finger.
You know that showed thechapter that you finished, so I
sent it to him.
I sent it to my mom and mysisters and my you know business

(09:07):
mastermind group and they giveme fun little memes and keep
going.
Jeb, you're almost done and Ifinish my manuscript this May
May 5th and I sent bookproposals to lots and lots of
publishers and I met withindependent publisher Heather
Wild.

(09:27):
She owns Hezzy May BookPublishing and she's just
amazing.
I pitched my book in threehours and that evening I signed
my contract.
It just felt good.
We were aligned with how wewanted this book to be launched
into the world and this book iscoming out y'all this fall, when

(09:47):
I was going through the processof writing, like I said I would
write, you know, monday throughThursday took Fridays off and I
had a big chunk of time todiscipline.
You know I had everything on DoNot Disturb any client work it
would be after my writing andreally had that space where the

(10:08):
kids were at school, hubby wasout of the house at work and I
could really really hunker inand, you know, bring my
characters to life.
There are days I'm gonna tellyou straight up, no chaser, that
I stared at the screen unsureof you know what the story would
make it in the end, how itwould end.
How do I tie things together?

(10:28):
But the support of my communitymattered so much.
I would share snippets withtrusted friends on a text and
they would give me so muchencouragement.
And, ooh, this is juicy Jeb.
I can't wait to read more andthat's what kept me going.
You know, and if you arelistening, you are in my space,

(10:48):
in my community.
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you for keeping me going.
And speaking of motivation, ifyou are an educator or creative
ready to center culture in yourwork, check out my mini courses.
There's all kinds of coursesthat talk about empowering your
BIPOC students and who's in theRoom are courageous

(11:09):
conversations about race.
It's a wonderful mini courseabout understanding power
dynamics, learning how race,privilege and identity affect
who is included in our criticalconversations and
decision-making processes.
So you don't have to be aclassroom teacher to take these
courses, but if you are aneducator, there are lots of

(11:32):
wonderful courses for you.
If you are a community leaderor working in an organization,
or even a small business ownerwho wants to do the work
intrinsically for themselves, goto my website, jebedmondscom,
and you'll see all of thedescriptions on the website to
help you be that advocate forpositive change.

(11:54):
So why does this story, theOrange Blossom, matter?
It's more than a novel.
It is my love letter toLiberian women, to our
resilience, to anyone who's everquestioned their path, and it's
a reminder that our stories,especially those passed down
across generations, are worthtelling and preserving.
And I want readers to walk awayfeeling seen, nourished,

(12:16):
engaged and a little more spicyafter they read it.
Trust me, y'all, this is notfor the kiddos.
This is for the grown people,you know, ready for the beach,
having their coffee, sitting andreading or listening to me,
because you know I'm going toput an audiobook into this,
because you know you likelistening to my voice and just

(12:38):
really understanding thatLiberians aren't a monolith,
that we are multidimensionalpeople and there's humor in us,
there's strength in us andthere's a path of moving forward
, and I'm so excited for you toget a copy of this book.
So I'm in the process right now.
I just met with the coverdesigner.

(13:01):
Shout out to you Shani.
She is a wonderful graphicartist who is going to design
the cover of my book.
I am so excited.
We had a wonderful meeting andI'm in the stage right now of
editing and polishing up my bookto get ready to publish.
My goal is to launch OrangeBlossom before the end of the

(13:21):
year, but I will continue toshare some sneak peeks and
reflections every Tuesday in myemail newsletter.
So sign up.
I have the link in the shownotes so you can sign up and get
updates every Tuesday.
And hey, if you are enjoyingthis episode, please leave a
review on Apple Podcasts orSpotify.

(13:43):
Your feedback helps others findthe show and it supports my
transition into authorship.
Yes, you know it.
Thank you so much for beingpart of this journey with me.
Whether you're a teacher, areader, a fellow creative or all
three, honey, your presencehere means the world to me.

(14:04):
Until next time, keep learning,keep listening and keep
honoring your story.
Bye-bye.