Featured Interview With Dorchelle T. Spence
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Growing up poor in the inner city neighborhoods of Memphis, Tennessee has given me a special story to tell. I have faced challenges, fought battles, and struggled mightily. I have watched others do the same. Now I’m sharing these experiences with you through a powerful new novel, No Less Worthy. It’s one that will touch you profoundly.
Although I love to travel, I have lived in Memphis my entire life. It’s a soulful city where great food, awesome music, and topnotch basketball soothe us and feed our spirits. This central authenticity, this inner tenacity, comes through in No Less Worthy.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have always loved to read. Initially, books provided an escape from my daily challenges and allowed me to see the world beyond my neighborhood. After a time, these stories started to speak to me, to motivate me, to show me that people in situations like mine – or even worse – could not only escape their circumstances but overcome them. These characters inspired me to be the best that I could be. That’s what I’m trying to do with No Less Worthy: show you that no matter what you’re going through, if you keep trying, then you’ll make it through and be better for it.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
The author who inspired me most is Barbara Taylor Bradford. Her novel, A Woman of Substance, was given to me the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. It was a pivotal time in my life and that book had a profound impact on me. After that, I read every book in the series. I loved the strong heroine. She faced so many challenges and made some very difficult decisions, decisions that impacted her family for generations. I respected her inner strength in dealing with those challenges – succeeding sometimes, failing others – and still carrying herself with dignity. I wanted to be like that.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Kathy’s life sucks and a fight with her mom confirms that nothing will ever change that. Teased at school and feeling like an indentured servant at home, Kathy leaves vowing never to return. Surviving that night on her own means coming face-to-face with the demons of her mom’s past and the uncertainty of her own future. Can she come to terms with her questionable ethnicity? With being fatherless and completely different from everyone else? Will Kathy continue her spiral toward the destructiveness of poverty, abuse, and low self-esteem? Or will she find a way out? And if so, what will it cost her?
No Less Worthy is a powerful coming-of-age story that has a little bit of every woman woven into the main character. If there is a message in No Less Worthy, it is that we’re all struggling with something – fitting in, measuring up, finding our own voice, something. Whatever that struggle is for the reader, I want that reader to know that she – or he – will get through it if she just keeps moving forward. Never give up on yourself.
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Can’t wait to read this! Dorchelle is a gifted writer and truly has a story to tell that will uplift and encourage women from every walk of life. I salute you, Dorchelle on your freshman novel. Keep ’em coming!