Whether people are in love, looking for it, or none of the above, they have many opinions about it. Entrepreneur and debut author Karla Davis-Luster recently chatted with SBC about romance and writing in support of her new book The Woman Tells, which released earlier this year. The Chicago native, who respects the likes of Terry McMillan, Zane, and Tyler Perry, shared her thoughts on why she is drawn to romance.
“I think the closeness, the intimacy, getting to know you on a one-on-one basis, just the feel-good, the atmosphere,” Davis-Luster replied. “It’s easy—it can be easy if it’s something that you like. Not everyone is a romantic, I can say that. But those things, it just makes you happy. I think it’s something that you can grow with. It’s just all of those things wrapped up into one. I just love love, and I think love is something nice, something kind, compassionate.”
The Woman Tells explores coupledom and infidelity through multiple perspectives. The characters are candid, and in an interesting twist, their identities are anonymous. It was important for her to have the main couple as well as their mistress and paramour explain their side. “I wanted each character to speak to who they are and why they do what they do,” Davis-Luster said.
Davis-Luster always knew she wanted to write a book. She just didn’t know what she wanted it to be about. She got her answer when the pandemic hit. In preparation for The Woman Tells, she studied movies about relationships (Perry being one of them) and conducted many interviews with various couples.
“To me those [the interviews] were the most helpful with getting me prepared on what I was going to do because you got to talk personally to people that’s in a relationship,” the novelist said. “And the couples that I interviewed, I didn’t just do African American couples. I did a mixture. I interviewed interracial couples. I interviewed a couple of Caucasian couples…they all had the same questions. I wanted to keep what I asked each couple the same to see what kind of variances did I get from that.”
Watch the interview to learn more about The Woman Tells and Davis-Luster including her thoughts on friendships between men and women; love and dating during COVID-19; her book trailer and some of her dream cast for a film adaptation for her book; Black love; her advice for debut authors; some of her writing habits; and more! For more information, visit the official book and author website.