*As a book that has a strong female lead, has sold thousands of copies and has drawn interest from those who would like to translate it into a film or TV show, “If She Were Blind” has already achieved an amount of distinction most authors only dream of.
Author Laney Wylde describes how she came up with the soapy elements of the legal thriller, which tells the tale of Estlyn Collins, a young black woman in Santa Monica who sets up her legal service, After Twelve, to work outside the courtroom to bring to justice those the criminal justice system has failed.
“I had just completed a manuscript for a novel that my beta readers didn’t like”, said Wylde to EURweb during an exclusive interview. “Going through the self-indulgent ‘I’ll never write again” melodrama that followed, I asked my husband if people would read a book about a woman you could pay to get revenge for you. He took my self-pity wine away and said, ‘Yes. Definitely. Write that.'”
As her vision for Estlyn came into focus, Wylde began adding many layers to the character – specifically what makes her who she is and why she does what she does.
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“At first glance, Estlyn looks cutthroat, self-serving, and cunning. I mean, she profits off the desperate, those cheated by the justice system”, said Wylde. “But, Estlyn truly sees herself as the ultimate scale-tipper, even outside her job. For instance, she chose her career path––and even her college major before that––because people she loves can no longer work in those professions.”
“She’s loyal to a select few”, Wylde continued. “Everyone else is a means to an end, and she has no qualms about using people if it’ll get someone else the justice they deserve.”
“It’s hard for me to say I determine what makes Estlyn who she is”, she added. “I give most of my characters a back story and a basic desire, and let them tell me who they are from there. Yes, it is artsy nonsense.”
What isn’t nonsense and something Wylde knew and took seriously is that she wanted to make the lead of “If She Were Blind” – and any subsequent books she may write starring Estlyn Collins – a black woman.
“I grew up in a conservative environment with lots of subtle racism. Whenever the news showed an unarmed black man gunned down by the police, my family, which would later include a police officer, said that they got what was coming to them because they were running away. But… why weren’t officers using tasers at close range?”, Wylde asked. “How (I thought) could the officer in my family defend Trayvon Martin’s killer? He wasn’t even a cop.We even had cops beating and kicking a white guy out here in San Bernardino after the chase was clearly over, (but) I didn’t have an environment where I could ask these questions without coming across as valuing black lives over blue, or, worse, ‘liberal.'”
“I realized that this series was an opportunity to challenge my own racism by stepping into the skin of a character who was not only black, but who had life experiences and beliefs that differed wildly from mine”, Wylde continued. “Sure, I wanted white people like me to read it and see a new perspective, but my original motivations weren’t to make some statement or have an influence. They were personal. I felt an internal incongruance that I wanted to work out by empathizing with a group of people whose fears and pain I had learned to dismiss.”
“If She Were Blind” is slightly more soapy than a straight action/courtroom yarn and Wylde said that is intentional.
“Absolutely”, she said. “I proudly write smut with purpose”.
After laughing a bit, she elaborates on what she means.
“Real talk, there are a lot of white, conservative-raised people – like me – who will pick up a romance novel or thriller, but have no interest in reading about systemic racism, inequality in the justice system, or police brutality”, she said matter-of-factly. “Within the first few chapters, ‘If She Were Blind’ doesn’t appear to be about any of those. Once it does, I’ve had some readers flip this switch from loving it to recoiling in offense. So it’s sort of a bait-and-switch, though that feeling of guilty pleasure stays consistent throughout the entire series.”
Early on in the book, Estlyn has a one night stand. In today’s PC times, any element like that written about a character – but especially a black woman – is put under a microscope and runs the risk of offending the communities they are representing.
Does Wylde think about such things?
“All. The. F*cking. Time”, Wylde said with emphasis. “The one-night-stand plagued me with thoughts of ‘Does that portray her as an over sexualized Jezebel, perpetuating a centuries old stereotype?’ and ‘Why isn’t she allowed to have a one-night-stand because of a stereotype? Isn’t that unfair?’ and ‘Screw it. It’s necessary for the story’.”
“Each time I wavered over stuff like this, my friend Lizzie would tell me that I was treating black people as ‘others’ and would ask common sense questions like, ‘How would you feel if you were Estlyn?’ and ‘Isn’t this a universal human experience?’ and ‘Can’t you just relax and write your damn story?’ Once I stopped panicking, the book flowed pretty easily.”
“However, I recently finished writing Book Three of the series, during which I was paralyzed with fear of offending just about everyone because some of the risks I took”, she added. “So, that anxiety over misrepresenting or outright insulting never goes away. I figure though, if I really screw up, I can apologize, I can learn from it, and I can do my best to make it right.”
Another possible controversial part of the book is that Estlyn said she gets “paid to ruin other people’s lives”, but it winds up being more complicated than that.
“After Twelve id where people go after twelve jurors have failed them, though Estlyn also does cases in which the law or karma has let clients down in other ways”, Wylde said. “I know the whole vigilante justice thing has been done before, but I liked the idea of having a character who is resourceful and intelligent enough get retribution without resorting to violence. So, After Twelve is a legal firm that works in and outside the law, and definitely by referral only.”
“It’s hard for me to point to one thing that inspired the idea, but I’ve always had this craving for justice and outrage when I see people denied it”, Wylde continued. “So, I think writing a book like this was sort of inevitable. It was just one of those stories that I had to tell.”
Wylde uses a unique literary device in which different parts of the story at different times are told by different characters. She said she did so for a very specific reason.
“The main reason I did that was to capture Michael’s (Estlyn’s deceased lover) story with as much integrity as possible. There’s no way I could have told it from any perspective but his own”, said Wylde. “I also love the contrasting voices of Cal (Estlyn’s new paramour) and Estlyn, how they view their relationships differently and I think it adds this tension for the reader that a third person narrative would without losing the intimacy of that first person voice.”
From the cover art and attitude, Estlyn looks like she was modeled after a certain “Scandal” star.
“Okay, so full-disclosure, the cover art was inspired by the documentary 13th, because that was the first work that opened my eyes to persisting racism in our country”, said Wylde. “Sure, Estlyn is a Kerry Washington type, but I based her look off Zendaya. As the series unfolds, I think it becomes clear that Estlyn is much softer than she appears in ‘If She Were Blind’. I love me a kick ass female lead, but I never neglect that vulnerable side either.”
“But, I’ll say this: it’s for people who like steamy romance, irreverent humor (which only half of readers find funny), and fast-paced politically themed stories based on current events. It’s a weird mix.”
So, what does the title, “If She Were Blind” mean to Wylde?
“‘She’ is Lady Justice”, she said. “The title refers to white privilege in our justice system.”
“To me the conflict in the book and the main theme is that Estlyn wants justice justice for someone she loved years before the first chapter, and the person she screwed over wants to hire After Twelve to screw her over, not knowing After Twelve is her”, she said laughing. “A lot of the conflict in the book stems from Estlyn trying to outrun this and cope, however poorly.”
“The most prevalent theme is that of the lack of justice in Estlyn’s life and how it represents racial injustice on a grander scale in American society”, Wylde concluded. “It’s a systemic problem, with few seeing it and even fewer trying to solve it––one of those few being Estlyn.”
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