Episode 127: Micki Berthelot Morency, author of Island Sisters
Micki Berthelot Morency shares the inspiration behind her debut novel, The Island Sisters.
A story about four women from Haiti, St. Thomas, and Guam whose fates are bound together by culture, history, and most importantly, by a deep and irrevocable friendship.
The novel is told from alternating perspectives of each friend and delves into an important topic of domestic abuse.
A novel that Lainey Cameron in her own review called emotional, thought-provoking, poignant, and a tribute to friendship, and women’s strength to overcome.
Micki shares the roots of her inspiration, how she was influenced by moments when she helped homeless women, and where she got the idea for the gold bangles, that play a pivotal role in the novel. She and Lainey also chat about the intersection of cultural expectations, self-worth and abuse.
Check out the book club questions and Micki’s recipe for Soup Joumou (Haitian Pumpkin Soup) on Book Club Bites.
Books Mentioned:
The Island Sisters by Micki Berthelot Morency (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Dust Child by Que Mai Phan Nguyen (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Watch Que Mai Phan Nguyen’s podcast episode on Best of Women’s Fiction
Roxanne Gay’s Audacious Book Club
Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Daughters of Smoke and Fire by Ava Homa (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Watch Ava’s podcast episode on Best of Women’s Fiction
Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
(Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Full Disclosure: We are part of the Amazon and bookshop.org affiliate programs, which means Lainey or Ashley get a tiny commission if you buy something after clicking through from link on this website.
Connect with the author:
Transcript:
** Transcript created using AI (so please forgive the typos!) **
Lainey Cameron
I am so excited to be here with Micki Berthelot Morency. Because Micki, I got to read an early copy of this book. And I called it one of my favorite books of 2023. I already know that even though we're not that far into the year, because it's that good. I loved the theme of friendship, the idea of women uplifting each other and making each other better and empowering each other. Man, you nailed it. Congratulations. This is a phenomenal debut novel.
Micki Berthelot Morency
Thank you. Thank you so much. That really means a lot. And it's amazing. You use the adjective phenomenal. My my editor said that when she sent me the Edit notes, she said, that's a phenomenal read. Oh, this is what?
Lainey Cameron
Well, if folks don't yet know about this book, it's actually coming out in a few weeks from now. Why don't you tell them a little bit about The Island Sisters?
Micki Berthelot Morency
Actually, The Island Sisters launches June 20 2023. And it's the story of four island women. They are actually from different islands, Haiti, St Thomas, and Guam. Well, I'm from Haiti, and I've lived in Guams and St Thomas. So the book is about the four women meeting on a college campus and finding out that they share a lot of history in their childhood, of abuse. And so they forged this friendship that's going to carry them over the years to overcome a lot of obstacles. And their friendship is so strong that even when they're not in the same place, they are connected, you know, by that friendship, and it's very prominent in the book. And so that's basically what the Island Sisters is about.
Lainey Cameron
And I know in my own review, some of the words I used were emotional, thought provoking, poignant. And I think I compared the novel to Steel Magnolias, in that you've got this inter woven narrative of four women, and they've all got their own stories, and yet, they're all connected, like you said, I'm fascinated by your inspiration, like what gave you the idea to write a novel like this?
Micki Berthelot Morency
Well, the idea came from me having worked at a ong term transitional housing for women and their children. I will say of all the careers that I've had over the years, that was my most rewarding work, because I was able to get women out of homelessness into like home ownership. But the most important part of my job was to build them up professionally, emotionally, to be able to stand on their two feet and not have to rely on other people to make them whole. Because I've noticed that at the core of their issues of being homeless, there's always a man, there's always like a relationship that didn't go well. So they stay until they have to leave. And then so my job was to build them up. So that's where the inspiration for the book came from.
And I actually, also personally, know women, you know, we've gone through some really hard relationships. A friend of mine had called me to share with me something that was happening in her personal life. And I always rely on my journal. So I started writing. And I'm like, wait a minute, you know, this is happening to a lot of women that I know ,women that I work with just more from a journal entry to like, oh, maybe it's an essay, and then into a book, because I had the privilege of living in Guam and St. Thomas for a period of time. So I kind of like decided to use those settings because they were just so beautiful.
Lainey Cameron
One of the things that was interesting to me was how culture affected the women, they came from Island cultures and I thought this intersection of how your culture affects your view of what you deserve in life, how life is supposed to work out, and also how your view of what you deserve in life affects issues like abuse, if you don't believe that you deserve better or you believe that this is the best it can be, you're willing to put up with a lot that you should do better and you should move on. And so I thought you treated that so thoughtfully and carefully and was that hard trying to portray like the intersection of culture and women's psyche and how they feel about their self worth?
Micki Berthelot Morency
Personally, I've never experienced abuse. So I just want to make that clear. I mean, I was born in Haiti, I grew up with, you know, in a family, very loving family, and I'm married to a very, very nice men for a few decades. So I've never personally experienced it. However, growing up as a child, I remember seeing women, Lainey, running out of their home, with their clothes torn up. And then there's always a man running behind them. I noticed like everybody, like would go about doing whatever it is they were doing, and nobody would go to help her. Because it was so accepted. It was like a normal thing. But even as a child, I thought, wait a minute, children are spanked, not grown ups, you know. So, I already had a sense that I would never let anybody do that, to me. I wasn't even experiencing that as a child.
So yes, the culture definitely played a role in why certain women would accept, particularly when it comes to personal relationship, whether it's marriage, whether it's dating, there's this expectation, for example, that you need to be married. You know, I mean, being married is kind of like part of what makes you successful. Whereas for me, at a very young age, I'm kind of like a rebel, it's always about making myself better.
I mean, I wanted to go to college, I wanted to get an education, I wanted to stand on my two feet before I merged my life with a man, I've always wanted him to understand that I can leave because I have the means to leave. So so that's why I taught that to my daughters, because I'm a mother of daughters. You have to be okay with yourself. You know, this whole self love, self reliance, it, it was drilled into me to I mean, by my dad, who was kind of like a renaissance man, coming from Haiti, from his era. I mean, he really empowered us, his daughters, I have three sisters and myself.
So that’s where I come from and I share that, through my work with other women. In a way, it was hard to kind of re-live things that I've seen that I've heard, you know, even in my, in my own extended family, but then I also felt like, Okay, I need to write this down, I need for people to read this. And this happens to real people every day, everywhere in the world.
Lainey Cameron
These themes are very common across women around the world, being able to leave abusive relationships. And the idea that the women help each other see it differently. I thought you portrayed love in a lovely way, the best way to get over that is for other people to to kind of reflect back at you what you're doing. I thought you captured that really well. I am fascinated by the bracelets, they're the bracelets play, or the bangles, play a very key role in this book, right? They bind these women together, they get them when they're in college, and they keep them and they show up all the way through the book, they click them on the phone call, they cling to them when they're together.
Micki Berthelot Morency
When authors say, "I didn't know I was going to write that", I used to think, Oh, well, you know, how come? Well, one day I'm writing this scene in the beginning of the book. And it was Christmas, right? And I thought, Oh, well, they should be opening presents. It was their freshman year. And they don't have money. You know, they’re freshmen, they don't have money. However, one of the characters is from a very wealthy family, a very wealthy Haitian family. So she has money. And I thought, oh, wouldn’t it be nice if Monique would buy them something? And I'm like, oh, yeah, so bracelet. So that's how it came about. It was like a two minutes thing, like, and then I'm like, okay, so they're gonna wear the bracelet. So what are they going to do with the bracelets? So as they start going in different directions, you know, moving to different states going back home, and I'm like, oh, that bracelet is going to connect them just like the bangle has no beginning and no end.
Lainey Cameron
That's a brilliant lead in to a question I love to ask, which is, did the book change a lot during editing? It's interesting, because you've got four different stories, like, is there anything or a listener, hear someone who's going to read this book might be surprised is different than the original versions?
Micki Berthelot Morency
Oh, you know, the only thing I would say that was different is when I started writing the book. Now understand, this is my debut. And I had never done that before. So I thought I have to start writing the women as children in their home countries, you know, on their respective islands. So I kind of like overwrote the book, it was a lot before I understood that I can show them as children without starting with their mothers giving birth to them, right. A lot of that part kind of like stayed on the cutting floor, if you will, as you know, I mean, I may use it for something else one day.
Lainey Cameron
Before I ask you a little more about your writing advice, let me read a quote an early quote about the book, which I think captures in a really lovely way. It's from Hannah Summerhill, who's the co author of Real Friends Talk about Race and the co host of the Kinswoman podcast. And she says, “Morency's vivid writing transported me into the lives of Monique, Cecilia, Lanei, and Ella. The Island Sisters is a beautiful and wrenching story of family, domestic violence, and most importantly, the transcendent power of their friendship.” What a beautiful, beautiful quote.
Micki Berthelot Morency
It is a beautiful quote. And it really captures the essence of the book and the strength of the friendship that the women share, you know, regardless what they're going through, and they have gone through a lot, that they know that they can depend on each other, like the fights, you know, they have, just like, any relationship, they don't always agree with each other. I mean, there's jealousy because we are human. So there's that human element I want what you have, or my problems are not as, or yours are not as hard or difficult as mine. Mine is worse. I wanted to show that. I mean, they love each other, they support each other, but there are times they get on each other's nerves. I mean, that it's just normal.
Lainey Cameron
Which of the women do you most relate to? It's a hard question. I know, it's like asking you to pick a child. But is there one that as you were writing it, you found easier than the others?
Micki Berthelot Morency
Yes, Monique. And people who know me, Lainey, I mean, who have read the book said "oh, my god, yeah, you are like a Monique" To some extent, yeah, I'm kind of like direct and, and I speak my mind. And, and I had to learn that I had to learn that, of course, coming here from Haiti, I certainly I just want something today. And along the line of how when I came here from Haiti, which is an all black country, right, I came here and encountered a lot of adversities and obstacles. And I thought it was okay, because that wasn't my country that was at my land, that I was living in their country. Until I understood, until I was educated enough to understand, wait a minute, I belong anywhere. And everywhere that I happen to be. I’m kind of like a Monique, I learned to fight for myself.
Lainey Cameron
So let’s talk a little bit about advice. Do you have any advice? Is there anything you would say to your past self or people who are looking at you as a debut adn thinking how did Micki do it?
Micki Berthelot Morency
Well, you know how I did it, is I wrote as if it wasn’t going to be published. It kind of took the pressure off, you now. And I allowed myself to be vulnerable. And I allowed my characters to be vulnerable. So, I’d say write. I’ve always written, like I said in my journal, for the longest time now. Understand English is, like my third language. I actually wrote a , wrote a podcast about that, writing in your third language.
A lot of people had told me like, I couldn't do that. And I'm like, Well, yes, I can. But I started with, Okay, well, I'm going to write and if people read it, they read it. So don't put the pressure on yourself that I'm writing this particular piece, because I want it to be published. For me, it's a lot of pressure. But if I write knowing that, okay, I'm writing for me, I'm writing because I just want to give voice to these women that I knew. And whatever happen, happen, of course, don't give up. You have to persevere because, as you know, this is a tough thing to do. I mean, it's very competitive. It's very hard. You hear a lot of nos, and then you question yourself, the whole imposter syndrome thing. It's so real. Again, it comes down to Okay, I'm going to do it. And I'm going to try it. So if it works, it works. If it doesn't work well. So be it. At least I've written something that I wanted to write, of course, now that the book is actually going to come out. I get a little nervous. Are people really going to like it? I'm really putting myself out there. It's a little bit scary. Yeah.
Lainey Cameron
For those who are on the podcast, you can't see that I'm frantically nodding, saying yes, it is. It's really, really good. It's one of my favorite books of the year.
Micki Berthelot Morency
So I'm still dealing with it I think.
Lainey Cameron
It's interesting that you say that English is not the first language you learned because I would never have guessed that from reading the book. There is no, there's no sign anywhere on this book that English wouldn't be the first language you spoke as a kid.
Micki Berthelot Morency
No, no, I actually speak Haitian Creole. That's my first language. And then French because in French is still officially our language spoken in government in school. I was taught in French, in school in Haiti. And so when I came here, I spoke two languages Creole and French. So I had to go to English school. And so when, after so many years, you know, I think I do okay with it.
Micki Berthelot Morency
You know, it's funny. I remember, you know, when I was in school in Boston, because I have to tell you, when I came from Haiti, I finally landed in Boston in the winter,
and I came in a sundress and white strappy sandals. And people were staring at me on the plane and I thought, Oh, I must be cute you know, that's what it's doing. So when when we landed, and I look outside, and there was actually white stuff on the ground, I'm like, What is that stuff here? My first thought was ice. What is ice doing on the ground?
Micki Berthelot Morency
You know, I mean, where I come from ice belongs in a drink or on dead people. So that ended up being in the book, you know, don't like I had to put that in the book because I actually really thought that because I'm from Haiti, I mean, it's a tropical place. It's 90 degrees all the time. And so you can imagine how hard it was the whole assimilation thing it was very hard and I was a young teen and I wanted to go back home. But I didn't. I'm glad I didn't. I stayed. But I remember the first story that I wrote, my teacher said, Oh, that's a beautiful story. Would you read it to the class? I’m like, no, I wouldn't even like speak , I’m self conscious about my accent. And you know, our kids can be mean and, you know, make fun of you. So yeah, I went through all that. And so here is a woman who had experience I was bullied, you know, I mean, because just because so now I feel very comfortable in my skin, like who I am. And so I can write in English, so I write in English, because that has kind of become my language.
Lainey Cameron
It's interesting that two of my favorite books this year, your book and also Dust Child, and I always try really hard to see her name right and got it wrong, get it wrong, but Que Mai Nguyen. She's been on the podcast in the past, and she writes in English, Vietnamese is her first language. I love her book, too. You know, there's something about the soul of Vietnam and the way she gets it on the page, that's just amazing. And I got that same sensation of like living the characters lives as I was reading your book, like I think those are the books that I fall in love with, where I feel like I get to live someone else's experience, an experience very different to my own.
Last question for you. I imagine you’re a big reader, is there anything you like to read or you’ve appreciated recently?
Micki Berthelot Morency
Yes, I actually, I'm on a quest to like read diverse books. So I'm, I'm a member of Roxanne Gaye's book club called The Audacious Book Club. And she typically takes books from diverse authors. And I'm currently reading a book called Hijab, Butch Blues by Lamay H, that's not her real name, because she's a queal, devout Muslim woman. And that book is just amazing. And then the book I went before that was Daughters of Smoke and Fire by Ava Homa. And she has written the first book in English written by a Kurdish, female author. So I love to read books about cultures and peoples that are may never have a chance to visit, as you know, fiction, inform a lot. Look at my book, it's it's a fiction, but it's actually based on real events that happen to real people. I had just finished reading Age of Vice by Dipti Kapoor. She's an Indian female author, by having read that book before I went to India, it made it so much easier for me to understand what I was seeing what I was smelling, eating, and feeling. So I would urge people to like read outside of their own identities, because there's just a big world out there.
Lainey Cameron
You know, Ava has actually been on the podcast in the past, and we talked about her book and the struggle of the Kurdish and yeah, it's a great book. I'll put it in the show notes, too.
Micki Berthelot Morency
I love her book, yes.
Lainey Cameron
Yeah. Before we wrap up, is there anything I haven't asked you, that you especially like to talk about relative to this book, or relative to your inspiration or your writing life?
Micki Berthelot Morency
The Island Sisters actually is the very first manuscript that I had written. I wrote it like I said, it wasn't necessarily like, Oh, this is going to be a book. I just wanted because because I just wanted to, to write about the lives of these women. But I was ready to kind of like write number two, manuscript number three for the proverbial drawer because I didn't think it was going to be picked up. So it did, which was amazing to me, because I have to say, that wasn't necessarily my, my expectation was okay, I know I need to buy three or four manuscripts before, you know I'm gonna have something out there. So yeah, blew me away that that was the very first thing I've ever read. But I have since written a second book. So and working on a third.
Lainey Cameron
Last question, where can folks find you if they want to know more, but the novel and they want to follow your progress and more of a book in the next books?
Micki Berthelot Morency
I have a website. It's mickimorency.com. And I'm on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, as MickyBertholetMorencey. I have a newsletter that you know people can sign for from my website, I really only send one out like every two months, because I'm so busy, I don't have time, you know, like, fill people's inbox with that just because so that's where I can be found.
Lainey Cameron
I'll put all the links on the website at www.bestofwomen's fiction.com. And I'm excited for everybody to get their hands on this book. It's coming real soon as this episode comes out, and folks can preorder it now. We wanted to get you in before the end of the season. So we had you come a little bit before your book releases, but it's already already up there and available for preorder.
Micki Berthelot Morency
Well, thank you so much. That was so much. I enjoyed it, and I appreciate it. I was so excited to be picked up to be on this podcast.
Lainey Cameron
If folks don't know, we get hundreds of applications each season for only 10 episodes. So it is a big deal. When we pick an author to put on the podcast that means it's a book we are truly excited about and recommend that our listeners read that,
Lainey Cameron
I feel so special, Lainey. Thank you.