Former Sex Columnist Raina McLeod on Her New Book & the Crazy Miami Party Scene
Entertainment
The US produces over 300,000 books yearly—but books written by black women, about black women, occupy just a slim margin of that, despite the demand for those voices and storytelling. Getting these stories published and reviewed by major publications is where the obstruction lies: the 2014 Women of Color VIDA Count, which amasses over 1000 data points from world-renowned journals, publications, and press outlets yearly, reveals the truth of just how far the industry needs to go.
Enter author Raina McLeod. She’s no stranger to bold and ballsy stories—having penned a sex and relationship column for the Miami New Times, where she was also Arts and Culture Editor, and as an editor at NBC’s Feast. This year, she compiled the fruit of her experience, and her passion for enticing and provocative narratives, in her first work of fiction, the independently published novella Death by Misadventure.
Inspired by Amy Winehouse and her untimely demise—the title refers to her official cause of death—follows the life of fictional character Bobbi Dahl and her sheets-entangled, alcohol-drenched, and designer fashion-clad nights. Spanning just 77 pages, it’s the first in a series of four novellas; McLeod pulled from both first-hand experience and the accounts of women she’s met along the way, so Dahl’s benders feel real (“Long black strands, some straight and some kinky as my roots” sums up a more than a few of our partying college nights), while her portrayals of loving and dating in this modern era are so spot-on that you can’t help but smile and think “Yes girl” in your head after reading. For instance: “I didn’t always answer, though I did spoil Him with reasonably timed responses when He texted.”
That’s the beauty of the story—the moments we maybe cannot relate to (like Dahl’s boyfriend having all the coins in the world) are still not that far-fetched. The calming-down of a woman who once spent all her money on party tops and skintight dresses, who traded nights out with the girls for nights in with him on the couch, being unsure whether or not it was the right decision most steps along the way, read as though McLeod laid bare some women’s early twenties experience. And Dahl’s blackness is something that lies at the foundation of who she is, but doesn’t separate her from so many of the struggles that women all over the world face: the way Elizabeth Bennet and Fermina Daza are relatable whether or not you’ve been a white British woman in the early 19th century or a Colombian woman who has lost her husband.
Jezebel spoke with McLeod about her impetus to write this story, her cautionary advice to women who are partying-and-bullshitting their way through life, and her approach as a feminist author.
JEZEBEL: The title of your book is pretty macabre. What led you to want to write this story and the inspiration behind its name?
Raina McLeod: When Amy Winehouse died, her cause of death was “death by misadventure.” Officially, it means an accident, or a mishap. But I took it as: the combination of partying, drinking, drugging, body-mod, and lovesickness that killed our girl. In Miami, that’s just another Tuesday night. The girls in my stories are baited with pills and potions and discarded when someone prettier lands at MIA Airport. I knew it was the perfect title for my book.
Which books and authors inspired you when you were growing up and coming into your own?
Toni Morrison and Roald Dahl definitely had a big effect on me. So did cereal boxes, Narcos captions, and the small print on Neiman Marcus receipts. I like to think it all seeps into my brain, melds with my writing, and comes out of my fingers like Shake Shack soft serve.
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