In writing Arlinda's story I made seemingly endless decisions about what information to include and what to set aside. I wanted to ground her life in historical context because she lived through genuinely momentous events.
For Once in My Life: The Authorized Biography of Arlinda Willis explores several motifs. A close second to racism, I believe, is distance.
Last year through the ManKind Project, I took two classes, Waking Up to Whiteness, and Unpacking Power, Privilege, and Diversity.
For almost 18 months, I helped Arlinda through her final medical journey. First from a distance, then in person. It takes a lot of physical and emotional work to stay by someone's side as their health declines.
The first chapter does a lot of heavy lifting for the book. It gets the reader situated with the story, setting up expectations of what is going to happen. This chapter out of all of them needs to be lean.
In writing Arlinda's story, I struggled to make her life relevant to someone in this day and age. She was a dancer on a television show that, due to its immediacy, became less relevant to the generations born after the show ended.
Arlinda handed me a manila envelope one day in 1995. I pulled out some modeling shots of Arlinda peering out from behind a telephone pole.
I asked her, "What are these?"
"I just wanted to have some shots for fun."
With the publication date of August 27, 2026 less than two weeks away, I am rushing to get the manuscript and book covers posted to the distribution centers, Amazon and IngramSpark.
If you are involved in the community, you can be the cause for change.
The manuscript is done. Done enough for now. I would be proud of the work if it was released today. To prepare for launch day, I sent out my manuscript for reviews.
When I started writing Arlinda’s anecdotes, I was fresh out of college with an English degree and a concentration in Creative Writing. I was young and felt like I had the skills to do her story justice.
If you work in the medical system, you can do your part to address medical racism.