Nationally Acclaimed Author Visits Warren Campus, Discusses Novel Writing

Diane McKinney-Whetstone, author of the best-selling novel Tumbling visited the Warren County Campus on Nov. 22 and talked to literacy students, staff and visitors about writing novels.

A Readers & Writers Program grant funded McKinney-Whetstone’s visit to North Carolina. This is the fifth year VGCC has hosted the program, which sends quality current writers to rural communities.

McKinney-Whetstone is a Philadelphia native and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She has received numerous writing awards and her work appears in magazines as well as books.

Tumbling is a portrayal of urban life, and she followed it up with the acclaimed novel Tempest Rising. He third novel, Blues Dancing, was released Nov. 3. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and teen-age twins.

The author told her audience that she was working for a government agency when a friend asked her if she was writing. McKinney-Whetstone said she was writing in her job, but the friend told her, “If there is something creative inside you and you don’t let it out, it will make you physically ill.”

McKinney-Whetstone said she began writing a couple of hours very early each morning, and the words just “tumbled” onto the page. Tumbling is based on the neighborhood in which her mother grew up in Philadelphia, a close community.

“I got so involved with the story and the characters that I lost touch at times with my daily life, and my family got concerned,” she said. But she persevered and, after two years of work, Tumbling became an artistic and financial success.

She quit her job and now writes full-time. With Tempest Rising and Blues Dancing published, she is working on her fourth novel.

Members of the Adult High School Education class at Warren Campus read Tumbling and Tempest Rising in anticipation of McKinney-Whetstone’s visit, and they presented readings and skits about the books. Kristie Ventura of Warrenton presented a time line of real life events that occurred during the years that Tumbling covers, and Carmen Chase of Ridgeway and Jenny Felts, a Human Resources Development student from Norlina, performed a skit based on two characters in the book.

Jacquette Wilson of Ridgeway read an excerpt from Tempest Rising about the death of one of the characters and then read a re-write she had done which kept the character alive.

The students and other visitors then asked questions about McKinney-Whetstone’s writing habits and techniques and offered comments on her characters.

In the photo above, acclaimed author Diane McKinney-Whetstone, at left, signs a copy of her book, Tumbling, for Kristie Ventura of Warrenton, an Adult High School Education student at Vance-Granville Community College’s Warren County Campus, during the writer’s visit Nov. 22. Jacquette Wilson of Ridgeway, standing, awaits her turn.