“Lileala exhaled, and lassos of light, like spinning golden yarn, swooped around the Kclab weapons and hurled them into the murky pond. Before they could run, the light enveloped them. They screamed, but with each scream, the loops pulsated and tightened and whisked them higher. Whirling and somersaulting, their bodies became trapped inside luminescent ropes that held them thirty meters above the ground. They screeched, pleaded and cursed, but Lileala held on, humming and glowing, unfurling more and more bushels of energy.” –Denise Crittendon, Where it Rains in Color
Newsrooms were literally worlds away from where Denise Crittendon imagined a gift for storytelling to take her. The founding editor of BLAC Detroit magazine’s predecessor, African American Family Magazine, Crittendon also held posts at the Detroit News, the Kansas City Star, and she was named the first woman editor of the NAACP’s civil rights magazine, The Crisis.
But none of her award-winning journalistic achievements satisfied a deep, creative yearning to bring characters of supernatural breeding and their paranormal adventures to the pages of a book. In November, Crittendon’s debut fantasy/sci-fi novel, Where it Rains in Color, was named winner of the Nevada Author Project, held in the state where she relocated a few years ago. The competition, which generated 1,200 submissions, is held in partnership with literary organizations and libraries throughout the continent.
Crittendon says the award affirms a long-held desire to enter the genre of literature whose authors she has admired.
“I have been drawn to speculative fiction for most of my life,” she says.
A self-described “Trekkie,” or fan of both the Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, Crittendon’s career at newspapers and magazines brought accolades that she says never replaced the thrill of giving life to her creative instincts in a manuscript.
Both long before and throughout her decades as a journalist, ideas and inspiration nudged Crittendon toward the ultimate goal of a book that sprung from her imagination, like those of her literary heroine Octavia Butler.
“All my life it seemed that I was having peculiar dreams, and I wasn’t in the dreams, but there were these characters,” Crittendon says. “I’d wake up and jot the ideas down and I’d go to work at the paper or magazine.”
Published in 2022 by London-based Angry Robot Books, Where it Rains in Color chronicles the character Lileala’s struggle to preserve ancestral traditions while battling enemies who oppose the powers of melanin on the planet Swazembi. Largely a statement about Black women and their collective self-image, the novel contains messages of empowerment.
“The book is a way of our taking our power back by celebrating our skin tones,” says Crittendon. “My protagonist, Lileala, is not considered beautiful in spite of her being Black; she’s considered beautiful because of being Black.”
While she estimates there are about a dozen Black women who write speculative or science-fiction, Crittendon saw a void in stories that explored the real-life issue of Eurocentric beauty standards and their effects on women of African descent throughout their lives.
The trappings of an Afrocentric world with few limits would become Where it Rains in Color’s setting. The story blends an active narrator’s imagination with an awareness of African history’s cultural impact.
“I said when I wrote my first novel I was going to create the most spectacular Black planet possible,” says Crittendon.
Dr. Curtis L. Ivery, chancellor of Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD), says he admires Crittendon’s professional work, which has included everything from developing WCCCD newsletters to instructing journalism and English classes.
“I’ve been impressed with Denise since her days with African American Family Magazine,” says Ivery. “Even back then, I noticed that she had a powerful command of the language. I had no idea she’d be writing fantasy one day, but it makes sense because her writing is so detailed and captivating.”
Crittendon says she’s “thrilled” to see her novel published and has received positive feedback from readers and fans. She recently attended a book signing at Hudson’s Bookseller in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — a rare appearance by an author at the nation’s busiest hub for commercial flights — having spent much of 2023 promoting Where it Rains in Color in metro Detroit, Alabama, and California, among tour stops.
“I believe that, as people of African descent, we need to control the narrative,” she says. “Are we going to go into the future allowing others to define who we are? Are we going to go into the future with the same stereotypes? How do we want to be seen?”
She adds, “That’s the bottom line.”
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