The other night I watched Morgan Freeman on Master Class, which airs weekly on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN channel. I had had a glum sort of day. I wasn’t feeling very good about a number of things that are going on in my life. But try as I might to distract myself, the best I could do was climb onto my couch and curl up in my comforter.

There is where I remained until Morgan Freeman’s glowing face filled my television screen. He spoke about the challenges, obstacles and struggles he faced at the dawn of his career. He spoke incessantly about the hand of providence – the divine guidance that we all experience, but so many of us fail to acknowledge.

I am well aware of providence and have tried to live with the idea in the forefront of my life. But I am a flesh and blood woman and so it’s not always easy to see the forest for the trees.

Thirteen years ago, I had put nearly ten years into shopping the manuscript which would eventually become my debut novel: SUGAR.

Back then I was told in more than 75 rejection letters that there was no audience for my book.

Those letters made me angry. Sometimes I cried out of frustration because I knew the editors and agents were wrong. They didn’t live in my heart, soul and memory. They couldn’t feel the constant prodding I felt. They didn’t know that as much as I wanted to abandon the ridiculous idea of becoming a published writer –there was stronger force urging me forward.

And then one day, during the early months if 1999, I received the letter that would forever change my life! Sugar was published in January of 2000 and my literary career was born.

It was nothing for me to quit my job, buy a house and car. My friends thought I was crazy. “How do you expect to make a living as a writer?” They asked.

Why would I think that I couldn’t make a living as a writer? I had hundreds of examples that were doing just that! And besides, I told those doubters – this is what I was put here to do. This is my destiny!

Fast forward to 2006.

I was notified by my long time publisher that Nowhere is a Place would be the last novel of mine that they would publish. Okay, I thought to myself. No problem. I’ll find another publisher in a few days. A few days turned into three years.

During those three years, I felt as if I was reliving those years before I secured my first book contract. I received numerous rejection letters that echoed one major theme: “I think Bernice L. McFadden’s career is over.”

I thought, well maybe it is. Maybe I should be grateful for the run I had. Maybe I should apply for a job at the post office and just forget about this writing thing. I said all of that but that “thing” inside of me wouldn’t go quietly away. And the urge to continue on – no matter how heartbreaking the journey – continued to beat like a drum. And so I remained obedient to the call and in 2009 I finally secured publishing deal with Akashic Books, a small, very well respected press here in my hometown of Brooklyn, NY.

They published GLORIOUS, my first literary novel in four years. The book went on to win numerous awards and accolades.

I’m hoping my newest novel GATHERING OF WATERS will achieve much of the same.

I thought I’d share this story with you because there is something to be said about staying true to your calling. Much to be said about holding on and weathering the storms that blow through your life – about passing the test so you can have a testimony….

Gathering of Waters is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi--a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families.

Tass Hilson and Emmett Till were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit.

Forty years later, after the death of her husband, Tass returns to Money and fantasy takes flesh when Emmett Till's spirit is finally released from the dank, dark waters of the Tallahatchie River. The two lovers are reunited, bringing the story to an enchanting and profound conclusion.

Gathering of Waters mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town's families, and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism--both disturbing and riveting--combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's Beloved.

Praise for Gathering of Waters:

"As strange as this may sound, Bernice L. McFadden has created a magical, fantastic novel centered around the notorious tragedy of Emmett Till's murder. This is a startling, beautifully written piece of work."

--Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River

"In her new novel, Gathering of Waters, Bernice L. McFadden brings her own special vision to the unfortunate story of Emmett Till and his murder in Money, Mississippi. This moving and magical novel, which traces the generations leading up to and away from that horrible night in 1955, drew me in immediately and swept me along through its richly imagined world. I couldn’t stop reading, caught up as I was in that enticing place between truth and fantasy, the here-and-now and the what-was, the living and the dead, the ugliness and the beauty, the hatred and the love. What a rich chorus of voices Bernice L. McFadden has fashioned from this place called Money."

--Lee Martin, author of Break the Skin and The Bright Forever

"Read it aloud. Hire a chorus to chant it to you and anyone else interested in hearing about civil rights and uncivil desires, about the dark heat of hate, about the force of forgiveness."

--Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered, NPR

"McFadden combines events of Biblical proportions--from flooding to resurrection--with history to create a cautionary, redemptive tale that spans the early twentieth century to the start of Hurricane Katrina. She compellingly invites readers to consider the distinctions between 'truth or fantasy' . . . In McFadden's boldly spun yarn; consequences extend across time and place. This is an arresting historical portrait of Southern life with re-imagined outcomes, suggesting that hope in the enduring power of memory can offer healing where justice does not suffice."

--Publishers Weekly

"The rich text is shaped by the African American storytelling tradition and layered with significant American histories. Recalling the woven spirituality of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, this work will appeal to readers of mystic literature."

--Library Journal

"McFadden makes powerful use of imagery in this fantastical novel of ever-flowing waters and troubled spirits."

--Booklist