I’m so impressed. I look up to Stacey Abrams as a leader for civil rights in a red state (Georgia), and I now know she’s a published writer whose pen name is Selena Montgomery. I love it that she can write romance novels because I think her values must be the backbone of these stories. I’m guessing they reach readers who might not like politics. But now these readers might vote for civil rights candidates without thinking of it as politics. Marvelous!
I wonder if, as a fiction writer, Abrams is as intentional as I imagine. She’s talked about her feminist views:
The characters and their adventures are what I'd wished to read as a young Black woman — stories that showcase women of color as nuanced, determined, and exciting.
Her example speaks for her views. When asked by Glamour magazine why she didn’t hide her writing career before going into politics, Abrams said, “I’m proud of what I accomplished.” What freedom!
And you have to laugh with glee at how easily she closes the great divide between her two careers. Jennie Singer writes in the Glamour interview:
[Abrams] was a student at Yale Law when she completed her first novel, Rules of Engagement, concurrently with her master’s thesis, titled ‘Devolution’s Discord: Resolving Operational Dissonance with the UBIT Exemption.’
I haven’t looked into how Abrams resolves operational dissonance. But I’ve read that in Rules of Engagement Dr. Raleigh Foster infiltrates a terrorist group by posing as the lover of handsome Adam Grayson. I want to know what happens to her!
But this is not all.
Stacey Abrams also has a successful business background.
She and Laura O’Connor Hodgson saw a need for childcare-related services and started a small business called Nourish. It grew fast until a problem with invoicing interfered and it failed. It was “a victim of a system that didn’t provide it the right tools to grow”.
To address that need, in 2010 the partners founded the company Now. It provides “small businesses a quicker method for getting invoices paid. When a business submits an invoice through NowAccount, the service pays 100% of the invoice, minus a 3% merchant fee.”
This is exciting. I don’t think Abrams limits her work for voting rights to Georgia. Her vision is much bigger than that. Where I get this idea: first, she can write a compelling narrative. She’s written eight of them as Selena Montgomery.
Second, as Stacey Abrams, she sees the need for voter protection services and is now running for Governor of Georgia to put her plan into action.
She’s already “written the book” on how to strengthen local voting rights. I want to find it, read it, and share it until the pages fall out. Because it says on Now’s website that Abrams knows how to grow your business fearlessly. Fearlessly!