FORGED When Sugar Taste Like Salt

Forged: When Sugar Taste Like Salt explains why someone could place something in their mouth so essentially similiar in color and texture as sugar, and taste salt. We perceive things that we want as being sugary and sweet, when in reality, they are briny and dissatifying - distasteful once we receive them. The book is an autobiographic tale of a coming of age story of a young precocious girl testing the boundaries of Jim Crow society, challenging the separate but equal laws in a most unimaginable way. Told as an African groit would tell the plight, Jacqueline Snowden is the first to admit there is nothing exceptional about her growing up in segregated West Monroe, Louisana, mainly because nothing exceptional is expected of her. She weaves the stories of her educational misadventures from first to ninth grade in a segregated school. Born to a large family with strong ties and religious values, she is supported by a community of colorful charaters that enrich her sheltered life, so much so, she doesn't even realize that she is poor. Jacqueline is protected from a world she did not create, but she is conscious that something is wrong. She is also aware that even though she is young, she is called on a mission for change. As far back as she can remember, she has known "she would be first" There are numerous taboos, laws (written and unwritten), customs, and moral codes of conduct that Jacqueline must abide by to stay within the constraints of what is lawful and what is not, when trying to understand her miseducation in the strictly segregated town in northeastern Louisana.

Forged: When Sugar Taste Like Salt is a unique story about truths of life, which in this case is unsettling to the human heart, disquieting to the soul, and disconcerting to the sense of justice to humanity. Life is about changing and as humans we must make adjustments to constant change. Never in human history has it been so arduous or problematic to make those kinds of adjustments, than during the Jim Crow era in American History. This is the backdrop for this story.

This narrative is a fifty-year reflection on how integration adversely affected Jacqueline and everyone around her, both then and now. The story is about faith when faith in something greater than yourself isn't evident. It is about a wall of guilt and regret she bears for her radical choice, the consequences, of which, she must live with every day of her life. It's a novel that doesn't concede with apologies because white America isn't ready to perceive or acknowledge their transgressions against blacks. Even to this day West Monroe High School, known then and now as REBEL LAND, still supports the Civil War era separatist culture.
The story is explicit in its understating of telling the facts yet, blunt about racial relationships on sexuality, spirituality, humanity, education and sibling rivalary. There is a truthfulness with the underlying story of a strained mother-daughter relationship, and feelings of betrayal when marital infidelities are revealed. Mental health issues are addressed at several points, because emotional trama is forever a daily component in the three years Jacqueline was a student at West Monroe High. There are no heroes in this story because many protagonists don't suffer the consequences or angst of their choices made in life. There are no signs broadcasting separate but equal,yet its there even today, alive and well in America. In Forged: When Sugar Taste Like Salt, the reader witnesses how a young, black girl copes when there is no redemption or absolution when so much is deserved. Judge for yourself.

Jacquelyne Snowden migrated to Texas at the age of eighteen and never looked back. She often tells people she was born in Louisiana but she's not a native Texan although she feels like one. Jacquelyne fled to Texas on a Greyhound bus after her graduation from the West Monroe High School and believes to this day that's one of the best decisions she has ever made. After receiving her undergraduate degree from a small historically, black Baptist College in Dallas, Texas the renowned Bishop College, Jacquelyne made Dallas her home. She is the proud mother of two children. She considers her children the two best and greatest accomplishments of her life. Living in Texas since leaving Louisiana, the author spent thirty-three years in the field of gifted education teaching talented and gifted students in the Dallas Independent School District which was her passion. As an adult she has spent only one year residing outside of Texas and that was the year she spent getting her master's degree. Jacquelyne did fulfill her desire to get a degree from Howard University later in life in 1985-1986 as a graduate student seeking a master's degree. Jacquelyne was accepted into the Satellite Program, a national program featured in Ebony magazine during the late 1980's This program headed by Dr. James Williams scoured the nation for minority, low-economically gifted students who were tested and evaluated for a six weeks program of intense screening for above average intelligence minority students who were being overlooked in mainstream schools. Once the score were met and other data was collected students between the ages of 13-17 were invited to Howard University to a mini-camp for an intense week long encampment. This initiative was one of the first of its kind in the nation for black and brown students. Jacquelyne applied to be a teacher in this camp as well as a graduate student under Dr. Williams. She received a full scholarship to study gifted education and moved to Washington, D.C. Though told by advisor she could not complete the program in less than two years, Jacquelyne completed and graduated in one year. Returning to Dallas the following year, Jacquelyne became a pioneer in the field of gifted education in the Dallas Independent School District. Jacquelyne is now happily married to a man "who gets her!" Their story is another book that she believes needs to be written but could not be written by her to do it justice. Her husband, Patrick is a retired governmental finance director who also serves as a city councilmember in the Dallas, Texas suburbs. They both enjoy traveling in their spare time. Jacquelyne has an extensive collection of African black tribal masks and artifacts that she inherited from Mrs. Leslie M. Thomas. This art collection was featured in a local community magazine in 2019 captioned "Stories on The Wall". Mrs. Thomas started Jacquelyne's hobby of collecting in 1982 by giving her some kente cloth that Mr. Facen's daughter brought back from the Peace Corp while stationed there. Since receiving those pieces of kente cloth Jacquelyne has collected over two hundred masks from four primary countries: Nigeria, Malawi, Ghana and Kenya. She has never traveled to the continent but it is her fondest hope to one day stand on the shores of that distant land of her forefathers. For some strange reason she has always felt a connect to all things native to Africa. During Black History Month, Jacquelyne shares her art work with the students by displaying them and telling them the history about the masks that she keeps displayed throughout her home. Jacquelyne spent quiet time reading romance novels. Forged: When Sugar Taste Like Salt is her first attempt at writing a novel but Jacquelyne wrote constantly during her career as a teacher. Most of her writings consist of short plays and skits for students to perform and for schools and some plays for local churchesCamika Spencer, MA, MFA lives in Dallas, Texas. She is the author of three novels: He Had It Coming (St. Martin's Press), Cubicles (Random House/Villard), and When All Hell Breaks Loose (Random House). She is a company member of Soul Rep Theatre, and was a Lee Daniels Entertainment/Represent OMV Creative Select in 2018, a 2021 Finalist in the 50/50 Bipoc Writers Fellowship: Adapting Books to Screen, and a 2020 selected Writer featured in 50in50:Shattering the Glass Ceiling presented by Billie Holiday Theatre. She is currently working on her fourth novel and first feature.