LANSING, May 2, 2011- Rhonda Fuller’s first novel AND THE RUMOR WAS, set in Michigan in the late 1960s, captures the tone and attitude of the counterculture movement. The word “counter” is made explicit in her rendering of the era-exactly her intention, she explains.

Originally completed in 1980, only twelve years removed from her own trek through the era, Ms. Fuller mainly relied upon her impressions and experiences to impart the mentality that permeated the counterculture of the late 1960s.

“It’s important to understand the thinking in order to grasp the destruction resulting from hippie ideas and practices,” Ms. Fuller says.

While the first few chapters navigate the rough waters of white stereotyping of blacks as expressed during discussions of the 1967 Detroit riots, they set the stage for the main character’s flight to Lansing, where she expects to find a like-minded hippies who share her sympathies for the rioters. Ms. Fuller, a teenager in 1967, was sympathetic to the rioters herself and tried to understand conditions that brought about such an explosive response.

The two main black characters in her novel belie the white depiction of blacks.

“In fact, they are the antithesis of the white consensus,” Ms. Fuller says. “It’s important to understand the predominate white mentality of the time in order to appreciate the erroneous perceptions so damaging to black Americans.”

Recipient of the Honor Award for her writing achievement from a branch of The National League of American Pen Women in 1985, Ms. Fuller sees the publication of And The Rumor Was as the restart of a writing career she gave up in 1988 to raise her three children after a divorce. She’s looking forward to resuming the development of her style in works to come.