Worthy
A novel by Bobbie Smith
Self Published
Available at Amazon
I enjoyed this novel. Do yourself a favor and purchase a copy on Amazon. You will find that Worthy is as good as anything on the top ten fiction list.
I interviewed Bobbie by e-mail. The Q & A follows.
Hi Owen, thanks for being so patient with me. I hope this gives you what you need. See answers below...
Hi Bobbie: First of all let me say that I enjoyed your novel. It was a page turner for me.Here are my questions:1. What question would you like me to ask you? What is your answer to this question? What do you want from your readers?
I’d love it if they bought and read my book and then posted a review (good or bad) on Amazon, as that’s what helps other potential readers make their decision. Also, it would be great if readers talked about it with their friends and family. :) This is the direct link to my book’s spot on the Amazon site: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/
2. What is the message of your novel?
It’s interesting that you ask what the message it. For me, that could be interpreted in a number of ways. For example, 'what message do I hope to send?' and 'what message do people get from my book?’ are possibly two different messages, and there are many in there, I suspect.
My main message is to expose the deep-seated belief that women having sex and getting pregnant makes them, and only them, a sinful person who should be filled with shame, and we have been conditioned to believe that. Certainly, WWII outport Newfoundland was a microcosm for exploring that theme but I do believe that many societies are still trapped in that mindset to varying degrees. I think we need to re-think and re-educate society about how we respond to women, their bodies and come up with kinder acceptance and greater understanding of what it means to bring children into the world.
3. How much time did you invest in this novel? How many rewrites were needed?
I started this novel on Labour Day Weekend in 2009, which means by the time I published it, 6 years had passed. That doesn’t mean I spent the whole 6 years writing it. I find I have to take lots of breaks and come back to the story to keep it fresh. In fact, there are times, as a writer, I’ve come back to that work and can’t even remember some of the passages, as I was ‘in the zone’ at the time. That is always a fascinating and pleasant surprise.
4.What experiences did you draw on to write this novel? How do you know about nuns, abusive families, police behaviour?
I drew on my knowledge of the place where my father grew up and experiences that I’ve heard from friends who grew up in outport Newfoundland, the culture of the province, having grown up in a Catholic school and being taught by nuns. Having grown up in a dysfunctional family has certainly helped and lots of crimes shows, esp Law & Order. I’m a crime-show junkie. So add all that together as fodder, add a dash of research, and then add my insane imagination and you have a recipe for fiction. :)
5. Please tell me about the three-day challenge that started this novel.
The 3-Day Novel Writing Contest is my ‘writing secret’, if you will. It’s my ‘silver bullet.’ Without it, I could not have gotten this far. It has been happening every Labour Day Weekend since 1977. I tried it for the first time in 2009—it was something I’d wanted to try for about 5 years but the timing hadn’t been right. So on that first #3DNC weekend, I wrote the first 25,000 words of Worthy. Out of the past 7 #3DNC weekends, I spent 4 of them on various parts of Worthy, which meant I couldn’t register for the contest (except the first one) because your writing cannot start until midnight Fri night of that weekend.
I have about 70 file versions of it but the differences between those files could be a three-sentence addition, a complete typo-proofread or completely new chapters. I’d guess I easily did 30 drafts.
6. Please tell me about the process of marketing this novel.
At the start, it feels great. I’ve done some Amazon ads, Facebook ads, social media promotions and word-of-mouth selling in Newfoundland—we love to consume our own culture, as my friend Lisa puts it, so it’s somewhat accessible to promote NFLD work to other Newfoundlanders. Also I went to NFLD in December to talk it up with bookstores and giftstores in St. John’s, as tourists also love to buy local writing. However, after time goes by, if the momentum calms, it’s tougher to get going again. Writers like to focus on the writing but you do have to carve out time to promote the book, as well. I find that my writer colleagues, friends and family are the ones urging me to continue promoting, as they certainly see the benefits and want to see me succeed.
7. What is your next project?
My next project in writing is the product of #3DNC 2012 called Runaway. It’s about a teen boy who runs away from home and how he and his NFLD family and community respond on either ends of the disappearance. I only had about 16,000 words to start with, but it’s better than nothing! :)
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