The Book by Jessica Bell
Publication date: January 18th 2013
Genre: Adult Contemporary (Novella)
Synopsis:
This book is not The Book. The Book is in this book. And The Book in this book is both the goodie and the baddie.
Bonnie is five. She wants to bury The Book because it is a demon that should go to hell. Penny, Bonnie’s mother, does bury The Book, but every day she digs it up and writes in it. John, Bonnie’s father, doesn’t live with them anymore. But he still likes to write in it from time to time. Ted, Bonnie’s stepfather, would like to write in The Book, but Penny won’t allow it.
To Bonnie, The Book is sadness.
To Penny, The Book is liberation.
To John, The Book is forgiveness.
To Ted, The Book is envy.
But The Book in this book isn’t what it seems at all.
If there was one thing in this world you wished you could hold in your hand, what would it be? The world bets it would be The Book.
Goodreads:
Buy Link on Amazon:
What Inspired Me To Write The Book:
When I was a child, my mother, Erika Bach, and my father, Anthony Bell, wrote in an illustrated journal by Michael Green called A Hobbit’s Travels: being the hitherto unpublished Travel Sketches of Sam Gamgee. This journal is the inspiration for The Book.
Since reading this journal, and realizing how different my parents sounded in the entries compared to how I know them in real life, I often thought about writing a book which explored how differently parents and children perceive and respond to identical situations. Now, I know this concept isn’t ‘new’. But I certainly felt I had a unique bent to add to it. I hoped by using journal entries and therapy transcripts, in conjunction with a 1st person point of view of a five-year-old girl, it would make the story a little more intimate, make readers feel like they are peeking into the lives of real people. This way, it’s like you are reading memoir rather than fiction.
Set in the late 1970s, early 1980s, Bonnie, the five-year-old protagonist, was born prematurely. I hint, through the journal entries of her mother, Penny, and the transcripts of Bonnie and Dr. Wright, her therapist, that due to her premature birth, she has trouble learning and significant behavioral problems. However, I try to juxtapose this through Bonnie’s point of view. The reader is able to see how differently she perceives things in contrast to the adults in her life.
Bonnie is very smart. And she understands so much more than she chooses to let the adults see. So, at what point does one draw the line when it comes to defining poor mental health? Can anyone really see what is going on in a child’s mind? What right does one have to assume a prematurely born child is going to have difficulty learning or mental instabilities? What signs does one have to show to prove they are having difficulties at all? The Book raises these sorts of questions, hopefully offering readers a lot of food for thought.
It took me fourteen years before I could spell father properly. No matter how many times I was told, I still spelled father as farther and friend as freind and finally as finnaly. To this day I still have to look up the different conjugations of lie and lay. For some reason they just don’t stick.
What’s that say about me? Could that mean I am dyslexic? Have a learning disability? Perhaps I’m just being selective with what I feel is important to store in my long-term memory. I’m sure there are lots of reasons one could come up with. But when it comes to mental health, I don’t believe there are any definitive answers. This is one of the themes I explore in The Book.
What ‘signs’ do you think define stable mental health? And is there really such a thing?
Biography:
If Jessica Bell could choose only one creative mentor, she'd give the role to Euterpe, the Greek muse of music and lyrics. This is not only because she currently resides in Athens, Greece, but because of her life as a thirty-something Australian-native contemporary fiction author, poet and singer/songwriter/guitarist, whose literary inspiration often stems from songs she's written. Jessica also makes a living as an editor and writer for global ELT publishers (English Language Teaching), such as Pearson Education, HarperCollins, Macmillan Education, Education First and Cengage Learning.
She is the co-publishing editor of Vine Leaves Literary Journal, and the director of the Homeric Writers’ Retreat & Workshop on the Greek island of Ithaca.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to Jessica’s newsletter. Every subscriber will receive The Hum of Sin Against Skin for free, and be the first to know about new releases and special subscriber giveaways.
Connect with Jessica online:
AUTHOR BIO:
If Jessica Bell could choose only one creative mentor, she'd give the role to Euterpe, the Greek muse of music and lyrics. This is not only because she currently resides in Athens, Greece, but because of her life as a thirty-something Australian-native contemporary fiction author, poet and singer/songwriter/guitarist, whose literary inspiration often stems from songs she's written. Jessica is the Co-Publishing Editor of Vine Leaves Literary Journal and annually runs the Homeric Writers' Retreat & Workshop on the Greek island of Ithaca.
For more information, please visit her website: www.jessicabellauthor.com
Interview With Jessica:
What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general?
If I'm too influenced by other people's ideas it will skew my own. So I only ever seek an opinion once I'm confident about the final result. And I will only ever change something, if the suggestion completely resonates with me. Of course, I always keep an open mind. Nothing is ever set in stone. But I find this a challenge because it's so hard to keep things to myself when I'm excited about them. I just want to share it with everybody.
Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it?
That it doesn't always have to take me a year to write a first draft. I'm usually a very slow writer. But I wrote the first draft of this book in three days. I have no idea how. I have never written so fast in my life. Something weird came over me. I used to hear stories of writers saying that 'their muse' was calling to them, and I'd roll my eyes. But now I get it. It was a bizarre experience. It makes me wonder ... what if Bonnie was a real girl? Like I somehow connected with a spirit who told me her true story? I know, I know, sounds ridiculous. But who knows, really?
Have you developed a specific writing style?
Yes. My writing is quite literary in nature, but I also think it has a decent amount of commercial appeal; a nice balance of both.
Can you share a little of your current work with us?
Here are the first couple of paragraphs of Bonnie's POV:
I lift up my Mickey Mouse skirt and pull down on the flicky-thread of my undies. But it squishes between my legs when I sit on the torlet seat.
It smells like a baby accident and a hospital in here and my heart goes all bumpy in my chest. I can smell that stinky liquid stuff that my mummy uses to make clothes white, and it always makes her rub her head after, and I have to bring her some TicTacs.
I can’t tell any bodies I did this. I can’t! They will all laugh at me and I don’t like it when bodies laugh at me. When bodies laugh my belly goes all feeling not nice and tears comes out of my eyes. Mrs Haydon will come a-looking for me at any minute, wondering why I’m not back to get my school bag off my hook. The home-time bell just runged. I’m going to be in so much trouble. She’s going to be so madly. Her googly eyes will go all wide through her yucky froggy glasses, and her cheeks will go so red that the chocolate splashes on her face will become not there. But the worsted thing will be when she sees what I done! She’ll speak to me all funny. Like a witch. I bet she’s a witch. Like in that book my Ted reads me where all the witches just look like normal mummies and daddies but have got wigs and they turn kids into mices. I hate that witch voice. Lots of teachers use that voice after they meet my mummy. Like they have ideas of making me into a dessert or sumfing.
How did you come up with the title?
The Book revolves around a journal which everyone in the family calls "the book."
Can you tell us about your main character of The Book?
Bonnie is a five-year-old girl, with a "supposed" learning disability, who is trying to make heads and tails of the adult relationships between her mother (Penny), her father (John) who has moved out to care for his teenage daughter (Mary), and Penny’s new husband whom Bonnie refers to as “my Ted”.
How did you develop your plot and characters for The Book?
When I was a child, my mother, Erika Bach, and my father, Anthony Bell, wrote in an illustrated journal by Michael Green called A Hobbit’s Travels: being the hitherto unpublished Travel Sketches of Sam Gamgee. This journal is the inspiration for this book. Since reading this journal, and realizing how different my parents sounded in the entries compared to how I know them in real life, I often thought about writing a book which explored how differently parents and children perceive and respond to identical situations. Now, I know this concept isn’t ‘new’. But I certainly felt I had a unique bent to add to it. I hoped by using journal entries and therapy transcripts, in conjunction with a 1st person point of view of a five-year-old girl, it would make the story a little more intimate, make readers feel like they are peeking into the lives of real people.
What was the hardest part about writing this book?
The fact that the first draft was written so fast and therefore wasn't sure it was up to par because of it.
How do you promote this book?
Mainly through social media. Unfortunately I have the disadvantage of being an expat in Greece, so it's very difficult for me to promote any other way.
Will you write others in this same genre?
Of course, this is the genre I fall into naturally in.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Bonnie, the five-year-old protagonist, was born prematurely. I hint, through the journal entries of her mother, Penny, and the transcripts of Bonnie and Dr. Wright, her therapist, that due to her premature birth, she has trouble learning and significant behavioral problems. However, I try to juxtapose this through Bonnie’s point of view. The reader is able to see how differently she perceives things in contrast to the adults in her life.
Bonnie is very smart. And she understands so much more than she chooses to let the adults see. So, at what point does one draw the line when it comes to defining poor mental health? Can anyone really see what is going on in a child’s mind? What right does one have to assume a prematurely born child is going to have difficulty learning or mental instabilities? What signs does one have to show to prove they are having difficulties at all? The Book raises these sorts of questions, hopefully offering readers a lot of food for thought.
How much of the book is realistic?
I'm hoping all of it! But I guess that's for readers to decide.
Links:
Website:
Goodreads:
Facebook:
Twitter:
1 comment:
Thanks so much for having me! :)
Post a Comment