Debz Hobbs-Wyatt, one of our Bath Short Story Award writers, tells us about the inspiration for her new novel.
Gunshots silence the world, their ricochet is still felt 50 years on: the death of a President John F. Kennedy.
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I wasnt born but like so many, am fascinated by the conspiracy theories. It isnt an abnormal fascination probably the same as most of you but one day, on a mission to hone the craft of the fiction writer, an image formed in my head. A larger-than-life African-American retired police psychic being interviewed by a small-time reporter in a suburb of Dallas. The woman leans forward in her chair, big black fingers wrapped over a childs silver locket and she says, 'It belonged to a little girl; a little girl who disappeared from the grassy knoll at the exact moment Kennedy was assassinated and is still missing'.
It seemed like a great premise for a story, one in which fact and fiction could brush right up alongside one another, with a question that could really hook a reader: what happened to the little girl, why is she still missing? And more importantly: what did she see that day?
And so While No One Was Watching was born and what started out as a short story soon became my fourth novel: the first one to be picked up by a publisher. My debut published this November in time for the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK.
Boy did I do a lot of research, even though the assassination is only part of the story. Set now, the novel explores how the events of the past have shaped the lives of our psychic and now our divorcee Sunday father, the reporter.
But what obligation does the fiction writer have to truth when truth itself is as elusive as it is in the case of Kennedys death? I loved allowing my fictional characters to examine real evidence from that day, not looking for a man with a gun but for a missing child. A new angle on history? Making an old story feel new? Maybe thats the role of the fiction writer.
Many accounts reported as fact non-fiction, historical accounts, even news stories are not without spin and bias: whats reported as fact is often merely opinion. This is certainly true for the assassination of JFK.
While its easy to assume these non-fictional accounts surely contain the most truth, I would argue that in fact the novel is the most honest. Why? Because it never pretends to be anything but fiction it does what it says on the tin. But here lies another interesting discussion, maybe for another time: as we move further away in time from a significant moment in history, is it any wonder that the fiction the movies, the books, maybe even While No One Was Watching paints a new version of truth, and someone somewhere will believe a little girl really went missing from the grassy knoll at the same moment Kennedy was shot. How about that?
Debz Hobbs-Wyatt gave up her day job as a scientist to write full-time. Her debut novel While No One Was Watching is available from our bookshop allaboutyoubookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb
Read more about the Bath Short Story Award
More blogs from our Bath Short Story Award writers:
Eamonn Griffin: 3 things you need to know to become a successful story writer
Joanna Pocock: Why do I write?
Joanna Campbell: Deadline at the Roadkill café
