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Interview with Rebecca Roberts, author of Miss B

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Rachel Bennett is a bad girl gone good; a success story from an a deprived council estate and a survivor of an abusive upbringing. She has achieved her one ambition in life – to become a high school teacher. Rachel lands a job teaching at her former comprehensive school and is determined to be an inspiration to her apathetic pupils and prove to her community that she can do something worthwhile with her life.

Then she is accused of a crime she did not commit and all her attempts to turn her life around seem to count for nothing. Her hard-won independence and her freedom will be lost unless she can convince the courts that she is innocent.

What genre is it?
A coming of age story. Contemporary fiction.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
Readers who like an underdog tale without the saccharine ending, and a survivor story without the self-pity.

Tell us more about Rachel Bennett.
Rachel Bennett tries to define herself through her work. She wants the world to see her as a respectable, motivational and disciplined educator. She has a problem in that she is remembered by her peers for what she used to be: an isolated, angry, troubled young woman. Her biggest problem however, is that deep down Rachel still is an isolated, angry and troubled young woman with a lot of unresolved trust issues and very few friends to support her. Rachel tries to be calm and dignified, but sometimes her terrible temper will make a ventriloquist’s dummy of her and her outbursts are colourful to say the least. She is not a warm or loving character, but hopefully people will empathise with her motives and her struggles.

Complete this sentence for us: if you like _________________, you’ll love my book.
dark humour and hyperbolic ranting.

Miss B is a rather simple title. Was that intentional?
Titles don’t come easy to me; in fact I’d go as far as saying that there’s a correlation between the strength of the title and the quality of the writing. My best titles never get completed , but this novella was written, proofed and ready for publication before I  came up with a title I was happy with.  ‘Miss B’ derives from my own time as a teacher. Some students used to call me ‘Miss D’ rather than by my maiden surname. It trips nicely off the tongue. It’s also symbolic that Rachel can’t quite achieve the status as the  respectable ‘Miss Bennett’ (a nod to gentility of Austen); nor is she simply ‘Rachel’ because she has no friends or family to call her that. She isn’t quite sure who she is, and her self-discovery is the novel’s emotional journey.

Wow, we take back everything we said about it being simple! So you used to be a teacher? What else should we know about you?
I’m a writer and have been since I was old enough to hold a pen. Writing stories became an extension of playing with My Little Ponies. I’m a very creative person – I’ve written for the stage, screen, I’ve worked as a ghost writer, acted, managed film projects – I’ll have a go at everything except singing. I’m rubbish at singing.

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
@beccaeroberts. I follow other authors back.

Have you written any other books that we should read next?
No, but I’m working on it!  At the end of ‘Miss B’ Rachel vows that one day she will find out what sparked the antagonism towards herself. I think that story would make a pretty good prequel.

Good idea. Is that what you’re working on now?
I’m working on a film project with a local director and I’m writing my first novel in Welsh… that should keep me busy for the next few months!

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  1. Pingback: Top 10 Books: Week ending July 12, 2013 | Indie Author Land

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