A news story must have human elements that the audience relates to and it needs to support journalism’s core mission of giving people the information that they need to be well informed taxpayers and members of the community. It also has to have great pictures because it’s fundamentally a visual medium. Plus, anything about Anna Nicole Smith. I’m only half kidding. You need to balance what people want and what they need. Unfortunately, there’s always an element of making sausage. You’re working on deadline and probably trying to do too much with too few resources.
At the start of the novel, you note that Lilly Hawkins is a rarity, a female shooter. Is that true to life? What appeals to you about the world of a shooter?
I was the only female shooter in Bakersfield and there were many other television markets without any women photographers. It’s gotten better since then, but shooting is still a male-dominated profession. It’s a physically demanding job that you simply must be aggressive to be successful at. Those are traits associated more with men, but it doesn’t mean women can’t be great shooters or even the best.
One of the factors changing the landscape is the proliferation of One-Man-Bands. That’s when a reporter shoots their own video. In smaller television markets the economic pressures are forcing stations to eliminate photographers. One or two shooters remain on the payroll to handle live shots and maintain the equipment, but most of the photography is done by reporters. Since many of the reporters are women, this has changed the dynamic. It’s also something Lilly will eventually have to deal with at KJAY.
Shooting really is a double edged sword. The very thing that makes it so attractive, the excitement and adrenaline rush of chasing a story, is what wears you down. I eventually burnt out and took a job that didn’t require me to visit crime scenes in the middle of the night. Many of my fellow shooters also left the business or transitioned into different positions. It’s difficult to keep that kind of pace up.
Did Lilly turn out as you originally envisioned? What do you hope readers take to heart with Lilly?
Lilly absolutely did not turn out like I originally envisioned. I had planned for her character to be someone who begins the novel with low self esteem and, because of everything she goes through, changes into someone with high self esteem. But as I wrote, I felt myself pulled in another direction. I kept creating subplots where it turned out Lilly was her own worst enemy and had fundamentally misjudged other characters and situations. Also, I felt like I’d betrayed the character by portraying her as wimpy. I did a second draft with major changes and abandoned the self-esteem idea completely. That’s when Lilly came into her own.
What challenges did you encounter with writing your first novel?
The biggest challenge was not being very good at it. I was trying to run a marathon, but didn’t know how to walk. I learned to write slowly over many drafts and many hours at my laptop.
A Bad Day’s Work features a wonderful cast of characters that feel like an extended family. Was that important for you to establish this sense of community in the novel? Were there any real life inspirations for any of these characters?
I’ve always loved television shows with coworkers who behave more like a family. I watched a lot of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart, and Barney Miller when I was a little kid. I also love the films of Wes Andersen. Each one ends with a group of conflicting personalities coming together. That sense of family and community is very satisfying for me as a reader/viewer and it’s probably natural that I’d incorporate it into my writing.
Leanore Drucker is the only character with real life inspirations, even though the particulars of her situation are made-up. She’s based on a well known Bakersfield historian named Vivian Tucker. She was a very special lady who passed away several years ago. I took some of her mannerisms and added some from my friend Leanore Motley and then filled in the rest of the character from my imagination. But every other character and the things that happen to them are complete fiction.
You play quite a bit with the appearance of things versus their reality. Was that a natural avenue for you to explore since the work of a shooter is so visual or is this an important theme for you as a writer?
I decided it was a great way to tie together a lot of different ideas I had floating around my first draft. The video Lilly records when doing a story is incomplete without context, just like her views of people are shallow without her actually making an effort to know them. I also tried to tie that into the love story by making one of Lilly’s suitors have a cynical view of people based on stereotypes and another have an optimistic, but ultimately more nuanced view.
How does your background in cinema and television impact your work as a novelist?
Something that was hammered into us in film school is that characters need to change. They need to have an arc that you can trace and is satisfying to the viewer/reader. Almost every one of my characters ends the story in a different place from where they started. The only character that doesn’t change turns out to be a big jerk.
If your work was to be translated for television, who would you like to see cast as Lilly Hawkins, Rod Strong, and Uncle Bud?
Lilly is hard for me. Michelle Williams or Reese Witherspoon would both be fantastic. Kristen Bell is one of my favorite actresses, but I love her so much as Veronica Mars that it’s hard for me to see her as another character—especially one I created.
Ryan Reynolds would be fantastic for Rod, but I also like Jason O’Mara from the American version of Life on Mars. He has an inherent likeability that’s perfect for Rod.
Ian McKellan is my dream Bud. I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant, because he’s such an amazing and distinguished actor, but it would be so much fun to watch him bring Bud to life.
This is the first of a planned trilogy. What can we expect from the next book in the series?
Lilly and Rod are covering a deadly wildfire in the mountains above Bakersfield. Residents are evacuating and thousands of firefighters are pouring in. A body is found in the local lake and authorities, already overwhelmed by the natural disaster, are quick to declare it an accidental drowning. The victim turns out to be someone Lilly has a personal connection to and she begins investigating the death as the fire escalates.
ENHANCE YOUR BOOK CLUB
1. Explore the role of TV shooters aiming to shoot the best “Gets” for their respective television station. Watch a news broadcast on your local station, and try to think like the shooter. What were the “Gets” for each story? Was the shooter effective? How did you evaluate the effectiveness of a particular “Get”? Was there anything you would have done differently?
2. Review Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of A Single Story at http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg. In this talk, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie discusses the dangers of presenting one perspective on an issue, a country, or a group of people, much like Reverend Phillips suggests to Lilly Hawkins at the victim’s house. Based on Adichie’s talk and Reverend Phillips’s comments to Lilly, what single stories do you detect in the media today? What do you believe is the root of these single stories? What do you believe is the effect of these single stories? How might you or others challenge single stories in the future?
3. Appearance vs. reality in A Bad Day’s Work. Lilly struggles to have an accurate perception of those with whom she works as well as some of the individuals she encounters on the job. Her Uncle Bud suggests she may be incapable of reading people well. Talk about a situation where you read someone inaccurately. What cues did you use to come to your conclusion about the individual? Once you were able to determine that you were wrong, were you able to reevaluate your initial cues? Why do you believe you had such a mistaken impression? Have you been able to transfer the lessons you learned into a future situation? If yes, how? If no, why not?
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
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Dedication
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Acknowledgments
Touchstone Reading Group Guide
For Discussion
A Conversation with Nora McFarland
Enhance Your Book Club
Back Cover
A Bad Day’s Work Page 28