When the RPLA Awards were announced last October, Susan Dobson was in the hospital, banqueting with her husband on takeout pizza and some fairly serious meds.
It was a big night. Boomerang, a coming-of-age novel set in Dobson’s native Australia, first won the Gold Award for Unpublished Mainstream or Literary. “It was surreal,” she said of the experience. “We were both so excited, we almost missed the announcement for Unpublished Book of the Year!” Boomerang won that award, too.
In this RPLA Showcase live interview, Dobson recounts her first attempts at writing (a story for her children about their dog), shares the frustrations of trying to find the right publisher, and reads a passage from her novel the way it ought to be read: with a totally charming accent.
Quotable Moments
“Life really is too short to put off the bucket list.”
“I started doodling in a sketch book and writing a comical story about our much-beloved adopted dog.”
“I didn’t really even set out to write a novel. I was simply having a great time with the characters and scenes that were blooming in my imagination.”
“The road to publication presents quite a different set of challenges to those that you have as a writer.”
Watch the full interview below!
