with the land and her Appalachian roots. She obtained her bachelor’s degree at Berea College, the first school in the American South to integrate racially and to teach men and women in the same classrooms. She attended graduate school, where she earned a master’s degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing. In addition to writing, Conn loves playing pool, telling jokes, cooking, being in the woods, attempting to grow a garden, and spending time with her incredible children.
She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, A Woman in Time, and reported the following:
From page 69:Visit Bobi Conn's website.Chapter 10The Page 69 Test works well for my book, and I’m happy with the page that we land on. This is the first page of one of the chapters where the year is shown, so readers know this part of the story takes place in 1930. We see an interaction between Rosalee, the protagonist, and her husband, and this scene reveals a lot about their relationship. In particular, Rosalee doesn’t feel like she can express her true desires, so she finds other ways to get what she wants that she thinks her husband will find more agreeable. Samuel’s personality is at the forefront, too, showing readers that he is confident (perhaps overly so) and there’s an implication that he’s controlling. The reader also learns that Rosalee is pregnant and that they live near her family, and her ulterior motivation is to get away from the family once she gets there, so she can visit her mother and aunt. There are also references to the landscape – flowers and the spring – that represent the natural element in this story well.
Autumn, 1930
Samuel was up at dawn and Rosalee with him. “I want to see my daddy,” she told him as he pulled a shirt over his head. “And my brother,” she added for good measure. But as she said it, she saw the spring and the patch of coneflowers in the forest, and she wondered if Samuel would be able to tell there was more to her desire to go back home.
He paused to look at her. “What about the baby?”
“I was thinking if we go slow and you’re with me, we can take the trail and it’ll be fine,” she said with a hopeful air.
Samuel’s face flashed with confidence, and in a paternal voice, he told her, “I know how to take care of my woman. We’ll go see that daddy of yours. I need to talk to him anyhow.”
“I can ride Bonnie in front so you can keep an eye on me, make sure I’m safe.” She beamed with a sweetness he couldn’t see past, and he grunted an agreement as he finished getting dressed.
As they started on the trail to her father’s house, Rosalee let herself imagine visiting her mama and aunt, and she could taste the sweet spring water, but then she wondered how she would get away from Samuel and everyone else, to be alone. She would wait until he was…
This page brings up questions that might inspire curiosity about the story, so a reader who opens to this page may ask why Rosalee feels she has to deceive her husband by claiming to want to see her father when she truly wants to visit other family members. Even for readers who started at the beginning of the book, this page would make them wonder what Samuel wants to talk to Rosalee’s father about. Overall, this page is a great preview of some of the tension and themes throughout the story.
--Marshal Zeringue
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