Conversations with Bonnie Orbison

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bonnie Orbison.

Hi Bonnie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
So, I started to write around the age of 6. Before that, I already loved typing so much that I used to type up my favorite stories and books and read them out to my Mama. At age 6, it was the first time I came to her with an original story of mine, and she asked me: “Where have you typed that from?” Iconic. I started to write fan fiction and weirdly had a novel finished aged 10. I deleted it out of self-doubt a few days later as I found it too “heartbreaking,” but I knew that this would be what I wanna pursue as a career once I’m older. My goal was to be a published author at age 15. My 15th year of life came, and a half year later, the pandemic hit.

I had lost sight of this big dream of mine in the meanwhile. So while being isolated, I remembered it and rediscovered the magic of writing again. I quickly decided to put out my novel “Follow Me.” to prove to my younger self that I could do it. So I did. “Follow Me.” got published one month before my 16th birthday and made me realize even more that this should become my life: writing and publishing books. That was not all I achieved during my 15th year of life. I started my podcast “Bonnie’s Legends” from ~scratch~ and started to interview my “legends,” so anybody who inspires me and I look up to. My 18th birthday is just around the corner. I graduated high school, released multiple seasons of my podcast, started a music blog where I interview artists about their new singles, and wrote two other novels. One of them is called “It was her” and is set to release in November 2022.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a smooth road?
It’s never a smooth road, and the dream or goal is not the actual thing itself. It is the journey. We constantly grow and change. This is life, and this is also portrayed in my creative journey. Many would read my story and think it sounds easy. It’s never easy, and that’s beautiful in a way. One of my biggest challenges was not to give up on my dreams and myself. As I started so young and had already finished a book in middle school, staying “in the group” was very difficult. Many classmates were jealous and started to bully me for just having a different “hobby” from them. It’s been a couple of rough years, and I wrote about them in my latest Substack essay, “letter to my past selves,” if you wanna dive a bit deeper into that part of my story (link to it: https://howdybonnie.substack.com/p/letter-to-my-past-selves/).

I also struggled a lot finding a way to publish my book. “Do I want to publish my debut traditionally or on my own?” was a question that followed me for many years and one of the reasons why it took me fully two years to publish. I submitted my manuscript to many publishing companies and went to the Frankfurt Book Fair to get contacts and meet important people. I had luck and got sent proposals from two publishing companies. Both were interested in my debut novel and awaited the entire script (tip for fellow writers about to publish: never send whole scripts to them, always wait until they ask for it!). Ultimately, I only sent the entire script to one of the two companies and received a contract within a week. I had read the contract and perceived everything too fast and too much. I decided to decline the offer and abandoned my novel. I was 15 years old and didn’t want to commit to a 3-year-long contract, and now that this is three years ago, I can say that I haven’t regretted not signing the contract for a single moment. I’m grateful for the way I chose: self-publishing. I know this is not an option for many authors, which is valid and completely understandable. Still, it was the best for my book and me, and it happens to be one of my passions now. I love publishing now and can imagine publishing other writers’ works under my own publishing company one day.

As I said, it’s never a smooth road, but it’s the lessons you take from such experiences and obstacles. Those will make the journey worth it and make you the person you are right now.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I mostly identify myself as a writer. Cause I write. I write daily, if that’s only a little poetic note on my phone, an entire essay for my Substack community, or one page of my novel. I also consider daydreaming about stories or people as writing cause, at the end of the day, it’s what gives me the inspiration to write and keeps my imagination going. So mostly, when someone asks me what I do, I say I’m a writer & daydreamer. My debut novel, “Follow Me.” is a breakup novel about two people going on a journey of unloving once forever promised lovers and together finding hope in love again.

My upcoming novel “It was her” is a British love novel about a 41-year-old divorced man trying to get his life together and learn to trust the universe. It’s coming out this November, and it’s the novel I’m the proudest of. I wrote this book from November 2020 to May 2021, and it mirrored many occasions and people I truly cared for. I always say that a book normally isn’t directly about myself, and still, I’d say that “It was her” reflects pretty well on the person I was back then.

Since finishing “It was her,” I have been writing about one recurring topic repeatedly, and I can’t and don’t want to do anything to stop myself from writing about it: Tennessee. Most of my unreleased poems or novels are located in New York City, as it is one of my biggest dreams to move there one day. Even funnier than that, I couldn’t stop setting my stories in Tennessee for a year. Maybe it can be connected to my recurring dreams of Tennessee. For over a year now, I wake up from dreams that are set in Tennessee, and there’s no explanation for it. I am simply inspired by it and have become obsessed with writing about that place. The nature, the music, the culture, the people, something in me is craving to live and love in Tennessee, and my writing documents this yearning. I’ll be sharing some TN-inspired poems on my Substack soon if you’re interested in reading them 🙂

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bonnieorbison.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonnieorbison/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUqjziuj2qihNmecCkdqD5g/
• Other: https://howdybonnie.substack.com/

Image Credits
b&w photos by Tia Ealy (IG: @chiap3ts)