Spruce Pine woman fulfills writing dream
When Spruce Pine resident Leeann Smith was asked by an Army recruiter in the
10th grade what she wanted to do when she was older, the only thing she could
think of being was a writer.
The now adult Smith has worked in the healthcare
profession for many years – a world driven by facts, figures and truths, which
is a far cry from the creative realm of storytelling.
But even though she
still works in healthcare, Smith has finally lived up to her 10th-grade
ambitions and become a writer.
Cat’s Eye Marble, Smith’s first book-length
story, hit shelves a little more than a week ago, and she said she’s still
having trouble believing the whole process is real.
“I keep wanting to pinch
myself and see if I’m dreaming,” Smith said. “I still can’t believe I have a
book that has been published and that people I don’t even know are reading
it.”
Smith said she first fell in love with writing at the same time she fell
in love with reading, which was pretty much instantaneous from the time she read
her fist book.
“Being able to take someone into another world is just a
wonderful talent and something I just love,” she said.
“I wrote when I was
younger and on into high school when I worked for the Journal Record covering
football games.
“I was probably my editor’s worst nightmare because I wanted
to use lots of adjectives and dress the story up, and all they really wanted was
a cut-and-dry replay of events and the scores.
“That creative element was
just there and it was hard not to let it loose, even on a football
story.”
Smith’s creativity was still a large part of her life, but it wasn’t
something she acted on professionally, and soon she had pushed the idea of
writing to the back of her minds.
“I wasn’t thinking about writing very much,
and I certainly wasn’t thinking about writing a book,” she said. “As simple as
it sounds, it really just happened. It wasn’t a conscious decision.”
The
storyline for Smith’s book focuses on a girl named Dani who was the victim of
child abuse and a very hard life. The story chronicles Dani’s life and the
measures she has to take to make it through each day and the ability of a child
to use his or her own mind to escape such harsh realities at such a tender
age.
Smith said she classifies the book as “reality-based fiction” because
even though the characters, their names and the places are fabricated, the story
is based loosely on the real-life story of a person Smith met.
“A few years
ago, a person I was talking to opened up to me about the abuse they had
experienced as a child and it was just unfathomable,” Smith said. “It broke my
heart.
“I saw her as a survivor and admired her for how far she had come, and
her story just stuck with me.”
As a way to deal with the overwhelming
emotions from hearing what circumstances this person had to overcome, Smith said
she just began writing.
“I wrote a lot of things down and pretty soon a
storyline began to evolve,” she said. “I played around with the story for about
two years and it wasn’t really going anywhere so I just pushed it out of my
mind.”
Smith said she didn’t give the story much more thought until this
spring when a seemingly mundane activity brought it right back to the forefront
of her mind.
“This spring I decided to plant a garden in my yard, and as I
was tilling up the ground, something caught my eye,” she said.
“What I had
dug up ended up being a clear and orange cat’s eye marble that reminded me of
the marble I had when I was a child.
“I started thinking about how I used to
play with those marbles and how I would imagine they were crystal balls that
could take me to far off places and let me see all kinds of fun things.”
That
was when it hit her.
“All of a sudden I realized that children who are the
victim’s of abuse, like the person who inspired this story, have to employ those
same kinds of tactics just to survive – to use their own minds to escape reality
out of necessity rather than just for fun.
“At that moment, it just all fell
into place. I put my tiller down and went inside, dirty, muddy clothes and all,
and wrote the first two chapters of the book.”
Once the story locked into
place, Smith said the words flowed easily and she had finished the book in a
matter of months.
She then began navigating the self-publishing process with
the help of her editor, Cassie McCown, and soon had the book signed on to be
published by Friesen Press.
“I knew I wanted to have the book published
because I wanted people to take two things away from this story,” she
said.
“One, I wanted those who are the survivors of child abuse to know
they’re not alone. So many of them feel so lost and as if they are all alone in
their struggles and I want to be a voice for them. I want them to know there are
people who care about their story.
“Two, I want to help people who have never
experienced child abuse or personally know someone who has to be able to
understand this on a more personal level. I want them to be able to walk right
alongside Dani on her journey and feel what she feels.”
Smith said the reason
she feels so strongly about this is because it is a subject that is usually
swept under the rug.
“You hear the statistics but then you just go on with
your life, not really considering that those numbers are actually
people.
“Child abuse is an epidemic in our country, and even right here in
our county. It goes on more often than people realize, mostly because people
don’t want to talk about it or report it or get involved. But it needs to be
discussed, and if my book impacts even one person, I’ve met my goal.”
To
celebrate the release of the book, Smith will hold a book signing at the
Russellville Public Library on Saturday, Dec. 15, from 10:30 a.m. until 1:30
p.m.
Copies of the book will be available as well as snacks and a special
gift for those who attend.
“This has been such an amazing process and I’ve
already gotten such great feedback,” Smith said. “The book reached my
publisher’s best seller list already, and I’ve had people tell me how emotional
the book was for them, which is great to hear because that means I conveyed my
message.
“I grew up in Hackleburg and now live in Spruce Pine so this isn’t
something a small-town girl like me expects, but I’m enjoying every minute of
this process.”
In addition to the book signing, copies of Cat’s Eye Marble
can be purchased at Barnes and Noble, at www.friesenpress.com, and on Amazon.com
in hardback, paperback and Kindle formats.
