From Matilda’s Miss Honey to Breaking Bad’s Walter White, we all have our favorite fictional teachers. Yet the media rarely portrays the profession in a way that feels true to my own experiences. I wanted to show people what it’s really like teaching in an urban public middle school — by writing something totally and brutally honest.
Finding a story to speak through
I could have written a nonfiction book or an article about the pains of teaching, but I knew a novel would speak to readers more effectively. Nonfiction might be able to tell them what it’s like to be a teacher, but fiction would help them feel the struggle.
Thus, my main character was born: a middle school teacher in my hometown of New Bedford, Massachusetts. (Herman Melville also lived there; New Bedford is where Moby-Dick begins.) In my own novel — later titled Whalers — Ethan Callahan is overworked and disillusioned, with no control over what he teaches, and has turned to alcohol to get through life.
Although I immediately had a strong sense of who Ethan was, I still needed a story through which to explore his character. I didn’t want to pigeonhole my novel by confining it to a single genre or category… but the character I’d conjured seemed to be naturally well-suited to some mystery-thriller elements.
What if this guy — who is already struggling with his self-worth and happiness — got involved in a missing persons case, and the community turned on him? What if, despite his best efforts to always do the right thing, he got mixed up in something bigger than himself?
So I decided that one of Ethan’s former pupils would go missing, and he would become a prime suspect in their disappearance. While struggling to clear his name, Ethan would also have to confront his inner demons — and that’s how I would explore my ideas about teaching through a captivating story.
Reaching my full thematic potential
After 40,000 words, the skeleton of my story was there, but I knew there was more to be said. I needed a developmental editor to lay a fresh set of eyes on the manuscript, so I hired Jenna Love Schrader on Reedsy.
Jenna’s developmental and copy edits improved my manuscript greatly. What really stood out to me in our first collaboration was her thoughts on the setting. She's from Tennessee, and she commented that people from coastal cities often take the luxury of living on the ocean for granted. She recommended that I focus on adding imagery about the sea, the smells, and the chapels the whalers built, where they could pray for a safe voyage.
This added so much to the novel overall, both in terms of imagery and the symbolism of all that water represents. Rebirth and cleansing are major parts of Ethan’s journey as he battles with — and emerges from — his alcoholism.
After working with Jenna, my narrative grew to over 60,000 words, surpassing “novella” length and getting into “novel” territory. But more than mere word count, the book also just felt much deeper and more complete than it had beforehand. I was finally ready to move beyond the text and think about the overall presentation of Whalers.
Commissioning the perfect “literary thriller” cover
I knew how important it was for my cover to stand out in the competitive publishing world — but in addition to being distinctive, I wanted the design to capture the themes of my text: loneliness, isolation, and the feeling of being trapped and judged.
At the same time, I wanted to express the literary feel of the novel. I never wanted to go down the route of your typical mystery cover, because I didn't feel like that’s what Whalers was. Instead, I envisioned a cover that followed a long tradition of literary fiction: symbolic, clean, and minimalist like the classic literary novels.
Victoria Heath Silk’s portfolio was filled with incredible covers of this kind:
When I first linked up with Victoria, she sent me a survey asking for my thoughts. After a few weeks, she provided eight concepts in various aesthetics, but all attuned to what I wanted.
The bottom middle design stood out to me immediately. I loved the rich dark blue background, the symbolism of the car replacing a whale, and the bold all-caps title that nods to the mystery/thriller genre without taking away from the minimalist literary feel.
Victoria integrated all my suggested changes seamlessly and we worked together to come up with the final design. In particular, we moved the harpoon to the right and angled it toward the car to amplify the feeling of being targeted. We also added the girl next to the vehicle, representing the crucial scene in which Ethan offers the soon-to-disappear student a lift home and sets the stage for a torrent of accusations.
I’m very proud of the end product. In fact, the cover is currently the thing that readers comment on the most!
Striking a chord with readers
In the two months since its release, my debut has received multiple 5-star editorial reviews. Critics have praised the relatability of Ethan’s character — hopefully bringing my readers one step closer to truly understanding how it feels to be a teacher in the modern era.
“Farnworth’s skillful use of narrative voice is one of the novel’s strongest elements. Ethan’s perspective feels both personal and relatable, making it easy for readers to connect with his struggles.”
~ Literary Titan ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“As an author, Farnworth does a brilliant job at creating a character that can articulately vocalize their internal and external frustrations through a first person perspective, as well as providing bold descriptions that clearly articulate the monotonous boredom of teaching the same material over and over again.”
~ AEB Reviews, Reedsy Discovery ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Firstly, it’s very much a character study of (what I’d call) a normal man. The author is keen from the outset for the readers to get to know him, warts and all […] Secondly, the writing style is excellent; not too flowery, even workmanlike in parts, fitting the genre perfectly.”
~ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
More to say about our crazy world
My experience as a teacher isn’t the only thing I have to share with readers. In fact, I’m already working diligently on my next novel, Medusa: or Men Entombed in Winter. It’s another literary thriller, this time about a grieving father navigating his fractured family — and his former involvement in a dangerous cult, led by the charismatic and enigmatic Medusa.
In many ways, my next novel is very different from Whalers. Instead of first person, it’s written in the third person, and it focuses more on generational struggles than individual ones, taking place over a much longer time period.
But I think readers will see the same author. It's richly thematic and symbolic, and once again shares my thoughts on the question: What does it mean to be a human being in this crazy world?
You can buy Whalers in paperback, ebook, or audiobook format on Amazon.
