I rarely meet other Lynnettes/Lynettes, so when I had the opportunity to do an interview, I was intrigued to learn that the person interviewing me was named Lynette (but with one n). As she and I conversed by email to set up the interview, we both got a kick out of emailing someone with the same name (albeit spelled differently).
Recently our very own local Laguna Beach paper, Stu News, did an interview with me about my writing process. I have been interviewed before by college students working on some sort of project for class, but this was the first time I’d been interviewed by a reporter for a newspaper. As a writer and a professor of writing, I often tell my students how important it is to do thorough research and to look at all different angles of a topic. When Lynette Brasfield sent me her detailed questions, I knew right away that she’d done her research. Her questions were specific, unique, and engaging. The questions got me thinking about what a reader might experience while reading my novel. Lynette read my novel and came up with unique questions to ask me about my book and about my writing process. Here’s an excerpt of the interview:
“Author Lynnette Beers talks about her novel, Just Beyond the Shining River, and her writing process” (by Lynette Brasfield)
Laguna resident Lynnette Beers, a professor at [Santiago Canyon College], is also the author of Just Beyond the Shining River, an engaging, lyrical novel set partly in London and partly in Los Angeles. In the book, not long after a breakup with her lover, Gemma Oldfield learns that her grandmother has died. She leaves LA for England. Once there, Gemma embarks upon a quest to understand why her grandma took so many secrets to the grave. In the process, Gemma meets an intriguing woman who has the potential to change her life – and, after shocking facts are unveiled about Gemma’s grandmother and mother, she is faced with making some difficult choices.
Getting published by a traditional press, rather than self-publishing, is extremely difficult these days. Congratulations on your achievement! Can you talk about some of the challenges you encountered along the way? At a writers’ conference a few years ago, I pitched my book to an agent. She cut me off right after I mentioned that my book takes place in the pre-smart phone era of 1997 and also when the AIDS crisis was plaguing places all over the world. The agent told me that wasn’t an interesting enough story. She mentioned that people won’t want to read a story about characters having to find a computer to check email and added that today, people get emails on their phones. She also said that 1997 is “almost-history,” which according to her doesn’t sell. Well, she was wrong. The “almost-history” element of my story has sold lots of books so far. The 1990s were so different than today when it comes to LGBTQ rights. In the 1990s, same-sex marriage was not legal, and many were shunned by society for being gay. I wanted to tell a story about love between two people that hopefully transcends any sort of long-ago laws that condemned people who happened to be gay.
Did you have any goals/messages in mind with this book, or were you driven strictly by the urge to tell a good story in style? (Which you do, so I imagine the latter is the case!)
Initially, I had no messages in mind with my book, and as you imagined, I was driven by the urge to tell a good story. But in retrospect, I realize that there is a message in my story – that love is love, no matter the sexual orientation, age, era, etc.
And the book certainly does appeal to people of different orientations, I can testify to that. I enjoyed it very much – loved the elegant prose, the depth of characterization, and also the plot twists at the end. I wanted to ask, do you garden? I noticed so many wonderful references to the presence and scents of flowers, from jasmine/gorse/sweet pea/blackberries and so much more!
This is such a great question! I actually don’t garden, but my mother did up until about a year before she passed. As a child and teen, we had a vegetable garden each summer, but that’s the limited extent of gardening for me. However, I love gardens. When I’m in London, I wander through places such as Chelsea Physic Garden (which is mentioned in my book), Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, and Battersea Park (also mentioned in my book). As I wrote my novel, I did extensive research about gardening, flowers, trees, blackberries, etc. I took a couple tours of Chelsea Physic Garden and asked a bunch of questions – especially about medicinal plants and about where certain flowers and trees grow and under what conditions. I even felt the bark of trees, smelled the flowers in the gardens, and examined the berries and thorns on blackberry bushes. There’s a sense of peace I get when I wander through a lush garden, like the flowers and trees feed my soul.
You’re an expert on Virginia Woolf. How specifically has she influenced either your writing or your approach to writing, would you say?
When I was in graduate school, I became intrigued with Virginia Woolf’s writing. I took a class focusing on modernism and twentieth century British authors. As I read novels by Woolf, I became more intrigued. My professor at the time, the late Dr. Terri Brint Joseph, encouraged me to attend the Virginia Woolf conference. I then became intrigued with Woolf’s diaries and letters. That’s when I got the idea for my own book – to tell part of the story in old letters. I ended up attending more Woolf conferences and presented papers. As far as Woolf’s approach to writing, I do think I follow some of her writing patterns or “habits,” one of which is to fully immerse myself in the story, characters, setting, etc. But I don’t follow the same writing style that Woolf did. Frankly, I don’t think the stream of consciousness style works as well today as it did in the early twentieth century. Prose today is much more concise compared to previous eras.
What do you enjoy most about writing fiction? Plot/characters? What do you find most challenging? I loved the twist at the end.
I usually have a rough idea of what will happen (location/setting, characters, etc.), but as the characters develop, often the storyline goes into way different directions. So, to answer your question, I think what I enjoy most is how my own story can surprise me.
What advice would you offer would-be authors?
My advice for would-be authors is to not give up. I think a certain level of talent/writing ability has to be there, but too many wannabe authors say, “I want to write a book someday” but never actually do it. Writing a book takes hard work and dedication, but for me I find that I can’t not write. I could be in class while my students are taking an exam, and I get the urge to edit a chapter or to jot a few notes down to add to my manuscript later. For would-be authors, I do find it’s a good idea to join a writer’s group if there’s a need for accountability. Some writers need due dates and nudges from a teacher or a fellow writer.
Where is your book available? And what are you working on now?
I’ve just finished a second novel titled Saving Sam. The genre of this book is romance-intrigue with much more mystery than my first book. This second book will be published hopefully by next summer.
Just Beyond the Shining River is available from Amazon–in print and e-book formats.
Thank you so much, Lynnette.