Ask the Author: Beth Fine
Answered Questions (6)
Beth Fine
Writer's block? Like depression, I've never experienced either and so cannot comment.
Beth Fine
The best thing about writing is to get to work at home with all my non-online-type sources at my fingertips.
Beth Fine
Another author, Natalie Ryan, showed me how sticking the path is the only way a book squirts out at the end of the effort. She told me that she simply built characters, scenes, and conflicts in her mind while taking her daily walk or washing dishes or making beds or on coffee breaks when had an outside job. Her most important adivce was when she said, "I design the scene before peopling it." She also advised to practice the painful art of "excising" any character who becomes so precious as to disturb the plot's flow.
Beth Fine
With sixteen books planned, I have seven books in print + ebooks. To help unpublished authors get a feel for the publishing world, my eighth book has been held hostage since September, 2015 but is only now in book cover revision which precedes final proof in layout (oh, my eyes). I have two more written so far in the series, but revision and formatting become critical as one nears submitting a manuscript. So, I remain active on IMASODES IX and X. Written in the educational fiction genre, my series seems the perfect fit for the homeschooling market which has opened its doors frequently. Although not gearing my books to that niche, I do appreciate its approval and enthusiasm.
Beth Fine
Writing comes so naturally to me because I began as a child expressing on paper what only got garbled when spoken, I think it is called "finding one's voice" in the literary world. :-) Finding a muse is important. Calliope may have been Homer's Muse for the Iliad and Odyssey. However, since elementary school, I have sensed the urge to write as an inside gift. Therefore, if allowed in these cynical days to mention God who loaned me any talents I may have, I must be perfectly honest to say the Holy Spirit is my Muse who keeps me on track with my purpose.
Beth Fine
The ideas for my current series come from a life of personal experience, or should I call it personal adventure. Having lived in all regions of the U.S. except the Plains States, I constantly marvel how we hang together as a nation, so I put that feeling of disjointedness into my middle school mystery series called The Picaresque of Ímagine Purple. The story follows a young teacher-turned-detective who travels from Newfoundland to New Dehli. It is set in the late 1960s, a tumultuous period often glamorized instead or critically scrutinized with intellectual honesty. Ima Purple has lived outside the U.S. for seven years and returns home to find the nation she left, now topsy-turvy.
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