Interview with Fantasy Author, Geralyn Beauchamp

This is always so much fun to share. As many people are finding out, I wrote Time Masters back in 1994. I wrote it for fun and as a challenge to myself to see if I could not only write an entire book and finish it, but design a series to boot. Asking the infamous, 'what if' question and dreaming a little, I did just that. What if I ever wanted to make a career out of writing, how would I go about it? So I wrote the book and had a blast, played with designing it as a twelve book series, and then, well, I left it at that. I set out and did what I challenged myself to do, then stuck the manuscript in a trunk, where it remained up until November 2006. Since I've pulled it out, suddenly I'm looking at segueing into a writing career. The opportunity is there, and well, I'm taking it!

Q: I see you have some experience in screenwriting? Any plans to bring Time Masters to the small screen somewhere?

The proverbial pot of gold in novel writing is to have your book hit the big screen. Yes, I could write a screen play of TM1, but I'd be selling it as a screenwriter. I'd be better off selling it not only as a screen writer and work the movie rights from the book as the author. Make sure as an author you keep your movie rights! I more than likely will turn it into a screen play down the road, if someone hasn't approached me first. In Hollywood there is the unspoken rule. It's not what you know, it's who you know. And it's true. And I do know a few people, but they're not Steven Spielberg!

Q: You're running a blog tour of Time Masters with the Christian Fiction Review Blog. How do you think Internet has changed the way books can be promoted? Do you think blog tours have an actual effect on sales?

I've recently finished a marketing manual for my own publisher to utilize with their authors. And in it I tell these authors, "Yes!" Blog tours are great ways to promote your books! The internet has opened up a huge marketing venue for authors. I remember back in the early to mid nineties when author friends (these are authors whose books I reviewed) would complain about the internet and spending so much time on their computers answering emails! I also remember them driving from book store to book store to do signings. There was a lot of foot work involved in promoting back then and there still is. But if done right much can be done from one's own home. Books are sold primarily through word of mouth. Author to reader then reader to reader. The more readers hear about your book, and especially from other readers the better. Blog tours give authors a chance to connect directly with not only their current readers, but future readers as well. The result? More readers, more sales.

Q: What's a typical writing day like for you, as you're working to meet a deadline?

Oh I must admit! I do work better under pressure. When I wrote TM1 there was no pressure. I had no publishing goal so no deadlines. In fact the only deadline I had back then was getting a bit of writing done before I had to cook dinner! When I wrote my first script however, I learned what a deadline was and wound up writing the first main script in eight hours. The day before I had to turn it in naturally! I had a dead line with the marketing manual and as is my way, waited until the last minute to do the actual writing. I wanted to spend more time with the research end of it to make sure I had all the correct information I needed. The challenge is I have an odd schedule with the day job I have. And I'm a single mother now on top of it with a teen aged daughter, so I have to work around her schedule as well. For non-fiction writing, I find I can do it anywhere/anytime and once I get going I can really go. But for fiction, such as TM1 and the up coming writing of TM2, I can fly best in the middle of the night. I'm a darn night writer which doesn't bode well with the day job. So I'm having to really schedule my writing time with TM2 to make sure the bulk of it can be written during my prime creative time, and when I don't have to get up too early the next day! I'm on a two chapter a week schedule to get it done in time to turn into my publisher who wants to release November of 2008.

Q: Tell us a little about Time Masters.

Time Masters was a lot of fun to create and write. It also gave me sort of a hobby and kept me busy during a time when I needed something in my life. Purpose I guess you'd call it. It has Christian based themes and values woven into it and yes some I fully intended. But after reading the posts from the current blog tour for TM1, I am finding that the readers are finding so much more within it's pages than I ever thought possible. It promotes purity and virtue. Two things missing from today's culture. Purity today tends to mean weakness. Virtue isn't much better off. My hope is that the book's message will help people to realize there is great power in both purity and virtue. A message many parents, (I'm one of them), wish to instill in their children. Time Masters is a fun way to do just that. To see a description of the book and all it entails, just read the posts on the blog tour. It really is a great way to learn about a book and see what other readers are saying!

Q: Any future projects brewing outside the TM storyline?

TM is a twelve book series. I guess when I designed it way back when, I was thinking long term project! But I also have another series that I created after TM was written. A comedy western series that I converted to screen play. I'd still love to do it! I've also outlined a few other stories I wouldn't mind working with down the road. A couple of which are mysteries.

Q: Networking sites like Myspace, Shoutlife, Shelfari, and Facebook are all the rage today, especially for those in the creative arts (writing, art, music, acting). As an author, do you think any of these networking sites make a difference in book marketing, or are they the latest "techno-fads"?

As I instruct authors in the marketing manual I wrote. Network, network, network! Most definitely these social networking sites make a difference! I've met and networked already with quite a few other authors, gotten back into doing a bit of reviewing, got involved with the blog tour folks, and have partnered with Barto Luciano, (his pen name) who is ranked number one in the nation right now as the top contemporary poet. He is writing a few pieces for me to use as chapter headings in TM2, and I'd love to do a book with him down the line. I don't know how I ever would have run across Bart if it weren't for Myspace. Shoutlife had a lot to do with the blog tour and getting TM some starter reviews. I just recently joined Shelfari as I do love to read as well as write. So yes, these sites help authors connect with not only current readers, but potential readers as well. Not to mention business networking.

Q: Was it necessary to do any historical research for this novel?

Oh yes! TM1 involved a ton of historical research as I use an actual historical event and historical figures in the book. Dallan MacDonald, my main character is a seventeenth century Scottish Highlander. I had to get his speech pattern down for that time period. Angus MacNab, another character, is from the eighteenth century. His mannerisms and speech would thus be different from Dallans.

Q: How do you see Christian Fantasy developing in the next few years? Do you think the doors for Christian speculative fiction will open any wider, or will it continue to be a niche market?

At first I think it may remain as a niche market. Small independent publishers have no problem with it, and even the bigger houses are publishing more and more of it. It's the readers that have to be won over. Once they figure out it does not in anyway harm or distort Christian values or the message of Christ. That the message of God's love, forgivness, whatever aspect of the Lord the author is sharing with the reader through the story they are telling is clear within the pages. That it is merely being told in a different kind of a story, then yes, it will grow and probably grow quite well. What makes TM a scenceifiction/fantasy story other than the time travel element is the Muirarans. An alien race. I made my other lead character of an alien race to not only create conflict in the story, but to make it interesting for the reader. Teen agers especially love it. And learn a bit about relationships, and the power of purity as well. And realize they face the same problems the TM characters face. It gets their attention.

Q: Do you belong to any writer's associations? If so, have you found them to be helpful?

I got into the Romance Writers of America when I was a reviewer and after I finished TM. I wanted to see what I did right with it! That particular group put on some great classes. That and the camaraderie among the authors was fantastic! Many of the writers in the group I belonged to have gone on to be best selling authors! You have to be picky about what group you are in though. With TM I'm more likely to join a speculative fiction group and I did join the Lost Genre Guild. Other than that I am not currently with a group but do think they are quite helpful if you join the right one.

Q: Your website mentions you're a "former reviewer". Who did you write reviews for? Did you write reviews as a way of breaking into the market, or simply because you liked writing reviews?

I wrote reviews for a national newsletter that was distributed to independent book stores all over the United States. I wrote them because I loved to read and found I really liked to review. I also discovered I could write a pretty mean review as well and the authors loved it. I got to be friends with quite a few of them and had a lot of fun. They were the ones that also encouraged me to take the next step and try my hand at a novel.

Q: Would you consider any authors - contemporaries or otherwise - as inspirations? If so, which would you say have influenced you the most?

As to contemporary, there were a few from back in my RWA days that were very inspirational. Libby Hall, who back then was the president of the Romance Writers of America was quite the inspiration. As in, you can have a family, work a day job and write as well. Her day job was writing tech for the space industry, and by night she wrote romance. She took the time to talk to published and aspiring authors, read works, do all kinds of things. She was also great fun! Francine Rivers was just starting out then and had a few books under her belt. I read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander after I wrote TM and thought, well gee, she had to figure out the whole Scottish accent thing too! And she's as long winded as I am. She also is a stickler for research and nobody does it better. Her accuracy in historical events and culture is incredible. But the one author whose books really helped put some of the zing into my writing is Edgar Rice Burroughs. I got hooked on his Tarzan novels with their constant action and cliff hanger chapter endings. To me they were a blast! And that carried over into my own writing style.

Q: Christian entertainment has changed much in the last few years; especially in the areas of music, fiction, and movies. What do you see in the future for Christian entertainment?

There is a shift taking place. Some Christian music is more edgy, movies are delving into areas that before might have been considered taboo. And then of course you have this niche market called Christian Speculative Fiction. Some folks look and say, "What's up with that?" But the bottom line is what are most of these designed for? Reaching the lost, being Christ's hands extended to a hurting world. If we as Christians can do that through our music, our movies or our books then great! I let a few people read TM back in the day. It upset one woman from Texas so badly she actually flew out to my house in California and spent the weekend with me. She told me the book made her realize she needed to stop "sleeping around" as she put it, and get her act together. But she didn't know how and didn't know what the horrible emptiness she always felt and tried to fill through one relationship after another, was. She gave her life over to Christ that weekend after learning that only He could fill that void. That one woman, that one weekend, showed me that God can and does use our talents to do His work. And that is what we are here to do. Sweet and nice hymns do not reach the hard core drug addict on the street. His taste in music runs to the hard rock, the edgy, even heavy metal. Christ can speak through those venues just as well as others. And He does. With the shift taking place, we as Christian artists are reaching more people for Christ.

Q: On an unrelated note, how do you feel about Amazon.com's new wireless reading device? How do you feel about someone potentially downloading Time Masters?

The new reading device is good for short reads in my opinion. Or if someone wants their information now. For nonfiction I think it would serve some folks quite well. For fiction I'm not so sure. For TM they better have a darn good set of eyes! Longer pieces would be tedious on a little screen. I can't edit on screen and have to print everything! A book like TM is far too long in an e-book format. And as I understand it, authors or the rights holders to the work have to give permission for the work to be changed over the to electronic formant Amazon is using. I'm afraid no one will be downloading TM any time soon. I can, on the other hand, see them listening to TM as an audio book!

Q: I read in Stephen King's On Writing that he has an "inner circle" comprised of his wife and closest friends who read his work before any editors or publishers do, to give him an "everyman/woman's" opinion. Who reads your work - if anyone - before a publisher and editor does?

Back in 1994, I tested TM on a group just to see how they liked it. (Remember the woman I mentioned from Texas?) They not only liked it. They loved it. These would be some of the same folks who've been badgering me to take TM out of the trunk and share it with the rest of the world! After I did that I tested it again. This time on random folks of different age groups and genders. Again, they all loved it! Test readers are a great resource to have. Even better, many in this later group didn't know me from Adam, so they were giving totally unbiased opinions. I used a few people from where I work, teens at my daughters school. Coaching clients or one of their family members. It helped in the editing process and helped me to see if there were any continuity issues or confusing spots in the story.

Q: Finally, if there was any advice you'd like to give to aspiring writers, what would it be?

Write the best darn book you possibly can! That's the bottom line. But also have fun while you're doing it! People read TM and go wow! Again, you can follow the tour and read the posts to see what they are saying. I am very humbled by the remarks many of them are leaving about the book. I had no writing classes under my belt, no instruction. I took a few classes and things after I wrote TM, to see if I did things right. Then went back and tweaked it a little. Tested it, then threw it in the trunk, figuring I did what I set out to do. Start something and finish it. Even playing I still wanted to make sure I did things right and not just leave it half done. And I'm glad I did! When I pulled it out of the trunk, my last set of editing notes were all there, they just hadn't been implemented yet. I took care of that, then voila! Here we are. Now I get to do it again (with deadlines this time, GAK!) and want to make sure I turn out the best book possible. Never settle for less than your best writing. Never. It makes for a lot less work down the road!