I’m kicking-off August by featuring author Beth Burnett.
Last year I met Beth at the Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) Conference in D.C. I then became a student at the GCLS Writing Academy where she’s the director. Today, she humbly agreed to be interviewed for this blog. I hope that you find her to be as witty and entertaining as I do.
Tell us a little about yourself?
Beth’s Blog
Beth on Amazon
Beth on Goodreads
Tell us about your upcoming book and where can we buy it?
Eating Life is my current book. It’s available for purchase August 15th. Order from a local woman owned bookstore! (My two favorites are People Called Women in Toledo, Ohio and Laurel Bookstore in Oakland, California. Both will order it if they don’t have it. And they ship. And of course, you can buy it in the regular big online retailer places. And from Sapphire Books website.)
http://peoplecalledwomen.com/
http://www.laurelbookstore.com/
(I need to read this book!)
I hope it becomes a million dollar project. I have one completed manuscript that is with a beta reader as we speak about two soulmates who fall in love but can’t be together. I’m working on a hetero romance about two women who are betrayed by their boyfriends and decide to write bad porn books about them to get even. I’m about halfway through a self-help book based on the online women’s empowerment classes I teach. And I just started outlining a book in which the antagonist from Eating Life becomes the protagonist. And my alter-ego, Olivia Craft, tries to put out an erotica short story on Amazon every other month or so. (Olivia’s work keeps me supplied with hummus and Birkenstocks, so I have to schedule time for her.)
I’m kind of a luddite – I still like paper books. I have Stephen King’s On Writing, and the Natalie Goldberg books. Chuck Wendig’s Kick-ass Writer is excellent, too. The biggest boost to my writing skills comes from running the writing academy. Even when I’m not teaching, I sit in on the classes, and they are incredible. I feel my writing has improved so much since starting with the academy.
Long ago, I was talking to the incredibly talented Linda Kay Silva and she said, “Stop saying you want to be a writer. You obviously don’t want to be a writer or you’d be writing.” It was hard but she was so right. I sat down that day and started writing. My first novel, Man Enough, came directly from that conversation.
I love when people acknowledge my work (and I’m a Scorpio), so all compliments are welcome! One of my favorites was when Catherine Wilson, author of the When Women were Warriors series, listened to my reading, and then ran to the vendor table shouting, “I need to get that book!”
Lesbian fiction is still relevant – perhaps even more so in today’s political climate. Keep reading and I’ll keep writing.
That it isn’t just writing. I knew nothing about marketing (still don’t know much) and the amount of marketing an author has to do is overwhelming. I somehow thought that as long as I wrote good books, people would just miraculously know about them and buy them.
Any questions you’d like to pose to me?
What are you wearing?
Shirt & Tie AND Pants
And when is your next book coming out?
Love Coupons –Sept 1st (fingers-crossed)
On August 15th RUN don’t walk to get Beth Burnett’s next book Eating Life.
http://www.laurelbookstore.com/
Source: Blog