Conversations with Beverly Nault

Today we’d like to introduce you to Beverly Nault

Hi Beverly, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
LEARN some, and then keep LEARNING!
That’s always been my mantra. So when someone said writing is like having homework the rest of your life, they were spot on. Because you can never know too much about writing. I started writing creatively by taking a correspondence course back in the day when your teacher would mail your assignments, and you’d mail your work back. Truly a snail’s pace, but the method has served since it was conceived in 1728 by Caleb Philips who advertised shorthand courses. Wrap your head around learning shorthand in a long-distance course. This kind of learning blew up when the postal system matured and ever since then radio and television courses offered by colleges and individuals have been a mainstay of education.

So I was in good company, such as the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, Nelson Mandela, and Battushig Myanganbayar (look him up if you don’t know who he is. Impressive!)

After the first mail-in course (I was terrible, but I managed to earn my certificate in Writing for Children), I enrolled in a two-year long course sponsored by Jerry Jenkins (Dallas Jenkins’ novel writing father). They assigned me a mentor who walked me through the entire experience. Thank you, Kathy Tyers!

I also did a few semesters in-person toward my master’s degree in Business and Technical Writing. Also good experience. Writing to deadlines and on assignment. Dry? Yes. Important? Also yes.

Back to the mentored correspondence course. When I finished that course in both fiction non-fiction, I had two books published in the same month and year. The course was designed to choose either a fiction or non-fiction path, but I didn’t stay in just one lane. The old advice was to stick to one lane and one genre, but Bev didn’t listen to that. So I took the nonfiction challenge to find a topic, and write either alone, or perhaps with a famous person, or a subject matter expert. Great advice. Which brings me to my next mantra, apply yourself, or better yet, do hard things!

APPLY
Apply yourself and apply to gigs even if you’ve never tried before. It could work out!

I was acquainted with the actress Mary McDonough as Iooked for a nonfiction project. She had grown up playing Erin on the classic television drama, The Waltons. You know the one. It’s where we get the expression, “Goodnight, John-Boy,” that’s still in the cultural vernacular. I approached Mary and proposed we write together about her experiences. She agreed, and we wrote Lessons from the Mountain, What I Learned from Erin Walton (Kensington) together. It’s now gone into five printings. My only miff is that the cover layout artist decided to put a quote about Mary by George Clooney on the cover instead of my name. If I ever run into that guy I’ll have a stern word or two to say to him. The graphic designer, not George,

Anyway. The fiction path I took was more conventional. I’d been a fan of the now classic and still popular Mitford novels by Jan Karon, who had just announced she was no longer writing the small-town cozies. I decided to try my hand at the genre, and I conceived of my Seasons of Cherryvale series beginning with Fresh Start Summer (Lamp Post Press – now self-published). Little known fact about that series: I took out a paper map one day to look for a town name in an area that had seasons. I lived in California where we didn’t get much but sunny skies year ‘round. So I found a lovely sounding name in Kansas and decided to call my fictional small town, Cherryvale. After the first book came out, the people of the “real” Cherryvale invited to visit and I was shown the town, spoke in churches and libraries, and sold out all copies of the book. And they have accepted me as an honorary citizen to this day. So cool.

ADAPT
When I first started writing back in the day, I used an IBM Selectric typewriter and mailed in my assignments. Then computers. But I wrote The Kaleidoscope, romance/thriller/adventure (Wild Rose Press – now self-published) longhand to see if I could do it and because I’d been told that writing slowly is a better process, that the human brain needs time to navigate emotions, thoughts, ideas. That’s a debate for another day, but I do recommend writing longhand for days when the keyboard seems too sterile and the screen too glaring. Somehow paper and pen seem more friendly.

Now we have A.I., which is also a debate for another day. But I believe keeping up with times, cultural moods and trends is of paramount importance to stay current and relevant.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I share experience with the three major enemies all creatives face – 1. Income 2. Imposter Syndrome 3. Time

These are the three biggest struggles I have and that in my experience most creatives have.

Income – Not everyone can make a living with their art. Kudos to the ones who can. But creatives shouldn’t let that affect their drive or confidence, which leads to the second enemy; Imposter syndrome.

From Van Gogh to Spielberg, everyone experiences self-doubt from time to time. The trick is to push through. “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” Sylvia Plath said that. Even she knew. Maya Angelou said, “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song.” Do birds worry about who is listening and if their song pleases others? While creating, neither should we. Sing out and enjoy the process.

Time. Everyone has the same amount. It’s our choice what to do with it. Butts in seats, brain on. Go! I tell my mentees to buy a kitchen timer and set it to 45 minutes. Write for that long, then take a break. Come back in 15 minutes and do it all over again. In just a few minutes a day, you can write a novel in a few months.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I call myself “Just another word nerd.” J.K. Rowling said, “Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic.” She should know, right? I agree with her because I’m into anything putting words together to make stories about the human experience in many forms. Books, movies, television, documentaries, songs, poems. You name it, I’ll write it. Or at least, I’ll give it a go, and we’ll see how well it goes.

I never thought I’d be able to write screenplays, but when writer friend Sandra Esch convinced me I should try it, I finally relented. But remember the advice I’d learned from my course. Find a collaborator. So I asked Sandi to teach me. After writing one together, I realized I really enjoy the medium and have had some success and won some laurels. The first one we wrote together, The Christmas Stocking, recently won the highest scoring screenplay at Show Low Film Festival and we are now pitching it. It’s also been chosen to be the holiday screenplay in the Sync Challenge for singer-songwriters and will have its own original music. soon.

And now I have a screenplay, co-written with another friend, Carly Miller, that’s in a shopping agreement with Director Paul A Kaufman who is taking it to major studios. We hope Perfect Misfits, a moving and funny story about a group home of foster kids, will be produced within the next couple of years.

What makes you happy?
What makes me happy? That’s a good question. Okay, look out, y’all I’m casting off my cloak of humility, and with apologies to Maya about being happy with my own song, I’ll admit I do like to hear accolades from others. Earning approval from peers, readers, viewers, and judges is one of the best feelings for this creative. Writers work in a vacuum, and it’s nice to hear that someone has actually read your work, and even better if they have nice things to say about the experience.

Also, I really enjoy collaborating with others as you can tell from what I’ve said about my projects. Brainstorming with someone on a new story idea, helping with a storyline, producing a film, or dabbling in anything else artsy or creative, is quite fulfilling. What fun would it be to share imagination and the magic of what can become something from nothing without sharing with the world and each other?

Because, to me, the most important is to, even in a small way, help make the earth a better place. Author Edith Shaffer put it best when she said that anyone who realizes they were “made in the image of the Creator God and is therefore meant to be creative on a finite level, should certainly have more understanding of his responsibility to treat God’s creation with sensitivity, and should develop his talents to do something to beautify his little spot on the earth’s surface.”

Pricing:

• $8.99 The Seasons of Cherryvale complete series
• 5.99 The Kaleidoscope
• 2.99 Misdirect, A novel of Spies, the Sahara, and Searching for God
• .99 Murder, Most Sincerely, a Backstage Mystery

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beverlynault.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beverlynaultauthor
• Other: https://linktr.ee/beverlynault