Author Interview: Beth Savoie

by Sylvia Ney

Beth Savoie is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in Lake Charles, LA. She is the author of many short stories, poems, and partial novels. To date she hasn’t had anything officially published but her work is out there for consideration. She recently started her own blog spot, Creating Wordlenik at http://www.creatingwordlenik.blogspot.com/ and is an active member of the Bayou Writer’s Group in Lake Charles. In order to fit in all her reading and writing as well as work at the Children’s Clinic she has established a “sleep and housework optional” policy at her house.

1) What styles do your write? I like stories that take normal events and pair them with unusual characters. Right now I’m working on a short story about a day at the Acadiana Zoo told through the eyes of a squirrel. It came from a writing assignment. We were supposed to write a character observing or being observed. I thought about places you can watch others and the zoo story is what came out. As far as genre and style, I’m not really locked into one since I’m still in my backpacking through Europe stage as a writer.

2) Best thing you’ve read online recently? Living the Creative Writing Lifestyle by Melissa Donovan. It’s at her website www.writingforward.com For me it was what I needed to think about why I’m writing. The website is one worth checking out.

3) Speaking of online, tell me about your own online endeavors. My blog’s name isCreating Wordlenik. What is wordlenik you ask? I have no idea. I’m still in the process of creating it. The journey of wordlenik can be found at www.creatingwordlenik.blogspot.com I do have a Facebook page, but honestly, the only place I post to is Graeme McDowell’s fan page. I suppose I should do better with this if I want to promote myself to more than golf groupies.

4) If you could be one author for a day who would it be? No doubt - Neil Gaiman. I could say I created the Lord of Dreams. I want to live in his world and live life the way he imagines it. How cool would that be? But I like being a girl too much to be Neil Gaiman forever.

5) So Neil Gaiman is an author you admire? Of course. He and Michael Crichton are right up there next to the angels. But the authors I really admire are those who write even when nobody’s looking. Those who don’t give up even when it seems there’s not a market. I admire authors who don’t forget what it’s like to struggle with the words and phrases and are willing to share their victories and defeats. I think most of all I admire those authors who have the guts to look the naysayers in the eye and say, “Yeah, I’m a writer.”

6) What food inspires you in your writing? Chicken Nuggets. Think about it. Don’t you wish you were the guy who invented chicken nuggets? You’d be the hero of children everywhere. I want to tell the story that’s chicken nuggets. And coffee. But I don’t know if coffee counts because it’s a staple in a writer’s toolbox, right? Is coffee even a food?

7) Strangest dream involving an author, book, or literary character? One night Michael Crichton, Shirley Manson (lead singer for Garbage), Philip Landry (a friend), and I went to Ozzfest in a blue Mercedes Cabriolet. The strange part? We didn’t even talk about books or writing. We just enjoyed driving along with the top down listening to the music. I woke up before we actually made it to Ozzfest.

8) Have you ever planted a book on your coffee table to impress someone? I’d have to do a lot of cleaning to be able to plant a book on my coffee table.

9) What are you reading now? The Retribution by Val McDermid, Star Wars Republic Commando, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Sandman Preludes and Nocturnes, and The Slaves Who Defeated Napoleon.

10) Is this a hobby or do you plan to make a career in writing? If a career is what you do to pay the bills I guess I have to see how it goes for writing. I used to say writing was my hobby and being a nurse practitioner was my job. But my muse will not be denied. So now I feel as if I have two jobs. I love them equally. I plan to always write even if all it gets me is a paper cut from opening the rejection letter. There are jobs and there are careers. And then there are those things you do because you can’t imagine doing anything else. I’m fortunate to have two things like that: writing and healing. How many people can say that?