I am the author of THE PATIENCE TRILOGY: Courage (1), Hope (2), & Truth (3). Courage and Hope are being re-released on 3/29/16-- they were released previously with other publishers, and Truth is releasing for the first time on the same day. My new publisher is Steady On Books.
I hope readers will visit my website & get in touch!

SIX MINUTES WITH BETH FEHLBAUM:

Joining LitPick for a Six Minutes with an Author interview is Beth Fehlbaum! Beth is not only an author; she is also a high school English-Language Arts teacher and member of the RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network) Speakers’ Bureau. She has been a keynote speaker at the National Crime Victims’ Week Commemoration Ceremony at the Hall of State in Dallas, Texas, and is in demand as a panelist. She has presented/appeared at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference, the American Library Association’s Annual Conference, YALSA, and N.C.T.E./ALAN, and she is a member of The Author’s Guild.

Beth is a featured author on the 2015-2016 Spirit of Texas Reading List - High School for her books Big Fat Disaster, and The Patience Trilogy books: Courage (book 1), Hope (book 2), and Truth (book 3).

How did you get started writing?

I’ve always written—ever since I can remember, I wrote to understand my world. Professionally, though, edgy YA fiction chose me. I initially wrote the first draft of Courage in Patience as a therapeutic assignment. I was in recovery for trauma from childhood sexual abuse and learning to manage having Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the experiences I had from the age of 8.

I was writing poems and short stories as a way of processing my grief and rage, and the only person I showed them to was my psychologist. He suggested that I try writing a novel. It took about four months of stopping/starting and always ending up stuck in asking, “Why?. . .Why did this happen to me?. . .Why did my mother ignore my outcry at age 14?. . .”             

Finally, I gave myself permission to imagine the recovery process as someone else’s. That’s when the story began.

Who influenced you?             

Initially, my psychologist influenced me to begin, but Chris Crutcher’s commitment to authenticity and truth telling are the reason I am the sort of writer I am. I happened to find his novel, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, on my gone-away-to-college daughter’s bookshelf, and I read it from cover-to-cover in a matter of hours. That book changed my life, because after reading it, I knew there are stories inside of me that might help others. 

I love Sherman Alexie for his honesty and no-holds-barred expressions of emotion, and Jennifer Brown’s ability to pull me into story is so keen that I find it difficult to adequately describe it.

Do you have a favorite book/subject/character/setting?

All my books are set in small East Texas towns. The Patience Trilogy (“ourage (#1), Hope (#2), and Truth (#3)) are about a teen girl’s recovery from childhood sexual abuse, and Big Fat Disaster is about a teen’s experiences with binge eating disorder and loss of stability when her parents split up because her dad has an affair. A predominant theme in my work has, so far, been hypocrisy. Another is examining who we are (as people) when no one is looking.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?

Read a lot so that you have an understanding of what engaging storytelling feels like to you. As I said, Chris Crutcher influenced me to pursue a no-holds-barred, truth-telling style of storytelling. I’m fearless in my commitment to authenticity, and people have said of me that I write “without looking over my shoulder.”

Pay attention to the conventions of writing, i.e. grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. Here’s the thing: even if you tell the most heart-pounding story in the world, if readers trip over your mistakes, your story is lost. Make sure to edit, edit, edit and revise, revise, revise in order to tighten your writing. Pretend each word costs $1.00—be choosy about what you use.             

Finally, never send your first draft of the manuscript. Put it away for at least a week then read through it again. It’s a newbie mistake to be so excited at finishing your book that you jump right into submitting it. Trust me: I did that.

Where is your favorite place to write?

It varies with the season and my surroundings, of course, but lately, my predominant place to write is in my recliner with my legs up. I also love sitting on my front porch on summer mornings before it gets too hot. I moved a small desk onto my porch one summer and even took a box fan outside to blow away the mosquitoes and flies. Surrounded by the sounds of the woods—I live at the bottom of a hill in a heavily wooded area and I have no close neighbors—with enough of a breeze blowing so that it’s not terribly humid—oh, it’s amazing. So inspiring and beautiful.

What else would you like to tell us?

I invite you to friend me on Facebook, too—it’s the easiest way to interact with me.

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Beth, thank you so much for spending six minutes with LitPick. Your interview shows the power of writing. We are sure that through your books and this interview you are helping more people than you will ever know.