Interview with Author Sarah Bewley

 

 

Sarah Bewley writes, climbs rock walls and takes boxing lessons. She was born young, grew old very quickly, then entered her second childhood which she found far more satisfying than her first. BURNING EDEN is her first mystery and the first book the Eden County Mysteries series. She shares her life with Patrick Payne, who likes things that burn and explode, knives that are too sharp, and is a photographic artist. She’s worked as a licensed private investigator and now works in utilities security, which is physical protection for critical infrastructure.

Question: What is the title and genre of your novel?  Why did you select them?

Answer: BURNING EDEN is a police procedural mystery.

I love procedurals. They are my favorite type of mystery, and when I decided to try to write one, I naturally wanted to write what I loved.

Question:   What inspired this novel? How did it come about?

Answer: In 1998 North Central Florida was swept by wildfires. Many small towns had to be evacuated, and rural counties suffered a great deal of damage. I wanted to write about that time in Florida, and I wanted to set a mystery in a rural county of the area. I live in North Central Florida in Gainesville. I wanted to capture this region of the South and how different it is here than South Florida is.

Question:  Could you tell us a little bit about the heroine and/or hero of your novel?

Answer: There are two points of view in my novel. The first is Sheriff Jim Sheppard. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all sheriffs of this same rural county. He did not want to be Sheriff, but became a deputy after his wife died. He had a baby son and needed a place to raise him. So he dropped out of a Master’s program in History at the University of Florida to do that. 

The second is Dr. Ryan Edwards. He was an emergency room physician in Washington, D.C. When he and his wife are attacked, he ends up with brain damage that causes aphasia. His wife dies from her injuries. So, he can no longer work in the fast-paced ER. When he is offered a job as a partner in the small practice of the doctor in Eden County. He takes it.

Question:   Can you tell us about some of your other published novels or work?

Answer: I’ve mostly written plays in the past, and none of them have been published. I worked as a freelance writer and had a lot of magazine articles published during that time. I’ve had two short stories published. One in 1994 in The Sun Magazine, and another in an online publication 2017.

Question:   What are you working on now? 

Answer: The second book in the Eden County series – Frozen Eden. It will be released in 2024.

Question:   What made you start writing?

Answer: I have been writing since I was a child. I wrote stories and then plays, and never got over it. I love reading, and I think writing came naturally as a part of my love of stories.

Question:   What advice would you offer to those who are currently writing novels?

Answer:  Don’t get discouraged. Get to know other people who write and listen to them and try to filter what they say into things that you can use. Workshops can also help. 

Question:  Where and when will readers be able to obtain your novel?

Answer: BURNING EDEN has been released as an e-book on Amazon, and it will be offered as a paperback as well. It will be available through Ingram and other regular sources, so if it’s not in your local bookstore, you should be able to order it. It will be on Amazon. Level Best Books is the publisher.

Comments and/or questions for Sarah are welcome!