An Interview with Beth A. Freely

Award-winning author Beth A. Freely was born and raised in upstate New York, with a brief and very influential stint living in Great Britain that can be seen in her writing. Today she calls New Mexico home. When asked how long she has been writing, she’ll tell you, “All my life.”

In 2003, she published some of her fanfiction online and won awards for her stories. Two years later, she was the first-place winner of the 2005 Arche Books Publishing Novel Writing Contest in Women’s Fiction with her novel Behind the Eyes of Dorian Gray. In 2022, she took home first place in Romance/Science Fiction and second place in Science Fiction/Aliens & Alien Invasion in the Spring Bookfest Awards with her novel Beyond the Steps of Stone.

Beth holds a masters in English and Creative Writing and enjoys horseback riding, swimming, reading, cuddling her cats, and helping other authors hone their craft.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I’ve always had an active imagination. Growing up in upstate New York, we lived twenty minutes from town in either direction in the Appalachian Mountains. I had an acre of land that was half wooded and half open to explore. It was my starship, my archaeological dig, whatever world I wanted it to be.

Then, a little movie called Star Wars was released, and it spurred my imagination to new heights. Some of the very first writing I ever did was Star Wars fanfiction. At the age of eight, I won my elementary school’s writing contest, and my little story, “Topaz and His Adventure,” was in the school library until they closed it down.

It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I really delved into serious writing. My parents were always encouraging of my writing, and I had teachers comment on it throughout my school career. But it was my English teacher in my senior year of high school who read a story I had started, fanfiction about my favorite musicians. Instead of scoffing at it, she gave me helpful critiques and encouraged me to keep going.

I haven’t stopped since.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

Behind the Eyes of Dorian Gray started out as a story for myself. I never had intentions of publishing it, and my first attempts to get a book published were unsuccessful. Dorian showed up in my head after watching The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Now, I was already a fan of Oscar Wilde’s original novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. That little voice all of us authors have said two words to me: what if? What if Dorian stepped out of his own painting? How would he view this modern world? The story took on a life of its own, and I had a notebook waiting.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

For some reason, titles come to me easier than the actual story. Paintings always seem to follow you around the room. What were the subjects thinking while they had their portraits painted? What was going on in their minds? That was my thought process when I came up with the title of my book. What was Dorian Gray thinking about while his portrait was being painted?

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

I make playlists for all of my books while I’m working on them. Some of the songs in this playlist include:

“Behind These Hazel Eyes” – Kelly Clarkson

“Here Without You” – Three Doors Down

“My Immortal” – Evanescence

“Someday” – Nickelback

I also had some very well-known classical pieces on the playlist from Bach and Mozart.

Describe your dream book cover.

I actually have the dream book cover for my novel now. For the twentieth anniversary of its release, I purchased a photo of cover model Eric Taylor Guilmette after CJC Photography sent me a photo of him that he had taken just hours before. As soon as I saw the photo – the fall of hair over his forehead, the smolder in his eyes, the little smirk – I knew it was the one to give my book a glow-up for its twentieth anniversary. Cover artist Stephanie Swann took it and turned it into the new cover that looks like Dorian stepped from his own painting. The reaction to the new cover has been amazing!

What books did you read (for research or comfort) throughout your writing process?

For Behind the Eyes of Dorian Gray, I went back to the original source material: Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. I wound up purchasing four copies of the novel while writing my own because I kept ruining the paperback with sticky tabs and highlighter markers.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.