Lex.Btw.TheLines...
Lex.Btw.TheLines...
Unpacking Diverse Themes in Divine Intervention with B. Bewtie
This episode features an engaging conversation with debut author B. Bewtie, who explores her unique experiences in the creative process and the emotional connections within her storytelling. Bee shares her journey of writing her debut novel, which touches upon themes of identity, resilience, and community support.
• Introduction of B. Bewtie and her debut novel
• Exploration of LGBTQIA representation in characters
• Discussion on character inspiration from real life
• The impact of trauma and mental health on writing
• The journey of editing and publishing her book
• Importance of community in indie publishing
• Future plans and potential sequels for her stories
outro
you, hey, y'all, hey, you are watching and listening to legs between the lines and I am your host licks and I am so excited about today. But before we get into it, let's go over the triggers. I try to stay in between the lines for the most part, but sometimes I cross them, leading to the triggers. There may or may not be, um, explicit adult language. There may or may not be sexual content discussed, maybe in detail, maybe not there. Um, we will be talking about um, maybe, and I'm just throwing these triggers out there, so there are no surprises, because what comes up comes out.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we don't know where the conversation takes us, but there will be talk of lgbtqi, a2 beauty, lgbtqia. There will be talk of A2 Beauty, lgbtqia. There will be talk Of a miscarriage Um. There will be talk of Was it? There may be talk of abuse, but not extra like into detail, but I'm just throwing these trigger warnings Out there just in case you have any triggers. If you are still rocking with us at this point, then go ahead and get ready so that we can let our co-host introduce herself.
Speaker 2:Hi everybody. My name is Bee Beauty. I am an author. I just put out my first debut book called Divine Intervention. I am excited to be here with Flex just to sit down and talk with her chat a bit about this book and other things. But, like she said, there are some things that may make people uncomfortable. So if you are uncomfortable, I guess I apologize in advance um, and I hate to.
Speaker 1:I hate to say it because, like I said, you just never know what direction the conversation is going to go in um, and we want everything to be authentic and um, authentic and um, I'm ready to dive in if you are. Yes, ma'am, because I I got questions, but the the thing that's sitting on the forefront of my mind, this is this, like because, on pay, and let me just say this, you said this is your debut. Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2:This is my new novel.
Speaker 1:This was your first published work.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And you came out the gate swinging on page one.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I just I hear a lot of people talk about like, about slow burns and stuff like that, how sometimes they enjoy slow burns but sometimes they just want you to get right into it. As my debut, I just wanted to pop on and be like hi guys.
Speaker 1:You didn't say hi. You said what's the movie with the guy who's a doctor? He's saying hello motherfuckers. That's what you did. You said hello motherfuckers. I was not, and first of all, I never. I'm like I don't know what's been going on with me, but I've been going into books blind so I didn't really know like what to expect. So, off the get go, I was like, oh, this is what we're doing. This is what we're doing and I want to tell y'all. But I don't want to tell y'all Because I want you to be surprised, like I was. And I have read some books where it started off with it, but not like this, where it literally she walked into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just wanted to. First of all, I was very nervous about releasing the book in general, until the point, like up to the last moment, I almost did not. The last moment, I almost did not, and so I just wanted to make it something that people would really, really enjoy reading. I felt like people always start, or the same things always happen in a book he meets her, she meets him, they look at each other googly-eyed and they fall in love. Blah, blah, blah. So I just wanted something just a little. I just wanted something a little bit different, just a little bit different. I I think I might have went extremely different, but I just wanted something a little bit different, that's all and then you introduced us to this redhead, this big, and then your characters were they weren't these little.
Speaker 1:Oh, now, they were Godlike, but you know how the descriptions go like a little Greek, but they were the big ones, yes, yes, they weren't the little model types, they were bodybuilders. Yeah, yeah. I said, oh, she didn't open up a whole different can of work. I was like she went in.
Speaker 2:Yeah with this book. Okay, so I model all of the male after men who are in my life. Um, I'll accept flan. Um, I always said that I would never date outside of my race. But if I went, never date outside of my race.
Speaker 2:But if I went to date outside of my race, Flynn would be exactly who I would date. Okay, so you know, I just went in and I put in exactly what I thought that he should look like and it took me a couple of tries to get to what he actually looked like in the character depiction that I have of him. But when I finally got to that I was like, yeah, Exactly what he needs to look like, right there.
Speaker 1:You actually answered one of the questions I was going to ask you. I was going to ask about the characters. Are they based, or any similarities or characteristics of people in your real life or people that you know?
Speaker 2:So A lot of the Things that happen In the book and a lot of the people in the book Are based off of real people. It's not exact To real people, but there are some Real pointers in there.
Speaker 1:Yes, so somebody is real, somebody got them three beasts. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Somebody has those three hellhounds. Actually, they actually have more than that, but I just decided to go with three.
Speaker 1:But yes, they have more than the three and they're the same type dogs, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yes, chow with three, but yes, they have more than the three and they're the same type dogs. Yes, I actually got the real life depiction of those dogs.
Speaker 1:I got them from the, from the actual owner of the cane corsos so, yes, did you get the names too, did you use the names too?
Speaker 2:or is that the names?
Speaker 2:No no, I didn't. So I tried, I tried to steer away from as much of real life as I could, because also, um, I'm very big about respecting privacy and so I didn't want any uh, uh, unwanted attention drawn to him. Um, so I did give him credit in the pictures, but you have to look like, you have to squint in the pictures to see, like, his information. But you know, I did do that, uh, as a thanks to him for letting me, um, have his dogs as models. But yes, there are, those dogs really do belong to somebody, um, one of my family members actually, and they are real dogs. He got some vicious beast, but you know what? They are not that vicious, they are the sweetest dogs ever. They just look like they'll rip you apart but they are until he gives the command.
Speaker 1:Well, also.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is also real life, until he gives the command.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I was. I said I said I'm so goddamn nosy and I said I know it's probably coming, but I was like who was this man that gave her these dogs and then train these dogs up for her? I was like, let me tell you something. I like I can't wrap my mind. I said this is your debut book. And then I'm like there's like there has got to be a series. When I got to the end I was like like where's the rest of it? Like there. And then you, I'm the type of person where I know they have, we have the main characters, but when you write the hell out of a side character and my focus just kind of hones in on the side characters, yes, yes, because best friend and even flan listen, I, I, I love side characters okay.
Speaker 2:So like I feel like a lot of the time side characters are not represented enough in a book and I feel like their stories are never told or they're just made interesting enough for you to get through the book. But I feel like sometimes sad characters don't really get the play. But they be the most fun, they be the most fun part of the book. Like Big, for example, everybody is in love with you, everybody is in love with that man and everybody cannot wait until his story comes out.
Speaker 1:I can't.
Speaker 2:Everybody keep asking me if Flander Everly are going to have a book, if Bianca and Big are going to have a book, because they're like, come on, we need to know some more about these two. But I'm just like you know, I don't know. Maybe.
Speaker 1:Wait, that's what you're going to give us. You don't know, maybe wait, wait that's what you're gonna give us. You don't know, maybe I don't know, maybe you just crushed. You just crushed it. Y'all be out, arthur's, be doing like, just be like. You hit me, like right here, because what?
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. Yeah, like okay, so I have to.
Speaker 1:I don't know, maybe and I ain't gonna lie for a minute. I thought we was gonna do like a little reverse of why choose, with plan and divine and my girl. I thought we was gonna have a little triangle situation going on.
Speaker 2:I started to do that, but then I was like I don't want her to just jump into a watch you situation after what she went through in New Jersey, right, because I didn't want it to seem like she was not well actually she wasn't seeking any type of romantic anything with anybody that's happened. But I also didn't want it to be like she was using them, as you know, like rebounds or you know, like they were just something that she could do to pass the time. I really wanted her to be redeemed and have something that she could hold on to.
Speaker 1:So I started to do that, but then I was like no, I'll just let you know, I'll just let Flan be a best friend to both of them and I don't know if you meant it or not, but Flan had so much chemistry with her and that's why I thought I was like I said I don't know if you meant it or, but it was just so freaking natural, like it wasn't forced or anything. I was like the chemistry.
Speaker 2:I was like or is she gonna choose like one or the other one, cause I didn't know which way you were going to go with it and, to be honest with you, when I started writing, I started to do a white shoe, but as I kept writing, I just didn't want to. So I let them be best friends and I felt like you know her, coming into this new place, that's what she needed. Before she needed anything else was a friend. Before she needed anything else was a friend. After all that she had endured, I felt like her having a friend and her letting her see that all men are not assholes, or all men are not, you know trash, but yes, a man can't actually be there from you, for you and genuinely not want anything in return and that was going to bring me to my next question of like how do you incorporate the trauma in your stories and like, what kind?
Speaker 2:but it seems like it just kind of it come, it just comes to you along with was just like you know, let her experience this exuberant heartbreak, but then also let her gain way more than what she lost, you know. Gain way more than what she lost, you know. So it just I was, I didn't like sit down and plot the story. I was like, yeah, I'm gonna make her do this and make him do that and make them meet this.
Speaker 1:Like it just sort of came as I was writing the story that's natural, like the like the whole book was, just it just flowed. You know how sometimes you can read some things and it's like it's a bit like it's too. It's not that it's too much, but it doesn't seem like it was just like genuine or natural. Like you, like you try, like you can we can tell you're trying, but it flow. It's just like from the beginning, when all of the chaos and I was like girl, tap some stuff up, break, break some stuff, but everything just like flow from the beginning of her catch, catching the ad to her moving and going to the hotel to meet in divine, and like it just was, like most of the time people start you off really slow and then they build you up to the excitement and I felt like I wanted to do something different.
Speaker 2:I wanted to knock you out First off time people start you off really slow and then they build you up to the excitement and I feel like I wanted to do something different. I wanted to knock you out first off and take you on this wild roller coaster ride and then at the end just sort of kind of give you like a soft touch. But that's why the end came about the way it did, because I didn't want the whole book to just be like nerve-wracking. And then people were God, that book just took me through so much I couldn't concentrate on anything. So I just wanted it to be like a really fast rollercoaster ride. And then you know, like right at the end of the rollercoaster ride, when it slows down and it's about to stop. So that's kind of what I was aiming for. I hope I shot my shot right.
Speaker 1:You did.
Speaker 2:Have you taken, like any writing classes or I've never taken any writing classes in my life. I've just always been a fan of words. My mom is like really really, really smart, and my mom taught me how to read at two and a half, and my mom taught me how to read at two and a half, and so my fascination for words came from my mom, and I've just always been able to put words together very well. A lot of people thought that I was going to be an English major when I went to college, but no, I'm actually. I was actually a biology major, but that's the end of it. But no, I've just always been like a really big fan of words.
Speaker 1:Me and one of my sisters joke about.
Speaker 2:I call myself a word whore, but I just love it. That's a t-shirt. Okay, I'm probably going to get. I'm probably going to get somebody to put it on Hashtag word whore.
Speaker 1:Yes, we're gonna hold that. Thought we're gonna go to commercial really quick. But when we come back we are going to talk about. How did you become a writer? Okay, so I am excited about that. You guys stay tuned. We will be right back after this commercial break If you or a loved one have been the victim of medical negligence or drug injury.
Speaker 2:We can help.
Speaker 1:Do what thousands of satisfied clients have done Call Jeff Guerrero, the injury attorney, and go Guerrero, all righty, we are back. And we are back with the question. Miss Beauty, how did you?
Speaker 2:become a writer, or what did that process look like for you? How did I become a writer? You know, this is the funny thing I still do not consider myself a writer. That's the funny thing. I just love to tell a good story. I'll call myself a storyteller before I will a writer, but I actually became a writer by accident. It was sheer coincidence that I became a writer. It was actually an exercise that my therapist offered to me versus sitting in sessions not saying anything, and at first when I started I thought it was going to be stupid, but it actually did really help me. So I think I do my best writing when I'm under pressure. I often view myself as being like a piece of coal being turned into a diamond. So, like, the more pressure you put me under, the better I'm going to write oh, I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did this story happen to stem from a session or?
Speaker 2:so this story is actually okay. You're going to laugh, or maybe you won't laugh, but I also suffer from insomnia. So this story was written probably 86% while I was sleepy. I was asleep when I submitted the book over to my editor and she sent it back. I was like did I write this or did you change something in there? She was like I didn't change anything. That's not my job, you wrote it. And I was like are you sure? Because I don't remember.
Speaker 2:I don't remember writing that but, this story came from a lot of I call it sleep writing. This story was sleep written, so wait cuz you like what yes, yes, this, a lot of this story, was written while I was sleepy, or very much on the edge of one asleep.
Speaker 1:I forgot what the hell I was. Finna say.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, I wrote the story that way. I'm just trying to wrap my. My brain is trying to process this. Did you do it on a phone, a laptop? How did you get this story? Was it in a notebook? How did? You get this story.
Speaker 2:A lot of this story was written on my iPad and then transferred over to my desktop and then okay. So a lot of this story. This story started off on WebPad. This story started off on WebPad.
Speaker 1:And I had never heard of what pad until book talk, all of the yep, all of the, and I was like what the heck is that? Everybody's like, oh, I used to follow her on what pad? I used to follow her and I'm like, what is that? What is that? And then there's like, oh, it's a um site and I obviously it's like good novel or rated, or a dream. And I was like, oh, I just a um and I obviously it's like good novel or I read it or a dream. And I was like, oh, I just never heard of that, of that particular one yeah, I, I just started with it.
Speaker 2:I have several stories on what that actually, but yes, this is one of the ones I started writing on what and what. That is a great. It's like a great writing tool if you want to just like see where your writing is gonna go with the scene. What Pat is great for that is it it like?
Speaker 1:is it like? The paper chapter story is one of those right.
Speaker 2:So some sometimes it is, and then some of the stories you can read for free. I made all of my stories so that you can read them for free. It wasn't that deep for me, but some I like some authors up there are really serious about what you have to pay by episode or pay for the entire book. But it wasn't that deep for me. I was just actually fooling around. There's so many grammatical mistakes out there and it's terribly written on webpack but nonetheless it was written there. It started out there.
Speaker 1:In your sleep. Look at my damn vein coming out, because my mind is confused Like what. Look at my brain, don't be confused. Don't let your mind be confused hey, it's, you did it and you're do you like. Do you take medication? Is there medication for insomnia?
Speaker 2:um, you can take sleep aids, but I don't like to take sleep aids. I like to just kind of let my body fall asleep when it does, because sometimes they can work too good, and then you sleep half a day and then we definitely don't want that yeah, then you just get. Then you wake up and you're still more tired than you were when you went to sleep, so I just let my body fall asleep when it's tired um.
Speaker 1:Another question I wanted to ask was um, is there a community or do you have help, like, with editing, publishing? I know you say you had a editor, so can you tell us a little bit about like, that process of like, the whole turnabout of like, or the process that the book went through?
Speaker 2:yes. So I went through so much with editing my book, with just finding the right editor, almost lost like hundreds of dollars with editing. But then I found this amazing group of women it's seven of us but one of them just so happened to be a developmental editor and I went to her and I was just like I'm about to cry because my book was supposed to be released in like two weeks and the editor hadn't done anything. And then she stopped calling, she stopped texting, she stopped communicating with me altogether. Um, and so I was just like I don't know what to do.
Speaker 2:Um, and that's at the point when I was just about to just like maybe it's not for me to put this book out. But then she was like send it to me, like it wasn't a second thought or anything like that, and I was just like are you serious? She was like, yeah, send it to me. And what was supposed to take a month? She finished in literally like nine days in order for my book what I'm out on time yeah did you get your money back from the other editor?
Speaker 2:I did. I went, I had to go through like my bank and all that stuff, but yeah, I did and so but and so, but yeah, I didn't know what I was going to do and like she literally came in with the Hail Mary. I'm not even going to lie and you know, like I said, I became part of this community, the Boozy Book Baddies. I love those girls to pieces and they are literally a one-stop shop. There's authors there, there's narrators there, there's developmental editors there, there's mentors there, there's spiritual guidance there, like anything that you need as far as writing is concerned.
Speaker 1:I don't think you can't find it with those girls is that the name of the group on facebook or the?
Speaker 2:so, yes, uh, we do officially have a page on tiktok called okay, please go, follow us, and a lot of the information that people want you to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for. We offer up for free because it's not, it's not that deep for us. It's about helping each other, especially in the Black community or in the BIPOC community also, so we enjoy helping other people. It's not like you know, I'll tell you, but you got to do this for me or you need to pay us this. I mean, like, obviously there's some services that you will have to pay for because these are these people's way of life, have to pay for it because these are these people's way of life, but like little stuff that that people don't tell you, um, like, if you're a first-time author and stuff like that. You can find that with the boozy book baddies. Honestly, boozy.
Speaker 1:Is that b-o-o-z-i-e or b-o-o-z-y? Why? Boozy book baddies?
Speaker 2:yes, and also, um, we have a group me community for the Boozy Book Baddies. I think we're like 70 plus people in that group and you can hop in that group. You can talk personally to us. You can talk to other authors. You can talk to other readers. You can talk to ARC readers. Like, if you need ARC readers if you're an author, you need ARC readers for your book. If you need beta readers, you can talk to arc readers. Um, like, if you need arc readers, if you're author, you need arc readers for your book. If you need beta readers, you can find all of that in that group. Me. We have, um, we have somebody that does yoga. We have somebody that offers like lifestyle, um advice, like it's just a bunch of stuff in there. Like there is exclusives for, like new releases and stuff like that. All of that is in this group. So if you follow me, just dm me and ask me for the link, I'll get the link for you. You can join us. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:It's an amazing group and I got your information. I have her information at the bottom. Follow b beauty underscorey. Underscore rights on TikTok so that you can join. That sounds like an amazing community. That's what I love about BookTok. Is that where you guys found each other at On BookTok?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and it was by accident. Really, honestly.
Speaker 1:BookTok when it's good, it's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we love the Bopop community, we love indie authors. Those are who we help out the most, because that those are the people who are near and dear to our hearts, because we are those people.
Speaker 1:So, yes, um, and that's kind of like the purpose of my podcast. I'm, of course, I'm going to talk about published authors and I'll bring on published authors, but my goal is to get resources like like you just gave out so many different resources where people can join that group, in that community. My goal is to help bridge that gap to for readers or aspiring authors, aspiring writers, aspiring storytellers, to connect with people, um, if they need help or just to find community yeah, we, and then we also have.
Speaker 2:We literally have something every day. There's some type of activity on tiktok every day. There's some type of activity on TikTok every day. We have Soul Reset Sundays in the morning with me, where we play like inspirational music and we do like inspirational readings and we just talk about things that will help you align for your following week. And then later on in the day, we have Content Sunday with my sister Jess. She is absolutely amazing at teaching you how to get more attention to your page, how to keep in touch with your followers and stuff like that. On Mondays, we have Motivational Mondays with my sister Posh. She's an author also.
Speaker 2:You should go follow all these people on on I definitely am I'm telling you, it's always something uh jazz also does um merch for new authors, new or old, this doesn't matter, and she's not very expensive. Like you know, people try to charge you out of the wazoo for merch. But my sister is bad. She can do anything if you, if you name it, she could probably do it does she do?
Speaker 2:because she do pr boxes, because I know a lot of authors be looking for um pr boxes so I don't know she does pr boxes, but I also have a sister who does those too um my home, my homegirl shan. She also does web design. Like I'm telling you, whatever you need, we got it, and if we don't got it we can probably find it I'll put you in contact with somebody who do have it.
Speaker 2:I know somebody didn't know somebody boozy book baddies yes, and I'm telling you, sunday through saturday, there's always something going on with the boozy book bad.
Speaker 1:Always, I freaking love this and I'm mad that I didn't really know about it. Like I see you guys going live and stuff, but I did not know it was to this extent Listen we have Talk With Me Tuesdays.
Speaker 2:We have what Are we Eating on Wednesdays? What Are we Eating Wednesdays? We pick different dishes to eat at lunchtime and we just sit down and talk. We just shoot the shit. That's it, um. On Thursdays, um, my sister is a podcaster. She does new kids on the block, so that is for new authors. Uh, new um, like, if you do like comics and stuff like that, if you're blurred she, she gets your, get you out there if you're new to the industry, or whatever. On friday nights we have game night. On saturday night, again, my sister, who's the podcaster, she does interviews with authors.
Speaker 2:Like there's always something going on, always, always I definitely need to tune in to the interviews with the authors so I can learn some stuff yes, and she does it so well and she's so great at making people feel comfortable, who are like me and you, who have a bit of stage fright, but you know but, I think we're doing good we are doing good we're doing real good, we're doing real good.
Speaker 1:Like you can't even tell that we are doing good, we doing real good, we doing real good, like it's. It's just go like I don't know why. I was so nervous because, like, maybe it's just you or the people that I've been interviewing, but oh, please don't let it be me.