Interview with Beverly Gandara
Hi Beverly Gandara, thank you for agreeing to this interview.
Oltobooks : Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
Beverly Gandara : I am an award-winning screenwriter/author who has written several screenplays and two novels and one non-fiction book. My comedy script, Rent Money won the Golden Palm Award for Best Screenplay at the 2012 Beverly Hills International Film Festival. My Five Star Readers’ Favorite, debut novel Concrete Wings: A Tale of Tyranny and Freedom, earned the Literary Classics Seal of Approval with a recommendation for school and home libraries, the 2021 Speak Up Radio Firebird Book Award and Honorable Mention at the 2017 New York Book Festival and the 2018 Florida Book Festival. My Five Star Readers’ Favorite second novel, Soaring in Silence: One woman’s Triumph Over Fear, a psychological thriller was released in 2019. My Five Star Readers’ Favorite third book, Women, Work and Triumph, released in 2020 is a compilation of interviews with a diverse group of 26 fascinating women from 5 countries in 26 careers from A – Z with 1 goal – acceptance and respect.
My books are available on Amazon and all fine stores where books are sold. https://www.amazon.com/Beverly-Gandara/e/B01E7TYXJ8
A New York native, I attended Brooklyn College and Marymount Manhattan College before beginning my screenwriting studies at the Gotham Writers Workshop after retirement from the corporate world. I lives in the south with my husband Armand, whose experiences inspired Concrete Wings.
Oltobooks : What are your ambitions for your writing career?
Beverly Gandara : To see one or more of my screenplays produced for the large or small screen.
Oltobooks : When did you decide to become a writer?
Beverly Gandara : After retirement.
Oltobooks : Why do you write?
Beverly Gandara : To give voice to compelling stories.
Oltobooks : What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
Beverly Gandara : Timing, talent and support from my loving husband.
Oltobooks : Where do your ideas come from?
Beverly Gandara : Life experiences of mine and others and my imagination.
Oltobooks : What is the hardest thing about writing?
Beverly Gandara : The business of writing, proof-reading, editing, cover and internal book design, registering the work, publishing, advertising, marketing, selling, obtaining reviews.
Oltobooks : What is the easiest thing about writing?
Beverly Gandara : Developing charismatic characters engaging in captivating dialogue while in challenging situations leading to compelling outcomes.
Oltobooks : If this book is part of a series, tell us a little about it?
Beverly Gandara : Neither of my three books are part of a series.
Oltobooks : What are your thoughts on writing a book series?
Beverly Gandara : I think it might be fun to continue a story and update it as time goes by.
Oltobooks : What is your favourite positive saying?
Beverly Gandara : 1. Success is not always measured by what one becomes, but often by what one overcomes.
2. There is no expiration date on one's dreams.
Oltobooks : Where can you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
Beverly Gandara : Living quietly with my husband, writing more stories.
Oltobooks : What advice would you give to your younger self?
Beverly Gandara : Never wait until tomorrow when you can accomplish so much today.
Conversation By :
Oltobooks Team
I sat so merry in my abode
Loving hands around me
I dreamt of such glorious days
One day i would see
I remember the day I left
My room
I closed the door behind me
One quick look again
Then walked away
The room which would always remind me
The glorious days I had dreamt
I did merrily spent
How little did I then know
Life turns on a dime
My room is now not as it was
When I closed the door
Behind me
My room now is a prison
But not how one would invision
It is one of sorrow and grief
Sadness burns into the bare walls
I catch my breath
And weep
Why did thou'st doth betray?
The room which once embraced me
I ask with riddled heart
Jagged and torn
Which wicked riddles have I thus sought?
I sit still
I am now my room
No dreams as once before
I age before my open door
In my room long ago
I sat merrily in my loving abode
Loving hands did hold me
All gone
My room and myself
Now one
Two thrust to be together
Forever
Alone