Geoffrey Edwards, 30, is the author of Fire Bell in the Night, for which he was named Runner-up in the Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition. Edwards first began writing in the eighth grade to enter the Florida Times Union Christmas Story contest. He holds an undergraduate degree, with a major in History, from the University of Illinois/Champaign-Urbana and he currently lives in Chicago, IL with his wife Anne. Additional information about Edwards can be found at geoffreye.gather.com.
Be sure to visit the Gather homepage Friday at 2pm ET for a live chat with Geoffrey. He’ll discuss what inspired him to take part in The First Chapters Writing Competition, his love of writing, his experiences on Gather and his excitement surrounding having his book published.
We hope to see you here for the live chat - if you are unable to make it, but have a question for Geoffrey, please leave it in the comment thread below.
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Comments: 88
Blessings
Giddy yup n' go ! Have a great ride !
You've worked hard, endured the critics, and it has paid off. I'm proud to have been a contestant and semi-finalist alongside you and hope one day our books share a shelf alongside one another as well.
Until then, best wishes for your continued success.
Eric D. Goodman
Top 20 Semi-Finalist, TRACKS
www.Train-Tracks.blogspot.com
Congrats, Geoff!
Woo-hoo!!! Doin' the dance, doin' the dance.....
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Lionel A. LaVergne, author
Marcia D
I'm looking forward to reading the novel. Hope to meet you in person if you book tour through Phoenix.
Enjoy the ride!
I'll say it again - congratulations and I'm thrilled S&S decided to buy both!
So, I'll piggy-back on Pat's question - I write a time travel set in the days of Henry VII because the time period interests me. Do you read a lot about the antebellum South? Have you studied that time period? What was it that drew you to write this story? Did the characters wake you up one day out of the blue with their story or was this something percolating in your head for a while?
-Judi
Top 20 Finalist, Beauty and The Best
www.JudiFennell.com
Pat,
I LOVE history! I was a history major in college and have always gravitated toward American history in particular. The times that most interest me are always the moments right before cataclysmic events. The time of decisions and hope. Fire Bell focuses on one such time before the Civil War.
I try to help bring history more alive. I am sick of the rote lectures that make the majority of kids say history is their most boring class. History is the most important events of our lives, catalogued for future generations. Can you imagine someone a hundred years from now saying 9/11 was boring?
No, John was not based on me...Too good looking and moneyed. I did think it was important, however, to have a character whose world view was more familiar to the modern reader. Anti-slavery, etc.
I still get goosebumps. Constantly. Only those times I'm forced to actually work offer a respite from the butterflies. I called my wife, danced, called my mom, danced...and like I said in the article....Still dancing. Incidentally, Eric, thanks for all the support and for your tremendous articles here on Gather.
Any ideas on who you'd like to see play John on the big screen?
I knew a lot about the Civil War from college....but, the research itself took me about 6 months...and that was reading about a book a day. It was important for me not just to research the major events, but also the social history...what people ate, how they talked, what they did for fun...
And yes, they are rushing this thing to print (Yeah)! So, I am as busy as I've ever been. The best kind of busy though.
Chandra, by the way, thanks for all the support from the beginning. You're great!
Is this the first novel you've written, or have there been "stepping stones" before it? Perhaps manuscripts you'll return to and revise now that you've taken root? Do you see yourself writing more in the period, or venturing into other times as well -- such as present day?
Thanks again for everyhting. And to follow up a little on what led me to write this...It all stemmed from one particular question that always stuck in my head. You see, I grew up in the desegregated South. I was bussed to school far away to demonstrate racial equality. My schools were always 1/2 white, 1/2 black. The question had to do with the fact that even in the Antebellum south, children, white and black, were encouraged to play with one another. Even masters and their slaves. The question was, "When does the dehumanization begin? And is it ever complete?" I wrote a book based on this moral question. I just tied the history in.
I have already started researching my next novel. It will be in Boston, in the era before the Revolution, focusing on a Pamphleteeer (also called a Ghost Writer). Again, I hope to deal with the situation BEFORE the concrete decisions were made. And, while many, many great books have been written about the Civil War, I have yet to find much good fiction focused on the Revolutionary Era. Funny, considering the want America has to read about our Founding Father.
It's sunk in a little...but not much. I mean, I was in the New York Times yesterday! Are you kidding me! But, having said that, I was rejected by over 300 agents before this. Many of whom read the work. So, NO! It hasn't really sunk in yet. And everyone out there, keep trying...the agents aren't always right!
Isn't it true (sorry I couldn't resist starting a question that way!) that you are a Cubs fan? Did their history of losing influence your MS in any way?
Seriously, congratulations! You know I'm a fan. Is your next novel going to be a historical piece in the same time period or do you have intents on another?
I love the film questions. Of course I have long imagined my little book on the big screen. For John, I'm torn. I like Matt Damon. What d'ya think?
I sat down one day and thought I had a story to tell. That's it. No formal training, though writing becomes seond nature for a history major in college. But truly, an insatiable love for reading! I think reading is oft overlooked once we start to put pen to paper. We become obsessed with our own work and forget that there are thousands of people out there who can help...just by reading their work. As a caveat, however, I had a hell of a time when I picked up a Great Gatsby as I was writing. Don't measure your stuff next to the classics. Not yet!
As for authors who inspred..oddly, Stephen Ambrose, who wrote non-fiction exclusively. I always thought he made history come alive.
Oddly, no. As a matter of fact, I found the dialogue and dialect to be rather easy. Having grown up there, I know the sound...you can still hear it. It has a beautiful cadence. I'm glad you think I captured it!
Jeff, when will you make the cutoff from "Jeff" to "Geoffrey?"
Will you be like De Niro and only allow those close to you from the beginning to use the colloquial?
I spent a lot of time researching Charleston...books, videos, articles, Internet. Anything I could get my hands on. Amazingly, I have still never been there. I could not afford to go during the writing of the book. HMMM. I think it's time for a trip!
did you listen to any music of the period as research, or while you were writing?
After I graduated cllege, I wanted to write down all the stories. I did in a fictional format. But it is a bit riskee and not intended for wide circulation. I think I'll leave that one in the drawer for a while.
I don't plan on venturing any nearer than the end of the 19th century in my writing (the fin de seicle). I feel anything more recent would be tto close to our senses. I like writing about different eras, different times so alien to us now (for good and bad). But who knows? Never say never, right?
You are in my thoughts.
Congrats!!!!!!!!!
In researching the social history I got lucky. This country seems to be fascinated with the antebellum South, and there are literally thousand of books on the subject of interaction. Books about slaves...books about "Cracker culture" and then, even going further into the future and reading the diaries and stories of the soldiers from the Civil War gave me an insight into their world view! All of it helped. One thing happened to me, as I'm sure happened to many other writers. I got lost in the period of my story. I began to live it, to feel it. My wife would oft ask me, "Why so quiet?" or "Where are you right now?" The answer was CHarleston, in 1850.
Thank you so much! It was a struggle. I parted ways with the one agent who signed me because they wanted to make my book more about romance, and less history. It feels amazing to have kept my book's integrity. Getting published is important. But do it with your own book. It WILL happen.
I am an anachronism. I hand write. I had no outline. I knew the general timeline, how I wanted the story to begin and end, etc. But the rest just came to me during the process (most of the characters, the plot turns and twists, etc.). I don't believe this was divine inspiration (though any help was appreciated). Once I got going on the novel, my brain was working 24/7. No breaks. I could never go to sleep easily, and found myself thinking of the Crisis of 1850 while the Cubs had runners on the corners with 2 outs in the ninth. Your brain does amazing things for you without asking if you just keep it active. Writing is the mother of intellectual activity.
Oh, yeah, and I write best at night. I saw too many sunrises while writing Fire Bell.
YES!!!! I was so embarrased about my use of "had" in flashbacks. I cringed every time I read through the second and third chapters. Much of the critiques there were right on! It has been changed now. Phew!
None of the characters who do not play themselves are based on anyone in particular. More just an amalgamated product of my research. I hoped to leap out of stereotypes of course. But for the most part, they werre my own invention.
Yes I'm a Cubs fan!! A born loser, I guess you could say. As for future works, they all involve time frames surrounding important historical events in AMerica. I have a tape recorder where I talk into when I get another idea for a story. I've got about 12 right now... It will have been a good life, if, as I lay dying, I say, "Damn, I know my next one was going to be the best." (hopefully, after having 20 books in print. LOL)
What was the Edwards Family beverage of choice on Wed evening?
Oh yes, the editing process has started. They told me to prepare for the busiest few weeks of my life (the book goes to print in mid-June!). The editor at S&S has been very hands on and very receptive to my ideas. We are truly working as a team. It's fun.
And thanks for the tip on Jakes. I used his book Charleston as an important leaping off point for understanding the city.
I made the important leap from Geoofrey to Jeff in grade school. When people would sing about "Geoffrey the Giraffe" waiting for them at the door of Toys-R-Us. It only devolved from there. Get-off-rey..etc. I am glad to revert to my given name for all booksignings, however!
Music is amazingly important to me, and this is a fabulous question! I did listen to music of the era. It only adds to the mood. And there is a serenity to it that so clashes from the events going on at the time. It's kind of surreal.
As you can guess, anything with booze in it! We hit it early and hard on the triumphant night. The hangover's just about gone, now! Just about!
Thank you to everyone here who supported me and all the others throughout this competition. I can't tell you how much it meant to have poeple read my book, critique it, and vote on it. This whole experience has been amazing. Yes, there were hard times...but I wouldn't trade it for the world. My deepest thanks for a debt that can't be repaid!
Definitely someone offstage. The trial focuses on a poor white farmer caught harboring a fugitive slave. He will be who you are rooting for.
you're not kidding. It is the quickest turn around I've ever heard of, and that was echoed by 2 agents I have kept a correspondence up with. One agent told me she just sold a book due for release in the Spring of '08. Hot off the presses, huh?
find time to keep listening to music, too, of whatever sort. It'll help when things get too crazy.
I guessed there might be a lot of manuscripte lying around. I did NOT think they would all choose to enter them in this contest. It was a shock. And so many of them were so good..it adds to the humbling nature of this. But wow, I don't think Gather or S&S had any idea either! First CHapter Round 2, anyone?
I have heard that, too. They haven't made mention if it yet, but the contract did say Fire Bell in the Night, so I'm hoping. There are a couple books that have already been published with that title, however. Both are out of print. I don't have a second title, so.....here's hoping!
John, the protagonist, becomes more and more infatuated with the beauty of the Antebellum South as the book progresses. This was step one. Really no more than that to it. I had up to that point painted a rather ugly picture of the city....now I had to begin to start to undo it.
We also extend a big thanks to all the Gather members who participated in this chat. Until next time!
And, I hope I can stress just how much all of you mean to me. Please don't think of the "thank you" as counterfeit. I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Hope to see all of you soon!