Interview with Bethany Swafford

About the Author

For as long as she can remember, Bethany Swafford has loved reading books. That love of words extended to writing as she grew older and when it became more difficult to find a ‘clean’ book, she determined to write her own. Among her favorite authors is Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Georgette Heyer.

​When she doesn’t have pen to paper (or fingertips to laptop keyboard), she can generally be found with a book in hand. In her spare time, Bethany reviews books for a book site called More Than A Review.

​Connect with the Author here: 
~ Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ Instagram ~

The Interview

1. Who or what inspired you to become an author?
I love to read, but found fewer and fewer books that were truly clean, that kept any sex scenes off the page. So, I took my parents advice and began to write the kind of stories I want to read.

2. What did you want to be when you grew up? Did becoming an author ever cross your mind?
Growing up, I don’t think I gave any serious thought to any particular career, though vaguely remember the idea of perhaps being a teacher. As to being an author, I enjoyed writing simply as a hobby and did not ever think I would ever see my name on the cover of a book.

3. What authors do you enjoy? Do these authors inspire your own writing?
Though I have very eclectic taste when it comes to authors I enjoy, my favorites have definitely inspired my own humble tales. Jane Austen’s heroes and heroines are so relatable, it would be impossible for me not to draw from her novels. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s use of logic and mystery in his Sherlock Holmes stories have also weaved their way into my writing.

4. What inspired the idea for Not My Idea?
Not My Idea came about because of a bad day and a song from one of my favorite childhood films. I was having one of those days where so much was going wrong, it was funny to think about the next day. I began to devise a plot wherein a character had a series of misunderstandings and problems come his way.

The song is This Is My Idea from The Swan Princess. The two main characters are children and they do not get along through most of the song even with their parents trying to get them together. Many stories have that kind of situation and end the same way it does in the song: they are adults and fall in love. I thought it would be fun if the exact opposite happened. Two people, enemies in childhood, and they still don’t get along as adults.

5. What do you want readers to take away from reading Not My Idea?
The main idea—no pun intended—that I wanted to show was that it’s not easy to be true to yourself when everyone around you, family and friends, can have an influence on you. From all sides, Lucas has people trying to influence him or tell him how to behave, what to do with his future, etc. Does he stay true to his own sense of self or let his friends and families change him? I think this is something everyone has faced in their life and it’s up to each person to chose which of those influences to allow to have priority.

6. When you are not writing, what other hobbies do you enjoy?
At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, my non-writing and reading hobbies involve an embroidery needle or knitting needles. I’m not very good at either, but I find them relaxing.