Write On! interviews Author Kate Beales
Kate is a writer, theatre-maker and facilitator, working with communities across the UK and around the world. She has been a Senior Artist and Freelance Associate in the National Theatre’s Learning Department for 29 years.
She has worked with refugees on the streets of Paris and Athens, collaborated with a photographer to build pop-up darkrooms for storytelling projects, and made participatory shows with two-to-five-year-olds in a giant bed. She co-devised theatre-based training for doctors in Osaka, and taught storytelling for Medical Humanities at Bristol University. For twenty years she was a lecturer in Shakespeare and Storytelling at New York University’s Tisch School Of The Arts in London.
She currently creates theatre, writing and storytelling projects for wounded veterans, teaches storytelling to senior executives around the world and devises creative workshops for writers and other artists.
WO: How would you describe your writing to someone new to it?
KB: I write historical fiction. My background is in the theatre, I’ve taught storytelling and told stories on stages for many years, and I love inventing characters and problems, especially set in unexpected or unfamiliar worlds. I also love a strong atmosphere and a fast-paced plot.
WO: Can you tell us a bit about your latest book, Broken Horses?
KB: Broken Horses is set in remote Southern Patagonia in 1921. It’s a story of love and female agency, set against a background of politics and colonisation. Here’s the blurb from my publisher’s website:
“Broken Horses is a novel that is both epic and intensely personal, a story of female agency set in the remote colonial world of 1920s Southern Patagonia.
In the aftermath of the Great War, Georgie Carruthers breaks off her engagement with her wounded fiancé. Racked with guilt, she crosses the ocean to take up a post as the governess to a motherless boy in a household stuck in the colonial past and consumed by anger, secrets and sorrow.
The backcloth is one of wind-blown plains and herds of wild horses, broken and beloved by the horse breaker, whose quiet charm bewitches both Georgie and the animals. In the background, rebellion by the estancia workers intensifies and the region’s landowners, in terror of a Russian-style revolution, plan brutal reprisals.”
WO: What inspired you to write in the first place, and what inspires you now?
KB: I’ve been a writer since earliest childhood. My inspiration is curiosity – and I’m particularly driven to discover untold stories. My father – who died before I could remember him– was born in Southern Patagonia, a place that reached almost mythic proportions in my family history. I often wondered what prompted my grandmother to set sail as a single woman and travel to such a remote and hospitable part of the world – the last land before Antarctica! She died long before I was born, so I turned to fiction to answer the question. When I began my research, I discovered the turbulent politics of the region and, in particular, a rural workers’ strike that ended in a shocking massacre. This became the political heart of the story, along with the inspirational story of the so-called Last Strikers of Santa Cruz. After the strike was brutally suppressed and the workers massacred, the soldiers who killed them visited a local brothel. But the women who worked in the brothel refused them entry and chased them away. These women became known as the Last Strikers. It was an incredibly courageous act.
I’m continually inspired by the astonishing beauty of the region, and also its history. There’s so much to learn, much of it painful and violent as well as beautiful. I’m also inspired by other writers and artists who create work about Patagonia, for example the Chilean storyteller Francisco Coloane, and Oswaldo Beyer, the Argentinian historian who tells the devastating story of the rural workers’ strike.
As for writing in general: I’m inspired by stories. I’ll hear a passing reference to some unique or extraordinary individual, and I’ll immediately want to know more about them, to understand how they became who they were or did what they did.
WO: Recently, Write On! explored the theme of ‘Mindset.’ What helps you get into the right frame of mind to write? Do you have any tips to prevent your mindset from being disrupted?
KB: I’m fortunate in that I’ve worked in the arts all my life, so I’m very used to having a creative practice. I believe in rehearsal: being open to ideas, trying them out in a playful way, holding them lightly, and letting go if necessary. That playfulness means that I find it easy to get started, even if I don’t end up keeping much of what I’ve written! I’m not afraid to kill my darlings. I wrote so many endings for Broken Horses – it was like trying out different paths through thick woods. I’d go a few paces down one path, and then have to retrace my steps and go another. The only way I could keep doing that was by remaining playful. Otherwise I’d have just been lost in the woods!
I also find it helpful to treat everything else that happens around the edges of the writing as an essential part of the creative process – I feel as though I’ve achieved something if I have a day of reading, visiting a gallery or watching films set during the period of my story. I’m constantly on the lookout for quirks of language, or style, or character behaviours. Inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere – but it’s least likely to come from staring at a blank page or screen! My story is set in a wild, natural world. I live in a city, very far from Patagonia, but I get ideas when walking in the park and looking at nature.
My main tips for staying focused: turn off the phone, email, everything else that could be a distraction. Go somewhere where these things are less likely to distract you. I am a parent and for years had to accept that if I was at home I’d likely be called upon for some reason or another. If I really needed to write, I’d block time in my diary, and go to the library. Even a very short time of clear focus was helpful, as it kept my head in the story. I wrote on my phone while travelling on the tube to and from work. Now my kids are older, I can take more time for myself at home. But I still turn everything off and let everyone know that I’m at work. Habits and rituals help too – try a simple ritual like lighting a candle. Creating a playlist can also help take you straight into the story world.
WO: What one piece of advice would you give an aspiring writer?
KB: Don’t lose heart. The one thing all published writers have in common is that they didn’t give up. Broken Horses experienced a LOT of rejection, but I tried not to take it personally. As a theatre-maker, I’ve seen a lot of great actors not get parts they auditioned for, even though they were really good and could have done a great job. So I know the rejection isn’t personal. Now Broken Horses has found the right home and I couldn’t be happier.
WO: Question from Instagram user: @eithnecullen57 What was it about Linen Press that encouraged you to submit your work to them?
KB: I loved their ethos from the moment I found the website and read about what they do. My story is about female agency, so it felt like a great fit for a literary-leaning feminist indie press. I made a few enquiries and discovered a lot of people really love Linen Press – it’s tiny, but mighty. And I read a couple of great interviews in Write On by the publisher and one of the authors!
WO: Can you tell us anything about future projects?
KB: Yes. I’ve been researching for a story set in the Pacific War. I heard about a classical musician who tried to inspire his fellow soldiers with music, even through the unimaginable horror of war. I’ve found so many stories; now my task is to figure out how to weave them together!
WO: Lastly, if you could choose one fictional animal/creature to be a pet or companion, who would it be and why?
KB: Ah, how I love this question! I spent a huge part of my childhood reading classic animal stories – Wind In The Willows,
Charlotte’s Web, The Incredible Journey, Ring Of Bright Water, Scruffy, The Silver Brumby… the list goes on and on… I learned so much about the natural world through stories and developed a profound love of animals. If I’m allowed to choose only one, I think it has to be Joey, from War Horse. He’s a survivor. He’s loyal, intelligent and courageous. Even during the horrors of war he doesn’t judge, and he brings out love and humanity in everyone. Despite all the odds, Joey finds his way home. There are horses in my novel – I couldn’t leave them out!
You can find out more about Kate Beales here: linen-press.com/new-signing-broken-horses-by-kate-beales/ and connect with them on Instagram: @kate.beales
Broken Horses is available from the Linen Press website and Amazon.
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