Dianne Beeaff
author of On Tràigh Lar Beach
Dianne Ebertt Beeaff is the author of six books, including the best-selling memoir, A Grand Madness, Ten Years on the Road with U2, the sequel, A Grand Madness, U2 Twenty Years After, the award-winning historical fiction novel, Power’s Garden, Homecoming, a book of poetry illustrated with her graphite drawings, Spirit Stones, Unraveling the Megalithic Mysteries of Western Europe’s Prehistoric Monuments, and the short story collection On Tràigh Lar Beach, released in October of 2020.
She began her writing career in magazine journalism and her work has appeared in a variety of nonfiction publications, including Arizona Highways, Tucson Magazine, Vegetarian Times and Horse and Horseman. Beeaff is also a poet and artist, working primarily in graphite and watercolor. Her artwork has been featured in local, national, and international galleries. A native of Kitchener, Ontario Canada, Beeaff lives in Arizona with her husband, Dan. Her work can be seen at www.debeeaff.wordpress.com.
Me: Tell us about On Tràigh Lar Beach.
Dianne: Erica Winchat, a young writer overwhelmed by the stress of her first book contract, discovers thirteen curious items tangled in the flotsam of the Scottish beach of Tràigh Lar. Inspired by the objects, she tells the intriguing story of the owner of each one, uncovering a series of dramatic events—from a Chicago widow’s inspiring visit to Quebec City, to a shrimper’s daughter facing Tropical Storm Ruby in North Carolina. The thirteenth item, a concert laminate badge, gives rise to the novella Fan Girls, in which the separate stories of four fans of the Scottish rock band Datha unfold in first person, culminating in their reunion at a concert in Chicago—a show where a shooting takes place. The protagonist of each story is named for a flower that grows on Hebridean beaches, and I have done a drawing of each flower as part of each story’s intro.
Me: What inspired you to write it?
Dianne: Many years ago, I stayed in Rodel, a tiny hamlet on the magically remote, stunningly beautiful Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Walking on Tràigh Lar Beach, I noticed several motley items tangled in the seaweed and noted in my journal the possibility of a short story collection based on such items. Many more years passed before I began to work on those stories. The first story in the collection, Erica, is taken almost verbatim from my journals, with the exception of a two-book contract!
Me: Describe your writing life?
Dianne: I have never been good at keeping to any specific schedule for writing, or anything else for that matter. There have been months, even years, when the only writing I did was in my personal journals. When my now middle-aged children were little, I would write whenever I could snatch a free moment between childcare and a full-time secretarial job. I’ve always done a lot of work in my head, so when I do sit down to write, now in my office, the writing may flow, and I can get a lot done. For many reasons, I have never set any session time limit, or word count, or page goal. Any of those things that writers are constantly told to do. Writing is so intensely subjective. What works for one writer may not work for another. In my view, there is no right or wrong way to write or to be a writer. The only requirement, in my view, is persistence, patience, and practice, in no particular order. People who write and need to write, whether or not they become published, are and always will be, true and real writers.
Me: What are your future writing plans?
Dianne: I’m currently working on a second short story collection, with the focus on Arizona. I also have a third memoir in the works, a natural history account of the 16 acres of land my father built a cottage on along the Conestoga River in Southern Ontario, Canada in the 1950s.
