Questions and answers for Beauregard.
Where were you born/grew up?
I was born in Rocksprings Wyoming. Was moved to Utah within days so I never lived in my birth town. Grew up in various parts of Utah from Provo to Brigham City. I consider Brigham City my home since I lived there the longest and that’s where I was living when I graduated from High School and my parents live there still.
What are you passionate about these days?
Besides my writing and finishing the Black Winter series, I’m passionate about my family. I have 3 boys, ages 9, 7, and 4 with a fourth child on the way. Nothing brings me more joy than spending time with them and seeing them grow. Being a father is the greatest blessing and experience a man can have.
How do you find time to write as a parent?
It’s challenging. I rarely do the things I enjoy when I can be home with my wife and kids and spend time with them. I get most of my writing done when they are at school and work or even late at night when they are sleeping.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When I was in the 8th grade. This is when I really started to write stories down in my notebook at school. By the time I was a senior in high school I knew that writing novels was something I wanted to do.
What inspired you to write this book?
Truthfully it was a number of things. My family loves all sorts of story formats, whether it be a movie, book or even a video game. When I first started writing the book for the first time in January of 2009, I had a very basic idea. A soldier and his Siberian Husky in a mountain, snowy setting. The more I wrote the more I would take inspiration from many stories I had previously seen or read, and even a couple video games that I had recently played. For starters, the idea of a government facility deep in a mountain I got from Gears of War. The dog with the soldier I got from the cover of Fallout 3. I really didn’t what the story was then. Just small details from other things that I really liked. It took a couple years from that point before Cole and I knew how the first book would really end. Once we had the complete story for Black Winter, the rest of the story was easy.
How did you come up with the title for Black Winter?
The title didn’t come until several years after we first started working on it. Not until after the story was complete. Originally, Alec Winter was actually Alec Ryker. But as the story was ending, I really like the idea of having the title of the book have a double meaning. So that’s when we decided to change Alec’s last name to Winter. You have this never-ending winter along with a soldier who’s name is Winter and they sort of battle each other throughout the series. The true meaning of the name of the book though you will have to discover as you read the series.
If your book was made into a movie, who would you like to play the lead?
Originally that was an easy answer. Henry Cavill. I actually had to do a screenplay as an assignment in college that was a lot of fun. Part of the assignment was casting real actors for the roles in the movie. I picked Cavill as Alec Winter because of Cavill’s size and hair color. The only issue was his eye color which was an easy fix with contacts or even CGI. Now that many of the actors that I cast for the characters are all older it would be a little more difficult to pick new ones. I’m looking forward to fans of the book to come up with their own ideas though.
Are any of your characters based off of real people or did they come entirely from your imagination?
A little bit of both. There are a few characters in the book that are completely based off of real people in terms of their names, and others in terms of how I perceived them as people. Two of my friends have their full names in the book, because of how unique their names are. The character in the book are criminals though so they are very different than the people they are based on. There are other characters in the book that are a complete likeness, only their names are different. For some of those characters they are people that I despised, so I made them into characters that the readers would despise as well. Alec Winter is completely from imagination, but the way he interacts with his dog and his overall voice and how he talks is based off of me. He talks like me and loves his dog as much as I do.
What are your top 10 favorite books or Authors?
My favorite books are the Eragon books by Christopher Paolini. I’ve read the entire series about ten times and it never gets old for me. In fact, some of my inspiration for the relationship between two characters in Black Winter comes from that series. You’ll have to discover what I’m talking about by reading the book. I don’t want to give any spoilers. I also really loved the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. It’s a very long series, but the writing is incredible. I don’t know that I’ll read it again, because of its length, but I’m glad I read it and I would definitely recommend it along with Eragon.
What is your favorite genre to read?
Oddly enough, Black Winter is a Science Fiction novel, but I don’t actually read much of that genre. I prefer fantasy as you can see with my two favorite authors and book series.
Do you prefer to write in silence or with noise?
Both. I like it to be quiet, but most of the time I like to listen to music when I write. Different songs help me to feel the mood of a scene I’m trying to write. If it’s really distracting noise though I can’t concentrate. Like if my kids are yelling and fighting, I won’t be able to focus. I could easily sit in front of the tv and write though.
The final thing I’d like to say answers several questions. Writing is very time consuming and requires a lot of dedication. Black Winter took 12 years from start to publication. Mostly the reason why it took so long was due to life getting in the way, writers block or just simply procrastination. The sequels will definitely come out much faster than the first, but mostly they will because we know what the story is. We know exactly where the characters will be at the end of the story and how they will get there. So getting there will be less of a challenge. Plus, now that Black Winter is officially out there for the world to see, the desire to complete the series for everyone that reads it gives me the motivation I need to sit down and put in the time to write the rest of the books.
Questions and answers for Cole.
How did you become an author?
My path to becoming an author is a little unique. Growing up I loved reading but I hated writing. As I got older I realised not only was I good at writing, I actually started enjoying it. I started working with Beau on his book by helping him with different ideas throughout Black Winter. Finally after years it had turned into as much mine as it was his and I couldn’t be more grateful to share that with Beau.
Do you write one book at a time or do you have several going at once?
Both. We wrote Black Winter before writing any of the sequels. But as we got deeper into the story we slowly wrote the beginning and end for all of the books. We found that by figuring out different directions we wanted to go with the sequels helped add things into Black Winter.
What do you do to unwind and relax?
I am a big gamer so once everyone has gone to bed I enjoy starting up my PC and gaming. I have always enjoyed video games but right now I love playing Warzone. I also enjoy sitting down on the couch with my wife and watching a tv show.
What are your top 10 favorite books?
Top 10 books are a little hard so I will go with my top book series. My favorite book series would have to be Eragon/The Inheritance Cycle. Eragon was the first book that really got me into reading, I also love everything that involves dragons so that helped as well. My second favorite book series is Harry Potter. Harry Potter was a book series that really helped me escape from reality at times when I was a kid and even sometimes still to this day. My third favorite book series is The Ranger’s Apprentice.
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