Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
At first, she thought the Whiting Foundation was a scam.
I kept saying, Writing foundation?
We went back and forth like that for a while.
Beagin eventually accepted that she was among the 2017 recipients of a $50,000 grant for emerging writers.
(When she wasnt waitressing, cleaning houses was among the jobs Beagin held down over the years.)
She did venture to dissuade the caller.
I said, That books really short, and they were like, No, you deserve this.
They kept saying that, You deserve this.
February 7 brings readers her most exciting book yet: the idiosyncratic love storyBig Swiss.
Beagin was in a different heated house in Hudson when we talked, one she owns.
Beagin set out with the explicit goal of writing an upbeat book about trauma.
Big Swiss, perhaps because of what shewontcall her trauma, has a shocking capacity for cruelty.
Greta struggles to keep everything shes learned from transcribing Big Swisss therapy sessions from slipping out in casual conversation.
Watching Greta and Big Swiss navigate each others minds and bodies is one of the novels great pleasures.
Beagins sex scenes are like no one elses.
In bed with Big Swiss, Greta thinks about how anything and everything seemed possible.
She could pilot a helicopter if she wanted, or act in a play.
She could make soap, sweaters, sausage.
I sleep really deeply from six to nine.
And then I wake up fresh and write a couple more hours.
And then I edit for another couple hours, and then thats it.
So Im done by noon at the latest.
First, of course, was the pandemic.
Then she discovered that she had a huge fibroid and needed a hysterectomy.
Beagin found this coincidence creepy, to say the least.
She was forced to reconsider what shed written, whether shed captured grief accurately.
Beagin hadnt even begun to process her loss when her luck changed dramatically, again.
Beagin was delighted when Comer nabbed the rights and brought HBO onboard.
For the book itself, Beagins advance was $100,000, a respectable number for a mid-list literary novel.
But the real money, of course, is the television deal itself.
Beagin wouldnt tell me an exact dollar amount, but allowed that it was life-changing.
Itll allow me to just do what Im doing, going forward.
Signs of the shows progress seem positive.
Thinking about casting, Beagin likes Aubrey Plaza for Greta.
Two extremely charismatic miniature donkeys, Ellington and Pantaloon, are introduced toward the end of the book.
In Beagins author photo, she poses in front of what gives the impression of … a miniature donkey.
Ellington and Pantaloon, however?
Ellington and Pantaloon, however?
Exactly as she had written them: Beautiful, calming, and friendly as lapdogs.
Unfortunately, in real life, Ellington met a premature end thanks to an encounter with a truck.
