Eric Beaty began his entrepreneurial career as a well-known guitar instructor on YouTube and performing artist in the Bluegrass guitar circuit. Before dedicating greater focus to his writing career, Eric created and authored several guitar instructional courses and companion books. In the years since pursuing writing as a career in addition to his music, Eric has authored many books, stories, poems, essays, blog posts, and songs. The basis for much of Eric’s writing comes from a great many notebooks and journals that he fills with his experiences, ideas, and stories. In fact, as an additional resource in 2023, Eric created his own Substack, Gleaning Words, to host the best of these "gleaned" journal entries. He later created his fiction newsletter 🦁 The Fiction Tamer. Eric has also participated in—and thrice won—the popular writing competition National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in the years 2009, 2015, and 2018. He was also a shortlist winner for the "Art of the Title" competition hosted by the Self-Publishing Advice Conference (SelfPubCon) in 2023. In January of 2026, Eric achieved bestselling status with his SMART FOCUS series. Originally from Monterey, Tennessee, Eric now lives with his wife, Melissa, and their son, DJ, in the ever-growing city of Crossville, Tennessee. He is currently at work on yet another one of his many creative projects.