From book to film, Lindenwold couple's DIY effort

'Here's my novel. It's a sci-fi thriller," Cyd Webster Beacham says, handing me another book.

I'm impressed. Beacham, an IT consultant who taught herself to write fiction and began self-publishing a decade ago, certainly has been busy.

But I've come to the author's Lindenwold home not only to discuss writing but to talk about her movie, "Roman."

The 20-minute film's screenplay has been adapted from one of Cyd's short stories. She and her husband, George Ward Beacham III, have raised about half of the $8,000 needed to begin shooting in late spring.

A raffle - first prize a flat-screen TV, second a barbecue grill - is set for April 30.

"We're a couple of senior citizens embarking on this adventure," says Cyd, 57, who hails from Orange, in Essex County.

Like most of us, she and her husband have never produced a film. Unlike most of us, they're actually doing it.

"It's not easy, but we knew that from the beginning," George says. A 62-year-old crane operator, he grew up in Lindenwold.

"I just hope we get this movie out so it can help somebody," he adds. "There's a message in it."

The Beachams are active members of Bethany Baptist Church in Lindenwold. Several of their collaborators, including Philadelphia filmmaker Dwight Wilkins and actor Darold Lingo, worship there as well.

Lingo plays Roman, who's a serial adulterer, as were some of his ancestors. The film's title character is not only conflicted, but haunted.

"He has demons chasing him," says Lingo, 40, of Clementon. "He's wrestling with himself over his history and his destiny."

"What struck me about the story was the notion of a guy repeating a cycle," says Wilkins.

The director, 55, has seven other short films and a full-length feature set in South Philadelphia, A Rose on Ninth Street, to his credit.

Wilkins adapted Cyd's story "Son of a Covet" for the "Roman" screenplay. He also shot a promotional trailer; the dark and eerie clip can be seen on YouTube.

"A church member let us use her house" for one scene, and actors from Bethany's fine arts program make appearances, Cyd notes.

While she and her husband are novice movie producers, both have do-it-yourself in their backgrounds. George's father, a respected local businessman, built the house where his son and his wife live.

And Cyd took the plunge into publishing after she attended the Harlem Book Fair in 2006, vowing to friends that she would sell a book of her own there the following year.

Which she did; it was a short story collection called Struck by Lightning (and other bolts of reality).

"After that, I had a bit of a confidence thing," Cyd recalls. "It was like, 'Who do you think you are?'

"But the friends whom I call my accountability partners reminded me, 'You're a published author!' "

I should note that this published author also designs the covers, writes the publicity materials, maintains websites, and conducts social media campaigns - "Roman the Movie" on Facebook - for all of her work.

Cyd and George often wear T-shirts bearing the "Roman" logo. They've put promotional stickers on their vehicles, too. And they collaborated on the story "Roman" is based upon.

"I wanted to write from a man's perspective, but it was just impossible," Cyd says. "So we'd sit in our lounge chairs, and George would start talking, and I'd start writing."

Which means that elements of George's own story will be on the screen.

Cyd says that, like Roman, her husband "had a wife and a girlfriend going on. This was before I met him."

"Way before," says George, as they both laugh.

It would appear that however "Roman" turns out, the Beachams have coauthored their own happy ending.

kriordan@phillynews.com

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