Erin Evans is a world traveler, a self-published author, a trained musician, and a mom of six. She’s also a college buddy of mine who is responsible for some of my best memories from those years. Erin recently took a departure from her “suburban fantasy” Rhine Maiden series to release Food for Love, a culinary romance that is perfect vacation reading for this summer.
Erin’s books have meant a lot to me, keeping me sane as I was on bed rest with David and later helping me stay awake as I nursed him three or four times each night. I’ve had fun following Erin’s writing journey through her blog and was delighted when she kindly took a few minutes to answer some of the questions I had for her as a fan and a friend.
Q. You’re a stay-at-home mom of six who home schools your oldest children. How do you find time to write?
A. Finding time to write is hard! I have to make it a priority, which means it has to come before say, doing the dishes, or folding laundry. If I finished all my chores before I wrote I would never get around to it! (Especially the laundry. There is always laundry to fold!) I usually get my writing done just before lunch. I’ll have done all the teacher/interactive parts of my kid’s schooling, set them up with their homework, and then I sit on the couch, tell the other kids “Mommy’s working,” and just ignore all the pandemonium that is going on around me. If something really doesn’t make sense in one of my books,
there’s a good chance that someone was yelling in my ear while I was typing!
I set a goal of writing a thousand words a day, and I give myself Saturday and Sunday off. I use the word count numbers at the bottom of my MSWord screen to help me. Sometimes it’s really a push to get that much down, and sometimes I breeze through it quickly.
Q. How long have you been writing novels? Who or what has inspired you in your writing?
A. I wrote my first full-length novel when I was twenty-one. It was awful. I don’t even think I still have it around. I wrote a second one that was better, but only by comparison. Then I decided that I couldn’t write and wouldn’t try again. Years later, when I was twenty-eight and had two kids, I found myself thinking one day, “I would love to have a supernatural power of command over my girls!” I was feeling a little house-bound and going through some other emotional stuff, and writing was a great release. I could put my protagonist in horrible situations and yet be in complete control!
Piper [from The Rhine Maiden series] is “me” in many ways, and in other ways she has taken on a life of her own. It makes me a little sad when people comment that Piper is unlikable because I see myself very strongly in her. I’ve tried to give her realistic strengths and weaknesses, but it’s made me realize that I might come off as unlikable to people as well!
On the other hand, it thrills me that so many people relate with her and understand her life and challenges. I was tired of reading books about the beautiful, single, competent woman who has three hot and eligible men chasing after her. I wanted to write a story for people like me: Happily married, mothers, not incompetent but kind of fumbling through life as best we can. We’re not superheroes. We’re just moms. But being a mother sometimes requires you to be a superhero.
Q. Some of your writing contains fairly overt political opinions. Do you worry about your readers’ reactions if they don’t share your perspective?
A. I worry about that all the time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I’d made the witches in the first book run a chicken plant or something, anything but an abortion clinic! When I wrote The Rhine Maiden I was writing for myself. I had no thought that it would ever be read by anyone other than my family.
It bothers me so much that I don’t read the reviews on The Rhine Maiden anymore. It sounds silly, I know; I should be tough enough to take it, but it makes me depressed so I don’t! I stopped after reading one that said my story was unrealistic because a college educated woman would never happily become a stay-at-home mom! I wanted to say, “I did! And really? That’s the most unrealistic problem you had with a book about vampires and aliens? Really?”
I am strongly pro-life and believe that life starts at conception, and it’s going to come out in my writing. But yes, it hurts when people trash my novel just because they don’t agree with me politically. I love lots of books that have views that I don’t agree with. I just look over it and enjoy the story.
Q. Much of your writing is set in places with which you are familiar (the coast of Florida, temples in Thailand, pyramids in Egypt). Do you tend to “write what you know?” Do you seek out new experiences to add to your repertoire?
A. I do try to “write what I know.” It’s easier in some ways. I don’t have to imagine what Piper’s town looks like. I live there! I loved the temple in Thailand, and when I needed a spot where a Naga would hang out, it was perfect. I’ve also always loved Egypt. My husband took me there for a once-in-a-lifetime trip in 2009, and it was fun to go back with Piper. Also, I’ve always had a fondness for Bastet (I have several statues of her in my home), and she’s probably one of my favorite characters in the series.
The downside of trying to be “realistic” is that some things require tons more research. It took me over an hour to figure out how Piper would get from North Florida to the Bahamas in Rhine, Rhine. I had to look up flight times and costs and find photos of the airports and surrounding regions. Most people probably won’t ever realize how accurate it is, but I didn’t want that one person who’d been there to say, “That’s not what it’s like!”
I don’t know that I seek out new experiences, but I do find myself constantly thinking, “I can use that!” when someone says something or my kids do something. [The character of] Annabeth came about because of a story my brother told at lunch one Sunday about a buddy of his being out in the woods and swearing that he saw a swamp ape run across the road.
Q. Why did you decide to go the self-publishing route?
A. When I finished The Rhine Maiden my mom said, “You should try to get that published!” so I thought, “Why not?” To get published, you first need an agent. You do tons of research to find one that takes unsolicited books, more research to figure out what format they want the submission to be in, and then you craft an individual “pitch” letter to them. Luckily, all of this is done through email now, but it still takes hours per agent. Then you wait. If they are interested, they ask for the first section of your manuscript to read. I actually had four agents ask for a partial, but then was rejected.
While I was in the middle of all the agent hunting, I wasn’t writing much. Then I came across Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform and thought I might as well get my book out there while I was still pitching agents. I kind of gave up the pitching after a while, finished It Never Rhines, and published that with Amazon as well. By the time I published A Little Rhine I had gone from maybe ten book sales a year to twenty to thirty a month. Not big money, but very satisfying!
I like the self-publishing because I have control over it. This is not my career. It’s a hobby. I am first and foremost a wife/mother/homemaker/homeschooler. I don’t want any of that to suffer because of my writing. With ebooks I can share my work with other people but not stress too much about rejections, deadlines, etc.
That doesn’t mean that I won’t ever try to get a “real” book published some day. My dream book would be one that was not only entertaining but also pointed people to Jesus. I find it hard to incorporate my love of Jesus into my writing without sounding cheesy, and I’d love to one day be able to write well enough that it doesn’t seem forced or fake.
Q. What can you share about your next projects? Have we heard the last of the Rhine Maidens?
A. I am almost finished with book five in the series, Rhinebows and Unicorns. I haven’t worked up a blurb for it yet, but I can tell you that Floyd plays a bigger part with his cryptozoology, and I’m finally making Piper be honest with Mark, for real this time!
My next project is not going to be a Rhine Maiden novel. I enjoyed taking a break with Food for Love, and I’ve had the idea for a new series that I’m really excited about! I’m still in the plotting phase, but the main storyline is about a young woman transferred to a fairy tale universe where the princesses we know and love are all the bad guys.
As you can tell, I don’t take myself too seriously. I like to write about things that interest and excite me, and if that means Egyptian goddesses, skunk apes, and aliens, then so be it!
I’m very grateful for all the people who have let me know how much they love Piper! I don’t know that I would still be publishing without their encouragement. It’s nice to know that there are people who are looking forward to reading what I’m writing. It’s a serious responsibility, and I don’t want to waste people’s time and money. It makes me try harder, edit more carefully, and publish faster!
Books by Erin Evans are available on Amazon.com, Smashwords.com, and BarnesandNoble.com. You can follow her writing at erin-evans.com.
I love Erin’s books. Her writing style is uncomplicated and yet intelligent and humorous.
I am totally impressed that she is able to raise six children and homeschool some of them while still managing to finish her novels. That is a superhero in my eyes.
I do hope she continues to try and get published. I think her story is relatable to many, MANY women. And as for any regrets she has for prior books, that’s what 2nd editions are for!
I would encourage Erin to continue writing. I’m a fan who believes her stories have what it takes to make her a household name.
Keep on keeping on, Erin.