Author Interview with Evie Glass - YA Fantasy Author

Evie Glass

YA Fantasy Author  

NunHead Cemetery

London England

      The virtual location setting for this week's interview is from one of London’s beautiful Victorian graveyards, Nunhead Cemetery! Our guest author is also from London. How exciting! Let's all stay close, pull up your collars to stay warm and enjoy the interview! We do have warm coffee and lattes over at the vendor stand for those needing a little more warmth. Click the cemetery link to hop over and take a real look at the graveyard! Don't forget to come back here though! You won't want to miss meeting Evie...Shall we get started?

Reader’s Haven:  Welcome to our Haven, Evie! Our readers are anxious to meet you! A meeting at a cemetery is quite fitting for an October interview. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Evie:  I love spooky stuff. My dad always said he was psychic, so since I was a girl I’ve been interested in the paranormal. I was brought up near Pendle, where the biggest English witch-trials were, I’m good with a tarot-pack, and I have a thing about visiting famous graves! 

Reader’s Haven: (Deanna) oooo - I so love the paranormal stuff! What made you want to become a writer?

Evie:  I wrote my first ‘novel’ when I was six, so I can’t remember a time when I didn’t plan to be a writer.  There’s a lovely Susan Sontag quote which I agree with: ‘What I really wanted was every kind of life, and the writer’s life seemed most inclusive.’

Reader’s Haven: Please share a bit about your new release ‘Delilah Dark and the Teacup of Doom’ without giving away any spoilers.

Evie:  It’s my second book about Delilah Dark, a cynical 12-year old who can see the future in her crystal-ball. Along with other psychic children, all with different powers, her enemy is BigCorp – a shadowy business organization who seem to be deliberate trying to destroy the planet.  In this second book their evil plot involves a new talent show called ‘Global Pop Puppet’ which aims to create an army of drones, and computer game so addictive it might literally be the death of you! 

Reader’s Haven: Do you write under a pen name?

Evie:  Yes – I’ve published several books of poetry under the name Clare Pollard.  But my poems are very much for adults – I felt it would be a good idea to create a different persona for my children’s fiction.

Reader’s Haven: What types of hero or heroine do you like best?

Evie:  Ones with a sense of humor.  I hate heroes who take themselves too seriously!  Delilah is partly based on one of my heroines, the writer and wit Dorothy Parker – she has the same sharp, black bob and quick tongue.

Reader’s Haven: Tell us about a typical day in your life as a writer.

Evie:  As a freelance writer it could involve anything – I teach creative writing, do readings, blog, mentor, translate poetry, edit, write reviews (I review children’s fiction for Indie E-Book Review).  I’m not a morning person, so I tend to do admin in the morning with a strong coffee, and then write after lunch once I’m properly awake!

Reader’s Haven: Do your books have a common theme or are they all different?

Evie:  I’m interested in morality – how in real life it’s not as straight forward as saying things are good or evil. I’m interested in love. I like magic, but not harking back to ancient times – my work’s always modern. I write children’s books that deal with the world now: social networking, the X-Factor, climate change, Cheestrings!

Reader’s Haven: How long does it take you to write and then edit a story?

Evie:  The first drafts take about a month – writing children’s fiction is such fun, I can’t wait to get to my desk every day and laugh at my own jokes! Editing can take a bit longer –it’s useful to have trusted readers.

Reader’s Haven: Do you have to be alone to write?

Evie:  Yes.

Reader’s Haven: How do you go about naming characters?

Evie:  Sometimes they’re from real life.  As a writer you collect interesting names – my friend once dated a guy called Brandon Spray which I thought was brilliant, so I’ve used the name for Delilah’s nemesis. Or I like funny names – there is a villainous TV-presenter in this book called Piers Down – he’s like Piers Morgan but more arrogant!

Reader’s Haven: Is it easier to write about the characters if you find pictures of them before you write or do you write then find character pictures?

Evie:  I just see them in my head. They appear fully formed.

Reader’s Haven: How do you pick locations for your stories?

Evie:  Well, I live in London, which is such a huge, amazing, diverse city, so that’s where Delilah Dark lives.  But I was brought up in the English countryside, so that features a lot too. It’s easier to write about places you know – it’s the little details that bring a place to life.

Reader’s Haven:  (Deanna) I love everything about England! I find the castles fascinating and the graveyards, too! What are you working on now and what should readers be looking forward to from you in the future?

Evie:  I’m about to start writing the third and final Delilah Dark book ‘Delilah Dark vs Destiny’. The reason why BigCorp are trying to destroy the world will finally be revealed! And there’s a massive plot twist. I’m excited…

Reader’s Haven: Congratulations on the third book in the series and we wish you luck! Readers, we hope you're taking notes here! Where can readers find out more about you and your books?

Evie:  My site links are listed below:

Delilah Dark has a FaceBook page

And you can buy the book from Amazon

Twitter @EvieGlass

Reader’s Haven:  Evie, thank you for visiting with us at the Haven. Readers, we thank all of you for stopping in to read. Please show Evie and Delilah some love and head over to their links. Thank you all!

                                  Delilah Dark and the Teacup of Doom

SYNOPSIS:

      Delilah Dark, the sarcastic 12-year-old psychic, is bored, bored BORED. But then she sees an advert for Global Pop Puppet, a new Saturday-night show presided over by the arrogant Piers Down, which appears to turn its contestants into an army of drones

      The shadowy corporation BigCorp is back - and this time their evil plans involve entertainment. How do they get all the Pop Puppets to sing in tune? And are they behind Infinite Quest, a computer game so addictive it might actually be the death of you?

       Delilah Dark discovers she has new powers – she can heal and read tea-leaves. But with the cups full of bad omens, are BigCorp just too powerful to stop?

EXCERPT:

       You know how they say you should be careful what you wish for? Well, they mean it. It’s not just some silly phrase grownups trot out when they’d like you to shut up.  You should genuinely be extremely careful what you wish for.  If child psychics like Delilah Dark teach us anything, it’s that the mind is a very powerful thing.

     Because sure enough, the evening after Delilah wished it, the most evil force in the world did start showing signs of being extremely evil indeed.

     It was wet weather.  Delilah had spent a couple of hours watching DVDs and was now curled up under her duvet with Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories and reading the scary bits aloud to Spitty as he wrapped up a fly.  She had been drunk several very black coffees so was a bit twitchy, and when her phone gave a little buzz and jump on her bedside table she almost fell off the bed.  It was a text – the first she’d had in months.  It said:

Check out Spy TV now

      The number was withheld, which meant it was probably one of SKIVE (they were forbidden from leaving traceable calls).  She wondered who it was.  Will? Polly? Was it that awful smug idiot Brandon Spray?  But there was no time to waste pondering - Delilah leapt up and turned on her TV, flicking it to Spy-TV, the channel that BigCorp had recently bought.  All her psychic nerves felt on edge.  This was it – the thing she’d been waiting for!  The end to boredom!

      There was an advert playing for a new Saturday night programme.

     ‘Soon Saturday will be about staying-in,’ the smarmy-voiced announcer told her.  ‘On Saturdays no one will leave the sofa!  Saturday will mean the show you’ve all been waiting for.  The show where we find the most talented Idol the world has ever seen.  Not just the X-Factor, but Y and Z-Factor too…’

     Yawn, Delilah thought.  Hardly the most evil scheme ever.   And anyway, Simon Cowell had been there, done that.  She felt very disappointed.  But then she realized some disturbing images were flashing up - not just a microphone, but a wig, a glittering scalpel, a picture of a scientist experimenting on a robot…

     ‘We’re looking for the star that can go that extra mile,’ the croony announcer continued. ‘Who’s willing to sacrifice everything…their face, their voice, their life.  Who will never ever give up on their dream, only their home, family and sense of self.  That’s right, this time we’re going to find the GLOBAL POP PUPPET!’

     And then a troupe of identical singers came on stage.  Really identical – like dolls.  They were very skinny and had big doll-eyes.  The boys had blonde quiffs and the girls had big sticky mouths like half-eaten cupcakes.  And they began to sing: 

Dream it – Do it!

Leave yourself behind.

 Let us mould you -

Maybe you will find

 You’re a GLOBAL POP PUPPET!!

       ‘Join the global auditions next weekend’ the announcer suggested.  ‘Text PUPPET for details.  Calls from landlines cost £1.50, mobile phone calls will cost more, probably a lot more. No, we can’t say how much.’