About Evy Journey:
2015 SPR (Self Publishing Review) Independent Woman Author bronze awardee Evy Journey has always been fascinated with words and seduced by beautiful prose. She loves Jane Austen and invokes her spirit every time she spins tales of love, loss, and finding one’s way–stories she interweaves with mystery or intrigue and sets in various locales.
She’s lived and traveled in many places, from Asia to Europe. Often she’s ended up in Paris, though—her favorite place in the world. She’s an observer-wanderer. A flâneuse, as the French would say.
The mind is what fascinates her most. Armed with a Ph.D., she researched and helped develop mental health programs. And wrote like an academic. Not a good thing if you want to sound like a normal person. So, she’s written fiction (mostly happy fiction) as an antidote.
What inspires you to write?
Words. I love them. They are the main reason I write. I wrote short stories in high school. I have always been in awe of people capable of producing a phrase, well-turned and yet loaded with meaning. It is a rare gift endowed in a chosen few, even among those who live by writing. So, I read works of those who can and envy what they can do and I cannot.
But one day, I put words in the service of coping with this crazy world we live in, interspersed with periods of working on art. And before I knew it, I was writing fiction and that part of my right brain, still intact and not ruined by my academic training, went into action. Fiction gets you carried away and absorbed in this other world, probably more so while writing it than reading it. Writing fiction is wonderful escapism.
Tell us about your writing process.
I do have a writing schedule. After breakfast in bed I write or do related things until noon. Then, at night, after a movie, I get back to the same tasks until 2 am. It is still and quiet then except for classical music piped in from either Paris or Vienna—that is the magic of the internet for me. This is not a daily grind, but it happens quite a lot.
Writing is work. And I mean work. Quite a lot of people think painting is something you just do on the side—a hobby. But both (writing and painting) are creative undertakings that require not only envisioning but planning, too, making both big and little decisions, and investing the mental equivalent of elbow grease. How big a canvas should I use? Or, should this story swirling in my head be a short story or an epic? How should I apply my brushstrokes, with a brush of a certain size or a palette knife? Or, what kind of viewpoint would make my story more intriguing? And how should I express the themes of the story? On and on. Many times, we may not be conscious that as we create, we are making decisions or even problem-solving.
Potentially, it can take me forever to write a book, if I follow my inherent tendencies. I am a hopeless tweaker. I always find things to change or fix.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
My characters, particularly the main ones, become “real” people in my head when I’m writing a scene. I don’t talk to them but I hear them talking to each other. I imagine how they look when they talk or are gripped with emotions.
It’s important for me to know my characters intimately. When I get thoroughly acquainted with them, what they say in particular scenes can come out naturally.
What advice would you give other writers?
This is my mantra: Writing is a personal journey. There’s a lot of do’s and don’ts out there that you’ll be fed and they are probably useful while you’re learning, And learning does keep continuing. But writing is an art and your work is your very own creation; so at a certain point, when you’re confident you have enough to sustain you, I would say follow your creative instincts. Great works of art have come out of breaking with traditions.
On a practical note: If you want money for your books, learn how to sell yourself. Gurus call that process” branding.”
How did you decide how to publish your books?
The first fiction I wrote, I published—just because I could, rather easily—through amazon. For the second one, I sent a query to four romance presses, two of whom expressed interest and asked for the full manuscript. But both finally said my story does not meet their submission guidelines. One said they liked my voice and my storyline but some themes are apparently taboo. The other told me to try a mainstream press. Genre presses have formulas for themes and how stories are told. So, I’ve since self-published three other books. Why else be an independent writer/publisher if you’re not willing to break out of the box?
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think we haven’t realized the full potential of e-publishing. The internet is liberating us in all kinds of ways. New technology can make anyone a potential filmmaker, a potential performer, a potential writer, a potential artist, etc., etc.
Still, printed books are here to stay. Ebooks are convenient, but there’s something special about the feel, the smell, and the look of a book in hand.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: Women’s fiction, Multicultural fiction, Short story, Nonfiction
What formats are your books in?: eBook, Print, Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Evy Journey Home Page Link
Link To Evy Journey Page On Amazon
Link to Author Page on other site
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
