Ask the Author: W.C. Anderson
Answered Questions (2)
W.C. Anderson
Evangeline is an amalgam of qualities both real and imagined. For better or worse, I infused her with many of my own flaws. I thought of the qualities that I admire most in strong women - courage, integrity, grit, humor - and gave her as many of those qualities as palatable. My hope is that no matter what readers may think of her, they never, ever find her boring.
After many years of trial and error fine tuning what I like to read, I've learned that character development is typically the top quality for me. Frustrated by too much filler in books, I decided to cut out as much as I thought I could get away with in my own. I truly savor the random choice pieces of life (say, the first sip of a Coke or the soft center of a chocolate chip cookie), and wanted very much to have a book made up of choice pieces and for the writing to be as raw and meaningful and imperfect as a flawed person would be. This approach has proven to be uneven - some like it, others really, really don't - and it has been suggested more than once that I'm too figurative-minded, leaving too many gaps left unfilled. But if I'm honest, at heart (and unrestrained) I'm a bit messy and chaotic, and the writing is an authentic representation of those characteristics.
The following two Jane Eyre quotes speak to a great deal of Evangeline's internal workings, and much of what I hope to accomplish with her as a character:
"Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags."
“I know no medium: I never in my life have known any medium in my dealings with positive, hard characters, antagonistic to my own, between absolute submission and determined revolt. I have always faithfully observed the one, up to the very moment of bursting, sometimes with volcanic vehemence, into the other.”
Thanks for appreciating Evangeline's unorthodox nature and for the great question!
After many years of trial and error fine tuning what I like to read, I've learned that character development is typically the top quality for me. Frustrated by too much filler in books, I decided to cut out as much as I thought I could get away with in my own. I truly savor the random choice pieces of life (say, the first sip of a Coke or the soft center of a chocolate chip cookie), and wanted very much to have a book made up of choice pieces and for the writing to be as raw and meaningful and imperfect as a flawed person would be. This approach has proven to be uneven - some like it, others really, really don't - and it has been suggested more than once that I'm too figurative-minded, leaving too many gaps left unfilled. But if I'm honest, at heart (and unrestrained) I'm a bit messy and chaotic, and the writing is an authentic representation of those characteristics.
The following two Jane Eyre quotes speak to a great deal of Evangeline's internal workings, and much of what I hope to accomplish with her as a character:
"Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags."
“I know no medium: I never in my life have known any medium in my dealings with positive, hard characters, antagonistic to my own, between absolute submission and determined revolt. I have always faithfully observed the one, up to the very moment of bursting, sometimes with volcanic vehemence, into the other.”
Thanks for appreciating Evangeline's unorthodox nature and for the great question!
W.C. Anderson
Hi Erika:
Sorry for the long delay in responding. I've taken a break from Goodreads & social media for awhile to focus on writing (with mixed results, alas). I do have personal playlists on my ipod for the first two books and am working on the third. I'll message them to you here & see if I can add them to Goodreads.
Hope you enjoy!
W.C.
Sorry for the long delay in responding. I've taken a break from Goodreads & social media for awhile to focus on writing (with mixed results, alas). I do have personal playlists on my ipod for the first two books and am working on the third. I'll message them to you here & see if I can add them to Goodreads.
Hope you enjoy!
W.C.
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