Ask the Author: Frances Evelyn
Answered Questions (9)
Frances Evelyn
I'm exploring a family mystery at the moment -- my mum's grandmother was adopted and, though she had various stories, we never knew the truth of her origins. Now DNA matches are throwing up some unexpected truths and I'd love to be able to tell the story as fiction once I've got to the bottom of it. When I do, it's going to feature a lot of Victorian vicars!
Frances Evelyn
Just write!
It's the only way to learn how to do it.
It's the only way to learn how to do it.
Frances Evelyn
Hi Joan. Thank you. Yes I am, for a limited period. The link to sign up is here: https://www.subscribepage.com/q4c9m4
Frances Evelyn
Writing is usually the easy part, but if I write myself into a corner or lose my sense of direction with a story it's usually because I've taken it off in the wrong direction or I'm not sure how to get to the end of the story from where I am.
The first few times it happens, I'll go back to the beginning and review what's there so far. Sometimes it's just a matter of pruning and untangling and when I reach the point I'd been stuck at, I'll carry on without any problem.
If that doesn't work, I'll leave the book I'd stalled in and go on to something else. When I go back to it, it's usually better than I thought it was or my mind's figured out how to fix it while I wasn't looking.
Of course other authors plan it all out from the start, which sounds like much less fun.
The first few times it happens, I'll go back to the beginning and review what's there so far. Sometimes it's just a matter of pruning and untangling and when I reach the point I'd been stuck at, I'll carry on without any problem.
If that doesn't work, I'll leave the book I'd stalled in and go on to something else. When I go back to it, it's usually better than I thought it was or my mind's figured out how to fix it while I wasn't looking.
Of course other authors plan it all out from the start, which sounds like much less fun.
Frances Evelyn
The best part is when an idea for a new story pops into my head and ferments there until I'm ready to start writing. Or perhaps the best bit is when the story's unfolding and the characters are coming to life on my screen. I do enjoy reading it back, though, and seeing that it actually works in places or that there's an easy fix for something that didn't work. The thing that lifts my spirits most of all is a good review, though. I'm not sure I'd keep going if it was only me enjoying it!
Frances Evelyn
Hi Liv. Thanks for your question and sorry that it's taken me so long to reply.
I've been working on The Changeling Tree in the gaps between other things, so it's probably a composite of influences from everything I've read and watched and experienced across fifteen plus years, as well as the books that made me want to be a writer before that. The characters sometimes talk about some of these sources: look out for Doctor Who and Buffy.
My Faerie world is a modernised version of the medieval otherworld, but I was sure they'd have updated their balls and gowns in the meantime. My Faerie folk are bored, childish and quarrelsome. I'm sure they're influenced by the beautifully world-weary vampires in Stuart Hill's Icemark Chronicles, which I read to my younger son along the way.
I haven't read many modern books about fairies -- I wanted to make up my own rules for them -- but I loved Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce, which is set in Charnwood, not far from where my characters lived. His characters explore the implications for mental health of fairy abduction, which you'll see more of in later books in the series. I also really enjoyed Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveller's Wife, which looked at the challenges of carrying on with normal life as a time-traveller.
Finally, the cupboard is a nod to C.S. Lewis's wardrobe, which is the book Tracy's reading just before Rose bursts into her bedroom.
I've been working on The Changeling Tree in the gaps between other things, so it's probably a composite of influences from everything I've read and watched and experienced across fifteen plus years, as well as the books that made me want to be a writer before that. The characters sometimes talk about some of these sources: look out for Doctor Who and Buffy.
My Faerie world is a modernised version of the medieval otherworld, but I was sure they'd have updated their balls and gowns in the meantime. My Faerie folk are bored, childish and quarrelsome. I'm sure they're influenced by the beautifully world-weary vampires in Stuart Hill's Icemark Chronicles, which I read to my younger son along the way.
I haven't read many modern books about fairies -- I wanted to make up my own rules for them -- but I loved Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce, which is set in Charnwood, not far from where my characters lived. His characters explore the implications for mental health of fairy abduction, which you'll see more of in later books in the series. I also really enjoyed Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveller's Wife, which looked at the challenges of carrying on with normal life as a time-traveller.
Finally, the cupboard is a nod to C.S. Lewis's wardrobe, which is the book Tracy's reading just before Rose bursts into her bedroom.
Frances Evelyn
My first priority is the rest of The Changeling Tree series, and after that I'll be going back to a book called Bibliomancer. To avoid spoilers beyond what the title already suggests, I can only say that it's my favourite thing: a book full of books.
Frances Evelyn
Simply put, I get inspired by writing. There'll be some small seed to begin with, but I usually only find out what it's going to grow into by sitting down and writing.
What that seed is varies from book to book. Sometimes it's an idea that I want to explore, as in Bibliomancer, sometimes a character comes first, as in Finding Christine (both works in progress at the time of writing). For me, the first draught is often largely dialogue, and the process of re-writing involves focusing, pruning and filling out the conversations with narrative and with descriptions of people, places and thoughts.
What that seed is varies from book to book. Sometimes it's an idea that I want to explore, as in Bibliomancer, sometimes a character comes first, as in Finding Christine (both works in progress at the time of writing). For me, the first draught is often largely dialogue, and the process of re-writing involves focusing, pruning and filling out the conversations with narrative and with descriptions of people, places and thoughts.
Frances Evelyn
I started writing The Changeling Tree, had a break from it, expanded it, put it away for several years and then rewrote it again. I think it would be fair to call that process either organic or chaotic, depending on whether or not you enjoy it.
Although Black Annis was always going to be part of the story, the book focussed primarily on the human characters to begin with, and Annis didn't have much of a back-story. She was just Black Annis of Leicester legend (as told to me by a neighbour). Carrick came along later and only when he was already established as a character did I decide to include the Faerie challenge and the scenes at court.
Time-travel presented its own challenges, because I needed to seed story-lines, character traits and plot details in the first book that aren't expanded until later on in the series. For that reason, The Changeling Tree kept evolving as I wrote the other four books.
At the heart of it all, I wanted to write a book about loss and coming to terms with loss. I don't want to include spoilers, so I'm going to leave that comment as it is for the moment.
Although Black Annis was always going to be part of the story, the book focussed primarily on the human characters to begin with, and Annis didn't have much of a back-story. She was just Black Annis of Leicester legend (as told to me by a neighbour). Carrick came along later and only when he was already established as a character did I decide to include the Faerie challenge and the scenes at court.
Time-travel presented its own challenges, because I needed to seed story-lines, character traits and plot details in the first book that aren't expanded until later on in the series. For that reason, The Changeling Tree kept evolving as I wrote the other four books.
At the heart of it all, I wanted to write a book about loss and coming to terms with loss. I don't want to include spoilers, so I'm going to leave that comment as it is for the moment.
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