Interview with Evadeen Brickwood
Q. What inspires your writing?
A. My own life and many travels I undertook when I was younger, inspire my writing most. I weave my own experiences into the fabric of the story, which makes it more personal. I also research topics that interest me. A different topic for each book.
Q. What is your favorite thing about being an author?
A. That I can write one story after the other that is meaningful to me and that people actually want to read these stories.
Q. What is the toughest part of being an author?
A. Switching between writing the book - which requires me to be quite introvert - to taking care of all the technical aspects of book marketing, readings and so on, which is very extrovert. I’m lucky enough to have a supportive agency in South Africa.
Q. If you could not be an author, what would you do/be?
A.I am a qualified translator and that’s what I normally do, apart from raising a family and a million other things. If I had a choice, I would sing in musicals!
Q. What would the story of your life be entitled?
A. The story of my life is part of all my books. Certain chapters of my own life have therefore already titles, such as “Singing Lizards”, a novel about the time I arrived in Africa. I’m quite adventurous and there are many more such life chapters that will become books.
Q. What is your favorite book of all time?
A. There are a few, but I keep re-reading “The Pastures of Heaven” by John Steinbeck. It’s quite complex with many – at first – unrelated short stories coming together as one.
Q. Which character from ANY book are you most like?
A. That’s a tough one. Possibly Siddartha, the main character in Hermann Hesse’s classic with the same title. He meets with extreme challenges in his life and masters them all. Wouldn’t that be great.
Q. What character from all of your books are you most like?
A. I guess, the rather adventurous and feisty Isabell Bertrand in my novel “Abenteuer Halbmond” (or “The Halfmoon Adventure”). I was a lot like that as a teenager. The book is currently only available in German.
Q. Which of your books was the hardest for you to write?
A. The current one “The Rhino Whisperer”. It’s set in South Africa and I’m raring to finish it, but keep writing down my ideas in notebooks, because there is just no time to write. I can’t wait to put the finishing touches on the story.
Q. Which of your books was the easiest to write?
A. “Abenteuer Halbmond”, my last novel. I had time to write and the ideas just flowed. There are always discussions at book clubs, whether I really experienced what’s in the book.
Q. When reading your books I am always moved by the strong female relationships you create, are they based on relationship experiences you have had?
A. Absolutely, and across cultural divides. It’s quite amazing to be able to write about such relationships.
Q. What is your favorite season?
A Early autumn. It’s a quiet season, with things slowing down after the heat of summer, but still warm and pleasant. I love the deep sunlight and shadows and fragrant air. As a teenager, I would cycle out into the country to experience this.
Q. Tell me something funny that happened while on a book tour or while promoting your books.
A. We had planned the launch of my first youth novel “Children of the Moon” as an outdoor event and on the day, it started to rain buckets. Needless to say that half of the guests did not make it through the flash floods, but we still had a good turnout. The hotel moved the venue to the main lobby and greeted everybody with free champagne. It was actually better that way, with finger foods, harp music, speeches, interviews and all.
Q. Are you working on something new?
A. Yes, I’m busy editing the third book in the “Remember the Future” time travel series, called “The Secret of the Bird God” and with some luck, the new Africa-novel “The Rhino Whisperer” will be released at the end of October.
Q. Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping by?
A. Thank you so much for having me here! Everybody, who is interested in novels with a flair of adventure, is welcome to have a look at my profile on Amazon and contact me.
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