Ian M. Evans released his debut book, The Eye of Kuruman, in September 2017. We felt it was time to interview the author and find out how life has been treating him since becoming a published author.

Did you always dream of becoming an author?

Not exactly! During the forties and fifties, my Scottish mother, Jean Evans, writing under the pen name “Jane Shaw” (see www.amazon.com/Susan-Friends-Jane-Companion-books-ebook/dp/B005584LQQ) was a prolific author of adventure stories for girls between the ages of about 9 and 13. They are lively stories with great descriptions of place, full of humour, with quirky but realistic characters. I grew up watching her sitting on the sofa, writing on a lined foolscap pad in the evenings, and then typing the manuscript on a portable Remington at the dining room table.

Growing up, I often wondered if I could write like she did, but my academic career as a clinical psychologist required me to focus on writing journal articles, book chapters, and books, with no time for fiction. Nevertheless, writing scientific material came easily to me and I’ve always enjoyed attempting to have the correct turn of phrase and to write in an interesting style.

What was your first job?

My first paid position was in 1968 as a Staff Psychologist at the Belmont Hospital Children’s Unit, in Sutton, Surrey, working with children with autism. When I finished my PhD at the Maudsley Hospital (Institute of Psychiatry), I was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Hawai’i in Honolulu, in 1970.

How did you come about writing your book? Was that your intention or did you start writing for fun?

The Eye of Kuruman is my second attempt. My first novel, Forgive Me My Trespasses (Archway Publishing, 2015) I wrote shortly after I retired from academia—I had thought about the plot for some years. I wrote it in a hurry, during a four-month period in which I was supporting my wife through a severe illness. It is a bit rough and needed proper editing, but by then I had the bug, and worked much harder on The Eye of Kuruman. I knew where it would be set, in Kuruman, South Africa, and who it would be about, but the story largely unfolded as I went along.

What was your life like before you became an author?

I was heavily engaged in non-fiction writing for professional, scientific audiences. Between teaching and research, I had no time for anything other than books or journal articles. But my university career afforded me many opportunities for travel, including my final 17 years as a professor in New Zealand. Retirement opened up great possibilities in terms of time to write what I wanted, not what I had to.

Did you face any struggles before becoming an author? If so, how did you overcome them?

One of my struggles was learning that fiction is totally different from formal technical writing. My two most recent technical books, with Oxford University Press, are very dense.

Several friends, serving as “critical readers”, helped me get away from long boring paragraphs, and they kept encouraging me to “show, don’t tell”! I still find that difficult.

I also attended one writers’ workshop with a well-known author, Jamie Ford. He really helped me accept that too many adverbs can be bad. However, the “FIND” command on MSWord is even more useful in allowing me to track down and reduce all the times I’ve used “very”, “that”, and “so”. The Pegasus copy editor removed even more unnecessary words.

I’m still not sure I have overcome the effects of 43 years of scientific writing.

Now that you are a published author, how has your life changed, if at all?

I have become very needy! I want people to read my work. Even if they hate it, it is better than simply being ignored. I shamelessly try to get colleagues and acquaintances to buy my work, not for the money, but for the recognition. I find myself telling any friends and relatives willing to listen all about my ideas for plot and characters. I think I have become quite boring and self-absorbed.

Can you please describe a typical day in your life now?

Hawaii is a relaxing place. I get up at 6.00 am, make coffee for myself and my wife, and read the New York Times on my smart phone. After breakfast, I deal with all the e-mail, and then settle down to write for some hours. We might pack a picnic lunch and go to the nearest beach and have a swim, but there are often household chores to get through. We constantly remark about how we don’t know how we managed to get anything done when we both had full-time university jobs. We will watch a bit of political and international news, do a little watering of the garden (we live in quite a dry part of the island of Oahu) or go for a walk, or call one of the family. My wife, who is also working on her first novel, reads more than I do—I must confess I mostly read historical non-fiction. We’re TV addicts and will spend most of the evening watching our favourite dramas, most of them British, like Poldark, Outlander, The Night Manager, and Broadchurch, come to mind. Then we drag ourselves off to bed.

What is your most memorable moment of your life as an author?

I think it was when I persuaded Barnes and Noble (large US bookstore chain) in Ithaca, NY, to let me do a reading. They set it up with chairs and a couple of nice posters, and I read one chapter from Forgive Me My Trespasses. There was only a small crowd and two of them were my daughter and son-in-law, both academics. The memorable moment was that the audience laughed out loud throughout, and in the right places.

There is also something very special about getting one’s own book in one’s own little hot hand. I’m sure that when I receive my first copy of The Eye of Kuruman, I’m going to feel a deep sense of satisfaction.