INTERVIEW with Sian Evans, Author

 

My Meet up with Sian Evans, Author

On the 22^nd of September I went to Charlecote Park, National Trust property, to meet with a successful author, Sian Evans.

It was quite a hot day, with a gentle breeze coming across the fields and the river Avon. I made my up the gravel path to the Orangery (the Tea room), as this is where I was to meet Sian.

I actually expected Sian to wear middle-sized glasses with bold edges, quite tall; I thought she would be kind and also well educated in matters of book writing. Sian was as I thought she would be but with a few differences; she was taller than I expected, she had big glasses and wore them when reading only and as I learnt she could draw excellent compassions between herself and I.

When I first met Sian I was quite shy, but we talked about books and we instantly had a connection. Sian had a cup of tea and we sat down together to talk about where I am at the moment with my education and love of book writing.

Sian asked me about what I wanted to do as an author and I replied that I enjoy writing stories, but I normally get sidetracked and never complete them.  I also told Sian that I was a prolific reader and Sian asked what I liked to read. I said that I was reading Narnia; Prince Caspian and Sian had read this when little too. This got us talking about time travel/ changes in books and she told me that she had just done something like this in her new book! Sian talked about her new book Queen Bees, there are 6 society ladies during the world wars. We talked about The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier and how I had read that and it was about war, also The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe too, Sian had, of course, read these too!

Sian said it was important to keep practicing because I have all the right capabilities to become a writer. She said it was important to keep at it. She talked to me about how important it was to plan a book… deadlines are extremely important. Sian shared that authors could just write and write, which is what I do, and how deadlines help her to finish a book. Sian told me I need to plan and have a beginning, middle and end in my head when I start. She also showed me, in her pad, how to bring in a timeline.

   Character does X                             1935 (1939 war starts, Neville Chamberlain PM)

Character thinks X and does Y       1940 (1940 Churchill PM)

                                                             1945 (1945 war ends and Churchill not PM)

                                                             1950 (restoration – Churchill back as PM)

An example was empowering woman to take on new roles because of war, the timeline she did above (relating to Queen Bees book) meant that their was a back story to the character and a why. 

I really enjoyed meeting with Sian and I found it very interesting. She was able to talk about educational writing like guidebooks and also intriguing was her chatting about her experiences of researching characters and also putting books into film. 

Sian mostly recently had her name in the credits of the Victorian Bake Off and was also on Radio 4's Woman's hour. 

Find out more about Sian: http://www.dianebanks.co.uk/science-current-affairs-and-history-authors/sin-evans

Sian said she saw a lot of herself in me and I took that to be a good thing. 📖😎