Young Adult Author Mark (M.L.) Evans
as he tells us about his venture into writing fiction.
The floor is yours, Mark!
The Higgins Point Series, in a way, goes all the back to the beginning of my fiction writing. In eighth grade, I began the first book-length work of fiction that I would complete, The Mystery of Higgins Point. Its characters were thinly-veiled versions of myself and several classmates. I finished it that summer (1977), then wrote a follow-up “book” in ninth grade.
I got serious about my fiction in my late twenties (the late 1980s-early 1990s) and developed “The Higgins Point Gang” into a group of unique characters. In 1991 I came close to selling the first book (then called The Football Mystery) to a leading Christian publishing house.
I bounced between genres in both Christian and secular fiction and worked on three self-published local history books in between. I am now pursuing the traditional publishing route for my historical romance line, set in 1927.
I could not give up on my teenage detectives without a fight, though, and opted to go indie with them. The first book, Unwelcome Detective, shows fourteen-year-old Angie Keane trying to break into the detective group, led by her older brother, Matt. The big break that almost led to the series being published in 1991 was my decision to go from a third person POV, to a first-person POV with Angie as the narrator. Everything fell into place at that point.
After revising the first two books over the years to include cell phones, then smartphones and Facebook accounts, I decided to go “retro” this year and move the series back to a time I understood better. I set the series in the fall of 1985, a time when no one argued over which bathroom to use and schools were safe places.
Book 2, Underground Terror, will come out this winter and Book 3, Buried Secrets, is undergoing an overhaul as we speak.
Fictitious Higgins Point and Sleetzville, MO are much like Bonne Terre and Desloge, MO, where I grew up and where I returned as an adult, serving as youth director of my old church. I hope readers enjoy seeing Angie grow into a more confident detective and ambassador of Christ as the series progresses.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In the fall of 1985, fourteen-year-old freshman Angie Keane wants to join the “Higgins Point Gang,” a group of teenagers that has been solving mysteries for three years.
When her brother Matt, the group’s founder, refuses to let her in, Angie decides to work on her own. If she solves the potentially deadly sabotage against the school’s football program first, Matt will have to let her join.
ABOUT MARK:
M.L. Evans is the author of the Higgins Point Mysteries series, a YA/MG Christian series. Book 1, Unwelcome Detective, came out in late July. Book 2, Underground Terror, comes out this December. He is also pursuing Christian historical romance writing, with a pair of novels set in 1927, Second Chance and Life of the Party (his current WIP).
A career newspaperman, he has lived in Missouri and Oklahoma all his life, returning to school in his late thirties to get an MA in history.
He spent much of the 1990s serving as a volunteer church youth director. Mark is single and lives with a very spoiled Siamese cat named Ginger Grant.
Website: https://m-l-evans.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkMyWord_81
To order book: https://m-l-evans.com or
THE GIVEAWAY: Mark is giving away TWO copies (paperback or eBook) of Unwelcome Detective. To enter, just leave a comment, name a couple of your favorite Christian writers, and your contact information in the section below. The giveaway will run one week from today, ending on September 27, at Midnight. Central Time.
Note: Mark will be attending the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference in Nashville, TN, through through Sept 24, so his bility to respond to your comments may be limited. Just so you know.
Good morning all! It's a little after 6:30 a.m., here. In just under two hours I'll be firing up the car (which is nearly as old as my main character, Angie!) and heading for the annual Association of Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) conference in Nashville.
ReplyDeleteI'll try to post once on the way (4.5 to 5-hour drive) and after I get there.
I'm looking forward to any questions or comments anyone has.
Thanks for being my guest this week, Mark. Safe travels, and enjoy the conference! I'm unable to attend this year - actually haven't for the past several years. I do miss seeing my favorite authors.
DeleteI'm getting the car loaded & will be heading out shortly. Please pray for a safe trip for me. I'll try to check in on the road. - Mark
ReplyDeleteBe safe, and enjoy!
DeleteDear Peggy,
ReplyDeleteMark's book would be a wonderful addition to the church library, if I win.
Our readers love mysteries and I do too.
There are so many authors who write mystery/suspense books that it is hard to narrow the list down to a few so here goes :
Christy Barrit, Irene Hannon, Lisa Harris, and Mary Ellis.
Thanks for entering me in your giveaway.
Janet E.
von1janet(at)gmail(dot)com
Hi, Janet, thanks for visiting today. agree ... Mark's book would be a great one to add, to the YA/MG section. I've entered you in the drawing. Good luck.
DeleteJanet,
DeleteI'm glad to hear there are still churches with libraries. Over the past 10 years I've been a member of three churches (I've moved a couple of times.) that have closed their library, given away or sold for pocket change the books & videos and used the space for something else.
I finally got to my motel...only about 4 hours later than planned. A great lesson in depending on the Lord's competence instead of mine--which I didn't! holy cow! I'm about to step across the paring lot to the Waffle House for supper. I'll be all yours tonight. I decided in the midst of my driving-in-circles adventure that if I ever got safely inside my room (at a much less expensive motel than the conference is in), I would skip this evening's happenings there. As it is,I think i missed most of it anyway.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll start fresh in the morning.
But i'll be back on here after I get some food in my tummy!
Mark
Thanking God for your safe arrival in Nashville, Mark. Go get something to eat and get some rest this evening. Tomorrow will be a big day at the conference. Hope you meet some great people.
DeleteToday was an adventure. My significant GPS other, Maggie Magellan, nearly split up. (She may not be talking to me tomorrow.) Yes, I named my Magellan device, which speaks to me & nags in a female voice as I drive. Unlike Raj on The Big Bang, Theory, though, I don’t fantasize about her! Sometimes Maggie & I see eye to eye and other times we have our issues.
ReplyDeleteIn the last year or so she has developed a bad habit of dozing off (going into sleep mode) just as I’m getting to the time I need her to talk to me. She was doing that some today. At one point, she announced grandly, “You have arrived at your destination.”
Somehow, though, I had gotten the idea I was staying at the Opryland Gaylord Inn. I’m not sure now how I got that idea. She took me to a Days Inn. I basically told Mags to let a guy do the route-planning & unplugged her. An hour or so later,I finally found the Gaylord & was praising the Lord all the way to the check-in desk. When I pulled out my printed-out reservation confirmation, he politely pointed at the name, “Days Inn by Windham” and gave me directions to it. More going in circles & Maggie finally agreed to tell mew where it was.
Being one who often talks to inanimate objects, I have profusely apologized two or three times. Maggie will probably never let me forget this.
Oh, Mark, I'm still laughing after reading this. Frustrating, I know, but also =hilarious. Ever consider writing comedy? +:)
DeleteI've written many humorous newspaper columns & as a kid wrote humorous short stories. I could never figure out how to carry humor through a novel, though...although it does sip in here & there. Angie, my narrator, has a pretty sharp wit -- kind of in the tradition of Jenny B. Jones narrators.
DeleteAnd, if anyone asks, I would say JBJ is the best Christian YA writer around.
I'm very thankful for no accidents, no car trouble (177,xxx miles, 13-year-old car), no tickets.
ReplyDeleteNOW I see why I thought it was the Gaylord Inn! That's where the conference is! No wonder I had that name stuck in my mind! So I was actually AT the site of the conference about 5 p.m. I could have gone ahead & attended a couple of sessions before finding my own motel ... kind of glad I didn't wait till dark, though. Driving in Nashville is scary enough in the daylight!
ReplyDeleteJanet mentioned Irene Hannon. I used to correspond a bit with her by email. She's a very nice lady & a great writer. She also lives in Missouri and sets many of her books there. I would kid her that it's obviously she believes in healthy home cooked meals. Her characters & narrators are always making little remarks about fried food, frozen food & fast food! She did confess to me that doe DOES occasionally like a quarter-pounder at McDonald's.
ReplyDeleteWho know? Maybe you'll run into her at conference!
DeleteEven though today's focus has been on my indie YA book, I'm trying to pitch my historic romance novels (one written, one a WIP) to agents at the ACFW conference.
ReplyDeleteHere is my "one sheet" for it:
Title: Second Chance
Tag:
In the fall of 1927 Lillian Hutton reinvents herself as a high school teacher and meets widowed football coach Chet Yarbrough. They must survive run-ins with the St. Louis underworld, the KKK, and an F-5 tornado, to give love a second chance.
Back cover description:
Lillian Hutton is ready to put old heartbreak and humiliation behind her and reinvent herself for the second time in five years in the late summer of 1927. She feels the Lord leading her to take a job teaching English in tiny Baskerville, MO.
Widowed football coach Chet Yarbrough , whose faith died along with his late wife, is focused solely on having an unbeaten football season – until Lillian crosses his path and old feelings are resurrected.
The two must survive run-ins with Prohibition gangsters, an F-5 tornado and the local Ku Klux Klan if they are going to give love a second chance.
Very nice, Mark. Let me know when it's published.
DeleteThanks. I love that era.
DeleteWell, I'm bushed. I think I will forgo the final hour and a half, since there doesn't seem to be much action. Maybe if I had arrived on time or blogged on a day I wasn't traveling & could have checked in more frequently, we would have had more responses. It looks like Janet will get a free book by default.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sending the book to Janet, Mark. BUT, your giveaway runs for THREE MORE DAYS. Let's see if we can drum up some more comments.
ReplyDelete