| Interview with Michael Robert Evans |
First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com!
My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time
out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers
and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
I was a freshman in high school. I have always liked to read, so I spent a lot of my free time in the library. I
found a few books about writing professionally, and it sounded really great to me. So I started telling my
friends that I was a writer. They would invariably ask, “What have you written?” That’s when it dawned on
me that I had better actually write something.
I wrote a short article about a literacy program we had in our school—some high school kids would go to
elementary school classes to get the students excited about reading—and sent it off. It was promptly
rejected by the first place I sent it, but it was accepted by the second publication on my list. I was paid a
thrilling $25, and there was no stopping me after that!
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
After I published that first article, I started writing for all sorts of magazines and newspapers. While I was in
high school, I wrote a series of articles for Seventeen magazine, which was really great—except that the
free subscription followed me to college. (I’d go to the mailboxes with my friends. They’d pull out Sports
Illustrated, Esquire, and so on, and I’d pull out Seventeen….) It wasn’t long before I was sending out
proposal letters to all kinds of magazines, pitching one idea after another. A lot of them were turned down,
but more and more were accepted. It was a great way to launch a career and develop something
interesting to do with my life.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one
thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
68 Knots is all about freedom. All teens crave their freedom—but what would you do if you actually got it?
In the novel, eight teens are sailing a schooner off the coast of Maine for the summer. But then they find
themselves without any adult supervision at all—you have to read the book to find out how—and their
parents aren’t expecting them to return to port for three months.
So what do they do? Sail into port and call their parents? Radio the Coast Guard? Or…keep on sailing.
Take care of themselves. Take charge of their lives. Make their own decisions. They have a lot of fun,
and they make some serious mistakes. But ultimately, they figure out how to be the people they want to
be.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
Several years ago, I was part of a group called the Western New England Storytellers Guild. We held
concerts in which we told stories to children and adults. I was enthralled by the storytellers’ talent and
artistry; they could turn an ordinary auditorium into a completely new world, just with their voices and their
words. Davis Bates, Cynthia Payne, John Porcino, Tim Van Egmond, Bekki Tippens, Jay Goldspinner,
Robert Harris, Rochelle Wildfong—these people are brilliant composers of tales, and they inspired me
greatly.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
I am married to the most supportive and wonderful woman in the world, Joanna Evans. She’s also my most
piercing critic, which is just what I need from her. We have twin 14-year-old sons, Miles and Dylan, who
astound us every day with their insights, their maturity, and their passion for adventure. I owe my family
everything, and I’m working hard to be worthy of them.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
Cheese. I have serious cheese issues. I’d eat gravel if it had cheese on it. Wood chips, grass clippings,
doesn’t matter—melt cheese over the top, and you have a perfectly reasonable dish.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
During my writing phases: I eat a bowl of cereal, check my emails, and begin writing. I have to write at
least six pages a day or the universe will collapse.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
A little toy made out of caribou bones. I spent nine months in a little Inuit village in the Arctic, and a
wonderful person gave me the toy as a memento. (She ate the caribou.)
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If
you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
There’s a very specific shade of deep blue-green, like the color on the head of a mallard duck. To me,
that’s the most beautiful color in the world.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
My favorite is Snoopy. He demonstrates the wonderful power of the imagination. The cartoon character
most like me? Ziggy—I always seem to find myself in awkward situations.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
I’d beam back to my hometown when I was in the eighth grade or so. Then I’d find myself, grab myself by
the collar, and knock some sense into me. In a way, all of our letters, notes, stories, books—they’re all
messages to our future selves. Just once, I’d like to be able to carry a few messages in the other direction.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I’m a die-hard folkie, and I love the singer-songwriter kind of music. My favorite kind of music tells a story.
Harry Chapin sang a beautiful song about a lonely man who meets a lonely woman. Carrie Newcomer
sings an amazing song about a dog who will wait forever for his master. Alan Greeleaf sings about a truck
driver who has just had enough of the world for one lifetime. John Prine sings about old people sitting on
their porches. Arlo Guthrie sings about crazy people making a stand in the world. Jimmy Buffet sings one
of my favorite lines: “It’s been a lovely cruise.”
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie
you saw at the theater?
The West Wing was the best-written show in the history of television. I also like Survivor, but you’ll never
get me to admit it. My absolute favorite thing to watch on television, though, is the America’s Cup sailboat
race. I could watch that forever.
The movie I could watch over and over—Casablanca. (I’m a serious romantic at heart.)
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
As near as we can tell, you get just one shot at this thing called life. Don’t waste yours doing the
superficial “cool” things, wearing the clothes that some magazine tells you to wear, listening to music you
don’t like just because you think it’ll make you popular. All you’ll do is add to the world’s background
noise. Instead, find something that makes you really excited, and chase it with all your heart. There will
never be another you—don’t pass up your chance to be special.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
My next book is called The Shadowless Writer. It’s about a young guy who gets an newspaper internship
to cover a silly international spat on an island claimed by both the United States and Canada. (The island
is real—it’s called Machias Seal Island, and both countries consider it theirs.) He finds the island teeming
with colorful and crazy characters, and he ultimately has to decide what he wants his own life to be like.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time
out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers
and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
I was a freshman in high school. I have always liked to read, so I spent a lot of my free time in the library. I
found a few books about writing professionally, and it sounded really great to me. So I started telling my
friends that I was a writer. They would invariably ask, “What have you written?” That’s when it dawned on
me that I had better actually write something.
I wrote a short article about a literacy program we had in our school—some high school kids would go to
elementary school classes to get the students excited about reading—and sent it off. It was promptly
rejected by the first place I sent it, but it was accepted by the second publication on my list. I was paid a
thrilling $25, and there was no stopping me after that!
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
After I published that first article, I started writing for all sorts of magazines and newspapers. While I was in
high school, I wrote a series of articles for Seventeen magazine, which was really great—except that the
free subscription followed me to college. (I’d go to the mailboxes with my friends. They’d pull out Sports
Illustrated, Esquire, and so on, and I’d pull out Seventeen….) It wasn’t long before I was sending out
proposal letters to all kinds of magazines, pitching one idea after another. A lot of them were turned down,
but more and more were accepted. It was a great way to launch a career and develop something
interesting to do with my life.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one
thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
68 Knots is all about freedom. All teens crave their freedom—but what would you do if you actually got it?
In the novel, eight teens are sailing a schooner off the coast of Maine for the summer. But then they find
themselves without any adult supervision at all—you have to read the book to find out how—and their
parents aren’t expecting them to return to port for three months.
So what do they do? Sail into port and call their parents? Radio the Coast Guard? Or…keep on sailing.
Take care of themselves. Take charge of their lives. Make their own decisions. They have a lot of fun,
and they make some serious mistakes. But ultimately, they figure out how to be the people they want to
be.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
Several years ago, I was part of a group called the Western New England Storytellers Guild. We held
concerts in which we told stories to children and adults. I was enthralled by the storytellers’ talent and
artistry; they could turn an ordinary auditorium into a completely new world, just with their voices and their
words. Davis Bates, Cynthia Payne, John Porcino, Tim Van Egmond, Bekki Tippens, Jay Goldspinner,
Robert Harris, Rochelle Wildfong—these people are brilliant composers of tales, and they inspired me
greatly.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
I am married to the most supportive and wonderful woman in the world, Joanna Evans. She’s also my most
piercing critic, which is just what I need from her. We have twin 14-year-old sons, Miles and Dylan, who
astound us every day with their insights, their maturity, and their passion for adventure. I owe my family
everything, and I’m working hard to be worthy of them.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
Cheese. I have serious cheese issues. I’d eat gravel if it had cheese on it. Wood chips, grass clippings,
doesn’t matter—melt cheese over the top, and you have a perfectly reasonable dish.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
During my writing phases: I eat a bowl of cereal, check my emails, and begin writing. I have to write at
least six pages a day or the universe will collapse.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
A little toy made out of caribou bones. I spent nine months in a little Inuit village in the Arctic, and a
wonderful person gave me the toy as a memento. (She ate the caribou.)
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If
you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
There’s a very specific shade of deep blue-green, like the color on the head of a mallard duck. To me,
that’s the most beautiful color in the world.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
My favorite is Snoopy. He demonstrates the wonderful power of the imagination. The cartoon character
most like me? Ziggy—I always seem to find myself in awkward situations.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
I’d beam back to my hometown when I was in the eighth grade or so. Then I’d find myself, grab myself by
the collar, and knock some sense into me. In a way, all of our letters, notes, stories, books—they’re all
messages to our future selves. Just once, I’d like to be able to carry a few messages in the other direction.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
I’m a die-hard folkie, and I love the singer-songwriter kind of music. My favorite kind of music tells a story.
Harry Chapin sang a beautiful song about a lonely man who meets a lonely woman. Carrie Newcomer
sings an amazing song about a dog who will wait forever for his master. Alan Greeleaf sings about a truck
driver who has just had enough of the world for one lifetime. John Prine sings about old people sitting on
their porches. Arlo Guthrie sings about crazy people making a stand in the world. Jimmy Buffet sings one
of my favorite lines: “It’s been a lovely cruise.”
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie
you saw at the theater?
The West Wing was the best-written show in the history of television. I also like Survivor, but you’ll never
get me to admit it. My absolute favorite thing to watch on television, though, is the America’s Cup sailboat
race. I could watch that forever.
The movie I could watch over and over—Casablanca. (I’m a serious romantic at heart.)
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
As near as we can tell, you get just one shot at this thing called life. Don’t waste yours doing the
superficial “cool” things, wearing the clothes that some magazine tells you to wear, listening to music you
don’t like just because you think it’ll make you popular. All you’ll do is add to the world’s background
noise. Instead, find something that makes you really excited, and chase it with all your heart. There will
never be another you—don’t pass up your chance to be special.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
My next book is called The Shadowless Writer. It’s about a young guy who gets an newspaper internship
to cover a silly international spat on an island claimed by both the United States and Canada. (The island
is real—it’s called Machias Seal Island, and both countries consider it theirs.) He finds the island teeming
with colorful and crazy characters, and he ultimately has to decide what he wants his own life to be like.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
