Ship in the Sky Q&A____________

Book Description:In the chaos of disaster, finding other people may bring salvation or a new set of dangers where menace, death, friendship, and love are found in the surprising fissures of a drowning world.

18-year-old Jack wakes from a whiskey-induced blackout to find an apocalyptic landscape, the earth split open and a violent flood engulfing the farming valley where he lives. Orphaned and homeless, Jack begins searching for signs of life. But someone, or something, is stalking him. Through flooded farmlands and mountain terrain, survival rests on a razor-thin edge, the loss or discovery of food and tools the difference between life and death. Jack struggles through a transformed world and into a new life, haunted by the demons and scars of the old.

Set in the near future, Ship in the Sky is a coming-of-age literary work of fiction. Cormac McCarthy's The Road for young adults.

Author Bio:Elle Evans is Welsh, though having moved so many times, her accent is decidedly mid-Atlantic. She is currently penning three novels on the go, one of which is the sequel to Ship in the Sky. Elle is also a Transpersonal Psychotherapist, working privately from her home practice in Cape Town, South Africa.

Questions:

• In reviewing your novel, Tom Leeven says that “in YA fiction, voice is everything.” How did you develop Jack’s voice? 

A: Choosing to place Jack in a fictional town in the Southern United States (with his own unique vernacular), was an immediate and intuitive choice. I lived in Seattle during highschool, and one of my friends was from West Virginia. Her twang and demeanour (plus hearing a bunch of southern accents via movies and TV shows, etc) wove into my subconscious. And somehow giving Jack a southern drawl opened up a wide field of creative freedom: how he described the world around him, played with words, how he was able to relay the apocalypse laid out in front of him with a mix small of town innocence and sardonic wisdom.

• The novel plays with time, opening in the present before shifting backwards. What drew you to this structure, and how did you think about pacing and revelation across these shifts?

Again, a pretty intuitive choice. I enjoy novels that do this—those who shift time in ways that draw you in. And Jack’s story just flowed this way. I wanted readers to wake up exactly when the main character did, during the disaster. Wanted readers to be right there, in the present moment, feeling his panic and disorientation. Jack’s distress—which is a pulsing-from-the-beginning—‘this ain’t Kansas anymore’ vibe, sets the tone for the rest of the novel. The reader is immediately forced to ask the same questions Jack does: What the fuck’s happened and what now? Because the tone was so vital to present at the outset the story, I had to backtrack a little after the opening punch.

• The cause of the catastrophic event remains unclear. What informed your decision to maintain that ambiguity, rather than offering a concrete explanation?

To be honest, I wrote this novel as a sort of channeling. I had some idea of the reason behind the catastrophe but knew I couldn’t force the issue. I had to trust the process. And I think the story is the better for it, because Jack, readers, and myself are in the same boat, travelling along in real time, finding out more information as we go. Initially, I wrote the narrative as a stand alone piece of work, but then realised Jack (and Eve) had more to say, needed to further their journeys. I’m currently penning Book 2 in the trilogy, so we will all discover a lot more about what Sky Station’s really up to and what’s truly behind the environmental disaster!

• Some readers might draw comparisons to Lord of the Flies and The Road in terms of survival and human behaviour under pressure. Were there particular books or authors that influenced or challenged your thinking as you developed this story?

I love survival stories that engage in a entertaining way and also ones that make people think. Those two novels specifically—especially The Road—influenced the development of my narrative. It’s reassuring knowing that worthwhile stories don’t necessarily mean long ones. At near on 50,000 words, Ship in the Sky stands alongside other shorter works that have had some clout in the world. I love MCarthy’s stark and beautiful phrasing, his immediate impact and also subtle world building. He allows room trusts readers to tap into their own imaginations and insights. Lord of the Flies is also great at world and character building, at showing up the dark side of human nature, of when the human heart goes awry. I can still picture that island those kids were stranded on. That pig’s head! I wanted to write something that viscerally hit hard, but also something that had depth and composure. 

• How did you think about reworking the traditional coming-of-age narrative within such an extreme setting

I didn’t think much at all! The story kind of poured out of me, a channeling. As I was writing, I thought, “Ok, here we have an adventure story, an apocalyptic tale, a coming-of-age narrative, set in speculative fictional world. I wasn’t going in thinking to rework the traditional coming-of-age narrative. There wasn’t a model or genre I was specifically going for. I simply set Jack’s age, set the scene, then travelled readers through his emotional and literal landscape from there. 

• The novel confronts trauma and death from the outset, particularly through Jack’s perspective as a teenager. How did you balance emotional intensity with readability for a YA audience?

I trust the audience. Emotions are emotions are emotions, no matter the age. I was conscious of creating a balance, though. Of interweaving lighter moments. I personally see this book as appealing to the adult market too, or at least bridging YA to Adult. I hope a wide age range of readers read the story, as Jack’s journey transcends age. The emotions I was expressing in the novel are my own—when I was in my teens, and now. Time is not so linear, and coming of age can happen at any point in ones life, and probably at various points.

Bud plays a significant role as more than just a companion. What drew you to include a character like Bud, and how does he function within Jack’s emotional world? I felt Jack needed a travel companion, and yes, he finds one in Eve, but having a trusted animal at his side grounds his thoughts and feelings. Gives him reason to travel onwards. Bud is his reality check, his reason to go on. Jack saved Bud as a pup, and Bud helps him to save them both. A loyal friend, Bud acts as a kind of the midway point between the natural world and the human world. A dog doesn’t overthink or stress too much about what humans call chaos. He keeps his human owner focused on the things that matter, both practically and mentally/emotionally.

• You are a Transpersonal Psychotherapist as well as a writer. How do these two roles inform one another when you are developing characters and their inner lives?

It’s a little tough to answer this question, as both careers are so infused with each other. So overlapping. I read stories, and I hear client’s stories all the times. Clients bring their lives to the therapy room to be heard and healed. This equates exactly to why I have written Ship in the Sky; for my own story to be heard and healed, and hopefully for readers to relate and heal as well. The narrative touches on universal themes of wounding, self love and autonomy and what really matters—which is the heart and the acceptance of one’s darkness, of darkness itself, and of the light that is there, however seemingly dim or inaccessible. 

• Your imagery is vivid and often unexpected, with striking comparisons like “the sky is streaking white and russet clouds, reminding me of pork cracklings” (p.14), “trunks…splintering their own roots” (p.27), and “circling ’round each other like mosquitoes ’round a net” (p.56). How do you come up with these descriptions, and what do you think it adds to the reading experience beyond simply visual detail?

This goes back to Question 1: Jack’s voice. His cultural manner and vernacular (his own specific vernacular—which allowed freedom from tying him to any specific, real life location) freed up the wording and expressions. It was enjoyable watching the word play forming, sometimes to deeper effect than anticipated. At times, it was like watching an innocent child announce an insight, and speaking a deeper truth than one would expect. I also found it necessary (intuitively so) to intermingle normal descriptions with the odd. To mix objects, colours, details. Jack’s wakes up to world turned upside down, so his descriptions also had to reflect this discombobulated environment.

• The novel suggests that even in a shared disaster, each person experiences their own version of loss and upheaval. Was this idea of a “personal apocalypse” something you set out to explore from the beginning?

When I wrote the opening chapter (which at first was a standalone piece), it was my insides coming out—splat—on my laptop screen: my anger, wounding, hope for a better, more joyful life. And to place my story in an apocalyptic setting—what a metaphor! Though also a reality, to some extent. What child (or adult, when they ‘awaken’) doesn’t see their little lives in such a drastic way when wounded? So, although I wrote a personal account (energetically speaking), of a life needing healing, most humans share similar emotional roller coaster family dynamics, or other types of drama/trauma. My aim is for Jack’s story to be relatable, to have empathic resonance, and ultimately signal the way forward to a more loving, ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ resolution.

• Ship in the Sky is the first book in the Earthlight Series. How did you approach building a world that can extend beyond a single novel, and what can readers expect as the story continues?

My intention was to actually write one novel. I shaped the story to be read as such. However, about three quarters way through, I realised another one or two books need to birth, to further Jack’s and Eve’s emotional and spiritual journeys. Just before print, I added a few more insights into Sky Station’s existence, insights that came to me at that late stage. As mentioned, I am also travelling alongside the characters, also discovering exactly what’s gone down and what’s going on. It’s exciting times…the world building in Book 1 was paced instinctively enough to engage readers as a standalone piece, and also hopefully relays enough to entice readers further. Stay tuned. There’s a lot more story to tell!