Authors' Spotlight Interviews

@EvelynHail

Hello fellow Wattpadders! Today we have EvelynHail with us, author of the book, Gaslight Trials.

I am Abhipreeti (_abhipreeti_), and I have interviewed Evelyn Hail, a.k.a, EvelynHail.

Evelyn Hail (she/her) is a Wattpad Creator, aspiring writer and a holder of a PhD in English Literature and a PhD in Latin American Literature.
She hails from Serbia but has called Spain home for the past 15 years.
Evelyn writes in English yet she also speaks Serbian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Greek and Latin.
Having always been passionate about worldbuilding and storytelling, she is a curious writer who loves exploring different themes and motifs.
When she is not lecturing university students, she dabbles in illustrating and cover making.
While creating, Evelyn immerses herself in her projects and diving headfirst into the research, production, and fine-tuning of the stories she feels are the most worthy of telling.
As an author, Evelyn has forged works based on contemporary romance, young adult romance, fantasy and science fiction. She does not shy away from high fantasy, urban fantasy and literary fiction with a dash of magical realism, either.
Having emigrated from former Yugoslavia, Evelyn is passionate about weaving Slavic mythology elements into her fantasy works whenever possible.
Her contemporary romance novel MIND THE GAP won the OpenNovellaContest2020, and its version in German was shortlisted in Wattys2022 and Wattys2023 Award. At the same time, her fantasy romance THE PROPHECY OF WATER, and her steampunk science fiction, THE GASLIGHT TRIALS, shortlisted in Wattys2018 and Wattys2023 Award on Wattpad, respectively.

At what age did you realize that you have a special place for writing? Are you currently or do you ever dream of one day being in the writing industry?

>>It was quite late, actually! I was 32 years old and I got inspired to write my first high fantasy book due to the fact I was enamored with Brandon Sanderson's "Stormlight Archives" series. I am not in the writing industry per se at the moment, besides posting my work on Wattpad, but I have to admit I do dream of my work being acquired by a small traditional publisher some time in the future.

Did any story, on or off Wattpad, inspire you ever and help you carve your interest towards writing books?

>>Yes! Whoops, just realized I kind of partially answered that question above. It was the first book in the "Stormlight Archives" series, "The Way of the Kings," that inspired me to write "The Prophecy of Water," my first book ever, in 2017. It gave me such joy to see it on Wattys2018 shortlist. Apart from Brandon Sanderson's work, the books that followed in the time period between 2017 and 2023 aka the present timeline were inspired by these SFF gems I read and adored: "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll, "Coraline," by Neil Gaiman, "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher...What else? Oh yes, "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan, "Beauty and the Beast" for a retelling I recently wrote, and "Hunger Games" by Susan Collins which inspired "Gaslight Trials."