Mary Anna Evans
1961-
All photos of Mary Anna Evans
by Nancy Jacobs 2008
Major
Works
- Artifacts 2003
- Relics 2005
- Effigies 2007
- Findings May 2008
- Floodgates July 2008
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Biography
of Mary Anna Evans (SHS) 2003
Mary Anna Evans was born on December 2, 1961, in Hattiesburg,
Mississippi. Her parents are Irvin and Lillian Sellers.
Many of her happiest memories in her childhood days were spent
reading books. A few of Evans’s favorite authors
include Jane Austen, Robert Heinlen, Laura Ingalls and the author
she is presently reading. She wrote her first short story
in a high school
creative writing class. In a recent email interview Evans said,
“I remember being excited and confused by what the teacher
wrote on my paper. I was very excited about the A+ (obviously),
but confused by her comment that she was ‘curious about
why I chose to write science fiction.’ I was concerned
that if she couldn’t tell the difference between science
fiction and fantasy, then maybe her A+ wasn’t worth all
that much!” Regardless of her creative writing
teacher’s unintelligent comment, Evans managed to maintain
an impressive 4.0 grade point average throughout all of her
high school career at Lamar County High School. Evans
also was a Junior Miss beauty queen for Lamar County (Langley).
After high school, Evans went on to college where she obtained
a degree in physics from Murray State University and a chemical
engineering from the University of Mississippi.“"I just
tend to be interested in a lot of things," said Evans in a phone
interview with Greg Langley, who also reviewed Evans’
debut publication of Artifacts.
 Evans
has worked as an environmental consultant, an offshore roustabout,
an university administrator, a community college instructor,
gift wrapper, and bank teller. She is married and has
three children. After the birth of her third child, Evans
left her job as an environmental consultant to focus on her
family and begin her writing career. When Evans is not writing,
she can be found leading her church’s youth choir or spending
time with her husband and three children. Evans is also
a talented musician and occasionally performs music with her
husband.
Mississippi author Mary Anna Evans now resides in Florida where
she finished her second novel, Relics, a sequel
to Artifacts which features some of the same characters.
Set in east Alabama, Faye is been called to lead her first professional
archaeological project since finally earning her degree.
She is part of a team investigating the history of a mysterious
group of mixed-race people called the Sujosa who have lived
in the area for centuries, but shortly after her team arrives,
people start to die. Evans says that she has a couple more adventures
for Faye up her sleeves. (2003)
UPDATE 2009: Mary Anna Evans has published
Artifacts, Relics, Effigies, and Findings
. All four books are Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries.
Effigies was a Book Sense Notable Book. A fifth
book Floodgates (also a Faye Longchamp
book) has now been published and
is set in New Orleans after Katrina.
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E-mail Interview
with Mary Anna Evans (SHS), December
8, 2003
1. Where and when were you born in Mississippi?
I was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on December 2,
1961.
2. What are your parents' names?
My parents were Irvin and Lillian Sellers.
3. Do you recall any of your childhood memories from
high school, college, etc. ?
Many of my happiest moments in childhood and afterward
were spent reading books, which is why it is such a thrill
to think about other people reading my own books.
4. When did you know that you wanted to become a writer?
Was there something in particular that inspired you or got you
interested in writing?
I've always enjoyed writing stories and poems. I
wrote my first short story in a high school creative writing
class. I remember being excited and confused by what
the teacher wrote on my paper. I was very excited about
the A+ (obviously), but confused by her comment that she was
"curious about why I chose to write science fiction."
I was concerned that if she couldn't tell the difference between
science fiction and fantasy, then maybe her A+ wasn't worth
all that much!
5. How difficult was it to get your first book published?
How did you go about it?
Getting a book published is a long process. For
me, it first involved writing a novel that earned the interest
of a very good agent but that, unfortunately, has never been
published. Then I wrote Artifacts, which Poisoned
Pen Press purchased last year.
6. Did you base any of the characters in the book Artifacts
on people you know or knew?
 I
almost never base characters on real people--I don't want
to hurt the feelings of people I like, and I don't want to
suffer lawsuits inflicted by people I don't like! I
do, however, occasionally give characters the first name of
someone I know whose name suits the character, but I always
make sure that the character is completely different from
the person whose name I "borrowed." People seem to like
seeing their names on the page. (Look, everybody, I'm
on page 138!)
7. Who is/are your favorite author/authors?
Wow, tough question. I enjoy Jane Austen, Robert
Heinlein, Laura Ingalls Wilder, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and whoever
I'm reading at the moment.
8. What author/authors do you think has influenced you
and your writing the most?
All of the authors I listed above have influenced me in
some way, but only one of them--James Lee Burke--is considered
a mystery writer, so here are a few people that write within
my genre that I admire: James Lee Burke, Nevada Barr,
and P.D. James.
9. Why did you decide to write about archeology as a
tool to uncover clues in Artifacts and how long
did it take you to write Artifacts? Where
did you get the idea for Artifacts and how much
research was required?
The first germ of an idea for Artifacts grew out
of my desire to write a book set in a dilapidated antebellum
plantation house. I asked myself what kind of story
needed such a setting--after all, Gone With the Wind
had already been done and, besides, it is a story of its times.
Audiences loved Gone With the Wind in the 1930s, but
what would twenty-first century audiences love?
 I
decided that this house would be owned by a woman descended
both from the masters who lived in the house and the slaves
that built it. How would she feel about the house?
And how would she feel about herself, about her very own heritage?
These felt like questions that could support a book.
It seemed likely that this woman, Faye, would not have
inherited money with the house, but she would have a different
kind of wealth in the form of the artifacts her ancestors
left behind. When I imagined her digging up these artifacts
and selling them to earn the money she needed to save the
house, I knew that she was archaeologist. And when I
thought about what it meant to dig on an island that has been
inhabited for thousands of years, I knew that she was destined
to dig up a body, sooner or later. I wondered what would
happen if she found a body that wasn't old enough to be an
archaeological find--a murder victim--and it was only then
that I knew I was writing a mystery.
And, yes, research is a big part of writing a book like
Artifacts. It probably took me a year and a half
to do the research and write the manuscript.
10. What kind of student were you in high school?
I was one of those boring 4.0 students.
11. Are you currently working on a new book? If
so, what is it called and when will it be published? Do
you have a title for it yet? What is it about? 
I'm currently working on a sequel to Artifacts,
called Relics. It should be out in August of
2004. It is set in east Alabama, where Faye has been
called to lead her first professional archaeological project
since finally earning her degree. She will be part of
a team investigating the history of a mysterious group of
mixed-race people called the Sujosa who have lived in the
area for centuries, but short after her team arrives, people
start to die...
12. Besides writing, what else do you enjoy doing in
your spare time?
I lead my church's youth choir, and my husband and I perform
music occasionally. I also enjoy reading and needlework
and yoga and, of course, spending time with my three kids.
13. How has Mississippi or living in Mississippi influenced
your writing?
I read recently that southern fiction is defined by its
emphasis on the family and by the importance of its setting,
which functions almost as an extra character. I think
that our families--both the kin that we know and the kin who
lived long before we ever graced the earth--live on in our
values and our actions and in our DNA. And the places
where we have lived, and where our families have lived, are
also integral parts of our beings. These things make
us who we are, and Faye's heritage in the form of her family
and her home permeates my book. People from other parts
of the country can and do write wonderful books every day,
but it took a Mississippi girl to write this particular one.
14. Do you have any advise for future writers?
Read a lot of different stuff. Write a lot of different
stuff. Spend a lot of time writing stuff that is just
for you, so that you can flex your creative muscles without
worrying about what someone else might want to buy.
Then, when you feel ready to get rejected for a few years,
find a good teacher and let them help you get publication-ready.
15. Do you have any advise for students today?
 Don't
forget that education has other purposes besides simply becoming
qualified for gainful employment. (Although gainful
employment is nice. I recommend it.) Try to find
things that interest you, then learn all you can about those
things. Interested people are interesting people.
16. Are you planning continuing any of the charecters
in Artifacts in future novels?
Yes. My next novel, Relics (published
in 2005), will feature some of the same characters, and
I have a couple more adventures for Faye up my sleeve.
(2003)
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Related
Websites
This
site is the home page of mystery writer Mary Anna Evans.
This
site contains another review for Artifacts.
Bookloons
review by Mary Ann Smith.
Harriet
Klausner's review of Artifacts with ratings in
several categories.
Writers'
Rituals (Interview with Mary Anna Evans) The Mysterious
Writing Habits of the World's Top Crime Writers
by Janice Hally, Oct 14, 2008.
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE----------------
Bibliography
Evans, Mary Anna. “About Mary Anna.” http://www.maryannaevans.com
Evans, Mary Anna. Artifacts. Scottsdale: Poisoned
Pen Press, 2003. Jacket cover.
Evans, Mary Anna. E-mail interview with SHS Student (Anonymous).
December 8, 2003.
Langley, Greg. “What People Are Saying About Artifacts.”
http://www.maryannaevans.com
All
photos on this page by Nancy Jacobs.
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