GREETINGS, BOOKWORMS! I’m Aisha Kandisha, Head Librarian at Kandisha Press. Join me in the dusty stacks of the library I will never leave again as I chat with some of my favorite Women in Horror. Today we feature author Dana M. Evans!
What do you believe are your strengths in writing? And when you feel you need to improve on a particular writing skill, how do you go about it?
I believe my strengths are dialogue and character dynamics. Maybe it was growing up with 80s action hero banter, but it became the thing I love writing best. Sometimes, my love of writing dialogue can become a weakness when I stop and look over a first draft and realize all I have is talking heads that will need balancing.
Another strength, or at least, one of the parts I enjoy, is the research that goes into a lot of my stories whether it’s about a certain location, time period or tidbit of folklore, I love digging into the research so I can use it to flavor my story. Piggybacking on that, I use a lot of my travels and my jobs over the years to add depth to the settings and character. I like to think I’m good at that.
One area of improvement would be how fast (and often distracted) I write which has mean leaning on filter words or reusing phrases a lot. My early drafts have a lot of eye rolling, snorting, shrugging etc. When it came to filter words, I found sites that talk about that weakness and work through my story using the search function. After some time doing this, I’ve noticed I use them less in the first draft. Another method I use is to try and find beta readers who are going to be honest about my faults (which is harder to find than you’d think) and I listen to them.
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community?
I think the book industry is facing some troubles today, especially with the rise of AI, and some publishers willingness to let their authors’ works be gobbled up by it. On the other hand, it’s good to see most anthology and magazine editors do not want to see AI stories,
I started selling stories in the late 90s before taking a decade long hiatus and I will say the book industry is much more open and diverse than it was then. I remember a time when certain story lines or types of characters would have been impossible or career enders. That we have so much diversity of character types, ethnicities and sexual orientations today is heartwarming.
As for the book community, what I’ve seen of it has been mostly positive. People are eager to talk about their favorite books on social media. They share reviews, releases and more and there’s not a day that goes by when something new crosses my feed. I love seeing that. Certainly there can be a dark side too, but for the most part it hasn’t cropped up in my circles often.
Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
I think in many ways it’s both. Formatting books, getting them out there is much easier than it used to be. I remember the days when if you self-published, you were likely to get ripped off by some vanity press. There was certainly the mindset that the self-published book just wasn’t good enough. If it were good, a ‘real’ publisher would have picked it up and that stigma lasted a long time.
These days, that seems to have fallen to the wayside. Most people don’t automatically assume the book must be bad, like they used to. They are quick to embrace the indie author. I attend many small local book festivals and pop culture cons and I see indie authors selling out of their books at the events. Sure, other times I see the book sitting there doing nothing. I’ve had that happen to me and often it’s mystifying.
But also, it’s not that strange. There are so many authors out there, that it’s like screaming into a hurricane. It’s so hard to make yourself heard, to be seen, to reach that audience. I think marketing has to be the hardest part of being an author, especially an indie one. And now with some book distributors allowing AI generated books to be sold, it’s going to be an even more crowded field. It’s about to get that much harder.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
Right now, I’ve been publishing short stories. Last year I had a handful of them out in Science Fiction, horror and feminist anthologies. I have been a lifelong lover of SF/F and horror, mystery too but I find that very difficult to tackle in short fiction form.
I think the story I’m most proud of currently is Her Strength Remains, which was included in the Gasps: an anthology of quiet horror. It brought in some of the elderly women I knew when I was still seeing patients. I once was a foot and ankle doctor. We so often don’t see older women at all in fiction or if we do, they’re without much agency or the story is dealing with the bad side of aging, like dementia.
I wanted to tell a story about an old woman who still has her independence. Jessica was once a monster hunter, with her best friend. Now both women are mall walkers, a boon to the elderly back in the 90s and something I mourn the loss of with the decline of malls. It was a safe place for the elderly to walk and get exercise. In this mall, a monster is stalking and killing patrons and it’s up to Jessica to stop it. She has the will and the know-how.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
I have a cryptid story coming out this year but unfortunately I can’t say more than that. I’m busy editing two novels I had put on the shelf due work-life imbalances but I think it’s time to dust them off, polish them up and give them both their chance to shine. Both of these are urban fantasy. Right now, I’m working on some other cryptid stories and gothic horror as well as a horror novel, sort of a what if of my time in a nursing home recovering from an injury that left me having to learn to use my leg again. I have more stories in my head than I have time to write and that’s not a bad place to be.
KANDISHA PRESS 
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