Evon Davis

Mike Shevdon is the author of Sixty-One Nails and The Road to Bedlam.  I owe him for his inspiration and admire him for his writing. 

Hi Mike,

I first saw your book, Sixty-One Nails, on Jennifer Jackson’s website/blog, then I saw it one day while browsing in the bookstore. It looked interesting so I bought it and read it. I was hugely impressed!

I’m drawn into the world of magic that you create.  Because I live in a magical world and see it all around me, when I read stories with magic in them, I expect to see the core truths about magic.  That tells me the author knows what he or she is talking about.  I definitely see that in your writing. 

As soon as Road to Bedlam came out I bought it and started reading it, but had to put it aside while I focused on NaNoWriMo and then revising the novel I’ve been writing this year.  When I went back to it, I couldn’t put it down!  I stayed up late last night, way past my bedtime, to finish it.   

You are definitely on my list of favorite writers. I’m a huge fan of yours now and can’t wait to read your future books.   What I find appealing about your writing is that the characters feel so real to me.  Niall Peterson comes across as a very real person.  It’s been gripping watching him deal with the problems he’s had to confront, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he deals with his children and their powers, not to mention how the Seven Courts and humanity will resolve their conflicts. 

Along with Niall, Blackbird is one of my favorite characters.  She is a strong female (which appeals to me).  I was surprised that when you took away her magical powers in the second book, it didn’t diminish her at all.  It showed us that her power isn’t really in her magic; it’s much deeper.  (I think the same is true of Niall.)

The settings are intriguing as well.  Of course that’s expected as part of urban fantasy where settings are integral to the story, but you do an excellent job of bringing them to life.  The fishing village of Ravensby is as vivid as anything in real life.

We all have some kind of power (or what I would call magic).  One of your powers is writing.  I was pleased to read that you got a contract for two more books.  I hope there will be many more after that!

I’m sure I will enjoy reading them, and continue recommending your books to my creative writing students.  Thank you so much for the wonderful stories :)

Evon

Today I’m reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.  I read it when I was about 20 and have wanted to read it again for ages, but finally got a bug up my butt yesterday and went to the bookstore and bought a paperback copy.  I haven’t been able to put it down since.

This brings up the topic of money, of which there was no Martian equivalent; a perspective I admire immensely.  Those who know me, know that I have mixed feelings about money.  I wrote a blog called “Money, the Greatest Hoax Ever Perpetrated on Humankind.”  http://evondavis.com/blog2/2010/11/17/money-the-greatest-hoax-ever-perpetrated-on-humankind/

I call it that because it’s a mental straight-jacket.  Yet at the same time, virtually everyone believes in it, so you have to walk around as if you’re wearing that mental straight-jacket, whether you are or not.  In other words, you have to act like you believe in it, even if you don’t.  Just like an African bushman can’t walk around New York City without his clothes on, whether he believes in wearing clothes or not.

Fortunately, don Juan taught Castaneda a concept called “Controlled Folly” in which you play a role as if it were real.  The trick is to play the role without becoming lost and imprisoned by it.

What I mean by being “straight-jacketed” is that we’ve been imprisoned by our beliefs because in this system we are taught to believe that we HAVE TO sell our labor for money in order to survive.  But if people could see through the beliefs that have been fed to them since birth, they’d see that it’s not true.  It’s a choice.  People choose what they want to believe and then reinforce each other in their beliefs.  Then, because it’s what everyone believes, we have to play along with it.  Controlled folly is a way of turning it into a game.  This keeps our minds free, while on the outside, we pretend to take the game seriously.

I’m starting to put my belief more in Spirit than in Money.  Who could have predicted that I would be able to leave CBS and follow my heart for the past two years?  I had a little savings and a lot of faith.  I believe it’s the faith that’s gotten me this far.  Without it, I never would have been able to overcome my fears in order to listen to my heart.  Some would call it coincidence — that I’ve not only survived, but thrived.  I don’t believe it’s random.  And there was no way to predict it with logic before the fact.  That’s what I call magic.

But I admit, I haven’t completely shifted alliances… still seem to need money to pay car insurance, phone bill, website hosting bill, gas, groceries, etc.  So in 2011, I will play this game called “Controlled Folly” and see where Spirit leads me.  I will play the game as if I really believe in it, as if I were really wearing the mental straight-jacket.  Inside I’ll know the truth — that it’s just a game.  If I took it seriously, I fear I’d become depressed, or at least as neurotic and stressed out as most people find themselves.