From Journalist to Author
Evelyn’s career ambition was always to be an author, however she had her fair share of rejections at early ages and did not just wake up one day as a self-made author.
I remember her first novel publication in the early 1970’s; by this time she already had two sons at school. Except the few years where Evelyn was starting her family, she was honing her writing skills as journalist for local newspapers in Paisley and Johnstone.
The work provided her the opportunity to be writing about her community, being aware of local affairs, analysing and communicating events to the public. The nature of the work allowed her to continue to work on her mission to become an author.
My memories of this was coming home from primary school and seeing a typewriter and lots of papers on the dining room table. This was always cleared away around 17:00 when preparations were underway for the family dinner. To me, this was common practice and I remember growing up to learn one day that not every family had a typewriter and masses of paper that had to be put away every time the family got together for dinner!
In the mornings, Evelyn would be off to a court case or off to interview a local councillor for the newspapers, and again the table would be laden in the afternoon with the typewriter and piles of carefully organised piles of paper. We would all help to clear away the equipment, so the act of setting the table was just as much about carefully putting away the makings of a novel as it was about putting everything out for the family meal.
‘The Kingmaker’s Daughter’ was accepted for publication in 1973 and this was a massive step forward in Evelyn’s career; finally, when the book hit the shelves in 1974, she would be able to declare that she was a published author, regardless of what happened beyond that point in time, nobody could take that away from her. She had made it.
That being said, she did not give up her journalism roots overnight. She continued to work for local newspapers for several years, she was very engaged with the team at the newspaper office, and the difference in styles between the newspaper and the novels gave her enough of a variety keep her motivation and at the same time hone her skills.
Three years after ‘The Kingmaker’s Daughter’ was accepted for publication, we moved to a house where my parents’ bedroom was large enough to have a dedicated work-desk for the typewriter and the carefully organised papers; this was the first time I didn’t need to clear the table away for the family dinner!
Simon & Evelyn Hood