Eva Markert Interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

It depends on when I find the time for writing. Preferably, I write in the morning. But as I’m a

teacher, I’m busy then and writing has to be postponed until later in the day. Sometimes I’m very

tired, but I try to work on my projects regularly.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

I’ve been using my laptop exclusively for years. It’s so much easier than writing with a pen. I’m

really out of practice now, so my handwriting has become awful.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

I can’t answer this question in general. Sometimes it’s a sentence I overhear that arouses my interest

and I begin piecing together a story around it. Sometimes I picture a scene in my mind’s eye that

appeals to me or I read an article in the newspaper and start speculating about the background.

Now and then I suddenly think of a striking title, an image, a phrase which I like … There are

innumerable sources of inspiration. But it also happens that I think long and hard about a story I

would like to write but my mind stubbornly remains a blank.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

I don’t set myself goals, when I start working, but when I finish for the day, I count the words I’ve

written or I look at the time I spent at my computer.

I’m the member of several mailing lists. One of these is the “marathon-list”. At the end of every day,

we mail to each other what amount of work we managed to do on that day so that at the end of the

month, we can find out who the winner is.

Every year “the marathons” also take part in the NANoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

There are groups not only in America, but all over Europe as well. The NaNoWriMo takes place

every year in November and the objective is to write 50.000 words in a month (which is about half of

a novel). The NaNoWriMo always helps me to get started on a new project.

I’m also a member of a French writers’ group. We arrange to meet on the Internet once a month for a

so-called “White Night”, which means a night without sleep. We work on our texts from 9.30 pm to

4.00 am. When we need a break or some moral support, we can contact fellow authors in a chat

room. These “nuits blanches” help me a lot when I’m stuck in the working process.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

Many of my short stories for adults and of my stories for children are published in books or on CDs.

A children’s book was published in 2005 by a small publishing house in Germany. Novels and other

longer texts I publish on Kindle. I don’t really have covers giving the author’s name, the title etc., but

I use royalty-free pictures I can buy in a German web-shop to go with the books.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

I honestly don’t know. Sometimes I ask myself if it’s really worth all the trouble. But the sad truth is:

Even if I tried, I couldn’t stop.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

I own a Kindle and I just love that thing. I use it every day.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

I like thrillers and murder mysteries, for example detective series (Elizabeth George, Faye

Kellerman, Ann Granger, Steven James). My favourite authors are Jane Austen and Joy Fielding.

(Come to think of it, there’s quite a difference of time between those two …). At the moment, I am

into serial killers. Happily, Amazon offers a wide variety of these in the Kindle Store ;-).

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

To be honest, I don’t know exactly how that is done. What I can say, however, is that I am no

advertising expert at all. I wouldn’t know how to promote my books. And I would hate to do it and

feel terribly embarrassed. By the way, that’s something else I appreciate in the Amazon Kindle Store.

Promotion happens almost automatically. There are for example the Amazon authors’ pages or

hints such as “Customers who bought this book also bought …”

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

The title of the latest book I uploaded is “Blumen des Grauens, 13 unheilvolle Geschichten”

(“Flowers of Fright, 13 sinister stories”). I liked the sound of it and the idea that each story is like a

flower. And I was thinking of Baudelaire’s “Fleurs du Mal” (“Flowers of Evil”).

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

I have just finished a book for adolescents about a stalker. I will put it aside and go back to it later,

maybe in a few months’ time, in order to revise it. Next I’m planning to revise a children’s book

entitled “Spuk, Musik und Kriminelle” (“Spooks, Music and Criminals”) which I intend to upload to

the Kindle Store. After that I want to write a second volume to “Familiengeschichten” (“Family

Matters”), which is already available on Kindle. It’s a detective novel in which homosexuality plays

an important part.