Sword and Sorceress 33 Author Interviews: Evey Brett

Enter a wondrous universe…the latest volume of Sword and Sorceress featuring stories from new and seasoned authors. Herein you will find tales of fantasy with strong female characters, with some version of either martial skill or magic. Not all the protagonists will be human, and sometimes the magic will take highly original forms, but the emotional satisfaction in each story and in the anthology as a whole, remains true to the original vision. The release date will be November 2, 2018. ePub: https://www.books2read.com/u/b62gG6Kindle: https://amzn.to/2NitlHH



Deborah J. Ross: Tell us a little about yourself.  How did you come to be a writer?Evey Brett: I wrote stories when I was a kid and through high school, then I went to music school and stopped reading or writing anything that wasn’t college-related. Toward the end of my degree, I was having a hard time with music and needed a different creative outlet, so I started writing a bit of fan fiction. My first trunk novel started as a Star Trek TNG/DS9 crossover. I soon realized that would never sell, so I transposed the plot into a fantasy world and went to the library for writing books so I could learn how to write better. I took some community college classes with some very good writing teachers, and got into Clarion, and eventually started selling stories.
DJR: What inspired your story in Sword and Sorceress 33?EB: I actually wrote this story for a different editor who asked for something from me but eventually turned it down. Since then it’s been through a couple overhauls and I’m glad it found a home.
DJR: What authors have most influenced your writing?  What about them do you find inspiring? EB: Mercedes Lackey comes to mind first, because toward the end of college, when I started reading again, her books happened to be the first ones I picked up—and soon enough I had a collection of all the Valdemar books. When I read the Magic’s Pawn trilogy back in 2001 or so, I finally realized what “gay” meant—and soon after I started writing, gay characters and telepaths started seeping into my work and stayed there. And,oddly enough,my own Companion, a Lipizzan mare named Carrma, showed up and picked me and she’s been a huge influence on my life and writing.
DJR: Why do you write what you do, and how does your work differ from others in your genre?EB: I don’t have any great and wonderful reason why I write what I do; it’s just what comes out, and often colored by my latest interests. Like when I first met a herd of Lipizzan horses and did horse yoga (not so much poses as an energetic exchange) I wrote a couple books involving Lipizzans and energy manipulation.
How is it different? I like to think that I focus on characters and their emotions and psychology—what makes them tick and how can they overcome whatever trauma or hard times they’ve been through. I do write mostly queer characters, but I don’t make a big deal about that; they’re accepted for who they are and don’t have to figure out what it means to be queer or fight for it. They just are.
DJR: How does your writing process work?EB: It’s mostly just whatever comes to mind. I don’t write stories in order; they come in pieces. I’ll think of an interesting bit of dialog here, a scene there, and keep adding things until the story starts to develop a plot. Then I make it tighter, “glue” together the bits of unfinished scenes, and then I have a story. Sometimes they need some research, and I’ll get a pile of books from the library or go out on an adventure, though I’ve never had much patience for notes or outlining.
DJR: What have you written recently? What lies ahead?EB: I have a couple recent stories in Crossroads of Darkover and Survivor, which is from Lethe Press. At this point, it’s just writing one story at a time, mostly for anthology calls; I haven’t had much luck with standalone stories. I’m also endeavoring to refurbish and reprint my quartet of novels since the publisher closed.
DJR: What advice would you give an aspiring writer?EB: Write what feels right for you, but learn how to do it well. Read books on writing. Find a crit group, online or in person; giving feedback is just as important as getting it so you can understand what a well-written story looks like. Go to workshops if you can, or local SF/F cons to learn more. Be humble. Be kind.


Evey Brett lives in the Arizona desert where she enjoys catching creepy-crawlies like snakes, scorpions, tarantulas and Gila monsters and is the willing servant of several cats and a Lipizzan mare who has a habit of arranging the universe. She’s attended Clarion, Taos Toolbox and the Lambda Literary Retreat for Emerging LGBT Writers and is a first reader for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She has numerous novels andshort stories in anthologies such as The Myriad Carnival, Daughters of Frankenstein, Masques of Darkover, Crossroads of Darkover, and elsewhere. She can be found online at eveybrett.wordpress.com.