Episode 30: Evan Baughfman - Author Interviews

We dive into the feral heart of his new collection, Mauls of the Wild, where animal-attack horror meets precise craft and real-world texture from deserts, mountains, and the open ocean. Evan unpacks how influences like Goosebumps, Michael Crichton, Peter Benchley, and The Twilight Zone shaped his eye for tension, morality, and twist endings, and why he believes horror offers a safe way to confront danger without harm. 

If you’re a writer, you’ll love the nuts-and-bolts process: lock in the ending first, start amid action or conversation, and leave each session mid-scene so momentum never dies. Evan also lifts the curtain on drabbles—exactly 100-word stories that demand image, economy, and a satisfying turn. From killer penguins to shark phobias, constraints become sparks, and revision becomes a scalpel. We talk persistence through rejection, the power of a good writers’ group, and the difference between prose and playwriting when it comes to pacing and dialogue.

 Along the way, Evan shares how he compiled the collection from reprints and fresh pieces, why he writes for both adults and younger readers, and how his own miles on desert trails and cautious steps at the beach seep into the work. Stick around for a playful creature mashup—Sharctus, anyone—and practical ways to find his books and connect online.

 If this conversation made your creative gears turn, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves horror or short fiction, and leave a quick review. It helps more readers and writers find us, and it means the world.

Mauls of the Wild:

• https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mauls-of-the-wild-evan-baughfman/1148791503
• https://www.amazon.in/Mauls-Wild-Collection-Animal-Fiction-ebook/dp/B0G1XB1XN3
• https://thesummitbirmingham.com/buy/product/mauls-of-the-wild-a-collection-of-animal-attack-fiction-barnesnoble-32463c?model=0

Evan Baughfman:

• https://www.instagram.com/agent00evan_716/
• https://www.amazon.com/stores/Evan-Baughfman/author/B08BSQZ2X6?ref=ap_rdr&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=784d4a39-0061-4d3d-91fa-1d71c55fdd80
• https://newplayexchange.org/users/1708/evan-baughfman
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-baughfman-62a1b4137/

Thanks again for the interview Evan!

Voice Over, Mixing and Mastering Credits:

L. Connor Voice - Website

https://www.instagram.com/l.connorvoice/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095473899665

Music Credits: 

Louie Sanders, https://www.instagram.com/soundmonksound/

Transcript

Introducing Evan And His New Book

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Well, howdy there, listener, and welcome back to another installment of Connor Reed's book's Author Interviews. Happy 2026! Our first interview this year is going to be Evan Boffman, who is celebrating the release of his new book, Malls of the Wild, a fantasy horror anthology all written by Evan that he's compiled over the years. So we jump into that, some of his inspirations for writing, and we also talk a little bit about Murderfish. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the interview. Joining me via virtual meeting today is Evan Boffman, a fantasy and horror author who is celebrating the release of his new book, Malls of the Wild, a collection of unnatural and horrifying tales about what can go wrong in nature. Evan was also featured in Murderfish with the story Swimming Strange. Links to both of these books are in the episode notes, so go down there and check them out, folks. And with all that being said, and with no further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce to the show fantasy horror author Evan Boffman. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_00 1:17

I'm doing well. Thank you. How are you? Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Of course. Thank you so much for making the time to come on. I'm doing pretty well. It's been it's been a good day, so I'm pretty pleased for that. Looking forward to the holidays. So you know, all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Same, same. I'm a middle school teacher, so this last week before winter break, it's a little the kids are antsy. I think the teachers are antsy. So just trying to day by day, what are we gonna do to get through this day?

SPEAKER_02 1:45

And uh yeah, absolutely. Well, you're almost there. Well, let's uh let's start at the beginning. Uh, when did you know that writing was the medium for you?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Well, I got into reading when I was in elementary school, and I think it might have been late elementary, early middle school where I started writing, um, just trying to like emulate kind of the spooky stuff I was reading. I was really into spumps initially, so yeah. So I think I started my hand writing these, what I thought were scary stories. Although, you know, looking back on now 30 plus years later, they're not right, they're not as amazing as I as I once thought they were. But I think that definitely was my start, and then so I was just kind of like doing that for fun, thinking, you know, it's just a fun, another fun activity to do to add to my like reading and my sports and other things, you know, hanging out with friends. It was just another fun activity. But when I was in seventh grade, my English teacher had us do a uh write a scary story assignment around Halloween time. She gave us, I remember distinctly, she gave us a list of titles, and that's all we got was a title, and you had to come up with a story based on that title.

unknown 3:07

Right.

Early Spark And Teacher Encouragement

SPEAKER_00 3:08

There was this one called Icy Fingers of Doom that really spoke to me.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

And uh I ended up writing a story based off of that title alone. And my teacher made a big deal where she told the whole class how my story was one of the best stories she'd ever read in her many years of teaching. And yeah, she she said that I have this, I have a talent, I have this like possible future if I chose to pursue it.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

So uh thank you, Mrs. Jackson, wherever you are. Nice, but but right there, yeah, that from there I was like, Oh, I have a talent for this. And so I began to take it more seriously, right? And uh yeah, just practiced more, wrote more short stories and such through high school, won some local contests. Nice, and yeah, I think it was in high school I decided, you know what, I I want to try to pursue this, get like really serious about it. So actually, I went to college for creative writing as well. Primarily at that time, I was into prose writing, but I also kind of got introduced to playwriting as well. Okay, and so I've been writing plays and prose kind of concurrently for a long, long time now. And uh and yeah, and so you know, you know what is the saying if you put in 10,000 hours of something, you become an expert at it. I've definitely put in my 10,000 hours. I don't know if I can honestly call myself an expert, but I definitely am confident and still have fun, you know. I've been doing this for a long time, and unfortunately, a lot of people who I wrote with in high school and college, they've kind of given up, and I'm persistent, I'm stubborn, yeah, and I I'm still going at it.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

So awesome. Well, well, good on you. I mean, there's a lot of things to touch on there. I mean, one, even like getting that bit of, I mean, you're a teacher, you know, getting that bit of like um encouragement young, it can really do so much, you know, to to help inspire you. Um, and and I am positive you know that as a teacher. Yes, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Yeah, I I I you know, remembering what my teacher said to me all those years ago, yeah. You know, I get good writers every year, but it's like very rarely do I get a kid where I'm like, oh wow, they're like they've got it, whatever I think it is. And I make a point to tell them, like, hey, you are because I had that same thing told to me, and maybe that gives them a spark, maybe to to pursue something in the future. So I I try to do the same with students when I can. Um, and I also offer just a lot of creative writing opportunities in my classes as well, right? It's more fun for me to teach and grade. I'm an English teacher as well as a theater arts teacher, so nice. I'm I far more enjoy reading a short story written by a student, even if it's not a very good one, than to read like an essay. A very bad, a bad essay is really painful, and uh bad stories less painful, I'll say.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's more creative. There's more there's there's something else, you know, not so brittle.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

For sure.

From Goosebumps To King And Crichton

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Exactly. Um, yeah, so I know you know you mentioned like goosebumps was like a big influence, and and I can even see that in some of your writing through Malls of the Wild. I mean, touching also on like some of your playwriting um experience as well, you have some sort of like I I'm not the most skilled, I don't have a degree in creative writing. So, but but you have those like you know, those scripted sort of like playwright uh stories in there as well, which are really immersive. Um, and you have some really fun stories as well, which I do feel like capture that sort of like goosebumps vibe, um, where it's like definitely creepy, off-putting, um, but not so scary that like you know it's gonna give kids nightmares necessarily. So yeah. Um, but kind of working off that, you know, what works throughout your life uh would you say have inspired your writing the most?

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Well, I can say yeah, initially it was goosebumps and like uh stuff written by RL Stein and then kind of like other goosebumpsy type series that existed when I was younger. I um Spooksville is one I can remember, written by Christopher Pike. Um yeah, so those initially, but I think by the time I was in middle school, I was kind of like later in middle school, I was kind of graduating away from that and wanting to read more adult stuff.

SPEAKER_03 7:52

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

So I really got into um Dean Koontz and Stephen King, uh, Michael Crichton. You know, Michael Crichton wrote Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World. Um, and this book that we're talking about today, Malls of the Wild, is about killer animals, killer creatures. And so like I can really remember reading Jurassic Park and its sequel as you know a younger reader and being like, Whoa, these animal attack scenes are crazy. Like these are kind of fun, cool to read. And so I began to implement some of that into my my short story writing as a teenager. So definitely those Michael Crichton also wrote Congo, which has killer gorillas in it, and hippopotamus attacks, and he wrote Sphere, which also has like a giant squid attack scene, and um Peter Benchley. I also uh discovered one of my favorite films is Jaws, but that's actually based off of a novel written by uh a marine biologist named Peter Benchley, and I discovered he wrote a couple other killer animal stories as well. Um, so I read a lot of his stuff, so yeah, those I would say those um specifically for short stories. My favorite short story writers are like Edgar Allan Poe, um Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson. A lot of Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson's short stories got turned into Twilight Zone episodes. So Twilight Zone was something is I would say is an influence as well.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Um I love they they always kind of have like a moral or a theme to them, and then there's also oftentimes a surprise or a twist somewhere at the end, and I like to implement that kind of thing into my writing whenever I can as well. Um, so I'd say Rod Serling, the creator of that show, and he wrote a lot of those episodes. I'd say a lot of his writing is has been influential on my own, and then television shows, Tales from the Crypt, yeah, uh, like I said, the Twilight Zone, but also the X-Files. There are a lot of like monster or creature of the week episodes of the X-Files that I really I love those more so than like the weird, overarching alien extraterrestrial episodes.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Yeah.

The Safe Thrill Of Horror

SPEAKER_00 10:27

The the the X-Files. Um, I would say I was really big into that when I was younger as well. And then animal attack movies. I mentioned Jaws, but I I was a teenager in the 90s, so there were some animal attack movies that came out in the 90s that I really enjoyed. Arachnophobia, yeah, beat blue sea with the super smart sharks, um, anaconda, the big placid giant crocodile. So, like those things really came out at a formative age as well for me.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

So all that, all that pushed together, actually.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

All those things, yeah. It's awesome. I I can totally see it in in your writing. It makes a lot of sense. And I guess maybe just like zooming out a little bit, you know, what about horror really drew you to that genre, you know, rather than like fantasy or you know something else. There are other genres.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

I think horror it's like a safe way to explore dangerous situations. I don't know. There's like kind of a thrill I get with watching a horror movie or watching or even like reading a horror story where it's like there's this element of danger, and like it is scary, but in the end, you know, it's just make-believe. You're not actually gonna get hurt doing this. So it's more, it's like a way to explore the darker, kind of more dangerous uh side of the world, yeah. But safely, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Totally, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

I'm not actually out there in the middle of the woods where some killer animal can get me. Um totally. Just why not read or watch a movie where that happens, or in the case of this book, write stories where stuff like that happens. So I'd say that's that's definitely probably the the main allure for for me, is that yeah.

Building An Animal Attack Collection

SPEAKER_02 12:27

I'd have to agree with you. I mean, I love watching horror movies, I love watching uh or reading like horror stories as well. There's there's something that is pretty exciting, you know, about getting a little bit of that adrenaline, getting a little bit of that fear, and then being able to, you know, turn and be like, oh yeah, I'm in my living room. Everything's okay. Um, totally. So uh, you know, bringing it back to Malls of the Wild, you know, it's a collection of short stories that looks like it's been put together over like a span of a few years. Tell me what that process was like.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yeah, so a number of these, the majority of these stories, there are 28 of them actually. Um, 24 of them are reprints. So these are stories that I actually you know was lucky enough to find homes for over the years. But once they're in a magazine or they're on a website or they're in an anthology, what is there a possibility for a second life for these stories, or is that just what it's gonna be? And so I thought, you know, the contracts uh time limits have run out on these stories. And I thought, well, maybe if I put a bunch of stories that are linked in some way together in a collection, yeah, maybe I could find someone willing to publish them. And if they're all together, instead of being in 24 separate places, what if they're all together? And maybe I could throw in some new stories that have not been published anywhere into the collection as well. So there are four stories that have never been published anywhere in the this collection as well, and and so yeah, it all they all I discovered um that I did have a whole bunch of stories that were these animal attack stories, and so it just made sense to to put many of them together. Um, because I guess content-wise and thematically, they all many of them had this connection, so it just kind of seemed natural to put them together, and you know I'm into this sub-genre of horror of animal attack fiction, yeah. And I thought it's kind of like a niche, so it's like I don't know, there's gotta be other people interested in this too. So I thought so I thought put a whole bunch of them together and maybe maybe could find an audience.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

So totally, yeah. No, and I think they're a really fun collection of stories. I mean, for you know, taking it to a personal place, like I used to work for the park service, and I'm definitely like, you know, I'm a pretty outdoorsy person. I like backpacking and camping and stuff, so I definitely I mean it's a little creepy, but I definitely have fun, you know, reading those stories where you're more in a natural space. And um, I guess maybe I'm I'm curious to know, you know, it seems like you draw a lot of inspiration from the natural world. And um, you know, was there like a destination or a biome that piqued your interest or inspiration the most?

Biomes, Sharks, And Real-World Roots

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Well, I live in Southern California, which is very close. I live very close to the beach, and I'm not really a beach person. A lot of my friends are beach beachgoers. I'm the person who goes and like sits in the sand and and reads a book. I'm the beach the beach reader. Um I'll go on the ocean up to my knees, maybe, but you know, like I said, I've seen Jaws, I've seen Deep Blue Sea, I've seen, you know, other aquatic horror uh movies where I'm like uh the oceans, there's too much possibly out there. So yeah. But like the shark, the shark story that's that's in this um collection is definitely that's like a fear of mine. I'm definitely sharkophobic. Um I knew I had to have a shark story in this collection, so that's why a float is in there. So that I would say that that kind of definitely was an inspiration drawing from what would it be like to be floating in the middle of the ocean and having all these sharks around you. That's that's where that story kind of came from. But being in Southern California, I also live near mountains and desert regions. And I I even went to college in a desert area, and I ran cross country and track, um, long distance events and track. So we would have to run a hundred plus miles a week, and a lot of our runs were on these trails out in the middle of the desert, or on the weekends, we would drive up to the local mountains and run on these mountain trails, and so I have a lot of familiarity with those types of of areas. Uh, my dad was big on camping and fishing as a kid, and he would take me to the Sierra Nevada mountains here in California, yeah, specifically in like the Mammoth Lakes area. So I have a lot of familiarity with camping in that area or fishing. So yeah, definitely those are um the biomes, as you said, that I'm most familiar with. I've gone on vacation to South America, I've been to rainforests and such. Um, but I'm not so familiar with those areas.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

So totally, yeah. I I hear it. And uh I, you know, some of the stories in Malls of the Wild, you know, they take place in Arizona, and I'm based in southern Arizona. I'm in Tucson. So a lot of these stories, it's very fun to to hear, you know. It's like, oh yeah, it's just in my backyard. Um and while I haven't read it yet, the story I'm planning to read. Um, I just I can see like from your personal experience, like marathon running or cross-country running. Um, just like I I can see it. I don't want to say too much more, but that's really awesome.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Um yeah, I would say as often as I can, I try to. So sometimes there's large pieces of me, and sometimes just like little pieces of me. But that story that you're referencing, Life in Lamb, is about a runner running on a trail in the middle of the desert, and that's definitely an experience that I've had personally, and so I was able to draw upon that for that story in particular.

Process: Endings First, Action Starts

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Yeah. Totally, yeah. And I I find, you know, I my writing experience personally, like I'm not I'm not the I'm not the biggest reader comparatively to a lot of people I talk to, I guess. Um, and then writing, you know, I've I've mostly written for like Dungeons and Dragons. Like I play a lot of tabletop board games, so like I've been like the uh the forever DM, you know, and I definitely know like for me, like I get really inspired when I like go on hikes and see natural places. That just really gets me going um and gets my creative mind running. So I think that's really fun, and I I think it just kind of clicks with my interest there.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Awesome. Yeah, my brother, he's the DM for the campaign, a couple of campaigns, actually. And he's a super creative person. He made comics when he was younger and he kind of shied away from that, but now I can see like he puts a lot of thought and effort into the DMing and like um yeah, so totally it's a totally worthwhile creative outlet. It makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. But uh I guess I I caught on to something you were saying where you said, like, you know, there's like a little piece of you in your writing, um, in everything that you write. I guess, you know, that segues really nicely into a question I have for you, which is like, what is your writing process like? Like, where do you tend to start? Do you do outlines?

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Um It depends on the project, I guess. Like if I'm gonna do a novel, then I kind of want to know all the major big beats, you know. So that's more like uh outlined more seriously, but something like a short story, like we have 28 of them here. Yeah. What I tr do tend to do with a short story is come up with the ending. Um, as I mentioned, you know, Tales from the Crypt or Twilight Zone have these kind of like twists. If I'm gonna have a story that I feel like needs to have a twist, then I really want to know like what that's gonna be before I ever start writing a single word. Like I want to know where this is going to.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

That's that's I would say my short story process is know the ending first, know where I'm going to end up. And then I try to come up with an interesting hook, whether it's you know, an interesting first sentence in some way. Um what I like to do as often as possible is start in the middle of action or start in the middle of a conversation.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

I don't really tend to describe a bunch of setting and then introduce characters. I try to just like start off with the character talking or start off with the character in the middle of something, and then I introduce them and the setting as the story moves along.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Once I have those two pieces, I know where it's gonna end, and I kind of the story is already in motion because that's where I tend to start. Yeah, then it's kind of oh, okay. How it's kind of the fun for me is how do I get from here to that ending that I know I want to get to? And I oftentimes when my writing session for the day is done, I like to leave myself in um the middle of a scene or in the middle of a conversation or on a cliffhanger so that the next day uh I'm excited to get back into it, right? Like left myself in an interesting spot.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Um I try to write an hour a day. Um, I don't always, I'm not always able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Totally, yeah.

One-Page Drabbles And Constraints

SPEAKER_00 22:33

But even if I'm not writing every day, I'm definitely doing something in support of my writing. So I am submitting um somewhere, you know. I have like I said, I do a lot of playwriting, so I it's so even if I'm not working on a short like on my prose, yeah, I am maybe submitting plays to theaters, or I am researching um plot details for some other story that's on you know the horizon. Yeah, I am reading something, you know, to help inspire me or whatever it is. Um so I'm not I'm not actually writing every day, but I I write most days of the week and days where I'm not able to write, I just try to do something that's in service of writing.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

So yeah, totally. Just always like kind of keeping it in mind, you know, and it's like, you know, anything with consistency is like, you know, there are some days that are just gonna be a little less than other days, you know, but as long as you just keep showing up and keep going, you know, you you get results. We've talked a little bit about you know how you approach writing depending on the project. And in Malls of the Wild, you have some really fun, like one-page stories. And I and I guess the question is is how hard is it to write a one-page story?

SPEAKER_00 24:08

Oh, yeah, it is a challenge, and um specifically, many uh the majority of those one-page stories you're talking about, they're there are these things called drables, and a drable is a 100-word exactly uh story, and so I challenge myself to write one drable, dark drable, I call them dark drabels, one dark drable. Um, there is um a publisher called Black Hair Press, and they hold a monthly uh dark drable contest called Dark Moments, and so that's kind of like one of my uh priorities that I make every month is I have to write um a new drable that's related to whatever their theme of the month is, and I've been doing I don't know, I think they've been doing it for seven years because I have had stuff published through them over the course of seven years, and many of these dabbles that we that I've included in this book started out as you know, things that got published by them awesome or submitted to them, and um yeah, like there's this little 100-word story in this book about you know, killer penguin. Where did that come from? Why would I ever write something about a killer penguin? Well, that's because literally one month years ago, that was their theme. Try to write a hundred-word story about killer penguins, and that's what I came up with. Same with there's a killer flamingo story in there. Why would anyone ever do that? Well, that was their theme, and so I wrote tried to write something interesting to that theme as well. Nice, as far as like how difficult is it is, it is certainly a challenge, but because I've written so many of them, I'm it's less challenging for me now.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

But I'd say the biggest challenge is trying to, in a hundred words, come up with um can't really come up with like a full full narrative, but try to come up with like something that's at least a scene that's like yeah, captivating or engaging to the audience. And then I do try to always squeeze in a twist too. So I think the process is similar where it's like I try to figure out the ending and then try to, like I said, have an issue in the beginning, and and but the amount of space I have is much less.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Oh, yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Oftentimes the first drafts I read of these dravels are like closer to 200 words, and then it's like, well, you gotta get rid of a hundred of them. So that's kind of more the challenge for me is once I have it written, oh, it's like, how am I gonna possibly cut this down? And there are some months where I'm like, this will never happen, but I do end up finding a way.

Other Books, Plays, And Audience

SPEAKER_02 27:11

So nice. So with Malls of the Wild, is this like is this your first published book? Or what other publications have you had?

SPEAKER_00 27:24

Yeah, so this is actually my fifth um book that's just my own.

unknown 27:30

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

This is my first one that is for like adult audiences. I had mentioned that I am a teacher, and many of my students are reluctant readers, and so my first books are actually um books that are like for younger readers, you know. Adults obviously can enjoy them too, and many adults have enjoyed them, but really the target audiences for those were middle school students, you know.

SPEAKER_03 27:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

I specifically was trying to write stuff that would get kids to think, wow, reading doesn't completely suck. Look at this. Yeah, uh, kind of the same feeling that Goosebumps gave me when I was younger. I was trying to go for those. So this is actually my second collection of short stories. My very first publication was a collection of short stories called Um The Emmaciated Man and Other Terrifying Tales from Poe Middle School. So that was nice published uh a few years ago, and that was uh 13 short stories all set in the same spooky middle school. So yeah, um, that was my first publication. I have a novella called Vanishing of the Seventh Grade.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

I have a novel about a possibly evil dentist called Bad for Your Teeth, and then I co-wrote um a choose your own adventure style story.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

I try not to die in a dark fairy tale, and that one's more like YA because it's it's kind of like Facebook in that there's like some really gory, bloody things happen. Um, so I think that's more for like teens um and older middle school students. Um but yeah, and then I have various plays uh that are published of mine, and those are with play publishers who put them in their catalogs, and I've been lucky enough to have my plays then produced in high schools, middle schools, colleges around around the country, even internationally. That's awesome, and so um, so yeah. Yeah, I I do have some other stuff out there, but this is my first uh book of prose that's specifically for like adults. I some of these stories I think I can share with my students, but a lot of them I you know there's profanity, etc. And I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm not gonna share these with those uh 12-year-olds.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Yeah, yeah, totally, you know. Yeah, I hear it. Well, that's awesome. I, you know, you you work with you know, you work with kids in in the arts and in writing, you know, and you clearly have been writing for such a long time. You're an accomplished published author. And I guess with that question, uh I'd or with that said, I'd like to ask, what advice would you give to new writers?

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Well, there are a few different things, I guess. I guess number one is, and I would assume if someone wants to be a writer that they it's because they're a reader, but I would say read, read, read, you know, especially in the genre that you're interested in writing. So if that's fantasy, then read as much fantasy as you can. If that's science fiction, read as much sci-fi as you can. If it's horror, read as much of that as you can. Yeah, you can kind of see what's already out there, and you can kind of see what you think might work for you, what might not. So I think that's the that's the big thing. Um, as I mentioned a couple of times already, I think you should, if you're gonna write something, you should know the ending, you should know where your story is going. If I know some people kind of write by the seat of their pants, and that's works for them, but that's like as I've mentioned, it doesn't really work for me. I like to know where I'm going, I like to know where this is gonna go. And I think that that if you're um a first-time writer or uh, you know, a less experienced writer, maybe that's a good bit of advice is like know what the end point of this is gonna be. So you just don't kind of ramble on and on. You you know where it's gonna go. I think it focuses your writing certainly.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Yeah. Totally. Because I can I can definitely see how it just keeps on, it could just keep on going forever and ever, which could be great if that's what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

But yeah. Um, I guess, and then other bits of advice are like get used to being told no, get used to rejection. It's inevitable, it's a part of the process.

unknown 32:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

I submit all the time, all over. I, you know, the vast majority of the time I hear no, no, thank you. This is not exactly what we're looking for. Yeah, you just have to you have to develop a thick skin and not take it personally. I mean, it's just part of the process. Yeah, um, and it also makes it just that much sweeter when you hear yes, because you're like, whoa, I'm so used to hearing no. Uh a yes is um is amazing, and that's why you do it for those rare yeses, right? And so it's a numbers game, it's all subjective, right? Yeah, um, what one publisher didn't really vibe with doesn't mean that it's a useless piece of work. I'm sure there's someone else out there it might be a perfect fit for. So just you know, take um take rejection as uh I guess a badge of honor and don't let it like uh destroy your soul, which I unfortunately I think a lot of people I started out writing with that they've kind of given up on themselves, unfortunately, because yeah um they took rejection a little more seriously than I do. Um, like I said, I'm I'm stubborn, I'm persistent. I've heard no so many thousands of times, it's like whatever, another no. Every day I'm getting told no. I'm looking at my emails full of no's, right? So uh that's fine. So I'd say that's a big one. It's just like don't let the no's bring you down. Um, it's just part of the process.

Platforms, Links, And Staying Connected

unknown 34:00

Totally.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

And if possible, also find a writer's group, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Um many of my best friends are not writers, you know. So it's like I can't give them like my wife, she's not a writer. I can't give her my short story and be like, hey, like, give me some notes on this. It's just not gonna work because they're not gonna do it. So I think finding like-minded creatives, yeah, um, whether that's virtually or it's locally to you, I think that's really important.

unknown 34:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

Um, I'm lucky I've been with the same writers' group for like a decade now, and it's we try, you know, we we meet every month or so, and I bounce a lot of um my plays and stories off of them, and they give me really honest feedback that has helped me take a something from not from being unpublishable to you know making it into a magazine or or whatever. So I think that's important, if possible, to find a writer's group, find people who are who are willing to to give you feedback, but you know, it's reciprocal. You gotta do the same for them, right? So you gotta you've got to do your part and be uh a reader and um a friend to them as well.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

So absolutely. Um that's great, that's fantastic advice. Thank you for for that. I appreciate it. Um so uh Evan, thank you again so much for your time today. It's been awesome to talk to you. Uh, I have a few more questions before we go. Uh and with that, for those who want to learn more about you, hear more of your insights, read your books, read more of your works, where can they go?

SPEAKER_00 35:54

Yeah, well, I my website I unfortunately let die. So I have to, I have to, I know I have to get back on that. That's one that's one thing. Also, writers, you should have you should have a website. Don't be like me. Um so I got I definitely that's like a 2026 goal of mine is to get a a better uh website up. But until then, I do just have an author Amazon, you know, an Amazon author page.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

Great.

Sharctus And Ratflesia: Creature Mashups

SPEAKER_00 36:24

You can find all my books and anything that I've ever had, even like a little poem or uh Drabble published in. It's there available on Amazon. But all these books that I mentioned, they're also there. Um you could go to a Barnes and Noble or even to like an indie bookseller and request one of my books, and they could you know get it in store to you if you wanted to do that.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Um, you know, I'm on Instagram and Facebook as well, if anyone wants to link up in that way.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

Sweet. And uh and folks, we'll have links in the episode notes, so go ahead and check out those notes and get in touch with Evan. All right. Well, Evan, I really appreciate your time again. Um and before I let you go, I have to ask you one more question.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 37:17

I leave the hardest-hitting questions for the end, the most difficult question I could possibly throw at you today.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Alright, here's the question. If you could take any plant and then take any animal and then make it some sort of hybrid creature, what would you choose? What plant? What animal, and then what would your creature be called?

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Okay. Um sharctus. So a mix of a shark and a cactus. I don't know if that means it's a shark that's standing in the middle of the desert covered in spines, or if it's um, or if it's a spiky shark swimming through the ocean. I can't determine what that actually looks like, but um, that's the name, that's what immediately came to mind. Blending a cactus with a shark. So sharct this. Um, and then another one I thought of was um the rat fleesia. So reflegesia is like the world's largest blooming flower, kind of a demigorgon from um Stranger Things.

SPEAKER_03 38:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

What this big uh wide open giant petals. So I'd say a rat rat flesia, so like a mixture of a rodent of unusual size, like from the Princess Bride, mixed with the head of a refleja flower. That's what I came up with.

Closing Notes And Upcoming Readings

SPEAKER_02 38:46

So no, those are good, those are really good. I think I'd prefer to run into the uh the sharktus over the rat flesia, but that those are great options. I asked for one and you gave me two. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

Thanks for the question.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

Yeah, of course. You know, we like to have some fun, we like to have some fun over here on Connor Reed's books. Um yeah, well, Evan, thank you again so much for the interview. Thank you for letting me read Life and Limb. And folks, that's going to come out next week. So keep an ear out for that. It'll be very fun, I assure you. Evan, thank you again so much for talking to us today, and have a good one.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

Yeah, thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

And that's a wrap for another installment of Connor Reed's books Author Interviews. Thank you so much to Evan Boffman for coming on the show today, talking about his inspirations, how he got started writing, how he helps foster creativity in his own students. So, Evan, thank you so much for coming on the show today. And also, folks, check out Malls of the Wild. Links are gonna be in the episode notes, so go and check out Evan's work there. Evan is also featured in the Murderfish anthology, which the audio Book should be coming out so soon, and I'll let you know when it does. In the next couple of weeks, I will be reading a story from Malls of the Wild, so keep your ears out to hear Evans' story come to the audio medium. Thank you all so much for listening. Again, if you like this episode, please leave a review. It takes a couple moments, but it really goes a long way and helps other people find this show as well. Also, you can follow me on my social medias. I'm more active on Instagram. You can find me at LConnor Voice. And I'll put links to my Instagram in the show notes as well, so you can go ahead and check those out and get in contact with me if you want to see some more of the content that I'm creating. You may be wondering, hey, I write short stories. How can I get Connor to read mine? Well, I do have a submission page. Granted, there are some, you know, rules and stipulations that you gotta kind of fit into, but uh go ahead and check out lconnorvoice.com, go to the contact me portion, and send me an inquiry. And I'm gonna make that a lot easier for y'all uh in the future, just so you know. Um, well, that all being said, thank you so much for tuning into this episode, and until next, we turn the page to loo.