Bea Evans Books

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  • Rattling Bone by Jordan L Hawk

    You’ll want to read the first book in the series, The Forgotten Dead, to get a better sense of the characters here (plus it’s spooky and worth the read). 

    In some respects, I enjoyed the second of the Outfoxing the Paranormal series a little more than the first, because the first was essentially an alternate-universe fanfic for The Magnus Archives (a podcast). Since that’s something I got into big time during the pandemic, I enjoyed it but it took a while for me to settle into Hawk’s story, which is completely original.

    I didn’t have to overcome that in this second book which follows a paranormal researcher and his boyfriend, an accountant who has a ghost hunting show with a couple of compatriots, as they go visit the boyfriend’s parents.

    While there, they dig into his family’s history with the paranormal, something his dad suppressed in his son after his mother spent the end of her life in a psychiatric facility. They uncover a family curse that strikes every 25 years… and it’s due to hit any day now.

    Exciting, but not too overwhelming. If you like Hawk’s other writing, this series fits in perfectly with the tone he sets in other series. If you like this and want more, his SPCTR series is also set in modern times, but check them all out.

  • Picture worth 1,000 words

    I’m not a professional designer, but I see book covers all day for my job. I know what I don’t want. But I don’t necessarily know how to make something look how I want for my cover.

    Coming up with a concept was my first step. Which wasn’t easy. The first book I want to tackle is currently titled No One That Matters. It’s a hockey-ish romance that follows a couple (one is a hockey player, the other works in an imagining lab), their friend (who is an interior designer), and the hockey player’s defensive partner. So I was thinking hockey gear, painting supplies maybe… something to show who the characters are. I played around with some graphics, tried to use some of the team colors, maybe a little ice in the background to help place it in the hockey universe.



    And, well, that’s something, alright. I mean, is it professional? No. Would it work? I guess. Does it give you some idea of what you’re getting? I think so. But I wasn’t really happy with it. I played around with it a bit. I changed the font on the title and shrunk the paint can a bit to give it a little forced perspective. Is this any better?

    Cover with a scratched ice background, the word “No one that matters” I white on a blue swoosh. Under that a paint bucket with a paintbrush with blue paint on it is next to a the blade of a hockey stick and a puck. On the bottom, the author’s name, Bea Evans, is in white on a smaller blue swoosh.

    Another problem I have with this is that while, yes, there is a relationship that develops between the interior designer and the hockey player, it doesn’t include the existing couple’s relationship. I can’t just keep throwing graphics in here to represent everyone. It would be confusing and cluttered.

    I have no plan to make this a series so I don’t have to worry about that, at least. I didn’t like using graphics that I was unsure of the provenance. It feels a little cartoonish. I finished messing with this and thought, “Well, maybe I could give this to someone as an example of what I want.” But, do I want to pay someone to make me a cover? I don’t have a lot of money to spend. Quite frankly, I’d rather spend it on an editor. But… we judge books by their covers. Will anyone pick up this book?

    One thing I have learned is to leave things alone for a while before I judge it. So, it’s here, but I was thinking about some other things. Such as, who am I? I hate to use the word “brand” but it’s something to consider. I really prefer something clean. I liked keeping the colors. I looked up the team’s color codes. Helps that one color is white. But this way I got the blue right. And as I was thinking about what else I might want on a cover, I remembered a section of the story. My interior designer sits down to make some thank you cards.

    She used the same dark blue for Zach and Derrick’s cards, adding stripes of blue to the white card stock. For Derrick’s she cut out a foam finger from a partial sheet of yellow foam. She added “#1 Fan” on it with a marker and glued it on.

    Hmm. And then, I got into my car and there was, leftover from a hockey game earlier this year, a yellow foam finger. I don’t know if I believe in signs. But I do believe in paying attention. Our minds put things together. So, I snapped a quick picture.

    I used some software to pull it out from the background, did a little editing to remove a logo and then slapped that sucker into Canva because the photo editor had a very limited font selection. I pulled up pictures of the team’s jersey. I liked the font on there, looked it up and was able to find a similar font on Canva. So, now I have something right out of the book and it’s a little less complicated. Do I like it? My immediate response is yes, but a couple more days of looking at it will help me decide. What do you think?

    Cover for a book titled “No One That Matters”. Three dark blue stripes run across the white background at a slight upward angle. In the top stripe, the title is in white. In the bottom stripe is the author’s name, Bea Evans. In the middle is a large yellow foam finger that said “ #1 Fan.”

  • The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

    I am probably not the target audience here. As originally a comic series, it’s episodic, with a story developing in a longer arc. This is the first 8 comics in the series in one book. I don’t really like the art, but it’s evocative, dark and gross. The level of detail is impressive, however, and I probably missed a few things.

    The story, of the accidental imprisonment of Dream, his eventual escape, and his quest to get back his tools, makes me wonder what the rest of the series is about. “The sound of her wings” is perfect, to me, because I thought, “okay what now,” and Morpheus was at the same place.

    The other episodes are occasionally very violent and sometimes sexual. Definitely not for younger viewers, as they say. I’m sure the genre affected the storytelling. The inclusion of other DC characters was odd, to me. And, since I’m not a comic reader, I wasn’t always sure who was who. The myth and classical allusions are more my speed.

  • A first step

    I’m embarking on a new venture. I’ve been writing for years for my own pleasure. The stories I hear in my head. The stories I can’t find elsewhere. Most importantly, the stories that I want to read.

    And I’m hoping they’ll be stories you’ll want to read, as well.

    So, please, join me as I figure out this world of self-publishing. I’m going it alone right now. Everyone says you need a community. No one tells you how to find that. I suppose you make it, one person at a time.

  • The Last Nanny in Manhattan by K Sterling

    Fun, modern day story about a man who needs help with his terrible triplets and the nanny best suited (or cardiganed) to take on the job.

    That’s not to mean that I didn’t actually yell while reading this one. The dad is afraid of his own kids and wants to make sure they don’t turn out awful but does absolutely nothing to make sure they don’t turn out awful. My actual (shouted) words were, “So DO SOMETHING!” Good job, author, I guess, if you were trying to get across how frustrating the situation was for the nanny walking in – risking actual life and limb – to care for a few brats.

    Okay, yes, there’s more to it than that. The guy had horrible examples growing up and, after the loss of his husband, wasn’t capable of finding his feet. Grief does weird things to us. But he’s willing to learn and the new nanny has some interesting reinforcement strategies to encourage him.

    The first in a series. Definitely some not-safe-for-triplets content, but readable and enjoyable (even with the shouting).