I recently had a chance to review Evangeline's Heaven, a book with an intriguing setting. Evangeline is Lucifer's daughter, a trained fighter and fiercely loyal to him - even if it means fighting the group of angels her mother was a part of. When Lucifer leaves on a mission, Evangeline is left to defend their home. But, like all good coming-of-age stories, she begins to question what she thought she knew about her father, her identity, and her opponents.
My daughter and I both loved the story. Although it's obviously spiritual in nature, you don't have to be Christian to enjoy the major themes of conflict and identity.
You can learn more in this interview.
What inspired your story?
I’d been musing about the concept of good vs evil and how binary it is. Either we’re good or we’re evil. Good guys and bad guys, heroes and villains. But of course we all know none of us is all good or all evil, which led me to thinking about Lucifer and how he, as Satan, came to personify evil. But what if there was more to him, especially as an angel before his fall? What, exactly, made him rebel against God? But I didn’t necessarily want to tell his version; I thought it might be more interesting to learn about him through the eyes of someone who loved him—his daughter. And what would it be like to learn that your beloved father wasn’t everything you thought he was? That’s how I came up with Evangeline.
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your book(s)?
How infinite my world can be! I’m writing a fantasy novel, and yes, I’m focusing on one protagonist, whom I love, but every person Evangeline encounters has their own rich backstory. And there’s a rich history to the Seven Heavens, too. It was exciting to realize how much potential I have to keep writing stories in this world, with these characters—and new ones, too. I’m already diving back in to work on the sequel to Evangeline’s Heaven, titled Evangeline’s Hell.
What’s the best writing advice you ever received?
To quit. Seriously! That was the advice. I’d written four novels, and gotten rejection after rejection after rejection. Even though I knew that’s part of the business, the rejections still stung. I wondered if I was even cut out for the writing life. I asked my always-supportive book coach if I should just throw in the town and I was shocked when she said yes. So much for supportive. But I hadn’t let her finish. She said I should think about quitting. Think long and hard about what my life would be like if I did stop writing. If I got a wash of relief just thinking about it, then quitting would be the right call. Instead, I couldn’t imagine myself not writing. I enjoy it too much. That gave me the boost I needed to keep going.
Jen Braaksma is a writer and book coach with a decade of experience as a journalist and nearly two as a high school English and writing teacher. Her debut work goes beyond encouraging teens to find themselves and rather explores how teens underestimate their own skills and how they see themselves without searching for anything new.
FB: @JenBraaksma
TW: @JenBraaksma
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