I’M BACK… and Oh, Have I Been Busy

You know when you go so long without talking to certain people how it seems to get harder and harder to reestablish those connections? And sometimes you never really do. Often though, it just takes getting past a few awkward exchanges — Hey, so how’ve you been? Are you still with so-and so? Still working at such-and such? — and then it’s like no time has passed at all.

Well, my friend, how about we just skip all the awkward catching up and ditch the many (however valid, but in the end irrelevant) excuses and cut to the chase … I’M BACK… and oh, have I been busy.

So, I spent much of this past summer finishing the third book in my Evelyn Hernandez series. Well, this fall I signed the publishing contract with Evernight Teen and I have a projected release date of January 2020. It will be titled EVELYN ILLUSTRATED and it picks up very close to where book two left off. Here’s the official blurb:

Around school, Evelyn Hernandez is known as the Revenge Artist, or la bruja, the witch. She’s the girl who out-bullied her bullies. The one with the long dark hair and blunt cut bangs who only wears dresses and is forever drawing in her mysterious black book. People say she can help you with your own bully problems … for a price.

Evelyn is content to ignore the gossip. Let people think what they want. She won’t be a thug for hire. But when a little girl is found running down the middle of the street late at night in only her nightgown, the police enlist Evelyn to sketch a mugshot of the child’s suspected abductor.

What happens next sends Evelyn into a downward spiral of self-doubt. She makes bad things happen by drawing them, but does it always have to be this way? Can she use her abilities to create and not destroy? Can she be a voice for the voiceless without losing herself in the process?

Without giving too much away, I can tell you Evelyn has a chance to really evolve as both a hero and a friend in this third story. In book one, The Revenge Artist, as a victim of bullying, her ability to make bad things happen by drawing them empowers her, sure, but does it make her a better person? And in book two, The Dream Diaries, when she tries to help other victims of bullying, avoiding her abilities only leads her to new and darker discoveries that actually endanger the lives of the people she is trying to help.

In book three, once again, the hero inside of her refuses to remain silent. Her instinct to protect an innocent and defenseless child leads her to fully embrace her dark talents, and when she does the results are immediate and irrevocable. The question all along, it seems, is whether her gifts, even when used for good, are still not more of a curse than a blessing. Can Evelyn separate her artistic talents from her artistic powers? Is there a difference between the two? And should she even try?

Besides all the superhero soul-searching, the book has plenty of other surprises. There are several new characters (some friends, some enemies) as well as a familiar ghost (of sorts) from the past. There’s more art, more literature, more violence, more magic, and I even manage to squeeze in a pep-rally, a swim meet, and a school dance!

Can't wait to share it with you!

All my best,

Philip Hoy