MedlemJalibrary

Jamaican books and stories of female empowerment and resilience

Crystal Evans (1988) was born in Westmoreland Jamaica. She is the author of several books centered on her experiences growing up in rural Jamaica and the Jamaican cultural nucleus. She is dubbed one of the greatest minds under thirty of Caribbean heritage. She spends her spare time with friends, hosting home parties and listening Reggae Music. She is a voracious reader.

"I love Dancehall music not so much because of the beats but because i know that it is the music of struggle. It is also a poetry of triumph. My writing is much like the music, it is my journey, my evolution, moving into being a better version of myself. My characters are all an extension of myself, the fantasy me, the lives i have lived over and over again in my head."

Crystal's most memorable experiences growing up were playing ball with her neighbor's children on the play field and carrying water from the standpipe in the morning.
Crystal continued her Studies with several certifications in literature and Journalism.
Crystal Evans wrote several short stories during her teenage years as a past time to buffer the tumultuous psycho-emotional atmosphere of her life. Shebegan blogging at the age of nineteen, her most successful article was " Why Jamaican men hate cerebral women" that she dubbed she wrote after a going on a bad date with a guy.
She almost gave up on writing when she published "Why Black women do not respect Black men", an article she claimed she wrote hurriedly in a fit of anger with her then boyfriend, who she grovelled to after their break up to get him to take her back. The article earned scores of reviews most disadvantageous, critics attacked her due to her age, inexperience on the subject and the racial profiling that she as a young black woman had of her own black men.
Crystal had this to say about the Article in an Interview. " That article almost killed my career, I was young and very upset. When i was going to school, our teachers told us this idea that if you are brilliant and you achieve academically then you could have your choice of partner. That was utopic, in the real world there are far more variables that determines whether or not a man is going to commit to you other than how smart you are. I was grappling with that notion and writing was my panacea. I would have written it differently at twenty five and i probably would have a slightly different perspective at thirty. It is just life. We are constantly evolving and sometimes i looked back at who i was and what i though i was then i realize that i can never think i know too much since even now i am still learning new things everyday"
Crystal did not give up and went on to write a Novel called "Mama Brown's Family". " Mama Brown is a shorty story i developed the Christmas of 2008. I end up deleting most of the chapters and i am working on a part two to the story".
During that same year at twenty years old, she wrote the Jamaica Date Doctor series from Articles on her blog.
Crystal Evans has published three novels : The Barn Raiders, Night Nurse and The Country Gyal Journal

Here are some Facts and Answers from Crystal Evans Jamaica
People sometimes ask me why did i become a writer or why did you write this story? Why is your stories laced with social commentary and elements of life among the Jamaican working class? Don't you grow tire of such themes? Are you writing about your life?

Response :

I once said i wrote books for every Woman with a the girl trapped inside that some man once told that she was not good enough. My aim is to create rather powerful heroines. Women who irrespective of their everyday struggles manage to be successful. Success does not necessarily mean glamour,their success could be transitory, a working progress, a dream on its way to coming true. My heroines are the women i have been, the women i am now and the women i would love to become. They are not me, they are a part of me. They are my realities.

Did i have an unhappy childhood? Yes, I have spent most of my life feeling completely out of sync with the world and growing up in a semi-literate community did not help. People saw my smart as meaning i was crazy, my anomie behavior as madness and to give legitimacy to their beliefs, they spent their time painting my intellect as weird and occult. I have since dumbed down around them so as not to make them uncomfortable. My success is unknown to many in my natal district, this kind of accomplish would scare the hell out of them.

I think the scariest part of writing is when you know that publishing exposes you. People will readily assume things about you and what you are about based on what you wrote. They will attack you if your writing does not reflect their viewpoint because it is so much easier to make it personal than to rationalize what you wrote.

My deviation from the standard Caribbean or Jamaican literature has not really brook any respect from my peers. I am not a good writer. I am a novelist. I write what i feel. I do not know anything about technique than what i learnt at Sixth Form doing my A-levels. I write stories. I write about life. I have no other glamorous accomplishment to speak of so in my interviews do not ask me about what i have done with my life or if my writings are justified by a piece of paper a professional handed me stating i am licensed to do this.

My stories are not entirely fictional, they are for the most part influenced by real life events. My overactive imagination compensates for the banality of my existence and i suppose some other soul within my culture, children of my own socialization would benefit from a respite from this reproached reality.

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Interview with Crystal Evans

Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?

Yes. I was in High School and i started writing a historical romance based on slavery. A fascinating story that i hope to complete one day.

What is your writing process?
It is largely influenced by my mood and my experiences on a day to day basis. I believe a reader can identify with a story that speaks to his every day life. He can find somebody within that story from his life to relate to.

Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?

Yes i do remember my first story but the first book that i read that impacted my life was Harper Lee's " To kill a Mocking Bird". Being of Caribbean heritage and living in a post colonial society, studying caribbean history, that book spoke volumes about race and injustice in this hemisphere. The Book made me cry.

How do you approach cover design?
hahha. Am not very good at graphics. But i like art and i like deeper meanings..so i try as much as possible to promote what i have in the book on the cover as they say a picture says a thousand words.

What are your five favorite books, and why?
"To Kill a MockingBird" By Harper Lee
"Green Days by the River" By, Micheal Anthony
" The School Master" By Earl Lovelace
"The Philosophies of Marcus Garvey"
"The Voice of the Jamaican Ghetto" Adidjah Palmer aka Vybz Kartel

What do you read for pleasure?
Harlequinns, Mills and Boons, I like short Romance Novels

What is your e-reading device of choice?

Definitely a Google Nexus, Kindle or Kobo App

What book marketing techniques have been most effective for you?
Blogging.

Describe your desk
My desk has my music, My laptop, a burning incense, my iphone, my tablet, a drink of herbal tea, a cup of water and numerous typing sheet and pencils, last but not least my favorite book.

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in small rural community in Westmoreland, Jamaica. We have a lot of canefields and rivers, with small moutains. I remember a few tragedies that happened in my area that forced me as a child to look at society differently. A young man i knew was shot by the police for urinating near a car. I remembered hearing how he was killed over some woman. And i guess that's the first time i thought police weren't as safe as those police men books i read at the primary school i attended. I was in my bed and the gunshots woke me up. It happened at a dead yard a few houses from where i lived.

A little boy that frequent the standpipe we went to as children to fetch water, drowned in a "two sister" river. That was very tragic because as child, it never occurred to me that children died too. I was at the age of around eight coming face to face for the first time with my own mortality. I remembered the funeral, in particular the graves, everything else is blurry but i remember the bands and my grandmother singing the protestant hymns and the church members reverie as they sent home another soul.

Life was good as child, I played ball with my sister and cousins, I went to the nieghbours yard and played "Dolly House" with the children, We had weddings and married each other with "Bulla cake and water". My childhood was fun and my grandmother provided for us. We were very happy as kids. My teenage years were tumultuous and am still getting over that phase at twenty five.

Coming from a lower socio-economic family, and Growing up a working class community, i know a thing about humanity at its most basal level, unfiltered by exposure to education or progressive values. I know what "ghetto People" are intrinsically like because i am child of that process. I am very much affected by the way i was socialised.

When did you first start writing?
When i was about fourteen or so. I discovered i liked my imagination. I daydreamed a lot and i wanted to share my inner world with the outside world.
What's the story behind your latest book?

The Barn Raiders is actually taken from Anthony "B"s song, "Nobody want to plant the corn, everybody want to raid the barn." He is one of my favorite vintage reggae artiste. The book is basically about notions of people i grew up with and some i meet where we all want to be successful and we are only happy for the progress of others if we somehow believe we have something to gain. Your friend can become successful if you are allowed to enjoy his success through proxy. People love you until you become their competition.

What motivated you to become an indie author?
I am penniless therefore going the route of paying for a publication is expensive. But i got help, financially from alot of people i have met over the years and i am eternally grateful to them. Francesca Tisot, Ron Ricketts, Owen Salmon, Lorette Simpson, Tyrese, Livingston Brown.

But my niche is growing.

What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
Reading it over and wondering if i wrote all of that. There is something about when you right, it transcends you to a different place. And when you come out of that "place" you wonder if that person was you or somebody else?

What do your fans mean to you?
Well i love my readers. I have blog that for a small niche like Jamaican Literature i get a couple thousand visitors per month. So i am grateful to the people who keep coming back. The first book i sold, i was happy because a complete stranger wanted to take time out of their schedule to hear what i have to say, to become assimilated in the runnings of my waton imagination.

What are you working on next?
Historical Romance and The Barn Raiders
When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?

I like to party. I live in Jamaica so i love the beach, the music, the vibe and the rum.

Crystal Evans is still blogging, working on several novels and book commentaries. She is the mother of a beautiful little girl.

She is currently Working on Four Novels
The Bunna Man
Killer Pussy
Steppa
Scammer Man