Super big welcomes to Echelon Author Yvonne Eve Walus! Please enjoy learning more about her and check out her work!
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hello and thank you for having me on this blog. My name is Yvonne Walus, and I write murder mysteries set in South Africa. I’m a set of contradictions, really. Originally Polish, I write in English. I’m a mathematician and I write books. I live in New Zealand, yet my heart is in South Africa.
Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?
I was lucky to find Echelon Press when they were still taking new authors and I was equally lucky that the editor wanted to take a chance on my quirky books.
What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
The criticism is actually a compliment: that the characters in my books are not South African enough. This means, of course, that readers all over the world can relate to them.
Do you have any advice to give to aspiring writers?
Ask yourself why you write: to please yourself, to please the reader, or to make money.
Is there anything that you would like to say to your readers and fans?
I write my South African murder mysteries to please myself. Hope you like them as much as I do!
What’s coming soon?
I’ve just spent two days in an absolutely amazing hotel in Cape Town, New Zealand – the Mount Nelson Hotel. Soaked in history and dating back to the 1800s, the hotel is colonial in architecture and modern in conveniences such as aircon and wifi. It is just the absolutely perfect background for a James Bond type of a thriller, and my next book will definitely be set there.
FUN QUESTIONS!
Do you have deep dark secret?
Yes.
How about a shallow grey one?
Yes.
What sort of coffee would you order? Simple coffee, complicated soy-non-fat-extra-espresso-half-caff-nightmare?
No milk or sugar. Loose-leaf, preferably earl grey.
Is there any food you refuse to eat? (Other than brussel sprouts because NO ONE likes them)
I’ll eat brussel sprouts. Not my favourite food on earth, but I’ll cope. I’ve eaten bird soup, shark fins and a durian. . Once I even ate mopane worms (http://lodges.safari.co.za/African_Travel_Articles-travel/mopane-worms.html) – after all, I do write about Africa. Won’t eat squirrel or pigeon, though.
If you could live off of chocolate would you? What kind?
My favourite is Lindt chocolate, the light brown kind. I can easily eat 200g or more of it a day… provided that’s not the only thing I eat. I was once touring Europe on a shoestring budget, with only chocolate in my backpack. After 6 days of the exclusive chocolate diet, I lost 3kg. On Day 7, I chose to eat nothing rather than another slab of chocolate.
Have you every done anything really crazy?
Does skydiving count?
Do you regret it?
No. Won’t do it again in a hurry, though.
Do you like making up strange
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