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Bishop couldn't get novel off her mind

Local writer Ev Bishop has released her first novel under her own name and her own publishing house after years of having the story in mind.
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Ev Bishop introduces the world to three characters whose voices she could hear clearly in her head and who have always felt like friends to her.

Local writer Ev Bishop has released her first novel under her own name and her own publishing house after years of having the story in mind.

Bigger Things falls under the genre of women’s fiction but Bishop says many people will find something about it to identify with.

The novel details the story of three women who have been best friends since childhood and think they know everything about each other, but when one suffers a nervous breakdown, all of their secrets are laid bare.

Battling personal dragons, confronting the past and embracing change will help them remain friends, if they can break free from the roles they’re played so long, or maybe they have to leave each other behind in order to move forward.

“This story, I’ve never been able to put out of my head,” said Bishop, adding it’s one of her first novels – she began it in 2003.

“The characters feel like friends,” she said about why she couldn’t get the story out of her mind.

Their voices always spoke to her loud and clear and it was time for the novel’s birth, said Bishop.

She put her novel out to the traditional publishing houses and while receiving very good comments on it, they repeatedly told her they didn’t know how to market it or under what genre it should be placed.

So she took the chance and dipped her toe into independent publishing, creating her own publishing house, Winding Path Books.

Bigger Things will be printed on demand, which is cost effective and more environmentally friendly.

And online booksellers have her book listed under a category, but not always the same as other online booksellers; one put it under fiction for women and one has it under drama, for example.

Bishop writes on a computer but does her editing on hard copy, finding it easier to pick up mistakes on paper than a computer screen.

Every day she writes some new words and strives to write 1,000 words a day and would like to write 2,000 words a day.

“I always get people telling me they want to write but they don’t want to start,” said Bishop.

“I invite everyone to write now and don’t worry about what, just start.”

And after publishing a novel under her pen name, Toni Sheridan, in the category of Christian inspirational romance, and being part of editing teams on anthologies, this is the first time to put her real name on something besides her columns in this newspaper once a month.

The reason for having a pen name was so she could write books that were a different genre than what she wants to write as herself.

Readers will have expectations about books by their favourite writers and expect to read a certain genre from that person.

If that writer moves to a different genre under the same name, it can be a disappointment for readers to not find what they expected between the covers.

Bishop has another title in the works under her own name and another one forthcoming under her pen name.

She says there will be an official book launch for Bigger Things this fall. More details will be coming on that in the future.

Bigger Things is on sale at Misty River Books and online in every digital format.

For a signed copy, or just to get in touch, contact her by Twitter or Facebook.