Kate Evangelista: To get a Taste of your dream, you must follow your heart

For the past few years, Kate Evangelista has been living by one principle: Life is too short to not follow your heart and do what you want, so just go ahead and do it.  

 

It takes guts to stick with such an inherently risky principle, but it made her biggest dream a reality—she is now a published writer.  Her debut novel, a young adult paranormal romance titled “Taste,” was recently released by U.S.-based publisher Crescent Moon Press.  

"Taste", a young adult paranormal romance novel by Filipino author Kate Evangelista, was recently released by U.S.-based publisher Crescent Moon Press. It is Evangelista's debut novel. 

 

When she was in high school, Evangelista discovered that she had a talent for writing.

 

“My 2nd year English teacher gave us an assignment to write a story.  I enjoyed writing it, and my teacher said ‘you know what, you might have something here,’” she recalled.  “Since then, I started writing stories.  I type them up using my dad’s electric typewriter, and I would even buy special paper and bind the pages.  My friends would pass the stories around, bad grammar, bad spelling, and all.  I didn’t even know how to format the stories properly.  But it was euphoric knowing that people were reading my stories; I liked that feeling.”

 

Despite how she felt about writing, though, Evangelista never considered it as a viable career back then.

 

“I grew up with the mentality that if you become a doctor, you're made for life,” she admitted.  “Every time someone would ask what I was going to take in college I say medicine.”

 

After a year in a pre-med course, she realized that her heart was not in her studies, so she decided to shift to literature.  She took a job as a teacher at a private school after graduation, and it was in the rolling hills of the school campus that she got the inspiration for what would be her first published novel.

 

Breaking curfew

 

“At around 4:30 in the afternoon, the guard would ring a bell to signal that the students have to be at the guard house to wait to be fetched.  They can't roam around campus,” Evangelista explained.  “And I thought, ‘why would they do that?’  Safe naman yung campus.  The pragmatic reason is the nuns will be at prayer.   But as a writer, I thought, ano kaya ang tinatago nila?  That’s how I got the idea that maybe something comes out at night.”

 

The beginning of “Taste” is directly inspired by that afternoon routine.  The heroine, Phoenix McKay, wakes to the tolling of bells after falling asleep in the library and realizes that she broke curfew.  She eventually discovers the reason for that strange Barinkoff Academy rule when she bumps into a bunch of mysterious students who apparently attend night classes there.  

 

The night students take an interest in Phoenix, and she is likewise riveted by their otherworldly beauty until one of them says that he wants to taste her flesh.  This encounter sets the stage for an engaging story that will take readers through the Academy’s secret passages and into an elaborate underground world that is home to a dying people who have found the key to their survival in a human girl.  

 

Wake-up call

 

But before “Taste” ever saw the light of publication day, Evangelista had to break, what most published authors would call, the “never quit your day job” rule. 

 

But that’s exactly what she did.

 

“I got to a point where I would wake up and say ‘is this what I want to do ten years from now?’  The answer was always ‘no’ until I decided I wanted to be a writer,” she recalled.  “Every day today, I wake up knowing that ten years from now, I still want to be writing stories and I still want to be sharing them with people.”

 

"Taste" author Kate Evangelista broke, what most published authors would call, the "don't quit your day job rule" in order to follow her love of writing. Photo courtesy of Kate Evangelista

“I still don't suggest you quit your day job unless you have parents who are willing to support you as a literally starving artist so that you can pursue your passion,” she added.   

 

After finishing several novels, she taught herself to send queries to agents and publishers and had to endure months of waiting for replies.

 

“It's scary,” she admitted.  “You don't have any income while you’re submitting manuscripts, and then you have to wait for months at a time just so that they can reject you.”

 

Many rejections, a challenge to the Universe, and a break-up with an agent later, Evangelista finally got an offer for “Taste”.

 

“I gave the universe a deadline—that was last year—I said if “Taste” doesn't find a home by December 2011, I will self-publish.  I think it works to give the universe deadlines,” she mused.  “By November 2011, I got an email from Crescent Moon Press, and then everything just clicked.”

 

The acquisition of “Taste” opened the door for Evangelista’s other young adult novels—“Reaping Me Softly,” “'Til Death,” and “Impulse”—to find publishers, two of whom she has signed multi-book contracts with.

 

Sales pitch

 

Even though “Taste” has been out for several months, Evangelista continues to work hard at marketing the book.

 

“A majority of authors can no longer afford to sit back and let their publishers do all their marketing for them,” she says.  “If you want your book to be read you need to get out there and market it.”

 

With the help of book bloggers and by utilizing social media, Evangelista managed to put together a decent online campaign to promote “Taste”.  However, the book’s accessibility continues to remain a challenge for most Filipino readers because of its limited local availability.  She has therefore decided to take the Christopher Paolini route and hold book launches in schools.  She also personally takes orders for the book via her website.

 

And her sales pitch for the book?

 

“If you like paranormal romance, adventure, action, and mystery, “Taste” has all of that.  It may not normally be a book that you would pick up, but it’s definitely one that you should try.” — DVM, GMA News

 

(To know more about author Kate Evangelista and her works and to find out how to purchase a copy of “Taste,” visit her official website at www.kateevangelista.com)