Maz Evans in conversation about humour, chaotic gods and her writing future

It has been six years since Maz Evans burst onto the children’s publishing scene with an unforgettable performance at a Chicken House breakfast and a brilliantly hilarious series about the Greek gods (which began with Who Let the Gods Out?). This means that, amazingly, the author now meets fans of her books who, despite reading the middle-grade series as children, now work in bookshops themselves.

Oh Maya Gods!, the first book in a new trilogy adjacent to her first series, sees Vesper, Elliot’s football-mad adopted daughter and Aster, Virgo’s sweet but anxious son, come head-to-head with Kizin, a Maya god of death. The idea had been percolating for a while, says Evans, who was aware of how fast her fans were growing up. “It’s all very well going away for 20 years and coming back again, but no one would remember my book,” she laughs. “It felt like the right time to put out a strike.”

In this new adventure, Aster and Virgo come to stay with Elliot and Vesper on the farm, much to Vesper’s disgust. Virgo comes across Thanatos (he who caused so much chaos in the first series) and a chain of events lead to Vesper and Aster facing Kizin in a game of pok-a-tok, a fast-paced, Mesoamerican ball game.

You need character-based humour. I’m a great believer in throwing in everything and seeing what sticks

Because Evans is referring back to the Greek gods series (as well as ensuring the book makes sense to readers who are new to the world), there are a lot of different plot threads to manage, with guest appearances from Zeus and Hermes,  but also a taste of what is to come in the rest of the trilogy with the appearance of the Egyptian gods and Morgan Le Fay. And the nephew of the dreaded Patricia Porshley-Plum goes into business with Elliot, suggesting the family’s struggle to ensure their farm is profitable is far from over.

To keep all of the threads together Evans plotted out the entire trilogy before writing a single word, making sure all the seeds were sown to make the series hang together in a satisfying way. “If all that heavy lifting of the mechanical stuff is done, it frees up my brain to do the creative stuff. I find that when I’ve got the nuts and bolts in place, that’s when my brain can play with the really fun stuff.”

Having a laugh

Is the fun stuff making jokes? The humour of the books is what comes easiest, she says, although making them funny is daunting. People give more latitude to dramatic books, which can be frightening when doing comedy, she says. “I try to put in situational humour, quips and banter, but you can’t rely on that because it stops being funny quite quickly. You need big, elaborate set-ups. You need running gags. You need character-based humour. I’m a great believer in throwing in everything and seeing what sticks.”

Inspiration is taken from real life, too, and Evans hoots when I tell her I liked a joke about a parent watching the wrong child’s football match. “That was me! My son was playing rugby and I missed the first bit. I’m there cheering him on and it wasn’t until half-time I felt his hand on my shoulder. I was literally standing at the wrong pitch cheering on a kid I thought was my child.”

Initial success

Who Let the Gods Out? was a big hit with readers when it was first published in 2017. It was a Waterstones Book of the Month and continues to be popular in schools, but Evans’ route to becoming a traditionally published author was a circuitous one. She first started writing after having children, when freelance journalism wasn’t paying the bills, but her agency, David Higham Associates, wasn’t keen on the first version of the story she wrote. She then set up Story Stew, a business doing creative writing workshops in schools, and self-published Elliot and the Immortals, as it was then known. After the book sold 2,000 copies, someone from her agency suggested agent Veronique Baxter should take a look. Evans sent Baxter the book on Monday and by Tuesday, Baxter had taken her on.

Once you’ve had your initial publication push, it’s largely down to the hustle

Evans says her journey was “very odd” but self-publishing was fantastic preparation for being an author.  “Once you’ve had your initial publication push, it’s largely down to the hustle. Unless you are one of the fortunate authors and your book takes off and let’s be honest, in a crowded market there aren’t that many of those, it really is about getting out there and selling a product. And having been a self-published author, that kind of gave me the confidence and the understanding to do that.”

Chicken House was wonderful, too, and even though there was a lot of interest in the book, Barry Cunningham [founder and m.d.] and his team “came out strong. I got very lucky with Rachel Leyshon. She has been my editor for 10 years now. She absolute fought for that book and they made it a lead title.” Since then Evans has dipped into books for other age groups, including the Scarlett Fife series for six to nine-year-olds (Hodder), and she is making a move into adult publishing with a soon-to-be-released novel, out in August. Over My Dead Body, which will be published by Headline, is about a dead woman who has to work with her neighbour and nemesis to find out who killed her. “Headline have so much passion for the book and to have a publisher who is really behind it is fantastic. [The title] does what I enjoy, which is making people laugh but also making them cry. It’s whimsical, but hopefully it has something to say.”