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Assistant professor Michael Evans’ book, 68 Knots, was published last fall.

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Journalists spend their time dealing in facts, writing about the everyday truths of government and society.  But a number of them will tell you they dream of leaving the facts behind for a big fat helping of fiction. Now, a member of the School of Journalism faculty is making his own foray into young adult literature.

Assistant professor Michael Evans’ book, 68 Knots, published in October, is a novel aimed at the young adult market. An ethnographer who teaches journalism as well as studies how particular populations practice it, Evans said he enjoys what he does, but he’s always dreamed of writing a novel.

“My plan was to have my first novel published by the time I was 30,” Evans said.  “I missed that by about 18 years, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.  You have to do some living before you have a lot to say.”

And a lot of what Evans says in his new book comes directly from that living he’s done. 68 Knots is a young adult novel that follows eight teenagers forced to fend for themselves when the leader of their sailing camp commits suicide.  The teens give him a burial at sea and for the next 68 days sail on their own, doing a lot of growing up along the way.

“I did a lot of this myself in a training school for kids,” Evans said.  “We were at sea for 26 days, had to live off the land.  A lot of the basics for this I did and that’s how I got the idea for this setting.”

Evans said the novel, which has been published by Terre Haute-based Tanglewood Press, might never have seen the light of day were it not for a bit of serendipity.  Evans met publisher Peggy Tierney at church and asked her to look at his manuscript.  Tierney, in an e-mail interview, said she was reluctant to read it at first.

“I read so many stories that are fine, even good, but they are just not good enough to take the huge financial risk that the book will be able to compete in the national market,” Tierney said.  “I just didn’t have high expectations that Michael’s novel would be any different. I had never met him before, and I knew very little about his writing background. Then I began reading it and couldn’t stop. I finished and felt that, with editing, it wouldn’t just be a decent book, but that it could be a great book. I have now ended up with a book I feel honored to have published.”

And the honors for 68 Knots are rolling in, she said.

“I think there has only been one reviewer who didn’t like the book so much, and I think the reviewer didn’t understand it,” Tierney said.  “Even Harry Potter has a substantial number of critics. There were many reviewers who loved it. The fact that it was adopted by BookSense is a huge compliment to it. The independent booksellers know their books and recognized a great book when they saw it.”

Tierney said she’d love to work with Evans again, and she just might get the chance. Evans said his next novel is geared toward more mature readers but hasn’t found a publisher yet.

“As a journalist I do a lot of work with non-fiction,” Evans said.  “I want to play around with reality.  In fiction, you can just make it up.”

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