Hardin County native authors his first novel

Hal Evans fell in love with writing at an early age. He had two children’s books published and last month released a young adult novel.

Evans, who resides in Cypress, returned to his Hardin County roots for a couple of appearances at the Silsbee and Kountze Public Libraries for book talks and book signings for his childrens book and his first novel, “Come Day in Night.” The stops were part of a three-state tour that started July 2 in Houston and ends in late August.

According to Evans, it took a little over a month to write the book and another two years of pre-editing before the 320-page book was released on June 28.

The author said he got the idea about the book from a one-act play he was writing, but stated the pre-write, notes and ideas developed over a couple of years.

“Notes on napkins and just little things recorded on the phone as I’m driving. Then I pieced that all together to write the play. The play I will get written,” said Evans.

He said he sat down and started to write the play because he finally had time to write due to the COVID pandemic, and the play was going to be called “Wheels on the Bus.”

“I was going to write this play and it was the summer of 2020. I wasn’t going to work in schools, theater companies were closed and I couldn’t do my travel stuff because I host trips to the United Kingdom and Ireland,” Evans said. “So I thought, what the heck, I’ve never written a novel, so let’s give it a go. After 33 days of getting up a 4 a.m. and writing to noon, taking a break for lunch then writing until I fell asleep, that’s how it went. The rewrites were hundreds of more hours. They made me put the pin down in December.”

According to Evans, his novel is about a white high school student, Sam White Jr., who is asked to start playing at the Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church – a predominantly Black church – on Sundays in a small Texas town.

“It takes place in a fictional town called Silton. But is an amalgamation of towns and experiences in Southeast Texas,” he said. “The book takes place in an eight-week period in 1968. It begins on the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination and ends a week before the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.”

According to Evans, in the book, “Tensions begin to heighten Silton that refuses to acknowledge there place in the Civil Rights era. Sam begins to question the morality of his own family’s ties to the Confederacy when his Black classmates reveal their family histories.

“Sam’s father takes him to a KKK rally to set his son straight, an act that does nothing to change Sam’s stance. He then begins to speak out against the strong racial dogma apparent in his town, spurring several attacks on himself and his friends.

“Meanwhile, Sam’s mother remains locked in a mental asylum for reasons he does not know. Family relationships are tried and new friendships unfold in this coming-of-age story about racial tension and doing what is right during hardship and iniquity.”

Evans noted his publisher, Brown Book Publishing Group in Dallas, is working on the possibility of getting the book made into a movie.

“If it was a movie, I would label it PG-13,” he said.

Evans noted, that due to supply and demand, several bookstores, including Barnes & Noble, do not have his book yet. “But they will,” he added.

Evans has two main occupations. He has served as a teaching artist for several school districts for the past 25 years.

“My specialties are art integration, which means I go in and teach a group. For example, I go in and teach fourth-grade math but use theater games to do it,” he explained. “I’m actually demonstrating to teachers the different approaches to deliver the content that works faster and more accurately.”

His other occupation and expertise – which put him on the map in the 1990s – is being a “Shakespearean expert.”

“So Shakespeare is kind of my thing. My personal library has over 1,300 books on Shakespeare,” he added. “I can’t say I’ve read them all. I read all of part and part of all.”

Besides being an author, he’s also an actor. In the mid-1990s, Evan played in a couple of episodes of “Walker, Texas Ranger,” a TV series.

“I played a bad guy. I had long dark hair, and a dark beard,” he added. “And I was one inch shorter than Chuck Norris. They enjoyed hiring shorter guys. I was what they called an unfeatured extra, which means I had lines but no credits. They didn’t put my name on the screen.”

But he’s always focused more on live theater.

“I’ve have directed more than 150 plays in the last 30 years, and acted in about 100,” he said.

Evans said he had two dozen of his plays produced from Houston to London, England. He also serves as a one-act play judge for the University Interscholastic League (UIL).

His first two books were children’s poetry.

“One (If I Wasn’t Me) sold really well and is out of print,” he said. “My new publisher wants to re-release the book this coming spring and I’ll do an audiobook for it.”

His other children’s book is “Artyfacts,” and he’s planning for a second book in the series.

Evans said his passion for learning began with his parents.

“They were both educators,” he said.

In his first year at Kirby Elementary School in Silsbee, Evans said he was a “near-sight 8-year-old” in the third grade.

“My love of writing started in Mrs. Markham’s third-grade class. That’s when my first attempt at a short story won recognition, from her student teacher, Miss Bockstanz,” he said.

The following year, Evans said he was under Mrs. Morgan.

“That thrill transferred onto writing assignments with an eagerness that continued into fourth grade with Mrs. Morgan and progressed toward destiny from there.”

Evans said he discovered Shakespeare in sixth-grade social studies, and then “it was on.”

“The power of words still fascinates and flabbergasts me every day,” he said.

He was born in Huntsville to the the late Gene and Bety Evans. The family moved to Silsbee when he was 8 years old. His mother taught in Silsbee ISD for more than 25 years and his father taught agriculture.

While at SHS, Evans was involved in band, choir, theater and was president of the Creative Writing Club. After graduation, he attended Lamar University and earned his bachelor’s degree in English. He later attended seminary to become a Methodist minister for several years.

He added there’s another novel in the works – a murder mystery. Evans has also written and illustrated eight more children’s books to be published.