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CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD PAUL EVANS
Best-selling author Richard Paul Evans wrote THE LOCKET in 1998. Since then, nearly one million copies of the novel have been sold in the U.S. and it has been published in 23 other countries. His breakthrough novel was The Christmas Box (1993). Eight million copies of that work are in print, and a film based on it was the highest rated television movie of 1995. Evans was interviewed in the offices of his Christmas Box House Foundation in Salt Lake City, Utah. The foundation builds shelters and provides services for abused children.
QUESTION: How much of this novel is, in fact, based on real people and real incidents in your own life?
RICHARD PAUL EVANS: I started out writing about my grandfather. When he was in his teens, he fell in love with a young lady; but at age 18, he went away on a church mission. The young lady's pledge to him was, "I'll wait for you." Two years later, when he returned home, she'd married someone else. My granddad was heartbroken. It turned out this woman made a bad choice. After enduring three years of mental and physical abuse, she left her husband, and discreetly inquired about what had happened to my grandfather. Well, he'd found another woman and gotten married. She decided to wait and see if life would maybe give her a second chance. She started writing love letters to my grandfather, which she never mailed. She put them in a box. Two years before I wrote THE LOCKET, my grandmother died. Two weeks after that, this woman shows up at my grandfather's with a box of love letters. His childhood sweetheart had waited 70 years for her second chance! They got married. But a week later, my granddad suffered a stroke and died. I wanted to write something that would capture the essence of that extraordinary story. Of course, I didn't think anybody would believe me if I wrote `70 years,' so I made the period of time shorter. But essentially, that's Esther's story.
QUESTION: Any other true aspects?
EVANS: As I was writing this story about love and second chances, about this woman in a nursing home, I knew the story needed another element. That's when I remembered something that happened to my childhood best friend, who worked part-time in a nursing home while we were going to school. He was an incredibly compassionate guy. He had a heart of gold. On Saturdays I'd say, "Let's go to the movies." He'd say, "Let's go to the nursing home and visit the people." Anyway, he quit the job, because he was getting ready to go into the service. The week after he was gone, someone accused him of beating one of the residents to death. They'd found a dead resident, and there was evidence of bruising. There was some finger pointing, and someone said, "I saw him in the room." He was arrested and charged with murder. In the plea bargaining, they offered to let him plead manslaughter; he would have had to serve only five years. My friend was terrified. He's 19 years old. He pleads guilty to manslaughter because he thinks his only alternative is to go to prison for 20 years on a full murder charge. A week later they caught the person who actually did it. So, I had two great stories from real life, which I melded together, and THE LOCKET turned out to be one of my favorite books.
QUESTION: Are there other aspects of Michael's life that mirror your own?
EVANS: Fortunately, I had two loving parents, and my father was not an alcoholic, unlike Michael's dad. But we did go through very bad financial times, when my parents lost everything. We were moving constantly. Being in the back of an old station wagon, not knowing where you're going -- I remember that from my childhood. Living in a condemned home, with rats running around -- I remember that from my childhood. Children have irrational fears, and I wasn't immune to that. I remember thinking, "They've cut off our phones, and the power. Dad can't pay the bills. They're going to take him to jail." So, I was afraid of the police. It was irrational, but it was part of the fear of growing up. I understand Michael. I understand being on the outside. I'll never forget how my wife reacted when I told her, "I think I should ask your Dad for your hand in marriage." She said, "Please don't. He'll say no. He doesn't like you. You're just this poor kid." Well, my father-in-law and I are very close now. He's very proud of me. But it wasn't always like that.
QUESTION: Do you have a favorite scene in the book and movie?
EVANS: Well, one of my favorites, certainly, is the scene in which Michael spends Christmas Eve with Esther. That's based very much on a true story. Several years ago I was keeping my eye out for an old widow in my neighborhood. She was really a rather crabby old thing; she didn't really like me and I'm not sure if I really liked her. But my church asked me to do it, so I did it. One Christmas Eve I took my oldest daughter with me, and we went to drop off a Christmas present. I didn't think she'd be home, but I rang the doorbell anyway. Much to our surprise, she opened the door. Her hair was messy, she was wearing a robe. I asked her if she had plans for Christmas Eve. "Oh, my kids are coming to get me," she said. So my daughter and I went back to the car. I remember saying, "I don't think she's going anywhere, do you? And it's just wrong for her to be alone on Christmas Eve." We waited a while. Nobody came. So we went back, knocked again on the front door, and when she opened it I said, "You know, you have a player piano, and my daughter's never seen one. Do you think we could listen to some Christmas music?" That's what we did, for an hour and a half. Of course, her family never came. She would have been all alone if we hadn't come back. That did it. We truly were friends after that. And six months later she told me a story from her childhood that became the genesis for The Christmas Box, which went on to become one of the biggest-selling books of the century. And The Christmas Box happened because I took the time to listen to this woman -- and to care about her.
QUESTION: Because so much of this story grew out of your own experiences, was this a difficult book to write, emotionally?
EVANS: There were times writing it where I just broke down and wept. It affected me that powerfully, because I went deep within myself. I think a writer needs to do that. Certainly, I believe my readers demand that. I feel I have to give myself. I have to write about what I care about. In the case of THE LOCKET, I care desperately about these characters. By the time I'm finished, it's like I know these people. I think all writers have to be a little bit nutty, because you start living in this fictional, delusional world. It's like if Michael or Esther walked in, I'd sit down and have a conversation with them, because I know them so intimately! Sometimes characters will surprise me with what they say, with what they do, with where they go. But that's the magic of fiction. And, you know what? Usually what happens to them is truer than real life.
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