Tell us about The Surrogate.

The Surrogate starts with Tristan Sheppard, a 30 something bachelor, living a shallow existence, bouncing from one relationship to the next. Lonely, he dreams of becoming a father, only he doesn’t want a mother. The Surrogate follows the story of Tristan as he tries to become a father, he doesn’t realise what he is getting himself into when he meets the titular surrogate, Marie McDonald, who agrees to be the mother of his child for her own financial gain.

What genre is it?

It’s sort of difficult to pin it down to one genre. It’s part chick-lit, part humour. It’s essentially about relationships, but it’s told from a man’s point of view, which I think, marks it out as a little different.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?

I never really had a target audience when I was writing it, but I’ve had feedback from all types of people that they like it; mothers, young women, young men, fathers. I think there is a little something for everyone in it. Unless you like books about vampires. There are no vampires in it.

Complete this sentence: If you like ________________ you’ll love The Surrogate.

Tough one. I could say Nick Hornby, but that would be a bit big-headed of me.  I suppose I’ll say if you like puppies you’ll love The Surrogate. Everybody likes puppies don’t they?

If The Surrogate was turned into a movie, who would play lead character Tristan Sheppard?

Lots of people have told me they see a young Hugh Grant as Tristan. If I was going for an Americanized version it would probably be Bradley Cooper.

How can you tell when what you’ve written would be funny to others and not just to you?

I can’t. There are some parts of the book I thought were hilarious that people never mention and others that made people laugh that weren’t intentional. I think you hope that you’ll make people laugh, but at the end of the day different people laugh at different things.

What is the best thing about being a writer?

Being able to go to work in your underpants.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Writing is just my part-time job really. My day job is as a Sociology lecturer in a Further education college in the North of England. I live with my long-suffering girlfriend Joanne. We are expecting our first child in January 2013.

Have you got a site where readers can keep up with your work?

www.cjevans.co.uk

Where can people buy your books?

Amazon – UK, USA –  Kobo, iBook, Barnes and Noble, all the usual places.

What’s next?

Fatherhood is my next big project, which is highly ironic given the nature of The Surrogate. Hopefully I will have a sequel to The surrogate out early next year (if I can find time between nappy changes) and another novel There is a light that never goes out is in the editing stages now for release in the New Year.