Q. What cultural value do you see in writing/reading/storytelling/etc.?
A. I see writing as a great communication tool. It passes forward knowledge to the next generation and entertains our time on Earth. Knowledge is a path to world peace, learning about each other’s culture’s and ways, it prevents fear from taking over and causing chaos and destruction. Fear rules at the moment, people do not have an understanding at the moment. When you read, when you communicate, you have the ability then to learn and understand. Communication is key. One can learn so much about other culture’s and parts of the world they may never visit. Understanding is better than fear. fear prevents us from taking appropriate action. Travel does truly expand the soul, reading expands the mind. Storytelling has been with us humans since the dawn of our species and it is the single most important element in a book as communication has been the greatest invention of our species. The written word is a form of communication. Reading is especially important for the development of our minds. Children reading is so important and I have a series out at the moment under Adventure Gamebooks that helps to develop children’s decision-making skills, problem solving skills and numeracy skills. They decide how the story will turn out and must face the consequences of their actions. It allows them to learn about consequences and rewards them when they make the right one. They come complete with a ruling system for a challenging read. To create a story is to create life.
Q. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
A. All my books are written out of sequence. They are read not from cover to cover, from paragraph to paragraph. My books are not linear to read and requires the reader to change pages constantly depending on the decision they make. Therefore, my books require careful planning and mapping out before writing. The hardest part of writing the book is going over the first pass, the first edit. Once written out completely, I read it and try and put on my first-time eyes on the written material. Even though I have just finished writing it, I need to see it as a new reader. It is so hard to separate myself like that. Then I can hand it over to the editing team for them to look over. They always find some things that are not correct. I find coming up with the ideas the easiest. Sometimes I have to focus my mind and prevent my mind from creating situations and characters. It sounds crazy maybe as I see so many writers have writers block, that has never happened to me, in fact, quite the opposite.
Q. Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?
A. I am a full-time writer, I have several projects in different phases on the go at all times and have a strategy for completing these projects in a timely manner to meet deadlines from the publisher. Currently I have one book launching next month, then another in the summer and again a third in the winter. Next year I will be having a book launched every month! I am writing three books at the same time currently, I have another four in development and planning a further three right now for the future. Only recently have I been full time writing, I used to be part time. The past 15 years it has been part time, I spent years simply building up a library of work that is all in rough draft. Some of the material I can work through and release in the current series, although most of it isn’t suitable for the current series I am working on. They will need to be released as standalone books once finished. I love creating characters, putting them in interesting locations and giving them exciting actions to perform. Whatever serves the story the best.
Q. How do you find or make time to write?
A. I plan out my time carefully as I also still have photography clients from my previous job to perform. I set out certain days for writing certain materials or creating character sheets. In the past I used to spend days setting up a load of research material for myself that I can use now, to aid in the writing process. I have sheets of paper I use, one of them for example has hundreds of locations written on it, like field, castle, caves, forest, etc, etc. No names of any actual places, just, village, city or town. Then when I am creating a story for the first time, I go and pick out the elements I need for the story from the pre-written list. It frees up my mind to concentrate on actual story then and not get bogged down by the details. I don’t need to waste time on trivial ideas. I have one for character names, another for plot points and another for themes. There are others I use to help me and they are always getting updated when I see something that is not on them. It’s a kind of pick n mix story creation machine thing, but it works for me. It really allows me to focus on what I need too. There are so many mechanics like that which help me complete a book. Maybe I should write a book about it. Plan for success. Take action for the future.
Q. What do your plans for future projects include?
A. Future plans are to keep on creating books for the mini series called 100. I write for myself and my children really. I am not interested in creating a book because the subject matter is current or popular. I don’t write to sell, I write for amusement. I know that probably sounds bad as a writer, but I would write books even if no one was buying them. I enjoy the whole process so much and have so much in me to come out. It’s kind of like exercising demons I guess. It helps clear the head. In the future I shall carry on creating books for the expanded series that feature illustrations (and are about 5 times bigger than the mini-series) as well as that I am also planning out a new series for next year called Training, which is a tie in to the current series. I am also slowly working through my vault of work and looking to write novels from them, I have about 10 ideas that could be put into a single series and about 20 separate ideas for single releases. I may also create some audio books of other pieces of work of mine. I have a FREE book out at the moment called “Story…and how to write one”, it helps writers and showcases my method for creating a story. It also details the 7 basic story plots that are available to a writer and simplifies the process of story creation. It is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble worldwide right now.
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About the Author
Adam is published in English in the US, UK and Australia, and his works have been widely translated.
He enjoys writing, playing the piano and learning to fly. He also loves listening to music and has been told by his niece that he is ‘the funny, kind uncle’. He first got into writing when he was 13 and his mother bought him a typewriter.
Currently he enjoys the books he used to read as a young man. His favourite author is Stephen King and his favourite type of writing is fiction.
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