Renee interviews author Mark Wayne Adams

Tags

arts, books, children, inspiration, school, Writer

Author and illustrator for 50+ books for children in grades K-12, Mark Wayne Adams is President-Elect of the Florida Authors & Publishers Association. However, his greatest talent may be his willingness to share his knowledge of the publishing industry with other authors – like me! Whenever we meet for coffee, I learn something new from Mark.

Tell me about your background. Where you grew up, where you live now, education, work experience? Share some interesting things about yourself that we should know about.

Dawson Springs, Kentucky is my hometown, however our family’s home is eight miles outta town, near Pennyrile Resort State Park entrance. Most residents called this mile marker “the middle of nowhere.”

What inspired you to write this book? What is the story behind the story?

OUTBACK: Bothers & Sinisters inspiration came from pet names. A brother is a bother, and sisters have sinister plans for sibling life. While researching this book during my book tours, I realized that most siblings had similar feelings about their own brothers and sisters. I also discovered almost every parent requires kids to play “out back” because it was safer than playing “out front” of their homes. This was the case for me as well. The gently sloping Highway 109 at the end of our driveway enticed drivers to speed past. Many a country dog lost its life playing tire tag in that quarter of a mile stretch.

What has been your biggest challenge or obstacle?

Filtering story facts from fiction was one of the biggest challenges. I finally came to terms that Driew, the protagonist, had to live his own life in Dawson Springs—fiction. The environments he lives within is a compilation of the environments any resident or tourist would experience—fact. By doing this, Driew’s character has become a part of the community history.

What has been your biggest “aha” moment or success?

My biggest “aha moment” for OUTBACK: Bothers & Sinisters came while attending the Amelia Island Authors in Schools program where the students received the book prior to my visit. Most students ask where I’m from, which I reply, “Dawson Springs, Kentucky, does anyone know where that is?” Every hand in the room raised. They knew my middle of nowhere town, because Driew lived there too.

What authors do you like to read? What books have had a strong influence on you or your writing?

As an illustrator, I refine my skills practicing with drawing books like The Animator’s Survival Kit. I do the same for my writing using editor guides like Fire Up Your Fiction. At any experience level in drawing and writing, I’ve found room for improvement. Most of my reference books have dog eared pages, penciled notes, and highlighted phrases for quick reference.

Do you write every single day? Any writing rituals?

A resounding yes! Writing has become a 24/7 exercise. From correspondence with clients, social media posts, texting, and writing for work, writing is a craft I should have mastered in elementary school. Then I wouldn’t spend most of my day editing the above.

What are your interests outside of writing?

Some people may not know, my full-time career is K–12 Book Illustrator. I’ve incorporated my love of writing by compiling my ideas and inspiration within my Best Sketchbook. In the past decade, I’ve filled 52 sketchbooks with ideas—11,648 pages.

Share some tips for other Authors or Aspiring Authors: What would you do differently? What would you do the same? Please share anything you think would be beneficial to those reading this.

One tip for authors writing for K–12 readers would be to implement techniques from Schools: A Niche Market for Authors. Including educational resources within your books, helps them become classroom-friendly reads.

 

To suggest an author interview, email rgarrison@bestversionmedia.com

Renee interviews author Evelyne Holingue

Tags

author, books, inspiration, Life, Paris, writing

I met Evelyne when we both participated in a Panel Discussion at the Author Extravaganza in Jacksonville, Florida. Her delightful French accent inspired me to learn more of her story.

Tell me about your background. Where you grew up, where you live now, education, work experience? Share some interesting things about yourself that we should know about.

I was born and brought up in Normandy, France. As a grad student I moved to Paris where I worked in the publishing industry before following my husband to California.
As anyone can imagine this decision had a huge immediate impact on my professional life. First, I had to learn how to speak English. Someone once told me that fluency requires twenty years. It seems exaggerated, but it certainly requires lots of practice to learn how to speak, to read, and to write in a foreign language acquired in adulthood. I owe a lot to my born-American kids who took the role of teachers. As challenging and frustrating as it was sometimes, I think it helped me develop resilience and humility.

What inspired you to write these books? What is the story behind the story?

Trapped in Paris is a young adult contemporary thriller set in Paris and the Parisian suburbs. The story is inspired by the true eruption of a volcano in Iceland in April 2010, a day after one of my children had returned from France. This eruption shut down all air traffic and for days people were trapped in European airports.

Chronicles From Château Moines is a middle grade historical novel set in the early 1970s in Normandy. My love for music and history are behind this story, that braids American and French cultures via the alternating narratives of 12-year-old classmates Scott and Sylvie.

What has been your biggest challenge or obstacle?

English remains a second language, so I am always a little guarded when I start. I need to remind myself to let go and write. Corrections and revisions will arrive soon enough. 

What has been your biggest “aha” moment or success?

My very first published story in Spider Magazine remains a very special memory. As a kid I had seen my name printed in a local newspaper when a poem I wrote had been selected. But to see it again here, in the USA, as an immigrant, was a proud moment.

What authors do you like to read? What books have had a strong influence on you or your writing?

My favorites from my schooling in France are Zola, Maupassant and Camus. Now, I mostly read American children’s literature, from Picture Books to Young Adult. There are too many authors I love and admire to name all of them. My most favorite Young Adult author today remains A.S. King who also wrote recently a terrific middle grade book under her full name Amy King.
For Picture Books I love Oliver Jeffers, particularly his latest: Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth.
Do you write every single day? Any writing rituals?

I pretty much write every day, but not necessary fiction. I blog in French and English once a week, for fun and discipline too. I write better in the morning than at night. After dinner I read, go through my critique partners’ chapters, and write down ideas or a tomorrow-to-do list, often too ambitious 

What are your interests outside of writing?

Since reading is my #1 favorite activity, I love libraries and bookshops. Then, I love the outdoors, so I walk every morning, almost always with my husband before work. I also practice yoga on a very regular basis too. And I enjoy taking care of our backyard and the front too I love nurseries almost as much as bookstores.

Share some tips for other Authors or Aspiring Authors: What would you do differently? What would you do the same?

I have not been able to stay away from writing, even when I tried in moments of discouragement. Nobody forced me to write. Nobody told me it was easy.
There is a huge difference between writing and the publishing business.
In the first place, though, there is a story to tell, so while I write this story I think it’s best to forget about the business part. It will come soon enough.
Also, the first draft is not the final result, but it is necessary, so I think it’s important to respect a first draft, to let it simmer for a few weeks before returning to it and starting a new draft.

 

 

Renee interviews author Brad Meltzer

Tags

author, books, creativity, Florida, writing

Photo by PLGould/Images

Today Brad Meltzer releases The Escape Artist, his first new thriller in almost three years. He’s the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Inner Circle (and its sequels, The Fifth Assassin and The President’s Shadow) which are based on the idea that George Washington’s personal spy ring still exists today. Brad has written nine other bestselling thrillers including The Tenth Justice, The First Counsel, and The Millionaires in the 20 years since his first book came out. I interviewed Brad at Book Expo America and we’ve stayed in touch.

Tell me about your background. Where you grew up, where you live now, education, work experience?
I was raised in Brooklyn and Miami, graduated from the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School. The Tenth Justice was my first published work and became an instant New York Times bestseller. Dead Even followed a year later and also hit the New York Times bestseller list, as have all eight of my novels.
I currently live in South Florida with my wife, who’s also an attorney.

What inspired you to write this book? What is the story behind the story?
For the past three years, the government has given me access to a place I never thought they’d let me sneak into. Not sure if you know about Dover Air Force Base, but it’s the mortuary for the US government’s most top-secret and high-profile cases.

On 9/11, the victims of the Pentagon attack were brought there. So were the victims of the attack on the USS Cole, the astronauts from the space shuttle Columbia, and the remains of well over fifty thousand soldiers and CIA operatives who fought in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and every secret location in between. Indeed, in Delaware of all places, at Dover Air Force Base, is America’s most important funeral home.

In this world where so much of the government is a mess, Dover is the one place that does it absolutely right. It is the one “no-fail mission” in the military. When a soldier’s body comes home, you don’t mess it up. And so, I’ve seen the stories of the morticians who rebuild hands (rather than giving a fake prosthesis), so that a mother can hold her son’s hand one final time…or where they spend fourteen straight hours wiring together a fallen soldier’s shattered jaw, then smoothing it over with clay and makeup, just so they could give his parents far more ease than they ever should’ve expected at their son’s funeral. And in today’s world, we need real heroes. The people here are the real deal.

What has been your most intriguing discovery in writing this book?
The book focuses on one of the most obscure jobs in the Army: The so-called “Artist In Residence.” Since World War I, the Army has assigned one person—an actual artist—who they send out in the field to, well…paint what couldn’t otherwise be seen. It’s one of the greatest traditions in our military—they call them war artists. They go, they see, they paint, cataloguing every victory and mistake, from the dead on D-day, to the injured at Mogadishu, to the sandbag pilers who were at Hurricane Katrina. In fact, when 9/11 hit, that was the only artist let inside the security perimeter. Sure, we have plenty of photographers and videographers. But what an artist does is different. Photographers take a picture. Artists…when they widen eyes and make rucksacks bigger…they tell a story.

What has been your biggest “aha” moment or success?
The Hollywood Reporter recently put me on their list of Hollywood’s 25 Most Powerful Authors. But before The Tenth Justice was published, I got 24 rejection letters for my true first novel, which still sits on my shelf, published by Kinko’s. I believe that ordinary people change the world, and it is that core belief that runs through every one of my projects.

What are your interests outside of writing?
I host “Brad Meltzer’s Lost History” on H2 and “Brad Meltzer’s Decoded” on the History Channel.

 

 

Renee Garrison is the award-winning author of The Anchor Clankers.