Ask the Author: Adam James
Answered Questions (6)
Adam James
The idea for my INCOGNITO espionage thriller series came from an image I had of a lone, special operator and last survivor of a top-secret, deep-cover, black-ops, post-9/11 program that had to be terminated and buried because it was unconstitutional in the first place. It's all about arrogance, betrayal and unaccountability in high places.
Adam James
I came into the world with a very active imagine. And was concocting stories and putting together books before I learned to read, which was a difficult task for me. So that's the way I have always been: inspired to write and make stuff up!
Adam James
Up front is a collection of four novellas in my INCOGNITO espionage thriller series. I just published Life on the Lam on Amazon Kindle. The second novella in the series is The Honey Trap. Third is Burning Down the House. Fourth is Red Pearl, which takes us across the Pacific Ocean into the waters of the South China Sea in pursuit of a catastrophic weapon in the hands of lunatics.
After that I will bring out the Joelene Stonehouse series. Joelene has just retired from the army after flying attack helicopters for nearly twenty years. Next her sister sets her up with a job as a runner / courier driving a hot zippy car packed full with "whatever" to destination points all over North America. Of course, Joelene's sister is married to the Mob and now Joelene is working for them, too. Bad choice and she's in trouble deep.
The first book in the series is called AVANTI, which was Joelene's callsign as a pilot. It will be an exciting ride!
After that I will bring out the Joelene Stonehouse series. Joelene has just retired from the army after flying attack helicopters for nearly twenty years. Next her sister sets her up with a job as a runner / courier driving a hot zippy car packed full with "whatever" to destination points all over North America. Of course, Joelene's sister is married to the Mob and now Joelene is working for them, too. Bad choice and she's in trouble deep.
The first book in the series is called AVANTI, which was Joelene's callsign as a pilot. It will be an exciting ride!
Adam James
The simple advice is to just write. Write about anything as much as you want. Always carry a little notebook and a pen wherever you go. Good ideas fly through you mind like a murder of crows. You gotta capture them and write them down right then, or they are gone forever. I come up with some of my best stuff in waiting rooms or just when I am out and about watching people and listening to conversations. There you get ideas and you develop a sense of how various kinds of folks talk and act.
Have a dialog with yourself and your characters. Write it all down. Now I find that I can let it flow by writing with a pen in a nice notebook. When writing on the computer I tend to want to edit and fix stuff right there and then. This interrupts the flow. Initially, don't worry about a thing. Just write your ideas as fast as possible. All this counts as "first draft" which will all need to be edited and rewritten anyway-thousands of times. That's just how it is. So get over it. I learned to self-edit when I was a technical writer and business analyst. As a writer of fiction or non-fiction pieces, you will want to work with a good editor. Ya gotta! No way around it. Appreciate what they have to say. Suck it up and deal with it. However, it is your work and you don't have to do what the editor says, simply because the editor says it. However, you do need to understand what the editor is saying and why. Then you can address what you are going to do. I am self-published, which means that I can do whatever I want. But you gotta watch out.
Here's something I heard a long time ago: Initially your piece is comprised of two stories. One is for you and the other is for the reader. During your editing, you need to identify all the stuff that you put in there for you, and get rid of it. This would include smartass remarks, pontificating, becoming overly political, etc. All that stuff interrupts the reader's flow of consciousness. This is often called the fictive dream, where you put the reader into a little bubble where the timing of your plotline and your choice of words in dialog and narrative just float the reader happily along without interruption. Read aloud what you have written. Listen to yourself.
Lastly, visualize everything in your story as much as possible. Make drawings, paintings. Find photos of scenes and character faces. Build storyboards. That's what I do. I am a visual thinker by nature. Maybe you are too.
Have a dialog with yourself and your characters. Write it all down. Now I find that I can let it flow by writing with a pen in a nice notebook. When writing on the computer I tend to want to edit and fix stuff right there and then. This interrupts the flow. Initially, don't worry about a thing. Just write your ideas as fast as possible. All this counts as "first draft" which will all need to be edited and rewritten anyway-thousands of times. That's just how it is. So get over it. I learned to self-edit when I was a technical writer and business analyst. As a writer of fiction or non-fiction pieces, you will want to work with a good editor. Ya gotta! No way around it. Appreciate what they have to say. Suck it up and deal with it. However, it is your work and you don't have to do what the editor says, simply because the editor says it. However, you do need to understand what the editor is saying and why. Then you can address what you are going to do. I am self-published, which means that I can do whatever I want. But you gotta watch out.
Here's something I heard a long time ago: Initially your piece is comprised of two stories. One is for you and the other is for the reader. During your editing, you need to identify all the stuff that you put in there for you, and get rid of it. This would include smartass remarks, pontificating, becoming overly political, etc. All that stuff interrupts the reader's flow of consciousness. This is often called the fictive dream, where you put the reader into a little bubble where the timing of your plotline and your choice of words in dialog and narrative just float the reader happily along without interruption. Read aloud what you have written. Listen to yourself.
Lastly, visualize everything in your story as much as possible. Make drawings, paintings. Find photos of scenes and character faces. Build storyboards. That's what I do. I am a visual thinker by nature. Maybe you are too.
Adam James
Living in an alternate universe. Call me koo-koo if you want, but I think that fiction is another dimension in which humans reside.
Adam James
I really don't seem to have writer's block. When I am not writing, I am doing chores in the house, in the garden, in my woodshop, or walking my dog Max along Rattlesnake Creek or Silver Park, or shopping, or eating or sleeping or playing my trumpet. I don't count those non-writing activities as writer's block. Somebody has to do all that stuff. Right. Even writers. Notice that I intentionally left out Facebook, because I don't wanna talk about it.
When I am at my desk or my computer I might be performing a slew of writerly activities: Okay, here we go. All these count as writing. Reading, Editing, Plotting, Scheming, Outlining, Webpage building, Inventing titles, Inventing characters, Building book covers. Busy. Busy. Busy. I usually have four to five books under development at one time. Managing that is like herding cats.
When I am at my desk or my computer I might be performing a slew of writerly activities: Okay, here we go. All these count as writing. Reading, Editing, Plotting, Scheming, Outlining, Webpage building, Inventing titles, Inventing characters, Building book covers. Busy. Busy. Busy. I usually have four to five books under development at one time. Managing that is like herding cats.
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