Author Interview with A.D. Sams

A. D. Sams

Georgia

BLOGTOUR:

August 24th - The Mind Meanders - kristenduvall.com/blog and Fey Publishing's blog - feypublishing.com/blog
August 25th - Tidbits of Experience - tidbitsofexperience.com/
August 26th - Sunshine Mountain Book Reviews and More - sunshineandmountains.wordpress.com/
August 27th - Vision and Verse - visionandverse.blogspot.com/
August 28th -  I am, Indeed - iam-indeed.com/
August 29th - Kevin Saito's Personal Blog - kevinsaito.com/author-spotlight.html
August 30th - Author Reader Mixer - author-reader-mixer.blogspot.com
August 31st - This Little Bookworm - thislittlebookworm22.blogspot.com


Welcome to Vision and Verse, Alisha, ur, I mean Awesome Sams!  We are so happy to be part of your blogtour, even though I am not quite sure what a blogtour is.  Welcome!

Name:

 A.D. Sams, though I'll probably answer to Alisha on any given day. I do like to imagine sometimes that the 'A' is really for "Awesome". Awesome Sams has a nice ring to it.

City, State:

Middle of Nowhere, Georgia. That's not really the city, but it should be.
I think I passed through there driving to Florida.  Tell us about your book.

What have you written? 

I wrote a little ditty by the name Bayou L'Abeille, which is a collection of short stories based in a fictional Louisiana town. I also have a few stories published in Idol Meanderings. That was really how I came to know the wonderful world of Fey Publishing. You never know when you're going to meet the person who will make one of your dreams come true, even if it involves a writing competition on Livejournal.com. I did self publish a few things back in Ye Olden Days, which is probably where they should stay.

Do you have a cover to share with us?

Beautiful cover.  What is your favorite genre to write? 

While Bayou L'Abeille doesn't really contain too much of my dark side, I really enjoy writing horror. In fact, the next collection of tales from my little bayou town will be all sorts of dark and twisty. Fantasy is another genre that I love and somewhere in most things that I write is a touch of the fantastic, something a little off of center and hard to put your finger on. Is there magic in Bayou L'Abeille? I'll let you figure out what you believe. 

Favorite food. 

Pork belly is one of the most delicious things in the world. Don't judge me. There's a restaurant in Atlanta that serves this amazing pork belly and pimento cheese sandwich. It's a little ridiculous how much I love that thing.

Where would you like to visit? 

Everywhere. I have a serious vein of wanderlust (which is one of my favorite words...the other being "loquacious") running through my body. Really, I'd like to sing karaoke on every continent before I die. Hah! Time to update my Bucket List. My top destination desires of the moment are New Zealand, India, and Iceland.

Favorite musical artist. 

This is where I start having trouble. I listen to such a vast array of music that it's extremely hard for me to narrow it down (same goes for authors). I'll give you the top three I've been listening to lately. Etta James, The Wailin' Jennys, and Amos Lee are on my list right now. Of course, tomorrow could be a day for The Gossip, The Jezabels, and Beth Hart. You never know with me.

How old were you when you started writing? 

I actually began writing quite a few things around the age of eight years old. I promptly tore them up and made sure no one would ever read them. For years I threw stories away. No, it doesn't make sense, but neither does fear and sometimes that gets the better of you too. I didn't really allow myself to let it all go until my early twenties. That's probably the first time I shared my writing with anyone.

Where do you get your inspiration? 

Everywhere. Music, art, the world around me, and pretty much anything that makes me tilt my head will get my brain going. I also love to just watch people. I play a game in my head when I'm out and about where I pick a random person out of the crowd and make up something about their past and where they are going. Inspiration is also a seasonal thing for me. The fall is my creative busy spell. It's my favorite time of year. 

What do you do when you get a writer's block? 

Wail and gnash my teeth. Pace and lament. You know, stuff. Actually, I find the best medicine for my writer's block is either exploring a new place with my camera or trying something I've never tried before. It's amazing how inspiration can arrive when you bust out of your comfort zone. Also, keep writing. Writer's block, to me, is a form of self sabotage of which I'm definitely guilty. You have to write past the barrier of it even if nothing you're writing makes sense. It's a discipline as well as an art.

Who is your favorite author? 

Again, I have a few. Two of my favorite authors are Neil Gaiman and Alice Hoffman. I also love Patricia McKillip. She has such a beautifully poetic manner with her writing. Tolkien, Faulkner, and London also have a special place in my heart. Florence King is another good one, if we're talking about good, Southern humor. I, obviously, have an issue with decisions.

Best book you ever read. 

I'll give you a few of my sentimental favorites, which mean they're the best to me. In no particular order: The Hobbit (Tolkien), Good Omens (Gaiman and Pratchett), and Blackbird House (Hoffman). The best book I've read in the past year is Wool by Hugh Howey. That guy is completely talented and he's a wealth of friendliness and great writing advice.  If you ever get a chance to meet him, I suggest you take it.

Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why? Music plays a large role in my life and the first time that my ears were truly opened was when my dad shared some of his favorite music with me. Because of his openness to all kinds of musicality I grew an adventurous spirit to find new artists. That seeped in to many areas of my life, creatively speaking. I will forever hold James Taylor in a special place in my heart because of my dad.

If you could sit down and have a conversation with  ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?

 I would love to meet Neil Gaiman. I am completely intrigued by the way his mind works. If there is ever a place where magic can be found to exist, I think it's somewhere in his head back in the corner over by the bar, the skinny fellow with the big teeth and a jaunty flower in his cap. The flower is jaunty, not the cap.

What advice would you give to an aspiring author?

Become a selective listener. There will always be someone who doesn't like your writing, what you do, or even you. It won’t be good enough, smart enough, or clear enough. It will be bad, weird, stupid, or horrible. It is inevitable that someone will come in contact with your writing and simply want to tear it down. Here's what I have to say. It doesn't matter if not one other person on the planet “gets you”. Make the art that you love. Say what you need to say. This is the voice that you were given, the one that makes you happy. If it defies convention, then so be it. The trick to being that selective listener is to sift down to the advice that will elevate your writing, your craft, into something better. Leave the rest to troll it out on Reddit  It’s one of the biggest lessons to learn. Continue to write. Continue to be you.

Thank you for stopping by, Awesome, and good luck to you.