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An Interview With Chandra AdamTell us a bit about yourself. What would you like us to know about you? I was born in Tampa, Florida. I lived half of my life in Wilmington, North Carolina and many of my teenage years in Lakeland, Florida. I am thirty and I am a Gemini. I am a simple person who does not need to have the big things to be satisfied. I think that if I couldn't write, my life would be very boring or even non-existent. I think I live through my writing, because my writing is from my life. You know the whole thing about life imitating art imitating life? What are you doing now? (Career? Married? Single? Children? Pets?) Right now I am doing a lot of writing especially. I am currently working on the sequel to Shameless! and I am working on a fictional crime novel. I am in school studying Psychology. I am in a long term relationship and between the two of us we have a total of six children. Since I chose to self publish, I am still looking for an agent to promote my work and of course I am promoting it on my own as well. What is your favourite food? I would have to say potatoes. It is kind of hard to just name one thing, especially coming from the south with all the soul food and what not. I now live in Columbus, Ohio so it's very hard to find food that can remind me of home! LOL! What is your favourite colour? I have two actually. They have been my favorites ever since I can remember. I love the colors purple and green. Green because of money of course! Just kidding. I love green because it represents the color of spring for me, when every thing is fresh and growing after a long winter, and purple because it means royalty. What is your favourite sound? This is weird, but I love the sounds that a new born baby makes. Who is your favourite person? I have had a lot of favorites, you know in life and love, but the person who represents all that I aspire to be like would have to be Harriet Tubman. If I could have just a portion of her strength and determination... wow! I would also have to say Phyllis Wheatley. She is the reason I wanted to write. What is your favourite place? Egypt. I have always wanted to go there and see the pyramids. Whenever I see a movie like the Mummy or the prince of Egypt, I just feel like it's meant for me to go there to see and smell and imagine life before all of this modern stuff. LOL! What is your favourite memory? My favorite memory is when I was little and my brother and sister and I would try and stay up real late for our grandfather to walk through the door. When he walked through the door, it was like all that was bad would disappear. He passed away in July 1987 and sometimes when I am down, I sit and imagine him walking through the door just one more time. I have a lot of wonderful memories and I cherish them all, but this one helped me through a lot of hard times. What is your favourite article of clothing? A tee-shirt and a pair of shorts. I am very simple. Whenever I do dress up, I love to show off my legs with a pair of heels. What is your favourite word? Can, because as long as I believe I can, I will! What is your favourite writers' quote and why? "The best type of dream is a dream realized." That is my quote, but it's true. Even if your dream is as small as signing up for college courses, there is nothing like the feeling that you get when you get the receipt for the courses. What is your most favourite quality about yourself? Physically I would have to say my eyes. I have what some people call old eyes, meaning by looking into my eyes you can believe that I have been through the fire. Mentally, I would say I am happy that I finally believe that I can be the writer that I have always dreamed of being. What is the least favourite quality about yourself? That I still sometimes let negative people make me doubt my talent. Also, I let people who don't matter to me make me worry about things that doesn't matter either. If I could just let go of my insecurities, then I know that I would be a force that can't be stopped. If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why? I would love to go to Atlanta. I know that there are a lot of people there that would be interested in my work, but it's hard to know and understand the reactions of others unless you can go and see for yourself in person. I hope that makes sense. LOL! What inspires you to write and why? First and foremost, I write because I love to do so. Nothing in the world makes me happier than when I can put pen to paper. It's hard to explain, but it is apart of me. If I couldn't write, I would probably go crazy. It consumes me. Sometimes I get mad if I am too sleepy to keep writing. It feels like something is trying desperately to crawl out of me. For a while, I couldn't write because I was struggling raising my two sons alone and I simply didn't have the time to write. I was working two jobs and I just didn't have the energy. During this time, I was so depressed. I thought it was because I didn't have love or something like that. I found love and I still would get depressed for seemingly no reason. Then I sat at my computer and began to write and such a feeling of joy came over me that I wrote my entire first draft in about a month. I wrote nonstop. If I had two minutes of having nothing to do at work, I would write and now, I couldn't be happier! (getting an agent and signed to a publisher, would be a close second though! LOL) What is your favourite book and why? I have two. First, there is The Color Purple. The movie did a good job of staying true to the book, but before I was allowed to watch the movie, I was able to visualize the characters and scenes from the book. My second which I love just as much as is Gone with the Wind. I had never seen the movie and when I was about twenty-one, I read the book for the first time. When I first saw the book, I was like 'there is no way in the world I can read that big book' but from the first page I was hooked. Again, when I saw the movie I was satisfied, but reading and watching a movie is two different feelings all together. What is your favourite genre and why? Crime, true or fictional. I just love to read about things crime. I love to read about serial killers and the way their minds work. I know that is why I want to become a Psychologist. I also love mysteries. When I am reading a mystery, I like to pretend to be the detective that solves the case. I actually try and figure out who the killer is and all that before I even get to the fourth chapter! List your three favourite authors (any genre) and why? Phyllis Wheatley- for her to be able to block out all that was going on during her time and continue to write regardless of the consequences, that is what I remember when I get rejection letters. What do you think makes a writer successful? I think that first you must have the need to write. I feel that if you don't have that urgent need to write, then when you get nothing but rejection letters, it can make you give up. That goes hand in hand with determination as well, but if you don't have the need, then you could finish with your first novel and quit. I think writing is even harder than trying to break into show business, because even with show business, you have a greater chance of being seen or heard. I mean, there are no reality shows for writers! I really would love to pitch something like that to a network! LOL! Unfortunately, most first time writers either have to be famous, or even be apart of some scandal. You definitely must have talent, that is the only thing that will make your dream come true unless you have one of the two things that I mentioned before. You must also be willing to put in the work. Anyone can write a story, but only someone who is willing to write and rewrite and rewrite to make it the best that it can be, will be successful. Whta is it that makes you successful as a writer? Believing in my talent and gift that is God given. What are your goals as a writer? I would like to become a writer that is mentioned at parties and things like that. I don't have to be a superstar, but I would love to walk into a room and hear everyday people talking about my books. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have the success that J.K Rowlings and John Grisham has (books made into movies-i can def see that!), but at the same time, if I can sell my books to as many people as possible and can walk into a store and see my book on the shelves with a sticker that says New York Times Bestseller in the corner; that would be my dream realized. What is the best tip you can give to fellow writers? Never give up! Never give up writing, never give up researching your topic and the business, never give up on yourself. Never give up editing and enhancing your book. No one wants a book with errors on every other page, and no one wants to read a book that is just like other books. Never give up on being yourself and being original. Don't refuse to do all that you have to do in order to be successful. In the beginning, I was unwilling to pay to have my work professionally edited. I felt invincible and thought that my work was perfect the way that it was, but now I know that nothing is perfect until you make it perfect and if that means paying for an edit, then do it and do it fast! What do you hope to provide your readers with through your writing? I want to give entertainment. I want to provide my readers with a place that they can loose themselves and forget about their troubles for a while. I want to give my readers characters that they can relate to and if they are going through anything remotely like what my characters are experiencing, they can see that it is possible to persevere through it and in the end come through it and become a better person for it. I also like to make sure that my books are not boring and they keep people guessing to the very last page. When I finished my first book, I had so many questions from people about what happened next, that I wrote a sequel. I ended up putting the two together in a two part book and there were still questions. So now, I am writing a sequel to that. It's very exciting to know that I was able to make the characters so real that in normal conversation with my readers, they spoke about the characters like they were real people. I also want to show the world that all kinds of love can be obtained without someone dying at the end leaving the other person to mourn their soulmate for eternity. List your three favourite online writer-resource sites and why (include URLS). Absolute Write If you have published a book, tell us about your publishing success (title, publishing date and company, where it is available to purcahse). Shameless! How long did it take you to write your book(s)? Well, it took me about six months to write Shameless! That is including the rewriting and the editing. It is taking me a little longer to write the sequel 'Faking My Way 2 the Top' because I am also writing another novel 'Identical Murder' which is a crime novel, and because I am trying to promote Shameless! and get thing moving with that. But I guess the average takes about six months from start to being ready to publish. What would you do differently if you could repeat the same publishing experience? I would be a lot wiser. I knew that I would have to go through the rejections and all, but I think that I was too confident which in turn caused a little more heartache than what was necessary. I think I would have researched the business a little more so that I could be in a better position to offer a better product the first time out of the gate. I am glad that I didn't know in the beginning though, because this process has taught me that I am stronger that I knew. What have you learned about the publishing world? That is harder than it seems on the surface. You always hear about a writer that had such success on their first try and naively that made me believe that the publishing world was a lot fairer than it really is. I think besides talent, you also need a lot of luck. I also know now that you may have to spend a little money in order to be successful in this world. If you are not willing to pay to be professionally edited, then you will make the process a lot harder than it could be. This is your chance to 'Talk Back' to your readers. What would you like to say to them? I would like them to know that I really appreciate all their comments and suggestions. Without them, Shameless! wouldn't be the book that it is today. I also want them to know that this is just the beginning. I have more stories in me and more characters for them to fall in love with. I really hope that I have succeeded in what I set out to do and that is to grant them access into another world, where their problems and worries don't matter even if it one day at a time and one book at a time! What's the one thing that you want them to know about your writing? I want them to know that all my characters are real in that they are all apart of me. I want them to come to understand that every character is different and not to expect to find a 'Rain' in any other character! |
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