Interview With Author Clint Adams
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m rather complex, but I strive every day to live as simply as possible. Throw in honesty and truth at all costs and you pretty much know what I’m all about. I became a writer out of necessity not out of desire…so the truth could be told. Done. I’m addicted to justice and my life’s not complete if I don’t watch DATELINE and Judge Judy every day. A lot of my writing revolves around seeking justice and accepting when it cannot be achieved.
I have written in several genres (middle-grade, young adult, adult thrillers, historical fiction and spiritual self-help). My current published book is my seventh.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
LIVE & LEARN: A Retiree’s Guide to Keep Going. It was released in several formats only a few days ago. Spiritual self-help for seniors. Yes, it’s as niche as niche can be. But, for sure, there’s an audience for it and I hope this book helps them.
I’m 66 years old, an age when folks look back. It took me until 65 years of age to see tremendous value in a rather challenging life lived. I may not have accomplished what I had intended, but I most certainly did learn a lot along the way. At 65, I knew for certain that this was my life purpose, choosing to learn the difficult lessons that were presented to me at birth. I’d love for others my age to see this same value in their own lives lived.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes, I’ll admit I do something rather odd every morning. At the computer I type out at least 1,000 words of freewriting, like journal writing before moving onto anything else. The odd thing: I delete it all as soon as I am finished. I purposefully erase the past, my past, immediately after I create it.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
THE COLOR PURPLE. A novel about profound suffering. A novel that has a realistic ending, not a Hollywood ending. Alice Walker influenced me in adulthood.
As a kid in elementary school. THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING by Carson McCullers. I was raised in California and southern life in the U.S. was completely unknown to me. I was introduced to another world and then became fascinated by it.
What are you working on now?
Many more months of marketing this current book, LIVE & LEARN. As I’d mentioned, it came out very recently, and I will probably not be able to get any sleep until maybe next year. No way can I think about the luxury of writing something new right now. Not at all an option.
A few years ago, I pursued and earned a master’s degree in marketing just to market my own books. Writers should expect that this is the bulk of the work they’ll be doing as writers.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
There cannot be any one website that’s better than any other. There just has the be MANY of them. Get your work, your interviews, your books out there everywhere.
I also love people, but I’m not that good at socializing. Thank goodness book marketing can now predominantly be done online. Online mktg. of any kind works for me. I can interact virtually and don’t need to break out into a sweat while doing it.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
More of an adage than advice: the truth will set you free. The biggest understatement of all time!
I’ll reflect on my current genre, self-help, but abstractly, it applies to several. “See yourself in these pages, in this story, in these circumstances.” With regard to my current book (spiritual self-help for seniors) LIVE & LEARN, I learned early on re: constructing my first self-help book, “Make your personal universal.” If it’s not, it doesn’t belong in the book. Meaning, if the reader will not be able to relate to any/all of my personal anecdotes they should be edited out entirely or revised. The whole purpose of self-help writing is to engage the reader, to make it as easy as possible for them to resonate with the concepts and solutions that are presented.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Re: voice. Long ago, when I was learning about the craft of writing, I was told, “EVERY story’s been told by now. The only thing that’s new anymore is the WAY it’s told (the voice). I completely agree. I used to be an actor before I was a writer, so speaking in a different voice is not new to me. My favorite: I wrote five novels writing in a child’s voice. I wish I could do this in real life.
What are you reading now?
Sadly, I only have time to read up on new ways to market books. There are always new and different methods that come about, and as they come along, these methods are usually nothing more old ones made easier.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I would absolutely love to have a reason to write something related to LIVE & LEARN, supplementary material that will help the reader. In L & L, there are actionable items at the end of every chapter, but they are entirely optional. If exercises interrupt the reading experience, the reader should not be reading them. I would like to write a book that’s entirely actionable.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (to remind me of the human condition), THE GAME OF LIFE AND HOW TO PLAY IT (because it’s spirituality made very simple, the way it should be), THE COLOR PURPLE (to remind me that there’s value in suffering).
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