Interview With Author Sammy Adami
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m Sammy Adami. I’ve spent years journaling, questioning, and debating with my inner voices—one of which eventually became a central figure in my latest book. So far, I’ve written three books: Building My Avatar , Health Memory Dramedy, and Emergence at the VUE. They’re not just memoirs; they’re experiments in truth, memory, and identity. I’m less interested in telling a neat, linear life story and more in letting readers walk through the tangled corridors of my mind.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Emergence at the VUE. The VUE is the app or website where my avatars live. What inspired the book was a collision of events: the psychological aftershocks of wars, the unsettling idea that AI might soon understand us better than we understand ourselves, and my own midlife reckoning. I realized those threads belonged in the same story, and that if I could capture them honestly, it might resonate with anyone standing at a crossroads in their life.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have entire conversations with characters who don’t exist. These are either voices in my head or voices at the VUE—my avatars’ sanctuary. My AI twin and the Guardian, who controls access to the VUE, often interrupt my writing sessions to argue with me about what should happen next. Sometimes I’ll “interview” them on the page and let their answers steer the scene. My last book, Emergence at the VUE, talks about these voices.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’ve been shaped by a strange mix of voices. From literature, I’ve drawn on the raw introspection of Karl Ove Knausgård’s My Struggle series, the playful metafiction of Italo Calvino, and the layered consciousness of Virginia Woolf. Memoirs like Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air showed me the power of honesty when talking about mortality, while Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens and Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism cracked open the bigger questions about humanity and technology. And then there are the voices in my own head — ViSam, Rami Digitalis — who have become as influential to my work as any author I’ve read.
What are you working on now?
Right now, I’m refining the VUE — the VMC Universe Explorer. VMC stands for my series, the Voices of a Midlife Crisis. The VUE is an interactive world for readers to step into.
In my books, the VUE is a place of discovery. In reality, I’m shaping it into an experience where readers can:
• Interact with my characters — talk to my digital twin, get cryptic clues from the Guardian of my diaries, or meet other characters from the series.
• Play games and solve puzzles — unlocking hidden areas, secret scenes, or bonus chapters.
• Explore the diaries — finding secrets, alternate perspectives, and pieces of the story that aren’t in the books.
• Experience it in virtual reality — so the world of the VUE becomes a place you can literally walk through.
The goal is to make the VUE more than just a setting; it’s an unfolding mystery, a playground for the curious, and a living extension of the VMC series where readers can keep discovering long after they’ve turned the last page.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
For me, the most effective way to promote my books has been through book clubs. They create an environment where readers don’t just passively consume a story; they live with it, discuss it, and challenge each other’s interpretations. With Emergence at the VUE, book clubs often dive into the deeper questions about identity, technology, and memory, which sparks the kind of conversation that gets people talking long after the meeting ends. I’ve joined these discussions in person and online, and that personal connection makes readers far more likely to recommend the book to friends. A good book club is like a multiplier: one copy can lead to ten new readers.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice is simple: do it for fun, not as your primary way to make a living. The reality is that only a small percentage of authors earn enough from book sales to support themselves. If your goal is to make money, you either need to already be famous or become exceptional at marketing—and even then, it’s a gamble. Write because you have something to say—or want to entertain—because you enjoy the process, and because you want to connect with readers. If the financial rewards come, that’s a bonus.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I’ve ever heard, in the context of writing a book, is to merge with AI, but never surrender to it. Use it symbiotically for research, editing, and brainstorming, but don’t let it define your voice or your message. The human perspective is what makes a book worth reading. That’s also the core message of my latest book, Emergence at the VUE: exploring what happens when we work with AI on a book without losing ourselves in the process.
What are you reading now?
Right now, I’m reading a mix of books on consciousness and artificial intelligence, exploring both the science and the philosophy. Three on my desk at the moment are: The Feeling of Life Itself by Christof Koch, Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark, and Being You by Anil Seth. I’m drawn to works that examine what it means to be aware, how the mind constructs reality, and how AI might mirror or challenge that process. It’s part curiosity, part research for where the VMC series might go next.
What’s next for you as a writer?
What’s next for me is figuring out the marketing angle for the VMC series. I have a lot of material already created—based on my diaries—but my focus right now is on refining the VUE and finding the best way to get the series into readers’ hands. I’ve been considering working with a literary agent. I prefer self-publishing, but I’m a little conflicted. I know how to market—and can learn more with the help of AI—but there’s so much to do for both the VMC series and the VUE. That’s why I’m launching the series myself and marketing it now to establish its success and prove its feasibility. Once that foundation is in place, I’d look for an agent so I can focus fully on the creative side of writing and let the marketing be handled by the experts.
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?
If I were stranded on a desert island, the first book I’d take would be SAS Survival Handbook by John “Lofty” Wiseman — because step one is staying alive. Second, I’d bring The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin — his wit, resourcefulness, and reflections would keep my mind sharp. Third, I’d take Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, which compares how different civilizations developed over the same eras. That combination would give me the tools to survive, the inspiration to stay motivated, and the perspective to remember that isolation is just one chapter in a much bigger story.
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