DEAD ROSES SPECIAL: NIGHT FIVE: INTERVIEW WITH ADAM LIGHT

Welcome to night five of the Dead Roses Special week.

Tonight sees the interview with the first half of the Light brothers, Adam.

He will be answering some general questions about himself and his writing and then some specific questions about Panacea, his story in the book.

Of course, at the end, Adam will take on The Ten Confessions!

This is another interview I am so glad to have got. It's become very clear to me throughout this entire process that Adam Light is the quiet one of the group. In fact he is so unassuming I can't believe he puts out the writing he does.

Grab your poison and as it's Good Friday get some fish and chips in ......and most of all enjoy!!

COAF - So tell everyone a bit about yourself in general?

AL - My name is Adam Light. Thanks for inviting me to do this interview, Nev.

I was born in West Virginia, but moved around quite a bit. I’ve lived in Florida for twenty-eight years, so I’m pretty sure I can be considered an honorary native. I have big and very loving family; we’re all very close. I’m married to the best person I ever met, and she seems to think I’m an okay guy. I also have two daughters that make my world worth living in every day.

COAF - Why writing? You seem to have been blessed with an abundance of books around you growing up. Was this a factor in making you decide on that as a career?

AL - I have always loved reading and writing, and my parents fostered that love by filling the house with books of all kinds.

COAF - I know you are working on your first full length novel. You have a plethora of short stories out there including your collection “Toes Up: Horror to Die For”. Do you find the shorts easier to write? How do you come up with so many ideas?

AL - I’m not sure which one is easier. Both formats present their own sets of challenges. Since I haven’t actually finished a novel yet, I can’t say if it is harder, honestly. As for ideas, they come flying at me from every direction at random. There doesn’t seem to be an end to the flow in sight, and that makes me happy.

COAF - Take us through your process for a story. How do you start it and follow through to the final product?

AL - Once the idea is developed enough, it is just a matter of committing to it. I simply write as long and as often as I can, until I hit that finish line.

COAF - What’s the most difficult part of writing for you?

AL - Writing is easy. I love it. If I could do it full time, I wouldn’t have a worry in the world. Right now, I work a full-time day job, and the evenings can be unpredictable, so it is hard to nail down a structured writing schedule and stick to it.

COAF - I know you are an avid reader as well. Who would be your favourites to read? Do you think they influence your own writing?

AL - I love so many authors. Stephen King, Richard Laymon, Bentley Little, Dean Koontz, Clive Barker, Robert McCammon, Peter Straub, Dan Simmons, Stephen Hunter, Greg Iles, John Connolly, Jack Ketchum, Joe R. Lansdale, Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft, Poe, Douglas Adams. The list could go on and on. The stories of Poe and Bradbury awakened my desire to write horror, but Stephen King has been the biggest influence on me. He’s my hero.

COAF - Do you think it’s a help or a hindrance having a brother who also writes?

AL - Without Evans, I would not be doing this at all. He is a huge boon for me.

COAF - What do you consider to be the best story you have written?

AL - I’m going to go out on a limb and say Panacea is my best work so far. I’m also quite fond of Taken. It is the best-selling story I have available.

COAF - What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

AL - I’m into a little bit of everything. I like to spend time with my family, read, play guitar, listen to music, watch horror movies, hike, swim, sleep. That mostly covers it.

COAF - What’s coming in the future from Adam Light?

AL - At the moment, I am working on several different projects. I hope to publish a novella or two in the next few months, and I’m excited to get back to work on the novel Evans and I have been collaborating on for years.

COAF – Moving on to Dead Roses, give us your take on Panacea. What’s it about? Is there a deeper meaning?

AL - Panacea is about a man who will do anything to save his wife’s life. It’s about second chances and cursed miracles. I think it is a pretty straight-forward horror story. I always love when people find those deeper meanings, though.

COAF - This story has all the feel of The twilight Zone about it. Was that intentional?

AL - I didn’t intend for it to have a Twilight Zone feel at all. Although, I certainly appreciate that comparison.

COAF - It’s a bit sexy. Do you find it easy to write sex scenes in a horror story?

AL - It really wasn’t that hard at all.

COAF - Rob’s character is perfect for this story. How do you build a character in your head when you’re writing? Can you research something like this?

AL - Thanks! I worked hard to get Rob just right. I didn’t think of him as a character; I just tried to see things through his eyes.

COAF - The length of this story is just perfect. How do you decide when enough is enough? Did you not want to draw the story out more with Rob and Molly?

AL - The first draft was about twice as long as the finished product. I did draw it out a lot at first. It just wasn’t necessary. I think the length is perfect now.

THE TEN CONFESSIONS

1 Who would you view as your main competitor in the writing world?

I don’t look at writing as a competition. I’m really only interested in bettering myself, and reaching the goals I have set. With that said, I guess you could say I am my own biggest competitor.

2 What book or author have you read that you think should never have been published?

I can’t think of anything that was so terrible it should be erased from existence, but there are a couple I thought were absolutely awful: By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz, and The Vanishing by Bentley Little. I could have done without those two.

3 Are any of the things your characters have experienced in your books been based on something that has actually happened to you? What was it?

Ghost Light Road is loosely based on actual events. The end is different from what actually transpired, of course, but my sister, Sarah, and I had one hell of an adventure out at our haunted road one night. I haven’t based any characters on myself, really, but I’m sure parts of my personality end up on the pages now and then. I think it is inevitable.

4 Have you ever blatantly stolen an idea or scene and adapted it for one of your own books? If so, care to share?

I’ve never consciously ripped off anyone else’s work.

5 Have you ever anonymously left a bad review for someone else’s book? If so, care to share?

If I don’t like it, I don’t review it. That’s my rule. I don’t feel any need to review someone’s work poorly. There are plenty of people out there that can take care of that for me.

6 What’s the one thing you are least proud of doing in your life and why?

I waited until I was in my mid-thirties to start writing seriously. I might have been making a living as an author a long time ago, if I had just committed to it years ago.

7 What’s the one thing you are MOST proud of doing in your life and why?

I’m proud of my kids. They are the world to me, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job raising them.

8 What’s your biggest fault?

I procrastinate too much. It could just be that I have a mild case of ADD, but I’m not sure. I constantly remind myself that one project or the other needs my attention, only to put it off again.

9 What is your biggest fear?

Flying. I can’t stand the thought of my body caroming through space wrapped in a metal tube, miles above the ground. When I have to fly, alcohol is abused.

10 If you had to go to confession now, what would be the one thing you would need to get off your chest?

There are too many to list here!

THE END

There it is. All you need to know about Adam Light.

I want to personally thank Adam for taking part in this interview. I know from speaking to him that this sort of thing is well outside his comfort zone so I really really appreciate it.

You can see more of Adam at his website.

Adam's author page is here.


Don’t forget to pop back tomorrow for night six in the Dead Roses special where I will have the last author interview with the other half of the Light Brothers, Evans.