Carmen Adams

Today, I have the privilege of interviewing one of the kindest, most thoughtful people on Twitter. If you’re not already following Carmen, I recommend you hop over to Twitter asap and do just that. Follow her here

MN: What is one thing about you that no one knows.

CA: One thing that most do not know about me is that I am a huge fan of classic books. I have classics such as Frankenstein, The Iliad, et cetera and I almost exclusively read classic books from my senior year of high school up until I graduated from college.

MN: Do you have a favorite? Top three if you can’t?

CA: That’s easy. My favorite classics are Oliver Twist, The Iliad, and The Count of Monte Cristo

MN: Awesome. Can you tell us about your WIP (work in progress)?

CA: My WIP is about a recent college graduate named Marielle who experiences a personal tragedy that leaves her heartbroken. She decides to do some traveling abroad so as to see the world and breathe new air for a bit. While on her travels she learns about the vampiric community and goes on an adventure full of secrets, steamy vampires, and many other elements that you will find out when I finish the story. *sneaky look*

Carmen was gracious enough to share a sample of her work:

Dorian let out a saddened sigh. This anti-vampiric group had been notorious for centuries and while there were plenty of vampires who were rogue, there were many others who were not the bloodthirsty monsters that the group made them out to be. Dorian was saddened by the death of Alessandra but he was more angry than anything. Her sweet nature got her killed, and Dorian couldn’t wait to find the bastard who was the reason behind her dying. His mind was also going back to the woman in his dreams. He had to know who she was, or why was she so important to him in some way that she would appear every night to him. He planned on figuring out that mystery soon. He simply had to know more about this mysterious maiden.

MN: I’d read this.

CA: That makes me so happy to hear and I want to finish this book that much more now.

MN: Awesome. Don’t forget me when it’s done. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer and what’s the most difficult challenge you face as a writer?

CA: To be honest, I’m not sure when I knew that I wanted to be a writer. I’ve been writing since I was a child and I was always jotting down notes and ideas in my many notebooks (I still do that today actually LOL). I mainly wrote for myself and for English classes, but now I want to share the many stories in my head with others.

The most difficult challenge I have with writing is pushing through my perfectionism, especially in the beginning of the story. I want every line to be amazing and have perfect grammar, and I have to remind myself even that it’s okay for your drafts to be imperfect. You have to write the story right then, and then you can worry about editing and perfecting the story as best as you can later.

MN: This is the best advice. It’s difficult to get past the fact that no one will ever write a perfect first draft.

CA: It really is, but you have to push through the perfectionist attitude and just get the words on the paper.

MN: Yes! If the queen asked you to pick out five books, what authors/books would you choose?

CA: The recommendations I would give the queen would be:

Into the Dark Woods: Bound to a Vampire by Grey Francis
Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
The Last True Vampire by Kate Baxter
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

MN: Do you favor male or female main character’s in your writing?

CA: I don’t have a preference to be honest. As long as the story is good and flows well I don’t mind if my main character is male or female.

MN: If you had to write a story based on an island, which island would you choose?

CA: If I could write a story based on an island, I would choose either Curacao or Easter Island. I have traveled to Curacao before and the island is absolutely beautiful, and Easter Island is a location that I would love to learn more about and place a character or two there.

MN: That is very cool. I’ve never been to either island. I think it would be fascinating to learn about them. Would you place a character there by research alone or would you prefer to visit it yourself first?

CA: In a perfect world I would love to visit the location myself, but if not, then I would do a ton of research to get my destination as realistic on the page as I can.

MN: Good answer. I understand that. What’s the longest it has taken you to write a book?

CA: My WIP is my first full length book that I am trying to write and it has been close to a year with this project. I will be able to better answer this one once I finish, please forgive me Mikki.

MN: No problem at all. I understand. It took me nearly six years. I’m wishing you the best with your first novel.

CA: Thank you so much Mikki. You’re such a sweetheart.

MN: Have or would you ever team up with another author on a story?

CA: I have not co-written a book with another author but I would love to one day. There are sooooo many talented authors that I would love to collaborate with.

MN: Would you give up writing books for your own TV series?

CA: Can I have both please?? *Smiley face* As tempting as it would be to have a TV series I could not give up writing. I have too many ideas that are bursting to get out…but if I could write the scripts for my TV show then that would be a dream =^_^=

MN: No one says you can’t. Why stop at one? One of my favorite quotes is “Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” It’s never too late to reach a goal and a goal is never too big.

CA: That quote is brilliant. You won’t mind if I borrow that one day will you? That quote is one that everyone should live by and use it to inspire you to only want the absolute best.

MN: No, I don’t mind. It’s from an unknown person. That’s the only part that sucks. Yes, it truly is inspiring. Where’s the weirdest spot you’ve ever written?

CA: I don’t think I have written in any weird place. I wrote poolside once but that is more relaxing than weird.

MN: It does sound relaxing. What’s the easiest thing about being a writer? Hardest?

CA: The easiest part of being a writer is coming up with ideas and drafting out the story before you start writing. The hardest part is making all of the ideas in my head cohesive on the page and of course, the dreaded editing. It’s a necessary evil but editing is anything but easy when you want the story as perfect as possible.

MN: True. Can you tell us some authors we should look out for?

CA: There are many authors you should be on the lookout for. Two that come to mind are DK Marie and Ryen Lesli. DK is the master of writing steamy romances and Ryen Lesli is just a badass woman in general. Both are set to release their books this summer and I personally cannot wait to get them when they come out. I also recommend Sarah Bailey because she just recently released her novel Betrayal, which I know will be great, and let us not forget Miss Mikki herself. I plan on looking forward to reading everything that she comes out with.

MN: You know you’re the sweetest person ever and yes, these ladies are lovely. Thanks for the recommendations and thank you for including me with this group of awesome writers. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you better.

CA: Same to you Mikki. You’re the best as well and an absolute joy to us all.

MN: You are the best.

As you can see, Carmen is one of the sweetest people on Twitter. If only we could all bestow this badge upon her. By the power (not) vested in me, I now pronounce Carmen Adams ‘the sweetest person on Twitter’.

Until next time,

yours truly,

A Clumsy Writer