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Author Interview: Adam Blumer of Kill Order


I absolutely love interviewing authors on this blog, and seeing Adam Blumer had a new book releasing, I jumped at the opportunity to have him stop by.

For those of you who have not read Kill Order, please Order (haha) it. No, seriously. Go order it. I read it all in one sitting. It's amazing.

Below find a description about this jaw-dropping read. If you're looking for clean suspense, with amazing descriptions, razor-sharp dialogue, and deep philosophical inquiries into the nature of the human condition and free will, you'll love this epic read.

Brief description: When he sleeps, the forgotten terrors of the past come alive.Grammy-winning pianist Landon Jeffers’s brain cancer has given him only a few years to live. But when he sleeps, the forgotten terrors of his past torment him. When he wakes, shameful memories come rushing back. Desperate for answers, Jeffers discovers that a brain implant intended to treat his cancer is really a device to control him, forcing him to commit terrible crimes. Now he’s being manipulated by an evil crime syndicate and a crooked cop. What if free will isn’t? What if your every move is predestined? If you kill, are you guilty of murder?

Creepy!

Now as you're ordering your copy, I'm going to interview Adam. Don't worry. The interview will be here for you after you go place your order.

Now, Adam, we have a lot of authors who like to stop by this blog, so tell me a little about your writing journey.

I’ve loved to write stories since I was a kid and studied novel writing in college. I completed five unpublished novels, mostly for youth, before I began Fatal Illusions, my first published novel, in the spring of 2002 in conjunction with a Writer's Digest correspondence course on novel writing. In January 2006, literary agent Steve Laube, a well-known and respected voice in Christian fiction, responded enthusiastically to my book proposal and asked to see the entire manuscript. Of course, I was on cloud nine. Though he ultimately declined to represent me, he kindly gave me eight suggestions on how to make the novel publishable.

Energized, I followed his advice and got to work, but I still couldn't find an agent or publisher. A year later, I contacted Kregel Publications, not about my novel but about opportunities to edit books from home. The managing editor noticed on my résumé that I had written several unpublished novels and asked to see my latest project. Kregel accepted it for publication in August 2007. God opened a door I never could have opened for myself.

I love that! God really does open doors when we least expect it. Now, I know you've written some other fantastic novels like Fatal Illusions and The Tenth Plague, but I'm really intrigued by Kill Order. Can you tell me where the idea came from for that?

My dad, Larry, passed away from brain cancer in 2011, and several aspects of his cancer journey kicked off the initial story idea. One key detail involved a medical procedure; the doctors agreed to remove as much of my dad’s brain tumor as possible and replace it with medicinal wafers intended to fight the existing cancer. My mind began playing the what-if game. What if the doctor implanted something else, something that could monitor or even control my dad’s life? The story’s premise grew from there.

That's so interesting. I'd wondered if the idea had come from a what-if scenario ... now to craft a book as excellent as this, I imagine you had to go through a lot of drafts, edits, and other frustrations of the writing process. What is the most difficult part of that writing process for you?

I rarely have difficulty coming up with story ideas and even an engaging premise, but getting from the beginning to the ending is a circuitous path that can sometimes come to dead ends. The hardest part of novel writing, in my opinion, is choosing the right path that comes out at the right ending. There are so many moving pieces and critical decisions along the way that the writer can become paralyzed, overcome by too many choices. If you’re an indecisive person, you’ll never succeed as a novelist.

[if !supportLineBreakNewLine] So true! Especially in a genre like suspense, you really can't afford to choose the wrong path. Can you tell me the hardest part of writing Kill Order specifically?

The ending was tough to write. While I’m typically an organized plotter, I took off the training wheels on this one and let the story glide where it and the characters wanted to go. The journey became both fun but scary. I had the premise and some plot developments in place, but how the story concluded took more work than I expected. I typically take at least a couple of years of evenings and weekends for the actual writing of the book. But that doesn’t count the time needed to shop the novel around through my agent and then wait on a publisher before and after the contract; the publishing wheel turns much more slowly than most readers realize. I wish I could write more quickly than that, but that’s the reality for me, since this isn’t my full-time gig. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]

Good point. Speaking of the publishing industry, what are some of your frustrations with that?

1. The amount of time each book requires from start to finish. Included in this is the long wait time from publishers.

2. The continually changing rules in writing and publishing. Just when you think you know what publishers are looking for, your agent tells you something else

3. Book marketing. One cannot guarantee sales. I wish a book release was like the movie Field of Dreams. “Build it, and they will come.” If only it were that easy. There is almost an equal amount of work in just promoting the book.

I love that movie, and I agree. I wish it worked more like that. We've been talking a lot about the difficult parts of writing, but what is your favorite part about being an author?

I love hearing from readers who went to work tired because they stayed up too late finishing one of my novels. If I kept them immersed in my story and entertained, that’s a score in my book.

And of course, because I'm a weird gal, I need to know one unusual fact about you:

When I was a kid, for a while I wanted to be a ventriloquist and had a “dummy” named Andy. But then I got braces and could no longer talk through my teeth like I used to. Andy sadly went into storage. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]

I was not expecting that, but that is a very unusual fact. Thank you so much, Adam for visiting! And everyone please, if you have not yet, go get a copy of this fantastic book.

Book links:

Adam Blumer fixes other people’s books to pay the bills. He writes his own to explore creepy lighthouses and crime scenes. He is the author of three clean Christian thrillers: Fatal Illusions, The Tenth Plague, and Kill Order. A print journalism major in college, he works full-time from home as a book editor after serving in editorial roles for more than twenty years. He lives in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with his wife, Kim, and his daughters, Laura and Julia. He works with literary agent Cyle Young of Hartline Literary Agency.

Connect with Adam:


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