I
AM PLEASED TO WELCOME AUTHOR
Adam
Furgang
BIO –
Adam Furgang is a
full-time author and freelance writer. After graduating from The University of
the Arts, he worked as a graphic designer, web designer, fine artist, and
photographer. His current writing credits include more than a dozen nonfiction
books in the middle school market about topics as diverse as YouTube, video
games, digital photography, mobile photography, the environment, nutrition,
disease, digital literacy, and the periodic table. He also runs a creative
blog, wizardsneverweararmor.com, which concentrates on topics such as gaming,
art, films, and pop culture. He lives with his wife Kathy (also a writer) and
their two boys in upstate New York.
Adam Furgang is
represented by Mark Gottlieb at Trident Media Group.
BANTER – STUFF ABOUT YOU
Q: Tell me something you would like
your readers (fans) to know about you.
A: I’m also an artist. I was
classically trained as an illustrator and worked as an artist, graphic
designer, web designer, photographer, and fine artist for many years. I still
take pictures, create art, and even worked on the design of the cover for my current
novel, Braxton Woods Mystique. A
close friend of mine, Robyn Diaz, did the illustration for the cover, but I
conceptualized the idea, chose the font, and did the layout.
Q: Bedtime, relaxing so you can sleep
sounds. Is your preference, white noise, TV, soft music, ocean waves, forest or
meadow sounds, babbling brook, or something else?
A: Although I think it’s probably a bad
habit, I do like to fall asleep with a film on. Typically these films tend to
be quiet dramas, comedies, or TV shows from Netflix. A few recent films have
been Never Cry Wolf, Smart People, Winter Passing, and Being
There. Old episodes of The X-Files
are always fun before bed too. When I can’t sleep or if I wake up in the middle
of the night I will read on my iPad and keep a film on quietly until I get
tired again. I’m sure I have a sleep disorder, but I’m perfectly content to
continue along like this.
Q: What kind of music do you listen to?
Do you have an all time favorite song?
A: My oldies favorites are 80s tunes
like The Smiths, Depeche Mode, and The Cure from when I first fell in love with
music. I like almost everything. Current music I’m listening to is Thievery
Corporation, Radiohead, The Faming Lips, and Gorillaz. I also love movie soundtracks
for films.
Q: Did you like school when you were a
child?
A: I did like school but I did not
quite get the value of education until I hit high school. Second and fourth
grade were not great years for me because of a bad combination of my attitude,
the teachers’ attitudes, and large classes with 40+ kids. Things could have
been a lot worse though, and I’m very thankful for my public school education.
I think public school, even though it’s flawed, is a great thing, and helps
prepare kids for interaction with the average people in the United States. The
social interaction in school is incidental, but in the end I think it winds up
being just as important as the education part.
BOOKS – ABOUT THE CRAFT
Q: When did you start writing and why?
A: I always had the
writing bug as far back as I can remember, but art and my love for pictures
took over and directed the course of my life for several decades. After I met
my wife who was already involved in publishing was when the writing bug awoke
in me in earnest. I wrote my first novel back in 1988 or 1989. It was a mess.
It took me a long time to get to this point. I enjoy writing because I’ve
always loved making up stories since I was a kid. I dabbled in short films in
college and even afterwards where writing was required. I also find it to be
the most challenging and rewarding creative endeavor I’ve been involved in.
Everything else, painting, photography, design, always began to bore me.
Writing is such a challenge that I never get bored and I think that’s what I
love the most—it’s ability to keep me interested.
Q: Where do you get
your ideas?
A: I write what I’d
want to read. It’s as simple as that. I don’t write what I think someone else
might like. I write what I’d like. I have very wide varied tastes, but certain
things get me excited and if it’s strong enough for me to write about, then I
just assume others will agree.
Q: How did you come
to write your genera of choice?
A: I don’t have a genre
of choice. I know my ideas are odd, but right now I’m writing middle grade or
young adult novels for my kids and myself. I know I’d like to write for adults
at some point. Because I have kids now who are 9 and 15, I think that is where
my mind is now with the stories I come up with. I like that we can share them
together. I wouldn’t want to be writing edgy adult novels now that we could not
enjoy together. As they get older I’m sure I’ll find the time to get to some of
the more serious ideas I’d like to take a stab at.
Q: What do you think
is the hardest part of writing a book?
A: The outline is the
hardest. I resisted the outline for many years. I thought I could just get it
all out and was sophisticated enough to not have an outline. I was entirely
wrong. Getting all the main ideas down at the start is very important for me.
This can be hard because I also like ideas to flow out as I write. If the
outline is strong but not overly detailed, then I can still let magic happen
when I’m typing. It requires that I work out the beginning, middle, and end
before I start to write. This can take a long time. The results speak for
themselves.
Q: Describe your
favorite heroine? (This doesn’t have to be one of yours.)
A: Princess Nausicaä
from the film Nausicaä of the Valley of
the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki. She’s strong, smart, and a great leader willing
to sacrifice herself for a greater good.
Q: Describe your
favorite hero? (This doesn’t have to be one of yours.)
A: Underdog
characters like Holden Caulfield. Less than perfect male heroes in films and
literature appeal to me, likely because I see myself that way. Charlie Buckett,
Winston Smith, and Macbeth are all male characters I love.
Q: Who's your
favorite author?
A: I hate picking a
single favorite. J D Salinger, Jack Finney, and Gary Gygaxx. That’s a good mix.
BOOKS - NOW LETS PROMOTE – STRUT YOUR STUFF
Q: What are you working on now? Would you like to share anything about it?
A: Unfortunately I’m
secretive about what I’m working on. Sorry.
Q: How can we find
you? Do you have a web page, FaceBook page or any buy links?
A: Yes, I do. Here are the links. ~
Excerpt:
The
reboot did not last long.
Minutes
later, as I sat ready to eat a heaping bowl of colorful fruity fructose
greatness, I saw something out of the corner of my eye moving in the yard. It
moved fast and then stopped by the base of a tree about a hundred feet beyond
the edge of the lawn. It was in the woods, and despite the distance, I could
see it pretty well. I knew I was not imagining it, either.
Slowly, I
opened the sliding glass door to the back deck and crawled out on my belly like
a slug. I moved very quietly and nudged my body until I was looking under the
deck railing. From there, I could clearly see a dark creature tearing at the
base of a tree in the woods behind my yard. It was a black, beastly-looking
thing— far larger than what I had glimpsed running past me the day before—with
several curved antler-like horns atop its
head, and
a wild set of shiny, jet-black teeth. They looked similar to teeth from a
deep-sea fish I’d seen in my schoolbook about the ocean. It had several sets of
glistening eyes, just like those on the small dead carcass I’d seen a day
earlier, as well as multiple hooved forelegs and many tentacle-like appendages
at its rear. It was unearthly and I knew no one would believe me unless I had a
photograph, or even crazier, if I could somehow trap it.
I should have
been scared right away, but I was too fascinated lying there observing this
thing. My heart was racing but from sheer excitement, not fear.
“What
the—” I whispered under my breath as I kept looking at this thing.
So it was
day two of summer vacation, and I was already busy covertly scrutinizing a
wild, deformed, beast-like monster. I did not even have time to properly enjoy
and finish my rare fruity cereal. I just knew it was getting soggy.
The
creature stopped and raised its head as if it heard or smelled something, then
it tore off, kicking up dirt and earth as it scrambled away through my yard,
heading toward the other homes. Its size and movement reminded me of a baboon.
Without thinking, I leaped over the deck rail and started running after it. It
was broad daylight and I never considered any danger. I only wanted to get a
better look at it. It was incredibly fast, and as soon as I looked up, I could
see it already at the edge of my yard. Then I looked ahead and saw a lounge
chair in the next yard with someone sitting in it reading a book. I could not
see who it was, but the creature was heading right for the person. I picked up
my pace.
“Look
out!” I yelled as I saw the creature darting toward the person in the chair.
Before it got there, the creature turned on a dime toward the woods and leaped
about twenty feet into the trees behind the yards. Then it jumped from tree to
tree before returning to the ground in the woods and running away. There was no
way to chase something that fast.
Leaves
and a few small branches rained down from the trees.
“What on
earth is going on?” asked a voice, and I turned to look and found the person
who was reading in the lawn chair was Nora. “What are you doing in my yard and
why are you holding a spoon?”
“Creature.
It ran by. Fast. It went that way,” I said as I caught my breath and pointed at
the woods with my cereal spoon still in hand. In my excitement, I had not
realized I had been holding my cereal spoon all along.
“Dude,
slow down,” said Nora. “Use sentences. Speak English. First, what are you doing
in my yard?”
“Didn’t
you see that?” I asked, still huffing and puffing.
“I saw
something.”
“It
was a creature. Some wild, deformed beast.”
“Um, something flew into the trees. I
think you
spooked a
hawk or an owl.”
“It
was a wild monster!”
Then
Nora started laughing.
Just
then, the twins came running into Nora’s yard
from
around the back of the fence that enclosed Mr. Randleside’s yard.
“Did you
two just see that?” asked Albert.
“I did.”
I gasped, still trying to catch my breath. “It was some sort of deformed
charcoal black beast.”
Nora
continued to laugh with that same smile where her tongue poked from between her
teeth.
“Something
ripped up our new compost heap last night. We were over there and we heard something
over here and looked up and saw something leap into the trees,” said Oliver.
“See!” I
exclaimed, looking at Nora. “It was running right at you. You could have been
attacked!”
“Seriously?
Attacked... Attacked?” she asked sarcastically.
“You guys
saw it, right?” I asked the twins.
“Well, I
saw something in the trees, and then I saw branches fall, and we heard you
yelling, so we came running,” said Albert.
“And our
compost heap is all mashed up,” reminded Oliver.
“Any of
you ever hear of a raccoon?” asked Nora. “I bet that’s what ate
your nasty, stinky compost heap. You can’t just leave garbage out in your yard.
Wild animals are going to be attracted to it.”
“This was
no raccoon,” I said.
“Composting
is a very natural process and we have a nice setup,” interrupted Oliver.
I
interrupted right back again. “I saw weird things in the woods yesterday, too.
Another creature and some weird looking dead animal.”
“Wow,
where?” the twins asked nearly in unison.
“Back in
the woods,” I said, pointing with my spoon back toward the woods and my yard.
“There is abandoned equipment back there too, as well as a really cool
treehouse.”
“Awesome!”
the twins cheered in unison as they exchanged a fluttering secret handshake.
“Let’s
get provisions and go explore!” said Albert.
Nora just
sat there and shook her head. “I’m not even supposed to be here.”
A
reminder to the reader ~ before you leave be sure to take a look at the
Come
back and visit again.
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