Good morning! I know it is not Sunday, but I will be posting an interview today, anyway. Last week I didn’t get to post this interview due to some technical problems. I’m happy to let you know that it is all fixed! Yay! So now I would like to present Jessica D. Adams, a children’s author! If you would like to learn more about her and her books, then follow her at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, Goodreads, and her Author Website.
Are you an indie author or a traditionally published author?
I am an indie author.
Tell me a little about your writing journey, thus far.
When my daughters were younger, they were receiving a lot of gifts for Christmas and birthdays. Sometimes I wondered if we could fit more toys in the house. When I asked my kids to donate some toys, they never wanted to part with their toys. I thought back to my childhood days when my mom and I used to talk about The Underground Toy Society. I decided it was finally time to tell my stories about The Underground Toy Society to teach my kids to love and appreciate what they had instead of leaving their toys all over the floor. My original plan was to write only one book. Once my Grammy brought an old photo of my mom and her doll, Peggy, I realized I had forgotten all about that doll, and a new story was born, The Underground Toy Society Saves Peggy. I was on a roll, so I kept writing!
Do you write under a pseudonym? If so explain why.
No, I don’t write under a pseudonym. My books are about my family, so I kept all our names and kept my name as the author.
What genre do you write and why?
I write children’s books mostly. I tried to write a non-fiction book about my experience after I broke my leg, but I unpublished it for now to revise it. It is called Sitting on the Other Side of Therapy. I am an Occupational Therapist, and then I needed Physical Therapy to recover after I broke my leg and required surgery. Let’s say I have a new appreciation for the pain my patients go through.
What are you currently working on?
I wrote a lot of stories during the six months that I could not work after I broke my leg. The hardest part is revising those stories. I am trying to finish The Underground Toy Society Helps Ellie Elephant. I also would like to finish The Underground Toy Society Helps the Church Toys. I am also currently writing a sequel to Meeting Grandmom, which is a short time travel chapter book where my two daughters travel back in time to meet my mom before she passed away. The sequel will have more about the difference in the toys and electronics from my time compared to now.
What inspired you to write your books?
The very first inspiration I had to write children’s books was from an author named Laura Jane Coats. She wrote Marcella and the Moon. She visited my elementary school when I was in 6th grade. The second inspiration was my mom and our conversations about The Underground Toy Society. After I met Laura Jane Coats, I thought it would be neat someday to write a children’s book about The Underground Toy Society. The third inspiration was my messy kids!
What are your top 5 favorite books?
I always loved a Disney Treasury book that belonged to my mom. That’s where I learned about the stories of Cinderella and Snow White when I was little. We didn’t have a VCR, so I never watched the movies until I was older. I loved Berenstain Bear books, Corduroy, Care Bears, and Rainbow Brite. And yes, I love children’s books more than any other books!
What does literary success look like to you?
I would say success would be when I can sell the rest of the books I have sitting in my closet. Currently, I have 399 books in my closet. I guess selling that many are an achievable goal since I have sold 306 copies from my closet. However, if I would have known it was so hard to sell children’s books, I would not have purchased so many copies at one time. I wanted to buy the books to be able to sell them discounted prices to friends, neighbors, and family, but I was surprised at how many are not interested.
How many hours a day do you write? What is your writing routine?
I did not write much this year. All my efforts this year were focused on marketing to cut down on the number of books I was holding in inventory. My plan for 2019 will be to revise the stories I already have written. I lost count how many I have started, but it must be a least six stories. The funny part is, once an idea for a story hits, I need to write the entire story down, in one day. That’s how it has been for every book except for the sequel to Meeting Grandmom. That one has been taking me a while to write. I don’t have any specific routine because I homeschool my two daughters, and also work part-time as an Occupational Therapist. So writing takes a back burner right now.
If you could have been the original author of any book, what would it be and why?
I remember watching TV one day when I was a teenager after my mom had passed away. There was an advertisement for Toy Story. My heart sank. I thought to myself, oh my gosh, Disney wrote my story about The Underground Toy Society. I felt a little hopeless. I gave up on my idea because I knew I couldn’t ever compete with Disney. Plus, my mom was gone, so there wasn’t much hope for The Underground Toy Society. I watched Toy Story and loved the story. It took me years to realize that my stories are different than Toy Story. My stories are about all toys gathering together, not just one room or one family. Still, it would have been nice if I would have been the first one to write about toys and their adventures.
What advice would you like to give to aspiring authors?
Write about what you want to write. Don’t let anyone tell you how to write your story. Also, begin marketing before the story is published. That way, maybe you can get preorders and not end up with a bunch of books in your closet like me!
***Below is Jessica D. Adams’ Author bio***
Jessica D. Adams writes children’s books about The Underground Toy Society that aim to teach children to love and appreciate what they have, think of others, and hopefully clean their rooms. Jessica’s two daughters are the inspiration for the books, as well as co-illustrators for many of the books. Jessica also wrote a short time travel chapter book, Meeting Grandmom, which is a great story for kids as well as adults to remember or talk about lost loved ones and family history. Jessica has visions of The Underground Toy Society traveling around the world, with many books being created to help teach children to clean their rooms, appreciate what they have, and think of those who may not have as much. While the goals of the books are to help kids want to clean their rooms, appreciate what they have, and think of others, there are no guarantees that kids will learn these lessons. These books are for entertainment purposes, and individual results may vary.
Jessica Adams says
Thank you so much for the interview and I am so glad your website is working again!