Author’s note: As part of my book tour with the late, great Escapist Book Company, I completed an interview with “Sam Adams” himself. Since the Escapist Book Company website seems to no longer be in service, I decided to post it here, so interested parties can read it. Enjoy!
Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Sam Adams. No, I don’t know why I’m named after a Founding Father. I was once attacked by a goose. And I’m a wizard. Hello.
What music do you listen to?
The good thing about our modern-day internet is that you can find all sorts of random stuff, so it’s all
over the map, but I’m a rock fan, mostly. Motorhead, AC/DC, stuff like that. Plus, the incomparable poetess Melissa Etheridge provides the song for my ringtone.
What are 3 items you can’t live without?
A good pair of shoes; I don’t have a car, so I have to walk everywhere. My denim jacket; the perfect style
accessory for the teenage wizard, and the K-Bar I keep in the lining of said jacket, in case magic can’t get
the job done. (Maybe don’t tell anybody about that.)
If you were stranded on a deserted island, what is one thing you’d like to have with you?
A boat.
What is your biggest pet peeve?
The fair city of Williamsport, my hometown. It looks like some quaint seaside city, but scratch that
Norman Rockwell surface just a little, and things get weird fast.
The Williams River that splits off from the bay divides it in half, between North (the haves) and South,
(the have-nots, including me.) You can’t live here and not have it cause trouble for you. There’s crime
and gangs, drugs, shootings, things like that, on the South Side, anyway. If you live in a decent
neighborhood, you can kind of avoid the worst of it but it’s never too far away. And the North Siders
may or may not hunt humans for sport. They run the town. The government, the cops, everybody else of
importance, they’re all more or less the North Siders’ employees. You hear rumors about all sorts of
unsavory stuff, and I’m guessing most of it is true. Everyone who lives here has a few stories about the
misadventures they got into thanks to, shall we say, Williamsport’s unique way of doing things, and they
tend to sound like crime thrillers. So yeah, that’s kind of a permanent pet peeve.
What do you do in your free time?
Other than practicing my magic, just a lot of super normal and mundane teenage stuff. Listening to
music, watching soccer, hanging out with my friends, going out to eat, TV, reading, school events, whatever.
When people are making a habit of trying to kill you, you really appreciate the little moments
when they’re not doing it.
What makes you want to get out of bed in the morning?
What makes me want to get out of bed? I don’t. Getting out of bed means I have to go to school, and I
only do that because the government forces me to.
What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
It wasn’t one specific thing; it was just the knowledge of what my magic was and how to use it. When
my magic first started manifesting, I didn’t have any frame of reference for it, so I didn’t know what was
happening to me. My Familiar was drawn to my power and laid it all out for me, and helped me get
myself together.
What do you carry in your bag?
School stuff. I know that’s a pretty boring answer, and you’re probably looking for something more
interesting, but in real life, wizards don’t really carry magic wands or bottles of potions.
What’s your favorite animal?
My cat put you up to this, didn’t he? Very funny. No doubt he wants me to say Catrick Swayze, my
Familiar, a seven-hundred-year-old talking cat. Well, Swayze, if you’re listening, my favorite animal is the
noble zebra.
What do you think about [other MC(s)]?
Well, I already told you about my cat.
Jason Clay is my best friend. He’s such a decent guy. He’s known about my magic for years now and
hasn’t run away screaming. I want to keep him away from the supernatural aspects of my life, but I find I
need his help more and more. John Rodriguez is a cop, and I’m very predisposed not to trust cops, but I
think I can trust him. It’s safe to say the Williamsport PD isn’t the most honorable of institutions, but the
more I get acquainted with him, the more I think he’s not going to go along with that.
My parents and my sister Ella, I want to keep them out of my, let’s say, magical controversies, but that’s
getting harder and harder to manage as well.
Regarding Elise and Eressen, well, I’m not sure what to think about them. Yes, I am: FEAR. Eressen is a
Shal’gasa; you’ve probably never heard of the Shal’gasa. They’re not like werewolves or something,
creatures with their own horror movies. They typically hold themselves aloof from humanity, unless
they have some dark purpose, which they clearly do now. Eressen showed up at my school one day and
made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I have no idea what they want with me or what they’re trying to
accomplish, but the Shal’gasa play at a much higher level than I do. The ‘gods and archangels and
eldritch empires’ kind of level. They’re famously bloodthirsty and Machiavellian, and the instant one
crossed my path I knew I was swimming in a pond that was way, way too deep for me.
As for Elise, she’s a vampire, and it’s best to watch your neck around those things. They sometimes have
a tendency to get too thirsty. She’s a throat-ripping death machine. And I don’t know what she wants,
either. She’s even more of a mystery to me than Eressen. She’s alluded to working with other people and they 100% don’t have my best interest at heart. She’s made a habit of roaming around Williamsport saving my life, but that doesn’t make me trust her.
And then there’s Alexandra Tyler. Even her name is fancy: Alexandra. Just let that sophistication roll off
your tongue. She’s been in my class my whole life, but we don’t exactly run in the same social circles.
She’s a North Sider. Rich, popular, beautiful. She’s not what I expected. I suppose I expected her to be as
ghastly as the rest of the local aristocracy, but that wasn’t the case. There’s a lot more to her than meets
the eye.
Do you have favorite saying?
I’ve never thought of myself as having a favorite saying. I tend to remind myself ‘one problem at a time’
when I’m in a crisis. It’s sort of grounding, I guess, when violence is breaking out.
What is your favorite holiday?
Definitely Halloween; whatever else you can say about Williamsport, it goes all out for Halloween. So
many great memories. Or at least, it was my favorite holiday until my entire life became Halloween.
If you could go anywhere in [the book’s world], where would you go and why?
‘Away from Williamsport’ is the first thing that comes to mind. The place is toxic, and I certainly don’t
want to spend the rest of my life here. If you’re looking for something more specific, I’d like to see Italy one day.
What do you do to relax?
Mostly just be happy I’m not in imminent danger. See question six. It’s getting harder and harder to
relax these days. I can’t turn around without things blowing up or people getting eaten. And there are
dark things happening under the surface, things I still don’t understand but are going to spell trouble for
yours truly. Things that are a lot bigger than just good old Williamsport.
What is your favorite food?
It’s hard to beat a good, juicy cheeseburger.
What is your favorite season?
Fall. Sweet autumn leaves. Halloween around the corner. Not too hot, not too cold. Jacket weather.
How would you define happiness?
Happiness was my freshman year of high school. Back then magic was fun and easy. Nobody was trying
to kill me. I didn’t have to worry about saving lives. I was optimistic about the future. I loved being a
wizard. I had Abby. That was happiness for me.
What are you passionate about?
Is it too obvious to say magic? Once I understood what wizardry was, I loved it. Ate it up with a spoon. I
should have realized back then the kind of trouble it could bring into my life. I knew magic could be dangerous, but I was fooling myself, thinking that would never happen to me. But it did. It would be nice to get a break from saving the day, to maybe get a little of that old enthusiasm back.
How do you feel about your government?
Like, the government of America? I can barely manage to survive Williamsport, I don’t really have much
time to worry about things on a national scale. Historically speaking, wizards and other shady
supernatural entities know how to either stay out of government’s way or manipulate them to their own
ends. So, you know, the law of the land isn’t something we have to worry much about.
If we’re talking about the government of Williamsport, that’s another story. They don’t like me or my
antics very much. I’m sure most of them would like nothing better than to whack me, but I’ve made
some arrangements to keep that from happening. Although we’re not exactly dealing with geniuses
here. It wouldn’t surprise me if they decided to take a potshot at me anyway.
If you could change one thing about [the book’s world], what would it be?
What else can I say? Abby would still be alive.
What’s your biggest secret?
Well, it WAS that I was a wizard. But lately that’s getting to be worryingly common knowledge.
What do you hate?
Getting stabbed has to be near the top of the list. Getting shot isn’t much better. I don’t particularly care
for demonic possessions, kidnappings, car chases, or sentient fireballs, either. And a blood mage called
King Death. I hate that guy.
What’s your biggest fear?
It already happened.
What do you think your best quality is?
Magic? I guess that’s a pretty obvious answer, but I’m not a guy with a ton of other hobbies. Or I could say my delightful sense of humor, but some people seem to get so fussy about that.
How would you describe the world you live in?
The first word that comes to mind is… big.
Being a wizard, my world isn’t just regular old Earth. It encompasses the spirit worlds, of which there are
more than anyone knows, existing outside our reality. It’s something that’s best not to think about too
much, or it’ll melt your brain. I’m more than happy to stay in my little corner, but there’s always a
danger that something lurking in one of those other worlds is going to take an interest in me.