Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in Wisconsin with my two absolutely adorable kids and my awesomely patient wife. I spend a great deal of my day behind a desk looking at numbers and reports, but when I get my free time…I return behind that desk and work on characters and plot lines.
I’ve got two currently published books, The Legend of Buddy Hero and The Agora Files, and another three currently in different stages of production.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Agora Files, its inspiration comes from a multitude of sources, actually being the combination of several book ideas I had into one epic action-packed adventure. One of the greatest inspirations for the theme of the story was a series of dreams I had in which there were a couple people running away from some unknown enemy as though their life were on the line. I wanted to keep that same intensity while also looking to tell a much deeper story about the world and its many environments.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have the tendency to be thinking about the next story I want to tell while working on the story I’m already involved in. I really like stories and my brain often works a lot faster through them than I’m able to type, so I’ve often got several stories running through my mind at the same time. Every once in a while, those stories end up merging into something completely new, as was the case with The Agora Files.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I find myself gaining influence from a number of locations. I really love the pacing of the action from folks like Michael Crichton, while also attempting to bring in the light writing of folks like Douglas Adams or Robert Asprin. But, in the end, I really like to try to write like the old story tellers, like Mark Twain, not getting too bogged down in the details, but focusing on characters and telling a great story.
What are you working on now?
Like I said before, I have three stories I’m currently working on. The one nearest completion is the sequel to my debut novel, The Legend of Buddy Hero, called The Rise of the Fat Mogul. This series is a bit of an homage to comic books and tells the story of an everyman who finds out he was part of a deep history of superheroism.
There’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek trope references, but at its heart, it the story of a man doing what is right in order to save the world.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still working on that…I’ve been historically a bad promoter. However, I have a great group of author friends that help me get the word out, which I think has been my only saving grace thus far.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write. No matter how you feel, you need to write. It’s the only way in which to ever get happy with what you put on the page, because it’s the only way to get better.
Also, if you don’t force yourself to write, you’ll never get anything done. Some of my best days of writing are the days in which I went into it absolutely devoid of any interest in doing so.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The above…I never really realized how important it was until I finally forced myself to sit down daily and write a set amount of words. Some of it might be worthless, but there’s always something of worth that comes out of it, even if it is just to get the worthless stuff out of my head so the good stuff has room to flow.
What are you reading now?
Odium by Claire C Riley, a fantastic zombie adventure that is keeping me turning the virtual pages of my kindle well past my bedtime.
What’s next for you as a writer?
What’s not next? I’m always working on trying out new subjects and stories. I intend to have three new stories written before the end of spring, one being my first novella, and being my first sequel, and one being my first attempt at a serialized novel. I’m always working toward pushing my abilities to their limit to see what all I’m really capable of. It’s been a ton of fun.
What is your favorite book of all time?
That’s an incredibly hard one to answer. If I absolutely had to choose, I’d say Jurassic Park, not because it’s all that amazing of a book, but it was what originally inspired me to try telling stories when I first read it ages ago, and it still does that today.
Author Websites and Profiles
Adam Oster Website
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