Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Authors Not-So-Anonymous Week #29

Welcome everyone to the twenty-ninth Authors Not-So-Anonymous weekly meeting!! This weekly series is about authors from Twitter and Facebook!  This week, I would like to introduce Adrian Walker into Authors Not-So-Anonymous!

Adrian Walker is an author by night, and a software developer by day.  He currently lives in Scotland.  "I started writing poetry and short stories when I was very young, then tried twice to write a novel in my twenties, the second time holed up in a shack on a remote beach in New Zealand.  From The Storm is my first completed novel though, which I started around seven years ago.  I took six months off between jobs (I'm a software developer by day) and focussed on it every day.  By the time I had to return to work, I was about 90% finished.  It took the remaining six years to finish the last 10%!"


Adrian's inspiration for writing started with his father and The Grapes of Wrath.  "My dad is an excellent writer and we've always shared a passion for books, so you could say he was my first inspiration.  We argue about words and grammar all the time. Some things stick with you.  I'll always remember how I felt after reading the first few paragraphs of The Grapes of Wrath, the calm and simple prose describing a country changing over a season.   That book, as with a lot of American writing, really inspired me."


His top three favorite novels are:
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe by Douglas Adams 
  • I, Lucifer by Glen Dunca
  • The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Other authors that he likes are -  
  • John Steinbeck
  • Tom Robbins
  • Sebastian Faulks
  • Stephen King
In January of 2012, Adrian released From The Storm.  He hopes to have his second novel out in 2013.

"We don’t know what his name is or where he came from, but he is living in my room."  

In the near future, a young man seeks adventure in the French Alps. Lost, feverish and caught in a freak snowstorm, he finds refuge in a lonely mountain farm where he stumbles upon a young girl’s diary from eighty years before. Claudette tells of farm life disrupted by a blizzard and the arrival of a stranger with a terrible injury. With her father sick, the eight-year-old chronicles her struggle to look after the farm, and its unwanted guest, alone  

In present day London, Joseph Martin has screwed up. Once he was a lethal assassin, the best gun-for-hire. Now, in his autumn years, even he has to admit he is losing it. His failing skills have landed him in trouble with a dangerous client Only the successful completion of an eerily familiar mission can save his skin; a mission which takes him into deepest Asia, where he must face a past he has long tried to forget.  

He’s not the only one on the road in Asia. London city boy Ashley Gritten is travelling. Shedding the challenges of his privileged life in Kensington, he’s off to ‘find himself’ in the drugs, girls and debauchery of the backpacker trail. But something else finds him. Something much, much worse.

Who would have thought that a rich kid and an ageing hit man would have so much in common? And what does all of this have to do with Elmo, a pianist on his death bed in Venice?  

A dark and humorous story of how selves are lost and lives are found.
(end)

From The Storm can be purchased on Amazon and Smashwords.  Follow Adrian on Twitter here.  Have an author to nominate?  Send me a message via Twitter, Facebook, or leave a comment with the author(s) name and contact information.  I'd love to add new members!  Happy Reading!

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