#WriterWednesday Interview with William Ade

I’d like to welcome author, William Ade, to the blog this week for #WriterWednesday.

A few of your favorite things: At my age, I'm trying to declutter to the essential favorite things. My mom's dance trophy from 1936 reminds me of her energy and over-the-top personality. My dad's WWII dog tags reflect his steadfastness and old fashion values. My box of race medals might tell me of my slowly ebbing vitality, but their real value is the memories of running with my sisters, nephew, and brother-in-law.

Things you need to throw out: Old letters and personal memorabilia that would make zero sense to my kids. Why should I pass on boxes of my junk when I have boxes of their stuff they'll need to clear out of the house? I should consult with Marie Kondo, I guess.

Things you need for your writing sessions: An early start. If I can be at the keyboard within thirty minutes of waking up, my writing flows and edits come effortlessly. It seems after being awake a few hours, life gets in my head and slows me down.

Things that hamper your writing: A rejection email knocks me back a few hours, but less so than in the early days. Sometimes, I’ll reread something I’d written a few weeks ago and thought was brilliant, only to realize it stinks. I’m too discouraged to write after that and will go off to do something requiring minimal skills to be successful, like pulling weeds.

Hardest thing about being a writer: The rejection and self-doubt make it hard at times. Even when friends tell me they love my story, I wonder, “Are they only being nice?” I don’t know what came first, the paranoia or the writing?

Easiest thing about being a writer: Coming up with new ideas. Everything and everyone has a story I could tell. I won’t live long enough to build out all the stories I have in my head.

Something you like to do: I want to drop my inhibitions, cut loose and belt out a song.

Something you wish you’d never done: Loudly singing when someone walked into the room.

Last best thing you ate: A perfectly ripe mango.

Last thing you regret eating: That third, perfectly ripe mango.

The last thing you ordered online: Three books on the craft of writing that I then distilled down to six, two-sided pages of notes.

The last thing you regret buying: I bought three types of hummingbird feeders that attracted no birds but caught the attention of an army of ants.

Things you always put in your books: References that only close friends or family would recognize.

Things you never put in your books: I avoid writing about politics or religion. I don't want my readers to be distracted. I avoid discussing those topics with people in general, so why risk setting off a reader.

Things to say to an author: “I found the characters believable.”

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “I found a typo.”

Favorite places you’ve been: New Zealand, most of Italy, and Iceland.

Places you never want to go to again: Jamaica – I couldn’t ignore the poverty.

Most embarrassing moment: Oh sure, like I’m going to share my most humiliating behavior in a public forum. Ha! Nice try, Heather. How about this one? Years ago, my family was on vacation in Scotland, and I needed clean socks. I sink-washed some big white tube socks, but by morning, they were still wet. My wife was irritated. I said, "Not to worry. I'll lay them out in the rear window of the hatchback. The sun will dry them." My wife feared public embarrassment. I replied, "We're in a foreign country. No one knows us." Of course, you know what's coming. Two days later, we're lunching a hundred miles away and started a conversation with two Americans. We shared experiences when the woman said, "We saw a car in Sterling, with socks drying in the rear window." I think they were more embarrassed when we admitted that the car belonged to us.

Proudest moment: My son was a five-year-old performing in a children's theatre production. As the show continued, I noticed him bouncing from foot-to-foot. Oh, no, he had to use a toilet. The play went on and on and finally, the dam burst and the front of his pants darkened. When the performance ended, I whisked him to the bathroom to clean up. I told him how proud I was of him, that he stayed on stage and didn’t let down his fellow actors. He never mentioned wetting his pants.

About William:

Bill Ade took up writing in earnest upon his retirement from the telecommunications industry in 2015. He grew up in small-town Indiana in the fifties and sixties, and those influences show up in many of his stories and characters. He lives with his wife of forty-one years (and counting) outside of Washington, DC, in Burke, Virginia. His son is a filmmaker in LA, and his daughter works in the non-profit field in Baltimore. Both children continue to be an inspiration for his stories. Of course, he has the mandatory writer’s cat inconveniently walking across his keyboard most days.

His monthly blog is at Eclectic Stories for the Humans

 Ade’s current novel, Art of Absolution, is a story where sins of the past refuse to stay buried, and a child's curiosity risks destroying two families. It's been called a great book club read, as good people are put in difficult moral and ethical positions to protect their loved ones.