Royce Adams
is an Emeritus Professor of English, Santa Barbara City College,
Santa Barbara, California, where he has 
taught
for twenty-three years. Before that Royce taught for seven years
at South High School, Torrance, California. Royce earned degrees
from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, and California
State University, Long Beach. During his thirty-year teaching
career, Royce has published twenty-two college textbooks, primarily
in the areas of developmental reading, writing and study skills.
Royce says, " I've published several adult short stories,
several of which appear in my short story collection, Teacher,
Teacher, I Declare!" Royce Adams is a past-president of
the College Reading and Learning Association, a member of the
Author's Guild, the International Reading Association, the Society
of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, The Association
of Booksellers for Children, and the Rockford Writers Guild.
He lives in Santa Barbara, California, with my wife, Jane Brody,
daughter Kate, and black lab, Zena.
Page One:Where did you grow up and was reading
and writing
a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?
Royce Adams:I was born in St. Louis,
but my family moved across the river to Alton, Illinois, when
I was twelve. I spent my teen years there, but I'm not sure I
can say I "grew up" anywhere because I like to think
of myself as still growing.0 Exploring the cliffs and caves along
the Mississippi River appealed to me more than reading until
I read Studs Lonigan by James T. Farrell. It's about a teenage
boy growing up in Chicago, and I discovered much of his thoughts
and questions about life were my own. After that, I started reading
about every book my parents got in the Book-of-theMonth Club.
As to writing, I didn't do much of that until college.
Page One: Why do you write?
Royce Adams: The basic answer to that
goes back to my freshman college days when a teacher switched
me from his "dumb-bell" English class to an advanced
one after he read my first essay assignment. He read it in class
as an example of good writing, which both embarrassed and floored
me. With his encouragement, I developed an interest in reading
and writing. But now I write out of disciplined habit and because
I can't stop. It's just in me. After writing twenty some odd
textbooks, numerous short stories, and now fiction for ages 9
and up, I've discovered a whole new area of writing to explore
and develop. With the books I'm writing now, I hope to get young
readers to discover the fun and joy of reading and develop a
reading habit so they don't have to use my college textbooks
on reading and writing in their later years.
Page One: Tell us about the Rairarubia series.
How did this series of books start? Where did the idea/influence
come from?
Royce Adams: It started when my youngest
daughter Kate was about nine. Just like the main character Molly
in the series, she asked me to tell her a story. I agreed on
the condition that she help me make it up. She wanted the setting
of the story to be someplace rare, with good air, and lots of
rubies. So she came up with Rairarubia. Kate gave names to the
characters as we made them up and over a period of two years
or so, we would periodically get back to the story and continue
developing it. When she discovered I wrote textbooks and stories,
she challenged me to write something she could read, so I started
writing the Rairarubia tales for her. Naturally, some changes
had to be made from our oral rendition, but she approves of them.
She shared my manuscripts with friends and teachers and their
encouragement made me think I had something publishable. So,
she's the muse behind the series, as well as my present interest
in writing for young readers.
Page One: At book signings, what
do readers say to you about their interpretations of your books?
What do they like about your stories?
Royce Adams: My audience is mainly pre-teens.
My daughter, now 17, often comes to book signings and we read
together and she's often asked to sign the books, too.. The audience
likes to hear how the stories began. They tell me they love the
crazy names, and they like that each chapter ends with a cliffhanger,
making them want to read on. They also like that each book concludes
its own story but opens the imagination to the next book in the
series. I also get some wonderful email notes from kids offering
names and suggestions for the next book. One boy suggested a
map of the Rairarubia territory would be "neat." So
Kate drew one that's in the fourth book now.
Page One:What general advice do you have
for writers who just completed their first novel? What do they
do now?
Royce Adams: Start on the next one. Unless
you're among the few lucky ones, your manuscript may circulate
from editor to editor for some time. While you wait, write another
book. It can take a long time for acceptance, then another year
or more to get into print once it is accepted.
Page One: Tell me about your publishing
experience -- Is it a difficult process to go through?
Royce Adams: Yes. But it's also fun and
challenging. I've had my hands in all kinds of publishing experiences.
Over the years I've published with some name companies, like
Harcourt, Macmillan, Scott Foresman, John Wiley, and smaller
publishers not even in business any more. I've experimented with
co-publishing, with Print On Demand publishers, and self-publishing.
Because of the many changes undergoing publishing today, I've
found it faster and more expeditious to form my own company.
It's a fascinating, all-consuming task at times, but never dull.
Page One: Are you working on a follow
up to the Rairarubia series? Or something totally different?
Royce Adams: Both. I'm working on Book
5 in the Rairarubia series and another novel about a young boy
whose family is forced to move in with his grandfather on his
mother's side. Unfortunately, there's much friction between his
father and the grandfather, forcing the boy to struggle with
his loyalties to his father as he grows to know and love his
grandfather.
Page One: What was the last book you read?
What do you do for pleasure when you are not writing?
Royce Adams: I belong to a book club
that meets once a month, so the last book I read was a book club
pick: The Pilgrim Hawk by Glenway Wescott. I also just finished
Holes by Louis Sachar and I'm almost finished with Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card. Now that I'm trying to write for young readers,
I find I'm reading many of the books on my daughter's books shelves.
When I'm not reading or writing, I like to go for walks on the
beach or in the mountains. Santa Barbara has both to offer.
Page One:You have said, 'The story
seems to write itself. When I stop and read what's on the screen,
I often have no idea where any of it came from.' Please explain.
Royce Adams: The best I can explain it
that I must be two people. When I start to write, I might think
I know where I'm taking the story. But more often than not, the
story takes over me and it just seems to come out. I get so caught
up in the story that I guess I'm living it for a time. One of
me is making it up and the other me is writing it down. When
I stop and look at where the story evolved or who I invented
that I had no thought of before, I'm truly amazed. Some writers
plot out their story, make up characteristics to give to their
characters, and know how the story will end. I can't do that.
I never know how a story will end when I begin. I may have some
idea, but it often changes in midstream. Even with nonfiction,
I remember in college when I would have to attach an outline
to an essay, I always wrote the outline after I'd written the
paper. Outlining was a total waste of time for me and still is.
As I said, I still have a lot of growing to do.
