Tevun-Krus #6 - Superhuman

Author Spotlight: Adam Sigrist

This month, TK had the pleasure of sitting down with @sigrist--Adam Sigrist--author of The Zombie Prophecies and Slipstream. Adam is a regular around @ForbiddenPlanet, and we were glad for the chance to talk with him!

So, who are you—tell us a little about yourself. 

I'm a twenty something personal care worker born and raised in a mid-sized, east coast Canadian city. I work with people who have disabilities, and it definitely shows in my writing. When I'm not writing, or working, I like to read, play video games, and go on scenic walks. I enjoy feeding the birds, camping, and getting angry when small children are too loud.

Basically I'm a weird mash up of a nerdy young gamer, and a cranky old man.

When did you begin writing?

I've been making up stories all of my life. I can remember writing them down as early as nine years old. When I was eleven I tried to write my first novel, it was about a group of high school students who started slipping back and forth between a hell dimension and their own world. I never finished it, but I did have several school notebooks filled with hastily scrawled chicken scratch. I remember thinking that I had to write everything really quickly, before the ideas would slip away.

Why SciFi?

Despite my love for story telling, I didn't quite take to reading very quickly. I could do it just fine, but once I outgrew my earliest books I never really picked up anything new. Then when I discovered a series called Animorphs by K. A. Applegate, all that changed. It's a series of novels for young adults about a group of kids who obtain the ability to transform into any animal they touch. These kids grew up fighting a secret war against an alien race of brain controlling slugs that had already enslaved at least three whole planets in their quest to control the universe. It was so exciting that all of the sudden I couldn't stop reading! That series easily convinced me that not only did I want to write, but I wanted to write SciFi.

What’s your favorite story you’ve written? 

Each and every story has been my favorite. That's such a stupid, cop out kind of answer I know, but it's true. When I'm working on a new story, it's all I can think about. I tell everyone I know and I just beam with pride about the whole affair. Then I finish writing it, and I read it to one or two friends, then I put it on the internet for everyone to see, then I forget about it entirely and move on to the next idea.

I gotta write everything down very quickly, before the ideas slip away.

What is your fan’s favorite story you’ve written? 

I'd say that would probably be TGIF, a story about a man stuck in a time loop. Or Murder Day, about a world where once a year murder is legal. First Light was pretty popular, but a great majority of it was removed after publication and now it's mostly just a teaser for the novel.

Who are some of your influences? Favorite writers?

Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Dean Koontz. And lately I've been inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin and her feminist SciFi and experimentations with gender in writing.

Where do you find inspiration for your stories? 

Everywhere! Whether it's a conversation between strangers on the bus, or someone doing something nice for someone else I'm always taking mental notes of things that are happening around me.

We know some of the big authors, Orson Scott Card or Tolkein for example, incorporate their religion into their work. Are you religious? If so, do you incorporate it into your stories?