Meet Adam Sass | Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Adam Sass and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adam, is there something you believe many others might not?
I disagree that writing is a job. Writers are always defending themselves that what they do is a job, not a hobby. It’s neither. A job usually pays you health benefits and a 401k. As a writer, you’re more like a small business owner, but the shop is you and the products are your works. When you open a small business, you need to weather years of putting more of your own money and sweat into it than you get back. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. This mindset helped me weather the years before writing became profitable for me.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Creatively, I’m most excited by (and proud of) my characters. I put a ton of care into making them feel like vibrant, hilarious, frightening, or dependable people you could know in real life. I got to where I am professionally through trial and error. Much failure. I was a screenwriter, an actor, an improv comic, a marketing salesman. All of them went bust, but each one of those experiences fed my writing and made it richer, along with making the characters more real. It’s the hardest thing in the world to think you’re doing the right thing and then fail. The toughest challenge is continuing that belief in yourself and your work, even as things fall apart. But that tenacity is what I credit my success to.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live in West Hollywood, so I always encourage my friends (who are mostly queer) to do a bar crawl on Santa Monica Blvd. LA gays can take for granted how condensed the SMB queer hangouts are in one area. It’s a rare treat, and always a great time to be with friends in a place where it always feels like summer.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I wouldn’t be as far as I am today as an author without the friendship and counsel of my fellow author, Terry Benton-Walker, whose YA debut BLOOD DEBTS comes out Spring ’23 from Tor Teen. All the tough love, cheerleading, and savvy thinking a friend and contemporary could ever need.

Website: adamsassbooks.com

Instagram: TheAdamSass

Twitter: @TheAdamSass