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MEET W. ROYCE ADAMS (10/2010)
by Bonnie O'Brian

How did you get involved in writing for young readers?

W. Royce Adams

My daughter Kate, now in her mid twenties, is responsible for my involvement in writing novels for young readers, especially the six books in The Rairarubia Tales. When she was about eleven – long before the young lady she is today – Kate happened to notice on one of our bookshelves several college textbooks on reading, writing and study skills with my name on them. At that time I was, and still am, writing college-level textbooks in developmental reading and writing for students deficient in basic skills.
“Did you write those books?” she asked, surprised.
I admitted I had.
“Well, then, if you’re a writer, write something I can read.”

I’d never thought of writing a juvenile book, so I asked her what I should write.
“Write the stories you and I make up,” Kate answered promptly.
She was referring to stories that she and I had made up orally over a period of a year or so. Just like the character Molly in Rairarubia, Book One, Kate was bored one day and asked me to tell her a story. I agreed, but only if she would help me. I asked her where the story should take place. After some thinking, she decided on Rairarubia, “a place that is rare, has good air, and lots of rubies.” She also named most of the characters as we moved along developing the story. I would make up a situation and ask her what should happen next. Together, we kept adding to the story and unbeknown to us at the time became the Rairarubia Tales. 

When I began to write the story at her request, I found that sometimes the plot would have to make a different twist, or I’d have to bring in a character to make the story read better. But basically, I tried to remain faithful to the original plots by including all the characters she helped create, which is why it took six books to complete “our story.”
I never intended to publish the book, only to type up a copy for Kate to keep. But it so happened that after completing the first draft of Book One, a fifth-grade teacher friend asked if I’d come to class and read part of the story to her students. The response was so gratifying and encouraging that I decided to publish it, and with Kate’s help continued until we had covered all the characters we had created.
As one book in the series followed the other, Kate and I would go to book fairs and school assemblies taking parts of the characters in the books as we read to audiences. It was great fun and quite an adventure for the two of us. So I thank Kate for The Rairarubia Tales and an interest in writing for juvenile readers.

What have you learned from your school visits?

As I visited schools, I could see how keen young children were for stories. I compared that attitude with the lack of enthusiasm for reading and writing that so many of my college students had. Some reached college never having read a novel.  Consequently, they now had to take classes using textbooks like mine that attempted to teach them to catch up on their reading and writing skills so that they could succeed in their other classes.

What other books have you written?

In addition to the Rairarubia series, I’ve written THE COMPUTER’S NERD that deals with bullying,ME AND JAY, an adventure story showing the consequences of bad decisions, and in ME AND JAY, the trials of a young runaway.  I try to keep all my books short and fast reading, keeping in mind students who don’t like to read or have difficulty reading, hoping they will learn to enjoy reading at an early age and never have to read my college textbooks.

How would you describe your writing process?

For me, writing stories is magical, but unlike a magician who knows how his tricks are going to turn out, I'm never sure what tricks a story is going to play on me. Once I get started on a story idea, it seems to take over. I'm constantly amazed at what comes out on the page. It's as though these made-up people are actually in my head, and all I'm doing is recording what happens into my computer. The story seems to write itself.

Then comes the hard part -- revising and rewriting. That's the point where writing becomes challenging. Sometimes I hate what I've written, so I put it aside and hope that maybe some day I'll be able to work with it. Sometimes I love a story so much I immediately want to send it off to some publication. I've finally learned not to do that. There is always something to work on to make it better. I would love to go back and rewrite all my novels now that I’m beginning to learn how to write.