Adam Laws – Fevers of the Mind

with Adam Laws:

Q1: When did you start writing and first influences?

Adam:

I began writing when I was 14, having struggled with depression and constantly thinking up philosophical material – I began penning those ideas and constructing them into poems which mostly rhymed. It was when I was 19 and in my final year of college that I became interested in screenwriting. I returned to poetry in 2018 after a breakdown which inspired me to put together my first poetry collection “Morgue.”

When I first started writing poetry, I was also studying a variety of poets in school such as Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy. I had studied “A Kestrel for a Knave” by Barry Hines when I was in my final year at school and that really stayed with me – even the film version appeals to me. When I was in college, I studied Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” – so that book really influenced me as well, from a psychological point of view. It has stuck with me all these years, and of course the film version has as well.

Q2: Who are your biggest influences today?

Adam: I don’t have many literary influences at this point of my life, though most of my influences come from musicians – I love that I can relate to certain lyrics that are backed by an amazing sound.

Q3: Any pivotal moment when you knew you wanted to be a writer?

Adam: It was when I was a teenager, looking for the right outlet. I was always very much into art and have been an artist since very early childhood. But the passion for writing really came about while I was developing through adolescence and battling depression. I always found it difficult to talk about things and explain my feelings, so writing just made it so much easier for me, even to this day.

Q4: Who has helped you most with writing?

Adam: Nobody has helped me as such, it is something I tend to go about on my own. When I was writing my first novella “Heated Halls” I had a few friends proofread it and offer amazing advice which made the book turn out stronger. But since then, particularly with my poetry collections, I’ve just gone about it on my own. I decided to have one of my poetry books illustrated back in May, the collection is called “What Exists, This…” and contains artwork by a very talented guy called Shermal Jones.

Q5: Where did you grow up and how did that influence your writing & did any travels away from home influence your work?

Adam: I grew up in Birmingham, England where as a child I was full of imagination, being quite the fantasist. I spent my teen years attending an all-boys school and struggled to fit in as I was often pushed out. So, I think that may have developed a hunger in me to branch out and do something that meant a lot to me – and this came into play once I left school to go to college; I decided to go to a college that was quite a distance from my home and where no one else was going to because I felt I needed to start fresh. It was in college, with the help of my tutors that I began to really hone my writing skills, as well as my artistic skills.

Q6: What do you consider your most meaningful work you’ve done creatively so far to you?

Adam: I put together my first anthology “Lyrical Lot” back in November 2019 which contains all the poetry from my first four chapbooks – so it has a total of 120 poems. There is a lot of psychological and philosophical material in that book. I hold every book I have written in the same light as I am proud to have produced them. But “Lyrical Lot” is probably the most meaningful, especially as it contains the material from “Morgue” which brought me back to poetry and was the very first book I put together.

Q7: Favorite activities to relax?

Adam: Music plays an essential part in my life, it always has, and that goes for anybody really… I love most music, but I particularly listen to the 80s. I enjoy tennis, though haven’t played it in a while. I also like to return to my sketchbook once in a while.

Q8: What is a favorite line/stanza from a poem/writing of yours or others?

Adam: This is a stanza taken from a poem I wrote called “Shackled Shade.”

“Being forms of us in darkened distortion,
the shadows rest pressed, gaunt against the walls,
they’re like a blush or better yet a bruise of sorts,
which the light of the passing hour hauls.”

Q9: Any recent or forthcoming projects that you’d like to promote?

Adam: My most recent poetry collection “The Hours Were Ours” is about the highs and lows of love and can be purchased on Amazon in both Kindle and Paperback format – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09C6P1PHR/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0