Coffee Chat Author Interview with Mystery Writer William Ade

It is scorching hot in the Midwest, so I’ve retreated to the shade on the deck. Won’t you join me in welcoming guest mystery author William Ade with his featured book, Do It For Daisy.

Nice to meet you, William. How do you take your coffee?

WA:  An iced latte with one pump of vanilla would be nice.

Ade’s career shifted from education to telecommunications, and he was eventually employed by MCI and then Verizon until his retirement in 2014. During that same time, he and his wife, Cynthia, raised two beautiful children into adulthood.

At his retirement, Ade announced to his wife that he wanted to try his hand at writing. She said that if he was going to do that, he had to pursue it vigorously.

Ade’s work has appeared in the Mysteries Unimagined, the Rind Literary Magazine, The Broken Plate, Black Fox Literary, Mindscapes Unimagined, and 2018 and 2019 Best New England Crime Stories. He writes both literary, humor, and crime stories.
His collection of short stories, No Time for His Nonsense, was released in early 2020. His first novel, Art of Absolution, came out in July 2020. Level Best Book released Do It for Daisy in February 2021.

Something Most People Don’t Know About Me: “Back in the ’80s, I tried and failed to syndicate a comic strip about the dead.”

WA:  I love writing and revising. Finding that perfect phrasing delights me, and I’ve never suffered from writer’s block. I have more story ideas than time. So what’s the most challenging part of the process for me? I find it a challenge dealing with the sense my writing isn’t eloquent or stylishly elevated.

Ally:  Do you write from an outline?

WA:  I start feverishly writing dialog and characters’ features and clips of interactions as they form in my mind. I might generate several thousand words of bits and pieces of scenes. Some will be detailed, others only crucial points. After I’ve exhausted this flood of unrestricted creativity, I’ll create an outline.

Ally:  What’s the best thing a reader has said about your book?

WA:  I love this question because it made me think. I had one reader tell me how impressed he was with my dialog, which felt great because writing good dialogue is an art, and I’ve worked hard at it for years. Another reader, a highly educated and accomplished woman, gushed about my plot and how I weaved a compelling story.

Ally: Have you co-authored a story or novel?

wa:  No, I haven’t. I don’t know how I’d approach such a project. Maybe we’d agree on the outline, and I’d take certain characters and co-author the others. I’d think my collaborator and I would have to be highly compatible in temperament and in complete agreement on what we expected from each other. Yikes, I don’t know if I’d be up for it. Great question.

Ally:  What is your next writing project?

WA:  My current Work in Progress (WIP) is a novel about a man who believes he can fix anything and anyone. It’s far different from my current book, Do It for Daisy, a crime/suspense story.  I wouldn’t say my WIP is autobiographical fiction, but the characters and locations, and emotions are drawn from my life.
I’ve also worked on a true-crime parody, incorporating a private eye named Nic Knuckles.

Ally:  Which of the trivia questions did you choose?