The Glorious Beyond received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Sandy Denise Adams.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The name of the book if The Glorious Beyond and it was published in May of 2017.
What’s the book’s first line?
The master bedroom window faces the front of the house.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
The Glorious Beyond is an incidental mystery, sandwiched in a story about relationships and the need for emotional healing after trauma affects our lives. We all heal differently and some of us never heal.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Not one in particular. I grew up in a close-knit family that provided everything for me. We grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood, but I always felt cared for and loved and never wanted for anything. Hearing about kids, just like me who experienced so much pain in their lives, I always wondered how kids and eventually adults dealt with life, when they were coming from that place. I was able to use this story, to explore that.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
While the mystery will hopefully draw you in, but the best part of the story is the chance to meet Kim and Sharon. The main characters have to work through complex situations. They are friends, they love each other dearly, but they are both flawed. The other interesting characters in their life are also dealing/or not dealing with their own issues. The reader gets to sit back and watch how people’s choices, ultimately drive the mystery. In addition, if you are from Baltimore, you will enjoy the tour of the city throughout the story line.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
The most distinctive thing about Kim is that she is not distinctive. She could easily be any one of us. In many ways Kim is me. She grows up so much in just a few chapters. At the beginning she is comforted by being taken care of and a bit afraid to make decisions about her own life. Even in the opening sentences of the book, the location of the bedroom windows in the house she lives in, we learn was someone else’s pick. The people in Kim’s life have always made very definitive choices, many that affect her, and that is the way she wants it -as long as Kim doesn’t have to choose. By the end of the story, however, she learns that abdicating your right to choose is its own choice. You either you take the reigns of your life or you get lost in shuffle. I think that is a lesson we all figure out eventually.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
Sanaa Latham as Kim, Viola Davis as Sharon.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I first started to write in elementary school. I first got the courage to let anybody other than family read my writing, a few years ago.
Is this the first you’ve written?
No. I wrote and published poetry in college and I have written a number of short stories for myself throughout the years. Essays, blogs, I am always writing.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
Now that I have decided to devote more time to my craft, it is about 10 hours week.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
So far, there is only good, nothing hard. I am truly excited to be part of a community of writers. I am not expecting fame and fortune, only the chance to tell the stories trapped in my brain.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Sure, the chance for a wider readership is exciting. I believe Kim and Sharon are pretty cool and quirky and I’d like more people to get to know them.
Is there something in particular that motivates you?
It’s really like letting out a story that is trapped. On my book website I have a Maya Angelou quote that says, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” While I used the quote to describe the character Sharon’s torment, it accurately describes my feelings as well. I gotta let it out.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Wow. So Many. I guess I’d say F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read The Great Gatsby 100 times trying to figure out how the poetry in someone’s writing could make a basic plot line into a story you couldn’t put down.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Any of the Harry Potter series.