Inside The Author’s Head: Adam Baker

Q1. What is your favorite word?

Kalashnikov. (Wonderfully onomatopoeic. One can hear the klunk-klunk/snick-snack of a magazine slapped into the receiver, and the slide chambering a round.) Military jargon has an almost erotic black poetry.

Q2. What is your least favorite word?

Deadline

Q3. How has social media helped your career?

Publishers urge authors to join Facebook and Twitter so they can build a loyal tribe. Neil Gaiman is cited as the model for author/reader engagement. But, truth is, market surveys suggest the public are not impressed by new-media gimmicks. They discover books and authors the same way they always did: personal recommendation.

Q4. What would you say are the downsides to social media in your career?

Futzing around on Twitter instead of writing books.

Q5. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

I’d like to run a karate dojo. Low-key, not very commercial. Just a simple fight-space. It would be lovely to send people on their way partially transformed. More confident, more composed, feeling the equal of the world.

Q6. What profession would you not like to do?

I worked in an insurance office for a while. It was awful. I used to look at the window and gaze longingly as birds circled a distant hill. (I later learned the reason birds constantly circled this hill was because it was home to the town landfill. Had my wish been granted, had I been transported form my dreary office desk to this distant hillside, I would have found myself waist-deep in garbage. Make of that what you will.)

Q7. What is your favorite curse word?

Motherfucker. It has a pleasing rhythm.

Q8. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

‘You were dealt a crummy hand but you played it well.’