Crafting Stories, Shaping Worlds. For me, some of the greatest excitement is writing a new story. It's tough to stay focused on the story at hand because there is always a new idea brewing in the back of my mind! I talk about that and more in my newsletter, which you can join by visiting my website: adamroachbooks.com, I'll even throw in a FREE novel and novella! You can also follow me on social: IG: instagram.com/authoradamroach/ FB: facebook.com/authoradamroach IT ALL STARTED WHEN… My daughter had an imaginary friend when she was about 2 and would always tell us the adventures she went on. I took one of those adventures and wrote her a short picture book. As my brother and his wife had kids, they also starting writing simple abc/123 picture books for their kids. From the time my son was about 8 or 9, he started commenting that he was the only one who didn’t have a book. He would ask when is he going to get one. He was the only one of 5 kids to not have a book written. The problem I had was by this age a simple picture book wouldn’t be enough, so now I had to write an actual book, but what was I going to write? I thought about what he liked and started and stopped his book at least 10-15 times, with different concepts, plots, characters, etc. When he was around 12 I started to think I had a decent idea with a focus on Augmented Reality, but it still wasn’t working. I was coming up on roadblock after roadblock and had decided this wasn’t the way. I needed a new plot and I stalled out for 3-6 months. Then one day he was in my wife and I’s bathroom, brushing his teeth, and he asked me off-hand, “Do you know what Lucid Dreams are?” I said, “I think so.” He responded, “Supposedly they’re dreams where people can actually control their dreams while they are in them. I think it would be so cool to have a Lucid Dream.” With that one comment, I had the framework of the storyline in about 10 minutes and knew I finally had the plot which has become Anders Reality.

J.D. Barker is the New York Times and international best-selling author of numerous novels, including DRACUL and THE FOURTH MONKEY. His latest, A CALLER'S GAME, released February 22. He is currently collaborating with James Patterson. His books have been translated into two dozen languages, sold in more than 150 countries, and optioned for both film and television. Barker resides in coastal New Hampshire with his wife, Dayna, and their daughter, Ember. A note from J.D. As a child I was always told the dark could not hurt me, that the shadows creeping in the corners of my room were nothing more than just that, shadows. The sounds nothing more than the settling of our old home, creaking as it found comfort in the earth only to move again when it became restless, if ever so slightly. I would never sleep without closing the closet door, oh no; the door had to be shut tight. The darkness lurking inside needed to be held at bay, the whispers silenced. Rest would only come after I checked under the bed at least twice and quickly wrapped myself in the safety of the sheets (which no monster could penetrate), pulling them tight over my head. I would never go down to the basement. Never. I had seen enough movies to know better, I had read enough stories to know what happens to little boys who wandered off into dark, dismal places alone. And there were stories, so many stories. Reading was my sanctuary, a place where I could disappear for hours at a time, lost in the pages of a good book. It didn’t take long before I felt the urge to create my own. I first began to write as a child, spinning tales of ghosts and gremlins, mystical places and people. For most of us, that’s where it begins—as children we have such wonderful imaginations, some of us have simply found it hard to grow up. I’ve spent countless hours trying to explain to friends and family why I enjoy it, why I would rather lock myself in a quiet little room and put pen to paper for hours at a time than throw around a baseball or simply watch television. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I want to do just that, sometimes I wish for it, but even then the need to write is always there in the back of my mind, the characters are impatiently tapping their feet, waiting their turn, wanting to be heard. I wake in the middle of the night and reach for the pad beside my bed, sometimes scrawling page after page of their words, their lives. Then they’re quiet, if only for a little while. To stop would mean madness, or even worse—the calm, numbing sanity I see in others as they slip through the day without purpose. They don’t know what it’s like, they don’t understand. Something as simple as a pencil can open the door to a new world, can create life or experience death. Writing can take you to places you’ve never been, introduce you to people you’ve never met, take you back to when you first saw those shadows in your room, when you first heard the sounds mumbling ever so softly from your closet, and it can show you what uttered them. It can scare the hell out of you, and that’s when you know it’s good. jd