Emma L Adams

I write fantasy of all subgenres, ranging from stories set in a magical version of the modern world to epic adventures across strange and dangerous realms. My books are primarily character-driven, with high stakes and twisty edge-of-your-seat plots, and I try to balance action and emotion with mystery and intrigue. I have a preference towards writing underdogs, or characters drawn into world-changing events through circumstance rather than being chosen for a special destiny, and I like to put my own weird spin on classic fantasy tropes whenever possible. I’m drawn to the stranger side of worldbuilding and I enjoy creating bizarre settings inhabited by dangerous monsters. I also tend to have a pretty dark sense of humour and things can get pretty bleak for my characters, but there's always an undercurrent of hope in all the stories I create.

I grew up in Birmingham, UK, but I found my real home in fiction. I’ve always felt more at home in imaginary worlds than in the real one, though I did incorporate elements of the area where I studied at university into my first book series, which is set near the beautiful Lake District.

I was utterly voracious, devouring books as fast as I could get my hands on them. Even before I could read for myself, I’d constantly beg for one more chapter when my parents read to me at bedtime. When I was older, I burned through every title in the classroom at school and amassed stacks of titles borrowed from my local library. I was a shy, awkward child and reading was my sanctuary, so it was probably inevitable that I soon started creating my own fictional worlds, too.

Diana Wynne Jones, without a doubt. She’s my literary heroine and an early influence of mine. Her creative worldbuilding and characters are second to none.

I tend to change my answer to this question depending on my mood, as I have so many authors jostling for a place on my favourites list and I also have pretty wide-ranging tastes.

Right now, I’m going to say Diana Wynne Jones, Philip Pullman, Brandon Sanderson, Terry Pratchett, and Robert Jackson Bennett.

I find that reading preferences are so individualised that I don’t typically gift books unless I know for certain my choice aligns with the other person’s taste. Having said that, I do find myself recommending certain titles a lot. Howl’s Moving Castle, for one.

All my characters have a piece of me in them, and it’s hard to say if any of them are closer than the others to my personal story. Even when I’m writing characters who are the polar opposite of me personality-wise, I find that echoes of my own experiences make it into the text, if not in an overt way.

Right now, I have to say my current series, because I have to be utterly obsessed with an idea in order to write it, to the extent that it pushes all other stories out of my brain. Death’s Disciple, the first book in the series, is a dark epic fantasy adventure set in a world of giant war dragons and magic-wielding Disciples. The protagonist, Yala, is a cranky ex-dragon rider who’s drawn out of early retirement when assassins start picking off the surviving members of her old squad. As one of the only witnesses to the mission on which their king was assassinated, she’s soon entangled in a web of conspiracy and danger and stalked by unnatural creatures from the realm of death itself.

I write at my desk in my flat, and I like to keep the space clean and organised so I don’t get distracted by clutter. I have my laptop, coffee, and my ReMarkable tablet (which I use for scribbling ideas and arranging my editorial notes) and not much else. I do keep my phone nearby, but it’s always out of reach so the siren call of the internet can’t pull me in.

Is it cliche to say an isolated cabin in the middle of nowhere? I can honestly read anywhere, though, from airports and waiting rooms to the comfort of my own home.