So, I remember a “tall for no reason,” twenty-something, who laughed a lot, and who loved life, and who reminded me of me when I was younger (before I got married and divorced and put my passions on hold for one bad relationship after another); Adam is the most likable person that I’ve ever met. Everyone wanted to be around him, and he became one of my best friends in New York City. His first novel, More Happy Than Not, was released shortly after I moved back to Texas. I left New York for New Mexico, lived in Santa Fe for several years before moving to Texas. I remember walking through a bookstore in San Antonio and seeing his book faced out on a shelf, and then I saw Adam’s name, I grabbed it, aggressively, and audibly said, “No f$&king way?!” I flipped through the book to the rear cover looking for the author info and his picture was there staring back at me. I was excited for him. A small handful of us, living together in New York, were writers, Adam, of course, was among them. One of the last times that I saw him he mentioned that he has started writing something "big," and here we are nine novels and eight years later.
Adam and I met working at the Barnes&Noble at 86th and Lexington, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, he has always been an avid reader especially of Young Adult and Children’s books, I think because the genres have a tendency, or at least they used to, to celebrate life in a way that many contemporary adult fiction didn’t, and that is what Adam was all about, celebrating life. I needed to be around someone like Adam. I struggled a bit, emotionally, upon moving to New York. I moved there for a number of reasons, one of which was because I was in the process of getting a divorce, and that did take an emotional toll on me, a toll that I wasn’t willing to acknowledge for a long time. We make mistakes, especially at times when we are at our most vulnerable, and if we're conscious enough we are capable of learning from those mistakes so that we can learn to be better during those times of vulnerability, and in the practice of living. Adam, too, has struggled with depression, but he never let it get in the way of good friends, and the possibility of having an experience.
Adam hasn’t changed much, at least on the surface. I’ve watched a few interviews he’s given and panels that he’s sat in. He’s more confident, although I never really recognized him as someone who lacked confidence to begin with, nevertheless, he’s living his life as if only good things were possible—a mindset that I admire and have been working hard to adopt myself. After More Happy Than Not Adam would go on to publish, History is All You Left Me, They Both Die at the End, Infinity Son, and Infinity Reaper, as well as co-authoring a series, the debut novel, What If It’s Us. They Both Die at the End, was a YA bestseller for more than a year and his prequel, The First to Die at the End, was released earlier this year and has been a YA bestseller since its release. I was managing a Barnes&Noble and watched They Both Die at the End fly off the shelves, we couldn’t keep it in stock, and I got to brag to my employees about knowing and rooming with Adam; showing pictures of us at Pat’s (Carlow East Pub) and bumming around New York City.
I know I’ve said this but Adam genuinely is one of the best people I’ve known and to have been friends and roommates, and to have watched his talent and success continue for years, is something that I’m grateful for, his success story is one that I like to hear and share because it seems like it doesn’t happen to enough of the good ones, and he’s deserved every ounce of success that he’s had. I’m proud of you Adam!
*Blog title credit belongs to Don McLean's song, American Pie.