Review Fix Exclusive: Charlie Adams Talks ‘Years in Rhyme’

Review Fix chats with author Charlie Adams, who discusses his new book, “Years in Rhyme.”

Review Fix: What inspired this book?

Charlie Adams: I love to write in rhyme, I tried years ago to write normally and I thought that it wasn’t very good.  I seem to be better in rhyme, it’s like a safety net!

So the style was because of the reason above and the topic is because I wanted to remind people of everything that was brilliant in past decades. Things were simple, yes, but they were in my opinion better.  Every time I talked about vintage/retro pop culture with people, I couldn’t get my words out quick enough and I couldn’t say enough about it, so I thought that I would put everything I loved in a book and say to people read this: that’s what I think.  To be honest, I also left loads out.

Review Fix: When did I realize that I was a pop culture geek?

Adams: I love that word! GEEK! It is a compliment in my opinion when someone calls you a geek, because It is someone thinking that you know a lot about a subject and are passionate about it. I think I realized at a young age because I always preferred older music.  I liked the derivation of film, music, computer games and all of the vintage pop culture and compared it with pop culture of the day.  Obviously the times move on and what was once modern pop culture then became vintage pop culture.  I can’t believe Friends the TV Show, Seinfeld and music like Oasis are now rooted in vintage pop culture! I always liked to collect things and display them too.  I collected programmes from concerts and football matches, novelty rubbers, Star Wars figures and anything else that I loved which could sum up visually what my interests were. So I think that collecting things to show people what I liked, rather than explain them is an early equivalent to writing my book to show people.

Review Fix: What was the research process like?

Adams: This was the best bit!  I kind of knew from the start that I wanted to put mostly my favorite things in the books, so that it reminded me what I loved and as I explained earlier to let people know what I liked, but also researching exact years of things was great because I was finding out new things and also piecing together the evolution of things like gaming, which wasn’t initially my strongest topic. You also realized just how brilliant Pop Culture is and how vast. I kept asking myself did Pop Culture shape the world, or did the world shape IT!?

Review Fix: What did I learn about myself?

Adams: I learned that I was a better writer than I thought I was, I kept surprising myself.  That doesn’t say much because I might have thought that I was garbage beforehand, haha.  I also learned that you must finish projects when you start them, instead of having lots of unfinished symphonies all over the place. This was me, always thinking of something better to do.  I forced myself to finish it and learn as much about the writing process as possible, which always scared me to be honest.  I didn’t have a clue about writing, editing, formatting and publishing, but now I do.

Review Fix: What are my goals for the book?

Adams: I want it to be read by lots of people, not for fame, purely for satisfaction.  I want them to love what I love or to at least appreciate it.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Adams: I have braved the world of social media and I will try and get my head around that for a little while and not get distracted by celebrity tweets!

I also have just completed a Children’s Christmas book called “Santa Will Know” which is just out now on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.  I have a U.K soccer based book which is almost ready to publish and then I will look at part two of “Years In Rhyme” which will cover the first 20 years of the new millennium.