Soar, Adam, Soar, by Rick Prashaw with Adam Prashaw, (Dundurn Press, 2019)
What inspired Soar, Adam, Soar? I intended to write my own, unusual life story. A Catholic priest married and became Dad to a child identified as a girl, named Rebecca Adam by smart parents (LOL), the kid who took us on a 22-year ride to the “boy in the mirror” he knew he was. His drowning at 22 from a seizure gave the memoir a new twist and urgency.
How did you come up with the title? It’s my final 3 words on a Facebook tribute to him the night he died. The post is Chapter 12 in the book. The phrase popped into my head writing that night about our long ago love of the movie, Lion King. Mufasa telling the small Simba that one day he could look to the sky to find his father. Except here, in a cruel tragedy,the old Mufasa lives. I look for my Simba in the stars.
Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp? Love wins! Diversity is good. “Beauty comes in many colours”, Adam posted once.Freedom is what we do to what happens to us (Jean-Paul Sartre). Despite the tragedy, Adam’s infectious joy, positive spirit and wicked humour infuse the story, especially with his 125-plus social media posts. Jan. 20, 2016, two days before the drowning: “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies in us while we live (Norman Cousins)…”
Where can readers find you on social media and do you have a blog? Everywhere, like my son LOL! Web site, http://www.rickprashaw.com with blogs (book tour, transgender, grieving, organ donor, faith). @RickPrashaw on Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter. There’s a FB Author page here https://www.facebook.com/RickPrashaAuthorw/
Do you have plans for your next book? Is it a sequel or a stand alone? 2 books moving forward, simultaneously. Father Rick, Roamin’ Catholic, stories from my faith journey that capture my crooked, straight path to heaven’s gate. Adam will show up here. Private Dick Prashaw, D-Day Dodger, will be my Dad and Mom’s WW2 love story, a creative non-fiction book I throw myself into as a character to finally get Dad’s war story out of him.s
Do you favor one type of genre or do you dabble in more than one? I read and am writing memoirs, biographies. There will be a few more memoirs drawing on my political and newspaper lives. The creative non-fiction book has me in a sweet place of writer’s terror. And I’m loving short stories falling out of my heart to the screen.
What is your best marketing tip? From my NGO and political work, I knew John McKnight’s community assets mapping. Map all the universes you inhabit — work, play, sports, hobbies, neighbour, school, past lives etc. Identify their social media, meet-ups or gathering places to market the book. Parenting, grieving, Pride and organ donor universes are part of why Soar, Adam, Soar is in its 4th printing eight months out.
Do you find social media a great tool or a hindrance?
Both! I love telling Adam’s story but I crave a hermitage right now. Instagram is new and good. Twitter with its trolls and fights is a necessary evil. Facebook works as readers and my friends devour the stories behind the book and from the 32-city (and counting) tour
What do you enjoy most about writing? All my life until now, I wrote for others, e.g. news editors, religious superiors, NGO and political bosses. Now I write to myself. The best book compliments are from people who know me and say your book is exactly as if I am speaking to them. I found my voice.
Do you read for pleasure or research or both? Pleasure, with a heaping side plate of research. I am reading a few war and faith books prepping for my next two memoirs. Waub Rice’s Moon over Crusted Snow is my stepping into fiction writing coming soon!
Who is your best supporter/mentor/encourager? My mutt, Dallas, a 7-year-old flat-coated retriever who Adam adopted, stalks me everywhere. Adam’s my agent.
Where is your favorite writing space? I wrote this memoir at my home office, in Adam’s old bedroom. Cereal bowls of coffee, 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. writing, punctuated by two walks with Dallas
Do you belong to a writing group? If so which one? Ottawa Independent Writers Group that meets once a month. Online, the Canadian Authors Association, National Capital Region.
If you could meet one favorite author, who would it be and why? It’s often the book I have just finished. Hmmm, one. Michelle Obama, to soak up her class and energy and thank her for being my book’s guardian angel in the O Biography section, with Becoming,
a shelf above and over Soar, Adam, Soar.
If you could live anywhere in the world – where would it be? 2 answers. (Sorry. I’m bad with rules) Right here in my beautiful Ottawa and back “home” in Northern Ontario (North Bay, Sudbury)
Do you see writing as a career? Well, as an emerging writer at 68, till my last breath….
What reward do you give yourself for making a deadline? Wine, chocolate, Peaky Blinders.
Bio:
Rck Prashaw has had a diverse career as a journalist, Catholic priest, executive director of a national NGO, and political staff to members of Parliament. He is a winner of the National Ron Wiebe Restorative Justice Award. Rick lives in Ottawa.
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