Award-winning author ADAM CECE’s novel The Locked Room is a high stakes story that packs a punch. We caught up wit the author to find out what he’s been reading and the inspiration behind his latest book. Read on for a Q&A.
What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. It’s SO good!
If you were stranded on a desert island and you could only have five books – what would they be?
Wow, that is a SUPER tough question. But here goes: Red Dwarf by Grant Naylor. The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld. And Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of The Apocalypse by Robert Rankin.
Where is your favourite place to read?
We have a few reading nooks in our house. And my favourite to snuggle up in is our lounge room armchair, with a coffee, some dark chocolate Tim Tams, and an amazing book.
Do you read one book at a time or multiple?
If I’m reading for pleasure, I try to just read one book at a time, so I can get totally immersed in one story, and then I’m even thinking about that story, and that world, for the rest of the day, even when I am not reading. But then I am often reading other books at the same time because I am doing manuscript assessments, or I’m reading an advance reader copy of something to provide a cover quote or for preparation to do an interview with the author or something like that.
Do you use a bookmark or fold the corners of pages?
Bookmark, of course. I am not an animal!
What inspired The Locked Room?
A few years ago my daughter (who is 15 now) was going to lots of escape room parties with her friends, and as a family we did an escape room experience too. I really wanted to set a book in an escape room, where there are puzzles and a race against the clock, and the characters have to work as a team. But to make this high pressure scenario more intense, I also wanted a group of mismatched characters, who don’t get along, but are forced to work together to escape. I’m also a huge fan of the moviemaker, John Hughes, and I love the movie, The Breakfast Club, which I recently introduced my kids to. And then it hit me, I would write The Breakfast Club, if it was set in an escape room. That was the spark.
What kind of research or planning went into designing the puzzles in the story?
For a while I would read any books, and watch any movies, that involved any type of puzzle or escape room. Most of these seem to be gory horror films. I wanted to capture the danger, and the intense thriller aspects, and the cool puzzle solving, of these movies and books, but without the gruesome outcomes, so it would be appropriate for upper middle grade and teen readers.
Was there a particular room or puzzle in the book that was the hardest to write?
A lot of them were tricky, but definitely the lily pad room was the hardest. Anyone who reads The Locked Room will understand why. I had to go over this room again, and again, and again, to get all the design and details, and the timings, just right. But I think it was all worth it, because I love how this room turned out. Hopefully it is super memorable. There are also a couple of rooms that are inspired by each of my children, and I love watching them try to work out which ones.
What book character would you be, and why?
I’d like to think I’d be some really cool character, like Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games, or Jack Reacher from the Lee Child books, but I think in reality I’d be Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – still in my dressing gown, stumbling across the universe.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Cece is an award-winning author of children’s books, including Wesley Booth Super Sleuth, Twin Spin and the hilarious Huggabie Falls series, which has been published worldwide.
He is passionate about inspiring people, young and old, to read and write.
He is a South Australian Premier’s Reading Challenge Ambassador, mentor, workshop facilitator and manuscript assessor, and visits schools and libraries delivering fun, interactive talks focused on being an author, the craft of writing, getting published, solving mysteries, and how to write a cracking shopping list.
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