Today’s Pride 2020 Interview is with author Joseph Pittman, who also publishes under the pen name “Adam Carpenter.”
Hi, Joe! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during the current pandemic lockdowns. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?
Everything I can. It’s important to keep your mind engaged. I have read over a dozen books since March, and it’s knowing that these authors have kept at their creative process reminds me that I too can do it. Some days I get a lot done, some days I get caught up in a novel that I want to finish. It’s all about resolution: knowing what’s possible, and that endings lead to future adventures.
Since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: how has being gay influenced or informed your art/craft?
I struggled for years with my identity. When I published the sweet, romantic TILTING AT WINDMILLS, one of the reviews called it “sentimental slop.” Someone else said, a man writing a romance? What, is he gay? Brutal words from anonymous people. But you are who you are. You feel what you feel. Finally recognizing my dual life helped make me whole. It led to Adam Carpenter.
You’re one of the most versatile writers I know, published in a variety of genres from mystery to erotica. Is there any genre you haven’t been published in that you’d like to try your hand at?
I think I’ve covered all my interests. I’ve done mystery, crime, caper, saga, erotica, romance, I even did a sort-of western (DUDE RANCH!). Literary fiction is a questionable category, as it expects a certain level of writing I’m not sure I have in me. My closest example of that would be WHEN THE WORLD WAS SMALL, inspiration after having read a John Irving novel. Otherwise, I’m content mostly with the mystery genre.
I think the last time I interviewed you, I wasn’t aware that you also publish under the pen name Adam Carpenter. Many writers publish under different names in different genres, and I’m always curious why and how the pen name was developed.
I was approached by a new online eBook publisher to write erotica. But given that Joseph Pittman is known for his Linden Corners books, I couldn’t publish DESPERATE HUSBANDS under my own name. It’s a marketing decision. Know your audience. And so Adam Carpenter was born. The name is ironic. Adam is biblically the first man. Carpenter was the profession of Jesus’s stepfather, for whom I’m named after. It was meant to mean we have all origins.
Has there ever been a story idea that you thought could just as easily be a Pittman book as a Carpenter, or vice versa? And does your writing process vary at all between pen names?
Actually, Jimmy McSwain was originally straight. I developed the idea in the early 2000s. He had a girlfriend, but the backstory of his father’s death remained the same. I sold it to an audio publisher for an original series, but it ended up not panning out. When Adam was created, I recreated Jimmy as gay. But otherwise, Joseph and Adam maintain separate identities and separate audiences. But each of my characters, Brian Duncan, Todd Gleason, and Jimmy McSwain make one person: me.
What’s next from Joseph Pittman and from Adam Carpenter?
Joseph is currently writing THE CASE OF THE CON IN CANNES, a Todd Gleason novella. There’s also a partial draft of THE WINDMILL’S PROMISE and a stand-alone, THE SILVER MOON. Adam’s busy too. SECOND SHOT, #7 in the Jimmy McSwain Files, plus #8 and a new series set in Provincetown, more of a “Murder, He Wrote” cozy style.
The big news though is THE SHADOW DIARIES. A year-long blog written (sort-of) by our dog SHADOW. It’s the story of how he was rescued and came to be loved by his two daddies. It’s actually the perfect combination of Joseph and Adam…and Steve. It will be published this summer, with beautiful artwork by Steve Cummings. (Editor’s Note: Joseph’s husband, artist Steve Cummings, is tomorrow’s interviewee.)
Where can people find you and your work online?
All of my books are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com, Kobo, iTunes, Audible.
JOSEPH PITTMAN is the author of the beloved Linden Corners series: TILTING AT WINDMILLS, A CHRISTMAS WISH, A CHRISTMAS HOPE, THE MEMORY TREE, and CHASING WINDMILLS. Other novels include WHEN THE WORLD WAS SMALL, BEYOND THE STORM, and LEGEND'S END. His crime fiction includes the Todd Gleason novels, LONDON FROG and CALIFORNIA SCHEMING, and novellas "The Perils of Penelope Pittston," "The Antics of Anton Ardno," "The Mystery of Marilyn and Her Men," and "The Business with the Bumbling Blind Man." Also available is the three-part serial suspense novel, THE ORIGINAL CRIME, in eBook and audio: PART ONE: REMEMBRANCE; PART TWO: RETRIBUTION; PART THREE: REDEMPTION. Under the Adam Carpenter name, he is the author of the Jimmy McSwain Files, a detective series set in NYC, which includes HIDDEN IDENTITY, CRIME WAVE, STAGE FRIGHT, GUARDIAN ANGEL, FOREVER HAUNT, FRESH KILL and the forthcoming SECOND SHOT. Other series include the Cane's Inlet Mystery: SCANDALOUS LIES, SINISTER MOTIVES, and SUSPICIOUS TRUTHS; The Wonderland Scandal: DESPERATE HUSBANDS, DESPERATE LOVERS, and DESPERATE ENEMIES; the Edenwood Saga, EDEN'S PAST, EDEN'S PRESENT, and EDEN'S FUTURE.