WEST PARIS — Romance novelist Carina Adams likes to write on her front porch where one can hear the gurgle of a nearby brook and many chirping birds.

She is a USA Today best-selling author and Amazon top 100 author of 14 novels and has ghost-written another 20 books. Most of them are spicy romance novels, but she has published a trilogy in the young adult genre, which are not spicy, she said.

“When I’m writing, it’s like I am watching a movie,” Adams said. “Then I write down what I see. Sometimes I’ll  get to the end of a book and I’ll go, huh? Yeah I didn’t see that coming … I never see (the endings) coming.”

Explaining how she met Nate Kelly, the fictional character in her book “Forever Red,” she said, “I could see him walking toward me at a concert … there was no quieting him. By the time we got home the next day, I knew his life story, I knew why he was at the concert.”

Gifts from readers and friends fill her home office. “It helps me know that I am not alone in this journey … You are lost in your head all the time and you are playing with imaginary friends and sometimes you miss that interaction with real people,” she said.

Adams was 33 in 2013 when she published her first book. In 2017, she left behind her 10-year career as a financial resource specialist for the Office of Child and Family Services to write full time.

“For my whole life, all I wanted, was to see my name on the cover of a book,” she said. She spent 10 years working on a book that is still not finished.

“All of the main male characters have a little of my husband in them. He is definitely the romantic one in the relationship,” she said of Phillip. “The only thing he ever wanted to do was be a husband. He is the world’s best husband … I always wanted to be a mom. So we compromised and had children,” she said with a smile.

Soran, 13, is a graphic designer and Brettan, 20, is an art major at Southern Maine Community College. He has designed the covers of three of his mother’s books. He and his brother have recently written a children’s book about a pony, too.

Adams’ first published book was written to prove to her husband that she couldn’t write a romance novel.

“I made every possible mistake with that first book … I don’t know how people read that book,” she said. But it did well and readers wanted more.

She began working on a sequel but had to put it on hold because Nate Kelly showed up at the country concert.

“Forever Red” and Nate Kelly hit shelves April 15, 2015. They were in Boston for a signing when Adams told her husband, “if this book doesn’t take off, I’m done. A few days later, the book blew up,” she said.

“Forever Red” was initially in Amazon’s top 80, but kept climbing. “When it reached the top 10 we were beside ourselves,” Adams said. “I didn’t believe it.”

Three months later they received their first royalty check.

“It’s real,” her husband said.

Maine-based

“You write about what you know,” Adams said.

A scene at Newry’s Step Falls was part of her novel “Sidelined,” but was cut by the publisher.

In “Forever Red,” the kids go to school at Oxford Hills. Hooligan’s, a fictional Maine bar, is mentioned in every one of her books.

Writing is very healing, very therapeutic, but can also be triggering, Adams said. Readers questioned the bad decisions of teenage Lia, a character in “Forever Red.” Why did she make those decisions? they asked.

Adams said she wants to yell back, “because she was 17 and alone.”

Adams’ father was diagnosed with cancer when she was 14. Her her parents left her home alone while they spent long periods of time at Boston hospitals. He died when she was 17.

Her husband had a difficult childhood, too. As an Air Force brat, his family moved many times. With their own children, he was adamant that they live in one place. They chose West Paris where she was raised and where her mother lives.

Traveling

Each year, she is invited to attend book signings around the world where she meets some of her heroes — other authors.

Author Christopher Rice, son of author Ann Rice, was sitting behind her at a signing, she gushes. “It was one of the highlights of my trip … it’s really nice to be around these brilliant minds.”

This year, Adams traveled to France, Scotland, Italy and New York City. Next year she’ll go to London, North Carolina and Australia. Typically the book signings are scheduled two years out. Even though they are in other countries, the number of Americans who travel to them is unreal, she said.

Her process

For Adams, writing is like being an artist. “Sometimes I’m just really dedicated and I can’t focus on anything else but the manuscript I’m working on.” Other times when she can’t write, she forces herself to do rewrites.

No matter, she follows a strict 9:30 a.m. until 2:15 p.m. schedule every day. After dinner, she answers e-mails and once her family goes to bed she writes until midnight or later.

She compares her characters to dear friends she once worked with.

Except for one.

She said her friend’s abusive boyfriend was a character in one of her books. “I told him I was going to kill him in every book I wrote.” In the end she only killed him once. She said it was the only time she touched on a dark subject.

Readers wrote to say her book had helped them through a rough patch and her comment made her friend smile “when she wasn’t smiling much at that time,” Adams said.

The West Paris author said, “When you read my books you are going to be on a roller coaster of emotion. I’m probably going to rip your heart out at some point. But you’re going to be happy at the end …”

The West Paris Public Library, 226 Main St., stocks many of Adams’ books

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