Adam G. Fleming is a leadership coach from Goshen, Indiana, with 12 years’ experience training other people in coaching skills. Through his nonprofit work he has trained leaders in Congo, Egypt and Syria among many other countries. He is also a novelist and author of several non-fiction books. He is married to Megan (m. 1998). They have four children.

Q1 – What is the name of your latest project? Tell us more about why you embarked on this project. If a writer, share your synopsis.

I recently completed the Satchel Pong Chronicles, a five-book steampunk fantasy series. Satchel Pong is a Meteorologist who reluctantly realizes that he must take his people on a Great Migration if he is going to save them from a world that is becoming ever hotter. After speaking with the Dirigibles seeking direction, Pong begins to invite his people on the journey. Over the entire series looms the great question: is the planet itself doomed? Can they figure out how to fly their airships into space?

Q2 – What inspired you when you encountered struggles along the way?

If anything inspires me, it is reading bits of my rough drafts to my wife. If she laughs or cries, then I know I’m on to something no matter how long it takes.

Q3 – Have you ever traveled as research for your work/project/story?

Travel is an essential part of my life. I’ve visited 21 nations and territories to date, and I’ve lived in Congo, Egypt, Ivory Coast and France. It is all research for understanding cross-cultural situations, which factor into my books in one way or another.

Q4 – How has your lived experience influenced your work/project/story?

I’ve had a pretty good life overall and that gives me a lot of positive perspective, a positive world view and I see things with a lot of humor. So I don’t write really dark stuff, I have an outlook that reflects that; my tagline is “walking the fine line between the absurd and the sublime.”

Q5 – What do you want readers to take away from your work/project/story?

I understand that my calling and purpose in life as one who believes that every person ought to have at least one good friend, who doesn’t judge them, and accepts them for who they are. I’ve done that as a coach and as I’ve trained other coaches I infuse the training with this attitude, but I do believe that I extend friendship to the world through my books as well.

Q6 – Do you believe books can inspire social change? How?

I was just thinking this morning about posting something on social media that few coaches would dare to say. “I can’t inspire or motivate you, but if you’re uninspired in what you’re doing, then do something different.” Yes, I believe that books and the arts in general are part of what inspires social change, by inspiring us to do something different if what we’re doing isn’t working.

Q7 – Anton Chekhov said, “The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it.” What is your opinion of this statement? How does it coincide or conflict with your perspective of the world?

As the Dude in The Big Lebowski says, “yeah, well, that’s like your opinion, man.” Having traveled to many different cultures I can say for sure that the world is not any one person’s conception. So if we’re talking about “our conception” as the entirety of human history and every culture, then yes, but that’s vast. I think the world is a lot more than any of us could ever know. It’s bigger than we are and bigger than our perception, even collectively. The world is just a blip in the universe.

Q8 – What personal experience had the greatest influence on your worldview?

When I was 13 we left the cornfields of Illinois to go to the center of what was then known as Zaire. (D.R. Congo now). That was an impressionable age, a time when being taken away from my peers was really difficult. But it shaped me more than anything before or since.

Q9 – What perspectives or beliefs have you challenged in your work/project/story?

I have a background growing up in a hippie religious commune that was connected to the Mennonites, so there’s a lot of pacifism in my upbringing and I often challenge what my dad always called “The Myth of Redemptive Violence.” I tend to challenge the idea that we have to participate in military operations if we are going to solve problems or even show that we’re courageous.

Q10 – How do you see the relationship between writing and culture? How about the boundaries between fiction and reality?

When my 3^rd son was about six years old, he said to me, “You know dad, every story is real because when you write it you create a new universe. You know, like Star Wars.” I said that I knew, because he was right. New universes exist because I created them. I asked him, “Who is the god of those worlds?” Thinking he might say it was the writers. He said that the God of our world is also the god of those worlds, and again I agree with him. I am not the God of those worlds. The power that is higher than I am is also by extension higher than I am in any of the worlds I create. How this kid got that at age six I have no idea.

Writing is how we shape culture, no doubt about that. The poets of ancient times are the ones who tell us what their culture was, and they codified cultural attitudes. Look at what we know of the ancient Chinese, Egyptians, Hebrew, Norse… there’s a bit of archaeology but it sure helps when there are some hieroglyphs or runes.

Q11 – Aldous Huxley said, “I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.” How have you changed throughout your creative process? How do you improve yourself every day?

I improve myself every day by showing up for the work and by taking appropriate amounts of rest and exercise, and not consuming more than is enough. Every once in a while I have this moment of clarity where I feel that my writing skill has reached a new level, but that’s probably only once every seven years or so. I think the creative process reflects how I change in the rest of my life; I age, I get older, my wife gets older, my kids get older, and I see more of the world. Everything I experience or read is now something that could find its way into the next book.

Q12 – To what extent can fiction affect or improve the developments in science and technology in human life? What about religion and politics?

Only to the extent that scientists, technologists, preachers and Senators sit down and read it, and allow it to influence them. The only ones they can change are themselves.

Q13 – Eckhart Tolle said, “Awareness is the greatest agent for change.” In your opinion, what is the next step and how can writers affect this?

I studied a new science called “change fitness” which is built around a psychological understanding of change, with a guy from Australia named Dr. Steve Barlow, I completed his course and became a “certified change fitness practitioner”. Self-awareness, including “agency” is essential. Agency is different from self-efficacy, in the sense that someone with true agency not only believes that they can make change, but they believe so accurately (they are not delusional). Whenever writers hold up a mirror for people and they see the world in fresh ways, they develop stronger Theory of Mind (empathy). In my book titled “How to Make a Positive Cultural Impact” I have an entire chapter about my theory, derived from reading some academic research on fiction and Theory of Mind, that those who read are likely to be more empathetic. 

Q14 – Intolerance and divisiveness are prevalent across the globe. Our voice may not be loud enough to right every wrong, but it is enough to make a difference one person at a time. Small acts move mountains. What one thing would you ask your audience to do to help inspire social change?

Stop signing up for military service. More guns and bombs are not going to change the world. Instead, tell your governments to stop spending your money on such waste and destruction. Vote for people who don’t allow weapons manufacturers into their pockets.

Q16 – Pick 1-3 social issues that are most important to you. Explain why you picked these and how we can help raise awareness/impact change.

War makes the world ugly. When we write about war or armed conflict of any type, as any novelist must at some point, we need to paint the futility rather than the glory. 

Q17 – Maya Angelou said, “I did then what I knew how to do, but now that I know better, I do better.” We have all made choices that we regret. We are all flawed humans. Together, we are experiencing this human story unfolding. Share a transformative experience where you learned from a mistake. How do you actively choose to make better choices?

A lot of my mistakes have been in undervaluing myself; not selling my services for a high enough price. This might not seem like choices one would regret, but there’s an aspect of how I can pass on value if I ask enough for my services. It’s not about me getting richer, there’s a line in Lawrence of Arabia where a Bedouin chief tells Lawrence “I’m not rich, but I’m a river of gold to my people.” By running my business with more respect for my value, I would have more to spend on great book covers, and even to produce films one day. In other words, I make better choices because I want to be able to market my stories in such a way that they have greater impact. As I said earlier, your fiction only has the power to impact people so long as there’s an audience.

Q18 – Challenge readers and listeners with action steps to increase engagement with identifying hashtag and @mention.

Right now there’s a war in Ukraine and we can call on our politicians to use tactics other than military power. This has nothing to do with my books but we could start a hashtag #readingforpeace and with every book you read, make a donation to a charitable organization that supports displaced people groups.

Connect with Adam Fleming

Authors are only as good as their audience. Support this amazing author by connecting with him and sharing his work with your people. Follow the links below to connect and purchase his books!

• Website: www.adamgfleming.com
• Instagram: @adam_g_fleming
• Facebook: AdamFlemingAuthor
• YouTube: The Deed Show
• Amazon: Adam G Fleming

Stay tuned for Adam’s video interview on my Story Unfolding YouTube channel. Be sure to go subscribe to hear about Adam and other authors, creators, and entrepreneurs who are making a difference..

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Read more, Write mindfully!

Michael Camarillo