Photo courtesy of Sara Glassman.
Vestavia Hills author Drew Williams holds a copy of his first published novel, “The Stars Now Unclaimed.”
At 16 years old, Drew Williams was working 40 hours a week at the Little Professor Book Center in Homewood to pay rent after he just walked in one day looking for a job.
“Someone had called in sick and the owner needed that shift filled,” Williams said. “He [said] … ‘You’re going to work tonight, and if you don’t burn the store down, you’ll have a job after that.’”
Five years later, Williams, who grew up and lives in Vestavia Hills, moved into a book buyer position. Williams said his coworkers became his family.
“You spend 40 hours a week with people, they become your family,” Williams said. “So much of what I know about literally anything, whether that’s how to make a dinner, how to deal with financial stuff, how to deal with setbacks in your life, I learned from my family at Little Professor.”
The store also became his sole source of education.
“My education came entirely from the bookstore, from what I read. Whatever world I wanted to explore was right there,” Williams said.
Williams worked at the bookstore for nearly 20 years, leaving this summer upon the August publication of his first novel, “The Stars Now Unclaimed,” a science-fiction space opera published by Tor Books.
Raised on what he called a “steady diet” of science-fiction movies and books, Williams said he enjoys having control over his fictional universe.
“When you give yourself control of an entire world, … you give yourself more control over the narrative you can build,” Williams said.
The book is, as Williams describes it, space opera meets post-apocalyptic world.
“I sort of wanted to write ‘Mad Max’ meets ‘Star Wars,’” Williams said.
The plot centers around the main character, Jane Kamali, and her mission to save children given special powers by a catastrophe that caused some worlds to lose their technology, throwing the galactic order into chaos. Kamali sets off to save the children and reverse the disaster while being chased by villains.
The book is the first in a trilogy set in Williams’ universe, but each book will stand on its own, so if you haven’t read “The Stars Now Unclaimed” by May 2019, when the second book comes out, he said you can start with either novel.
With the rough draft finished in September 2016 and the next two years spent editing the book and seeking to get it published, Williams said it was a lot of work, but work well worth it.
“I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I couldn’t create, and I can’t draw, and I’m not much of a musician,” Williams said. “Writing is about the only avenue I have to be creative, to have some sort of output for that, and it’s also one of the few creative things we can truly do that you can entirely own.”
Having a book published was always a daydream, Williams said, but he never thought it would actually happen.
“I spent my entire life telling myself I was a writer, but you say that sort of thing to yourself and you never actually expect it to happen,” Williams said. “Now I’m actually in this position, and it’s like, ‘This is happening.’”
The whirlwind of publicity, a multi-state book tour and sharing the stage with other sci-fi authors at book festivals is the “very best kind of chaos,” Williams said.
The novel has garnered critical acclaim with reviews from Booklist and Publisher’s Weekly, as well as other sci-fi authors.
While Williams has a three-book contract with Tor, and continues to gain attention for his novel, he said it couldn’t have happened without his experience at Little Professor.
“I would attribute absolutely all of it to Little Professor, in the sense I wouldn’t fundamentally be who I am without them,” Williams said.
Readers can find “The Stars Now Unclaimed” at Little Professor, which has a select number of signed copies, and online.
