We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alina Adams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alina below.

Alina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents and I immigrated from the Soviet Union to the US in 1977. What my parents did right was demonstrate two things: How to work hard, and how to work hard doing something you love. For our first few years in America, my father worked three jobs: A day job, a night job, and a weekend job. He never complained about needing to work hard. It was necessary, so he did it. Eventually, he narrowed it down to just one job, but it was always clear that he enjoyed it, even when there were setbacks and frustrations. My mother, who had been a chemistry teacher in the USSR, retrained to be a computer programmer in the US. I remember her talking about how much she loved the challenges and the puzzles that came with it. I was never raised to believe that work was something you were supposed to hate. Work was something you were expected to love. And if you didn’t love it, you should find a way to improve your circumstances. That’s what my parents did by leaving the Soviet Union, and they brought the same mindset to every challenge. To this day, I think, “If I don’t like what is happening in my life, it is up to me to change it.” I have been told by native-born Americans that this kind of mindset is stressful and puts the onus on the victim. I prefer to see it as empowering and hopeful. And that’s what my parents did right, too.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have two very different professional passions. It’s sort of a Clark Kent/Superman situation.

On one side, I am a fiction writer. In addition to best-selling soap opera tie-ins, romance novels and figure skating mysteries, I write Soviet-set historical fiction. My last two books included, “The Nesting Dolls” and “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish-Autonomous Region.” My May 1, 2025 release, “Go On Pretending,” starts in 1950s New York City as soap operas transition from radio to television then moves to the USSR and that time they threw a pro-democracy festival. We stay in the Soviet Union up through it’s ultimate collapse, then move to the US and the libertarian communes of the 21st century, finally landing in war-torn Rojava, and its Women’s Revolution.

On the other side, I write about education in New York City. Education in New York City is very, very bad. I expose the corruption, the low standards, and the deliberate attempt to hide both from parents. I also work with families to help them find the right school for their child. Everyone is entitled to options, and I have made it my one-woman mission to make sure everybody knows theirs – and how to get them.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I sold my first novel, a Regency Romance called “The Fictitious Marquis” to Avon Books in 1994 without an agent. An editor plucked me out of the slush pile. She bought my next Regency Romance, “Thieves at Heart.” She bought my contemporary romance, “Annie’s Wild Ride.” And then she left the publishing house.

By then, I’d gotten an agent. The agent and I sold my next contemporary romance, “When a Man Loves a Woman,” to the editor at her new house, as part of a two book deal. And then she left before it was published. The subsequent editor passed on the second book.

And I was back at Square One.

I sold the first in what was supposed to be a series of figure skating mysteries to Berkley Prime Crime. I had an offer on the table. And my agent quit the business.

I got a new agent. I wrote five figure skating murder mysteries. I wrote three bestselling soap-opera tie-ins. My agent quit the business.

I got a new agent. I sold my first historical fiction novel, “The Nesting Dolls.” The editor who bought it left the house.

We moved “The Nesting Dolls” to her new house, as part of a two book deal. The editor passed on the second book.

My agent left her agency.

So there I was, 52 years old, no publishing house, no agent. Nothing. Nada. It was time to pivot. Again.

I began reaching out to publishing houses on my own. And I found one that seemed perfect for me. It was a micro-press called History Through Fiction. They published history. Through fiction.

My first book with them, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” came out in November 2022. It became an Amazon best-seller in its category. I was so happy with my experience, that I am working with them on my next book, “Go On Pretending.”

But while I have a home for my historical fiction, I have also written a comical mystery about NYC school admissions, informed by my experiences in my other life. My new agent is shopping it around to traditional publishing houses. I don’t believe in “or.” I only believe in “and.”

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

My five Figure Skating Mystery novels were originally released as paperback originals by Berkley Prime Crime between 2003 and 2007. (The first one, “Murder on Ice,” was actually based on the 2002 Olympic Pairs judging scandal, only this time the judge accused of fixing the vote ended up a little… dead.)

A few years later, I got my rights back and re-released each title as an enhanced e-book, featuring video by The Ice Theatre of NY as part of the story.

Then, in 2014, just in time for the Sochi Games, I bundled all of the books into “The Figure Skating Mystery Series (5 Books in 1).

Now all that was left was to promote it.

I knew that the upcoming Winter Olympics gave me an optimal, once every four years news window (yes, the National, European and World Championships happen every year – but people only care during the Olympics), and I did pitch myself as a figure skating expert to several print publications as well as radio outlets (even if they all managed to make mistakes in their profiles).

I also did some out of the box thinking. To promote “The Figure Skating Mystery Series (5 Books in 1),” I partnered with the late Dick Button, 2-time Olympic Men’s Gold Medallist, and the voice of figure skating on ABC-TV for several decades. (I had worked as a Figure Skating researcher alongside Dick in the mid-1990s. Before I had children and thus was free to jet all around the world.)

To promote his own book, “Push Dick’s Button,” Dick did live Twitter commentary of the Men’s and Ladies’ Short and Long Programs from Sochi. I produced the coverage for him. (I was also the one who proposed the idea to him.) And, during the commercial breaks, I promoted my skating book series alongside his.

There is nothing that Dick Button doesn’t know about figure skating. (He remembered that Peggy Fleming’s 1968 Olympic dress was chartreuse, because the Games were being held in Grenoble, where the Chartreuse Mountains are. Also the liqueurs.) Dick Button had a great many fans all over the world, some of whom joined Twitter specifically to read his no-holds-barred commentary. And it was to these dedicated skating fans that I was able to introduce my book series. If that’s not niche marketing, then I don’t know what is!

So how did my out of the box promotion ultimately work out?

Well, I sold three times as many books during the month of February on Amazon and B&N than I had in January. And I made Amazon’s Ice Skating & Figure Skating Best-Sellers list for most of that time. The highest I ever got, though, was #3. The #1 spot was perennially occupied by… Dick Button.

Of course, I got even more good marketing news when the result of the Ladies’ event was contested and debated after a Russian dark horse upset the pre-competition favorite for the gold medal. Just like I wrote about in “Murder on Ice”….twelve years ago.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.AlinaAdams.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamalinaadams/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alina.sivorinovskywickham/
• Twitter: @IamAlinaAdams
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@IamAlinaAdams/videos
• Other: www.NYCSchoolSecrets.com
  https://www.youtube.com/@nycschoolsecrets2759/videos

Image Credits

All images provided by Alina Adams