Adam Ford

My latest book is three years old and counting; it's called Man Bites Dog (A&U).

It’s about big, angry dogs, mailmen, spoken word, relationships, crazy old Scottish ladies, zines, bicycles and North Fitzroy.

The best thing about being a writer is making stuff up.

If I wasn’t a writer I’d be a wanna-be writer.

My first published work was a poem about fish, spaghetti and narrow-mindedness that appeared in Farrago, the Melbourne University student magazine.

Morning person or night-owl? Morning person. Living in the country (Chewton, just outside Castlemaine, Victoria) and working in Melbourne means getting up at 5.30 to catch the 7am train. Thus early to rise leads to early to bed. Also, sunrises are prettier than sunsets. They just are.

My first job was as a paperboy. The 5am rise becomes a theme, it seems.

On a quiz show, my special subject would be superheroes.

My last holiday was five days in Skenes Creek, near Apollo Bay, and too long ago.

My perfect Saturday is one that involves a morning trip to the market for fresh sourdough bread and a steaming mug of coffee, then an afternoon of reading, writing and a little bit of gardening before dinner with friends and a late-night Rage-watching session.

The last CD I bought was the new Johnny Cash box set, for my girlfriend for Christmas (presents that you can enjoy yourself are the best kind of presents).

I’m currently reading Neil Boyack's short story collection Transactions; Kylie Tennant's Evatt: Politics & Justice; Destination Morgue! by James Ellroy; issue 2 of Atlas by New Zealand comic artist Dylan Horrocks; issue 1 of Crickets by US cartoonist Sammy Harkham; The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea, poems by Mark Haddon.

Big Brother or Australian Idol? Dear God. At a pinch, Big Brother because there's less terrible singing.

Favourite film/tv show is a toss-up between The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire and The Tall Guy.

My favourite book is a hard question to answer. Stephen Dobyns's poetry collection Heat Death is definitely up there, as are The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill, The Honey Flow by Kylie Tennant, Carrion Colony by Richard King, The Scar by China Mieville, The Last Magician by Janette Turner-Hospital, The Fat Man in History by Peter Carey, Flex Mentallo by Grant Morrison and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje.

The book character I would most like to meet is either Josef Kavalier or Sammy Clay from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon, Edmund from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or the Minotaur from The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break.

The book character I would least like to meet is… I don't know… Captain Ahab? Jerry Cornelius? Harry Potter? Dylan Ebdus?

The worst thing I’ve ever written is probably some poem that I'm never going to show to anyone ever. 

When I was growing up I wanted to be (in no particular order) a superhero, taller, a cartoonist, an editor, a vet, a writer, famous, a postie.

My heroes are people who get things done by virtue of their talent and passion.