Here we have the first-ever interview with me, Adam Groves, on the occasion of an important (to me) anniversary. I’ll let the two me’s--interviewer and interviewee--fill in the details.

So, Adam, how long have you been writing about movies and books?
15 years as of 2011.

Have you always had an interest in journalism and/or criticism?
I’ve always liked reading reviews and articles, but growing up the only writing I was interested in practicing was fiction or screenwriting. My sole prior experience as a journalist was a high school journalism class I dropped after a week.

So you’re saying you have no qualifications as a film/book reviewer?
Yes, that’s what I’m saying.

Then how the Hell did you get started writing reviews?
Back in 1996 my aunt, knowing I was a horror buff, asked me to write some movie reviews for a horror site she manned.

Was that site this one?
It was. The Fright Site has been around since the early nineties, which makes it one of the oldest horror sites on the web. It may even be the oldest.

But evidently it lacked a film reviewer…
Until that day in 1996, yes. I agreed to the job because, basically, it seemed like a more productive activity than faxing out resumes and waiting for the phone to ring. Of course, had you informed me a day earlier that I’d be spending much of the next 15 years writing reviews, and doing most of that writing on the internet, I’d have laughed your ass out the door and up the street!

Doesn’t sound like you were too enthused about the job.
Actually, I viewed it as a fun diversion that probably wouldn’t last very long. Yet somehow I’ve continued knocking out reviews and commentary throughout the ensuing years, during which time the site died and was reborn no less than three times, and changed ownership at least once.

You’ve also written for several other online and print publications, no?
I’ve written for Gauntlet magazine, Shock Cinema…

Shock Cinema? You mean the finest cult movie mag on the planet?
The very one! I’ve been a proud contributor since 1997, in addition to a half-dozen other print and online resources. It all came about, however, due to the confidence and know-how I gained from writing for this site.

You also write blogs…
You’ll find “blog” used nowhere in my repertoire. There was no such word when I started writing commentary for this site, and commentaries are what I still write. I don’t like the term blog or the disordered ramblings that tend to constitute such writing.

I stand corrected. So how many reviews and “commentaries” have you published altogether, in print and online?
At last count around 1,300.

You come from a writing background, no?
I’ve already mentioned my aunt Dawn Groves, who’s published several books--MEDITATION FOR BUSY PEOPLE, THE WEB PAGE WORKBOOK, etc. Then there’s my dad, a longtime movie and TV screenwriter.

Has he scripted anything I might have seen?
Have you seen the TV movies TARANTULAS: THE DEADLY CARGO and BIGFOOT? Or the eighties kid flicks THE GOLDEN SEAL and BIGGLES: ADVENTURES IN TIME?

Say what? THE GOLDEN SEAGULL? BIG AL’S ADVENTURES IN THYME?
Neither film was a huge moneymaker, but THE GOLDEN SEAL and BIGGLES: ADVENTURES IN TIME both have sizeable cult followings. Incidentally, BIGGLES, a fun time travel flick directed by the Hammer veteran John Hough, is the one to see.