Feature Friday: Sean Beaudoin

Sean Beaudoin is the author of five novels, including the old school noir mystery You Killed Wesley Payne, the rude zombie opus The Infects, and the raw-throated punk band diary Wise Young Fool (Little, Brown--August 6, 2013). His stories and articles have appeared in numerous publications, including the Onion, Salon, Glimmer Train, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Spirit-- the inflight magazine of Southwest Airlines. He is also a founding editor of the arts and culture website TheWeeklings.com, which is hands-down the best site on the internet.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X23sWj8d4dI
twitter: @SeanBeaudoin
website: www.SeanBeaudoin.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SeanBeaudoin

Interview:
A.L.:
What piece of advice would you give to a budding author?

Sean: 
Read. Read. Read. Read. Everything you can get your hands on, all different styles and topics and authors. Don't constrain yourself by thinking you have to sit down and write a novel, or that everything you do write is finish-quality and will go into that novel. Just right for fun. Write stuff you're willing to throw away. Get in the practice of doing it regularly without an immediately payoff. Also, be willing to be lousy at it until you aren't lousy any more. It's the same advice I'd give a budding saxophone player.

A.L.:
What's your favorite book and why?

Sean: 
I have many of them, but the one that influenced me the most in terms of YA was The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll. Mainly because it may be the most honest book I've ever read. The best book I've read recently was Billy Lynne's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain. Again, it's a mixture of humor and honesty.

A.L.:
Where did you get the idea for Wise Young Fool?

Sean: 
I found it under the sofa, being gnawed on by the cat.

A.L.:
Did you hit any snags while writing Wise Young Fool?  What were they and how did you fix them?

Sean: 
I'm not entirely sure why, but it was the easiest of my five books to write. It all just sort of came out smoothly. Maybe it's because a good bit of it is based on my actual teen years, although it's not a memoir and is absolutely fiction. I swear. Just ask the lawyers.

A.L.:
Which one of the characters in Wise Young Fool is your favorite and why?

Sean: 
I love them all. It's like being asked to pick your favorite niece. But Wise Young Fool would not exist if any of them were removed, so they're all essential. I love their essentialness.

A.L.:
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey as an author?

Sean: 
I've been writing since I was sixteen. I always knew it was what I wanted to do. I've been through every possible stage of authorship: doubt, inexperience, lack of talent, elation, boredom, success, failure. My journey as an author will end the day I write a song for a Journey cover band. But not until then.

A.L.:
What are you working on now?  Sequel?  Something new?

Sean: 
I am working on Cornelius Wrathbone, which is about Bigfoot, and should be out with Candlewick Books spring 2015.

A.L.:
What's your favorite food and why?

Sean: 
Blueberries, almonds, garlic, grilled chicken, English cucumbers, calamari, and popcorn.

A.L.:
What's the craziest thing you've ever done?

Sean: 
Probably honestly answering questions in previous interviews about what the craziest thing I've ever done is. And then never hearing the end of it from those involved. But, for the sake of argument, let's say it was splitting college mid-semester and hitchhiking through Mexico for three months instead.

A.L.:
Ritchie Sudden, your main character from Wise Young Fool is a musician who ends up in Juvenile Detention.  Are you writing from experience on either of those fronts?

Sean: 
Yes, I played in any number of lousy bands until my daughter was born, at which point I more or less laid down my guitar and picked up a diaper. Also, my father worked in a Juvenile Detention center for many years, an experience that shaped my life. I've always wanted to write about it.

The Giveaway:
Sean is giving away a signed ARC of WISE YOUNG FOOL.

Wise Young Fool:  Teen rocker Ritchie Sudden is pretty sure his life has just jumped the shark. Except he hates being called a teen, his band doesn't play rock, and "jumping the shark" is yet another dumb cliché. Part of Ritchie wants to drop everything and walk away. Especially the part that's serving ninety days in a juvenile detention center.

Telling the story of the year leading up to his arrest, Ritchie grabs readers by the throat before (politely) inviting them along for the (max-speed) ride. A battle of the bands looms. Dad split about five minutes before Mom's girlfriend moved in. There's the matter of trying to score with the dangerously hot Ravenna Woods while avoiding the dangerously huge Spence Proffer--not to mention just trying to forget what his sister, Beth, said the week before she died.

This latest offering from acclaimed author Sean Beaudoin is alternately raw, razor-sharp, and genuinely hilarious.


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