Interviews With Writers

Author Interviews from Writers Around the World

  • Home
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Interview Submission
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sites in the BookGoodies Network
You are here: Home / Fiction / Interview with Author – Sean Coons

Interview with Author – Sean Coons

By Interviews With Writers


Author Bio:
Sean Coons is an author, screenwriter, musician, and educator living in Redondo Beach, California with his wife and son. Sean’s novel, Body, is an inspirational fiction comedy exploring body image and intuitive eating. Body offers readers a path to a healthier, more fulfilling life. Sean has written for The Atlantic, Salon, and The Christian Post, covering topics ranging from history to culture to Hollywood, and has toured the US and abroad as an entertainer. His work in the field of body image is informed by personal experience as well as his study of psychology and social behavior at UC Irvine and counseling psychology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

What inspires you to write?
Storytelling is a portal to transcendence and transformation. The fact that someone can read a story, vicariously engage in the protagonist's journey, and experience transformational change in their own, real lives is nothing less than magical. This is what inspires me to write.

Tell us about your writing process.
I benefit greatly from creating an outline for my stories. For fiction, I have combined and adapted a couple useful screenplay outlines I've come across over the years, one of those being the Blake Snyder outline as explained in his book, Save the Cat. What I especially like about using an outline is that it helps me develop strong plot points. These are the expected turning points in a story that provide the emotional energy for the next movement in the plot. Consciously crafting these elements as a writer helps me to make them dramatic, sharp, and unique. This, in turn, I believe, results in a more positive experience for readers.

I often write extended passages within my outline, including dialogue, as it comes to mind. This content often changes dramatically during the writing process when I get to that section, but every once in a while, I will get a gem during this outlining process that makes it to the final draft.

I think outlining also helps minimize writer's block. I always know what will be happening next with an outline, and if I get stuck in one section of the story, I can keep my momentum by moving on to another section and being productive there.

I also create character sketches early in the process. Characters need backgrounds, motivations, quirks, strengths, and weaknesses that will make their story compelling. A lot of the detail will happen naturally in the storytelling, but I find putting some thought into this up-front, treating my characters as real people independent of the plot, is helpful. This also makes the conflict they will eventually encounter with each other as the plot unfolds feel more authentic.

For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
There comes a point when I'm writing a story that my characters definitely come to life. I don't talk to them, but they do live in my imagination. Once the story is rolling along, there are often times in which I put no effort into dialogue and mannerisms. The characters act and speak, and I transcribe. Often this happens when I'm not even in the process of writing. I'm running an errand, doing a chore, falling asleep, and there's Lilith, for example, an especially sassy character in my novel, Body, saying something hilarious with a devilish sparkle in her eye. I love this part of writing a novel or screenplay.

Who are your favorite authors?
I'm a big fan of Moses, John, King David, King Solomon, and Paul of Tarsus and their corresponding books/letters/collections of aphorisms/songs. I also love Mark Twain, C.S. Lewis, Og Mandino, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, James Carse, Aldous Huxley, John Crowder, William Paul Young . . . And that William Shakespeare could really turn a phrase! For Body, my novel about body image and intuitive eating, I used a model provided by Og Mandino in his classic, The Greatest Salesman in the World: Teach specific, applicable lessons in the context of an entertaining story.

How did you decide how to publish your books?
I wanted to partner with a publisher because of the expertise a publisher brings to a project — editing, formatting, placement, promotion, &c. I am thankful to have found that in Black Rose Writing, the publisher of my novel, Body: or, How Hope Confronts Her Shadow and Calls the Flutter Girl to Flight.

What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think it will continue to become easier to get a book to the marketplace (especially due to the growth in professional-grade self-publishing), which means it will become more competitive. More than ever, authors will need to learn to distinguish themselves not only in their writing, but also by means accessible to modern readers (e.g., social media, YouTube, speaking engagements). Also, it seems to be increasingly important to have books available in audio format, as more and more people are choosing books that can be consumed during commutes and in the midst of chores and other daily activities.

What genres do you write?
Inspirational Fiction, Christian Fiction, Middle Grade, Literary, Screenwriting

What formats are your books in?
eBook, Print

Website(s)
Sean Coons Home Page Link
Follow Sean Coons On Amazon

Author’s Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter

All information is provided by the author and is presented as it was submitted so you the reader get to hear the author’s own “voice” in their interview.

Filed Under: Fiction, Interviews Tagged With: anti-diet, body image, Christian books, eating disorders, intuitive eating, intuitive exercise, Sean Coons, Self Esteem, self help

Follow Us!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Search our Site

Featured Books

Featured Book: Sisters In Cold Blood by Kay A Oliver

About Featured Book: Sisters In Cold Blood by Kay A Oliver Keri Shaw discovers a confession letter dated 1909 written by a serial killer who is already dead and was never charged with a single crime. The letter holds clues to where the bodies may be buried but they need to figure out this puzzle […]

Featured Book: Of Men and Dragons: Jack's Landing by Steven Hayen

About Featured Book: Of Men and Dragons: Jack's Landing by Steven Hayen Jack was having a very bad day. He'd been scouting the edges of the known galaxy when he'd crashed onto a planet at the beginning of its iron age. What was worse, the natives are seven-foot-tall carnivores who are faster, stronger, and every […]

Featured Book: Conversations with Ayahuasca by Ol Serbon

About Featured Book: Conversations with Ayahuasca by Ol Serbon Promotional sale: E-book for $0.99. Dates: June 21st – July 26th Description: I wasn’t planning on becoming an author, but a writing spell suddenly kicked in during an ayahuasca ceremony that took place at one of the spiritual retreat centers in the Sacred Valley, Peru, in […]

Featured Book: Darkleich: Man Of War by Bryan R Barton

About Featured Book: Darkleich: Man Of War by Bryan R Barton An invisible enemy A war between worlds. And only one man can prevent it all: Darkleich When an invisible ship starts attacking a growing coalition of planets, the panic-stricken leaders appoint Darkleich, a courageous and honorable soldier, to uncover its secrets. Especially since the […]

Featured Book: YOU BETTER RUN by Willow Rose

About Featured Book: YOU BETTER RUN by Willow Rose Promotion dates: 06/15/2022 to 06/21/2022 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The beach read of the summer! When 19-year-old Meg Briggs wakes up after having a crazy party with her friends, she finds a girl in the pool. Dead. Who is this girl? How did she end up in the pool? […]

Categories

  • Action & Adventure
  • Activity Books
  • Audiobook
  • Audiobooks
  • Autobiographies
  • Bargain Books Under $3
  • Biblical Studies
  • Biographical Fiction
  • Biographies & Memoirs
  • Birds
  • Body/Mind/Spirit
  • BookGoodies Network Merch
  • Business Books
  • Buyer's Guides
  • Children and Young Adult Books
  • Children's – Education & Reference
  • Children's Books
  • Children's eBooks
  • Christian Fiction
  • Christian Non-Fiction
  • Coloring Books for Kids
  • Comedy
  • Cowboy Romance
  • Cozy Mystery
  • Devotionals
  • Dogs
  • Drama
  • Educational/How-to
  • Erotic
  • Erotic Science Fiction
  • Erotica
  • Essays
  • Fairy Tale
  • Faith and Religion
  • Fantasy
  • Featured Books
  • Features
  • Fiction
    • Romance
  • Fiction Audio Books
  • Fitness
  • Giveaways
  • Health & Fitness
  • Heat Level 1 – G Rated Clean Read
  • Heat Level 2 – PG
  • Heat Level 3 – PG-13
  • Heat Level 4 – R Rated
  • Heat Level 5 – NC-17
  • Historical
  • Historical Fiction
  • Historical Romance
  • Horror
  • Humor
  • Humor (Fiction)
  • Inspirational Books for You
  • Interviews
  • Journal
  • Kindle Unlimited
  • Kindle Unlimited eBooks
  • Kindle Vella
  • Kindle Vella Serial
  • Limited Time Free Promotion
  • Love and Marriage
  • Magic
  • Memoir
  • Military Science Fiction
  • Music
  • Mystery
  • Mystery/Suspense
  • Mystery/Thriller
  • New Age
  • News
  • Non-fiction
  • Nonfiction Audio Books
  • Nonfiction Audiobooks
  • Paranormal
  • Paranormal Romance
  • Permafree
  • PermaFree Books
  • Personal Growth
  • Pet and Animal
  • Poetry
  • Print Books
  • Prophecy
  • Regency Romance
  • Romance – Erotica
  • Romantic Suspense
  • Science Fiction
  • SciFi
  • Spiritual Growth
  • Thriller
  • Time Travel
  • Travel
  • Urban Fantasy
  • Women's Fiction
  • Women's Health
  • YA – Action and Adventure
  • YA – Fantasy
  • Young Adult

Podcasts with Writers

Mayhem 337: Memoir of a Combat Advisor in Afghanistan by Chad Rickard

Interview with Author – Paul D. Weaver

Interview with Author – Titania Hudson

Interview with Author – Lillian and Dave Brummet

Interview with Author – Nicole Delacroix

More Posts from this Category

Featured Books

Featured Book: Mountain Man's Lucky Charm by K.C. Crowne

Featured Book: Return on Courage by Ryan Berman

Featured Book: Do No Harm by James Cohoon

FEATURED BOOK: Frederic & Cassandra Book I, The Sinister House by Kathleen Dixon

Featured Book: I Once Was Lost, but Now I’m Found by Laura Koerber

More Posts from this Category

Around the Site

  • Home
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Interview Submission
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sites in the BookGoodies Network

Copyright © 2022 · A BookGoodies Partner Site · Powered by WordPress and Genesis