Author Interview: Sean Beaudoin

Sean Beaudoin is the author of Going Nowhere Faster and Fade To Blue. His newest book, You Killed Wesley Payne, is due from Little, Brown February 1, 2011. Sean's articles and short stories have been appeared in numerous publications, including the Onion, Glimmer Train, The San Francisco Chronicle, Opium Magazine, The Rumpus, The New Orleans Review, Narrative Magazine, Barrelhouse, Instant City, The Nervous Breakdown, Bayou, Another Chicago Magazine, Bat City Review, Redivider, Ballyhoo, and Spirit-the inflight magazine of Southwest Airlines.


A review about You Killed Wesley Payne will be available soon in our blog but til then check out the awesome interview with Sean!

-Try to describe your book in one sentence.

Raymond Chandler and Lindsay Lohan go into an alley, only one emerges with teeth.

-Now you can tell us a bit more about it. A small summary by you.

You Killed Wesley Payne is a black comedy murder mystery. The anti-hero, Dalton Rev, is a detective who transfers from high school to high school to solve crimes for a fee. Wesley Payne, who was found hanging from the goalposts at the end of the football field, is his toughest case yet. There’s girls, guns, grift, garage rock, and guffaws. Also, Dalton is trying to get into Harvard.

-Your genre in this book is young-adult mystery if I’m not mistaken. You did that on purpose, or you just start writing?

Yes, it was very much on purpose. I write Young Adult novels that I hope push teenagers out of their comfort zones, and can also be enjoyed by adults. I got a bit disillusioned with the literary publishing world, and realized that through the exploding genre of YA I could reach readers who genuinely cared about what they were reading.

-What inspired you to write, you took any ideas from other books, movies etc?

I grew up watching film noir and classic cinema and it very much affected my desire to write this book, as well as the way it came out.

-Did you do any research before start or during of the writing of the books?

I watched a million movies, read untold pulp novels, and lived through high school.

-Which scenes were the hardest to write?

The ones that my editor didn’t like and forced me to re-do. I think writing is hard in general. Which is why I don’t really like reviewing other people’s books. Even if I don’t like it, I know how much work went into it.

-How long has it taken you to write a book ?

It seems to average about eighteen months.

-What’s the best part of writing for you?

When I sit down in the morning, open my laptop, and the next thing I know it’s late afternoon. When I become so immersed in what I’m doing I don’t have any notion of time passing.

-Are you reading or writing something else at the moment?

The book after You Killed Wesley Payne is already done. It’s called Wise Young Truck. I am currently working on the book after that.

-Did you have support at the beginning and/or during your writing?

There have always been people who believed in me, and people who dismissed me. I think that’s probably true with most writers.

-Did you always had in mind to be a writer or it just happened?

 

I feel fortunate that I knew as a teenager that writing was something I wanted to do. I don’t know if I felt back then that I could make a career out of it, but it was always something I pursued.

-How important you find the communication between you and your readers? Do you reply to their messages or read their reviews?

It’s very important. They’re the ones I’m writing for. I try to reply to all the messages I get. And the publisher frequently forwards me reviews.

 

-Are you working on any other projects except writing, right now?

Writing for a living involves so many other things than actually writing, that I would have to say I am constantly involved in other projects.

-Something special you want to share with us?

My daughter just lost her two front teeth.

 

Now some simple questions and more fun^^

-Your favourite books and author?

It would be easier to say my 20 favorite books and authors. I would say that Kurt Vonnegut and all his books made perhaps the greatest impression on me as a teenager. Not long ago I read Little Infamies, a book of short stories about Greek life by Panos Karnezis, which I thought was very good.

 

-Your favourite band/singer?

John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, and James Brown.

-Twitter or Facebook?

Facebook.

-Favourite place in the world?

Florence.

-Last movie you watched at the cinemas?

True Grit. I really love the original novel by Charles Portis, who is a favorite writer of mine.

-The last book you’ve read?

I am almost finished with Public Enemies, a compendium of letters exchanged between Bernard Henri-Levy and Michele Houellebecq.          

-Writing, reading or hanging out with friends?

Writing in the morning, reading in the afternoon, hanging out with friends at night.

-If you wouldn’t be a writer, what you would be?

I always wanted to be a power forward in the NBA. But I’m only 6’ 3”. So I guess I’ll say a professor of linguistics.

-And last one....printed or ebooks?

Printed. Forever and always.

 

Thanks a lot Sean Beaudoin for the interview!

Official Site: http://www.seanbeaudoin.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/seanbeaudoin

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You Killed Wesley Payne

He's come to do a job.
A job that involves a body.
A body wrapped in duct tape found hanging from the goal posts at the end of the football field.

You Killed Wesley Payne is a truly original and darkly hilarious update of classic pulp-noir, in which hard-boiled seventeen year-old Dalton Rev transfers to the mean hallways of Salt River High to take on the toughest case of his life. The question isn't whether Dalton's going to get paid. He always gets paid. Or whether he's gonna get the girl. He always (sometimes) gets the girl. The real question is whether Dalton Rev can outwit crooked cops and killer cliques in time to solve the mystery of "The Body" before it solves him.Sean Beaudoin (Going Nowhere Faster, Fade to Blue) evokes the distinctive voices of legendary crime/noir authors Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson with a little bit of Mean Girls and Heathers throwin in for good measure. This smart, slick, and alluring detective novel that will tease you, thrill you, and suck you in