Welcome back for the conclusion in our talk with Sean Patrick Little, author of Lord Bobbins and the Romanian Ruckus.
Read Part One here.
Read Part Two here.
Read Part Three here.
Airship Ambassador: Looking beyond steampunk and writing, what other interests fill your time?
Sean Patrick Little: I have a 13-year-old daughter, so antagonizing her and making her do homework is a big chunk of my day. I play guitar and bass badly (self-taught), so I try to do that occasionally. Other than that, I work. I write. I sleep. That’s my life. I’m not terribly exciting. I don’t get to travel much. I don’t leave my house much.
AA: Antagonizing a teenager, sounds dangerous and entertaining, and hopefully there’s some good story fodder in there, too. What other fandoms are you part of?
SPL: Anything nerdy, really. Big Star Trek guy. Big Star Wars guy. Big D&D guy. I read a lot of fantasy novels. I’m also a progressive rock fan. Total Marillion guy. Love Rush. Love Pink Floyd. I listen to them a lot.
AA: Good list! What is on your to-be read pile right now?
SPL: Currently, I’m sitting on a ton of stuff. I’m trying to get into the Stormlight Archive series from Brandon Sanderson, but it just isn’t clicking for me. I am reading a lot of CJ Box novels. I’m a big Craig Johnson (Walt Longmire series) fan, so the Joe Pickett novels are along a similar vein. I am waiting for the next books from Sebastien de Castell and Alex Bledsoe, too. Bledsoe’s Tufa novels are some of my favorite books of the last ten years. They are instant classics, in my opinion.
My friend, Maddy Hunter, has a new book coming out in her Passport to Peril series, too. She’s a wickedly funny mystery novelist from Madison, Wis. Well worth your time to check her out.
I’ve also been trying to read a lot of steampunk novels, lately. I read Cherie Priest’s books a while back, and I’ve waded through some Gail Carriger. I’m halfway through Robyn Bennis’s The Guns Above right now, too.
AA: Someone’s to-be-read list just got longer. Who is an inspiration to you?
SPL: I suppose it’s cheesy to say my dad, but he is. He’s a guy who has been dealt a lot of bad hands in life, but he keeps forging ahead. Outside of my dad, I look at a lot of people who do things outside the mainstream systems—Elon Musk, Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, Guillermo del Toro, Sam Raimi—people who did things their own way because they wanted/needed to. I admire that. I like it when authors who self-published books find success—Andy Weir, for example. Michael J. Sullivan. Marcel Proust. I like people who buck the system and achieve success. Those are my heroes.
AA: Plenty of leaders and people with strong visions. What is the best advice you’ve been given?
SPL: One of my college writing professors, Dr. Emilio Degrazia, said, “Tell the truth.” That was basically the culmination of a semester-long creative writing class. He meant that you need to tell the truth about the characters, and the conflict, and the fallout of the conflict, no matter how bad any of it is. Don’t cater your writing to fit other people’s concepts. Tell the truth and stand by it.
Also—writing has NOTHING to do with inspiration. Writing gets done because you put your butt in a seat and your fingers on a keyboard and you grind. That’s it. If you’re not putting in the hours it takes to write, you won’t write. Simple as that. If you want to write, then find the time and plant yourself at that keyboard.
AA: Good advice for everyone about the things they want to accomplish. When you do interviews, what is something that you wish you were asked about but haven’t been?
SPL: I don’t do many interviews. I’m very much under the radar. Like…way under the radar. I’m on the ground, undetectable by radar. I suppose the one question I’ve never been asked is “Why do you do it?” –and the answer is, because I can’t stop. I quit writing all the time (out of frustration, out of sadness, out of feeling like I’ll never “make it”—wherever “it” is), but I always go back. It’s an addiction. A disease. I have stories in me that I want to tell, that I need to tell, so I tell them.
As much as I would like to have a zillion readers, and a dedicated fan base, and get invited to speak at conventions and such—it has nothing to do with why I do what I do. I write, because I must. If you’re writing for any other reason than that, you are doing it wrong.
AA: We are driven to create, to release the energy inside to bring form to the formless. Any final thoughts to share with our readers
SPL: Thanks for reading. Honestly. I cannot stress enough how grateful I am if you take time out of your life to read anything I write, even if you didn’t like it—thank you for reading it. I appreciate it more than you know. So often, writing novels feels like being on a remote island. I’m alone in my head hoping someone sees these stories.
Also, if you read something, if you read anything by any author and you liked it and/or want more of it, PLEASE write a good review for it and post it as many places as you can. You’d be surprised at how many doors open when something gets 50 reviews, or 100 reviews. For authors, a single review can be the difference between a book being put into promotional material and being ignored. Please review books you enjoy. And if you don’t enjoy them, that’s fair. I don’t like every book I read.
However, if you don’t like someone’s work, don’t be a jerk about it. No one likes that sort of person. Stay positive. Spread some positivity in this world. Make someone’s day; don’t ruin someone’s day. Spend your time spreading the word of things you like rather than condemning those you don’t. It’s better for your mental health.
EXTRA POINT: My next book, Long Empty Roads, the sequel to my best-selling post-apocalypse survival After Everyone Died, will be out on Feb. 2, 2018. It should be available in hardcopy and Kindle edition. It will be available for Kindle Unlimited, too—so if you have that, you won’t even have to pay for it.
Alright readers, get out there and leave reviews for all those books you’ve enjoyed over the years. Authors need our support!
Thanks, Sean, for joining us! I am definitely looking forward to reading Lord Bobbins and the Dome of Light!
Keep up to date with Sean’s latest news on his Twitter feed or Facebook.
You can support Sean and our community by getting your copy of Lord Bobbins and the Romanian Ruckus here.
Airship Ambassador 
Leave a Reply