Writing in my Car... with Sean Reardon

I don't know about you, but I am always eager to learn about another writer's process. What inspires them. What they find interesting. Legal pad or straight to the computer. And so, I've reached out to writer-friends across the galaxy and they will be sharing their writing lives with you and me.

Let's welcome Sean Patrick Reardon, author of Mindjacker. What is this novel about, you ask? Well, when wealthy Russian mobsters contract L.A. psychologist Joel Fischer to develop a device to manipulate minds, the DreemWeever exceeds all expectations. Everything is on track for delivery and a big payday, until two adventurous stoners steal his Dodge Challenger that, unknown to them, contains the DreemWeever in its trunk. Fischer and his crew have two days to get it back or he dies.

Here's Sean!

If I had to identify a moment in time that totally changed both my outlook and approach to writing, it was in 2008 when I purchased and read Stephen King's On Writing . This book is often mentioned in writing circles and I would also highly recommend it to any aspiring writers. Like most writers, I'm very busy with work and family responsibilities.

Time to write is always at a premium. Taking Mr. King's advice, I write in the room above my garage almost every night between 9:00 pm and 1:00 am and try to come up with between 500 and 1000 words. It was tough at first, but after a couple weeks of doing this, things started to happen and I have stuck with it ever since.

The writer who inspired me to write I would have to say is F.Scott Fitzgerald. The "Great Gatsby" is my favorite novel and I love all of his short stories. I have studied Fitzgerald extensively and find him to be a fascinating person as well as a writer. Besides Stephen King, other contemporary writers I enjoy reading are Elmore Leonard, Chuck Palahniuk, Hunter S Thompson, Adrian McKinty, Declan Burke, and Stuart Neville.

Like a lot of writers, my stories start with a simple idea or situation and I just build on it. With my novel Mindjacker, I had written a short story that came in at about 4,500 words. For me at least, that is almost too long to ask a reader to stay with you for a short. I really felt like the story could be turned into something bigger, so I decided to try my hand at a novel length piece and I'm glad I did.

My favorite movie and novel genres are crime and thriller, especially the heist. I like stories about the bad guys, who can sometimes be good guys and it was only natural that I decided to write in that genre. Unless a cop is corrupt, I don’t enjoy reading or writing about them, plus that opens you up to a whole new world of research and reader scrutiny that I don't want to deal with. Research is hard enough as it is and I make good use of Google, especially for location and setting details.

I can only write on my laptop and use MS Word. I just can't seem to get anything done if I had to manually write anything, but I am always writing down any ideas that pop into my head. No matter where I am, I usually have access to a pen and something to write on, even if it is on my skin.

If you want to learn more about Sean and his writing, please visit him at his blog.

Thanks for sharing, Sean!