About Sean P. Valiente:
Raised in Maine, Sean grew up dreaming of magical worlds. Now living north of Boston, he spends his days as a finance and accounting professional, and his nights writing.
What inspires you to write?
What inspires me to write is this love of sharing stories with other people. Writing for me is cathartic, and the characters and worlds I've found are a wonderful place to spend time with.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Being a fantasy author myself, I'll probably stick with those: Tolkien is the OG for me and helped me fall in love with fantasy. Brian Jacobs's Redwall helped me fall in love with reading. Paolini made me feel like I could write a fantasy book one day, and Brent Weeks is my reading adiction.
Tell us about your writing process.
This seems like a cop-out, but I'm a bit of both. I have a rough outline of events and where I want to get to, but the journey there is more like transcribing while watching a tv show. Sometimes the characters take me to places I had no idea we'd go, and other times new characters arrive that I had never even thought of. It's all very exciting.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I listen to my characters. For me, I'm living every single one of my characters, so it's not talking to them, but becoming them and seeing the world through their eyes.
What advice would you give other writers?
I think there are three pieces of advice that I think are super important for other writers:
1. Write, write, and write some more. It's the hardest part of the journey, but once you start, the flood gates open. Everyone has stories in them, the hard part is getting them out.
2. Lean on your network and get beta readers!
3. Write a story you wouldn't mind reading 754 times, because, between all the editing and drafting and redrafting, you will have read it even more than that!
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I chose self-publishing for a few reasons. First was that the traditional publishing route was a little slow for me, and there are a million gate-keepers. Not to say I wouldn't want to go the traditional route if offered, but the timeline didn't work for me because I am impatient 🙂 Second, self-publishing is very entrepreneurial, and as challenging as it can be, it's also super exciting. I had a third but was busy with everything involved with self-publishing. It's crazy hard and very busy but totally worth it.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think the future of book publishing is positive. With the advent of self-publishing over the last 25 years, and especially over the last 5 and how easy it is, anyone with a story to tell can tell it. Some people might think that will saturate the market, but I think quality will always win out, and in the end, there are always readers ready for more books!
What genres do you write?: Fantasy
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Sean P. Valiente Home Page Link
Link To Sean P. Valiente Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
