Sean Speaks

Sean Blackwell with his wife, Ligia Splendora, on the Brazilian coast September 2009. (He hates -- or hated -- this picture, but it's all I can find that I haven't recently posted.)

Sean,

Please accept what I say in this reply in the spirit I am sending it -- which I trust you can feel before I formulate my words. While part of me wants things to digest in consciousness a bit before replying, another part of me is keenly aware that the world now operates at a speed that puts lightening to shame, and that quick reactions -- although not always judicious -- are honest, and the first thing we know is that we are all imperfectly human, so too: if I "shame" myself in the process, it is all on me.

Not that I'll accept it. LOL!!!

What I have read of your book and this email (except for parts of the first paragraph here which relate to 2.25-years-ago me which is in most ways Gone with the Wind after my most extraordinary adventures since then, hither and yon), shows me that you have brought yourself up to AT LEAST my own level of writing. Frankly, when I read the free sample on Amazon, I thought you must have gotten Ligia's brother to pay for the best editor God ever invented. REALLY: although I entertained the thought that you (as a writer), might have improved that much, I did not think it was actually humanly possible -- and the emphasis here is not on anything being so wrong about where you began, but on HOW STRONG YOU FINISHED.

I can't wait to buy your whole book so I can read all of it. I actually have enough funds to do that if I do it quickly. LOL!!!

I am deeply humbled and will reply in more detail later. For now, please give Ligia the return of the hug she gave me right before I flew back to Atlanta. It was the deepest, most meaningful hug I have received in my life -- hands down!!!

I was going to suggest you then make love to her on the floor, walls, ceiling, elevator, graffiti-covered exterior of your hi-rise, the road up the north coast to her brother's house at the beach, and then on to Parity -- and all the way back again. For y'all -- not me.

But you see, I can't do that. I'm trying to keep my blog "Family Values" -- but since I have not only your PERMISSION, but vigorous SUGGESTION, I plan to post all this on my blog. That said, I have also (more recently than I'd like to admit), learned that some things should be kept in confidence. I have even been doing that with quite a few things of late. I hope to earn your confidence again some day.

All best,
Scott


On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 12:29 PM, Sean wrote:

Hi Scott,

I´ve been thinking about writing you for a while now, actually, since the book came out in September. I’ve been hesitant because, like most people, I don’t like to have my e-mails posted on your blog, and, to be honest, I’d rather not remain in regular contact with you for a handful of reasons that I’d rather not talk about here, as it defeats the purpose of why I am writing.

However, with that out of the way, credit is due where credit is due, and I do feel that, when it actually came to helping me with my book, you were of invaluable service and I owe you a huge THANK YOU!

I’m sure that if this e-mail is posted on your blog, anyone who reads it may suspect that what is written here was somehow faked by you. I wish I could convince them that it is not.

Before meeting you, my book was a good story, and inspiring to those who it was intended to help, but it never reached a level where it would open the eyes of the everyday man on the street. With your help and your help alone, you got me to see my work with different eyes.

“Before I sent my book to the publisher, I’d gone over it and edited it 12 times,” you told me. “Yours looks like it’s at about its fifth or sixth edit.” “It’s a diamond in the rough.” With that advice, I kept editing and re-editing my book until I thought it felt like it was at that 12th edit level. That took over a year and a half to do.

“The first part of your book is where you really need to grab the reader, but you’re sort of jumping around too much, from Toronto to Vancouver…I think you should clean it up,” you said. And so I did. Listening to your advice, I did a total rewrite of the first part of the book, eliminating a few changes of location and dropping a few characters and side-stories from the book, just to keep things clean and direct. I also expanded on later chapters which lacked a certain literary richness.

“You want to make your book read fast,” you said. “So be very selective with your nouns and verbs, and keep your adjectives limited to one or two at the most.” Until you said that, I’d never even considered how ‘fast’ a book reads. There, I followed your advice to the letter, reviewing my own work with much more thoughtful eyes.

“Think broader,” you told me. “Think outside the bipolar audience.” And with that, I removed most of the anti-psychiatry slant to my original book, making it decidedly less polemic in nature. I focused on what was positive about my perspective rather than what was negative about theirs.

And, perhaps more than anything else, you got me to imagine myself as a real writer – a person with a voice and vision that needs to be heard by a mainstream audience.

Maybe it was your passion for writing itself – the way you would not move forward until we got the precise word we needed, when you helped me with my query letter. True, as I decided to self-publish, I never did mail that letter out, but working with you on it gave me great insight into your vigorous approach to the written word.

Most importantly, the feedback I´ve had on (my book) has been spectacular. People can’t say enough about it. I also read your online critique and appreciate your kind and positive comments.

So, thanks again, and I truly hope that you get back on your feet one day. There are two sides to Scott Kenan. I hope the finer side will prevail.

Feel free to post this on your blog.

And thank you again,
Sean Blackwell

.>>> Sean's book can be bought here: http://www.amazon.com/Am-I-Bipolar-Waking-Up/dp/1461178258/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323810565&sr=8-1

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