Ean: Hello Sonam! It’s my pleasure to be here. Legacy is about living in a world of constant uncertainty. The struggle to find your self-identity through family, school, life, experiences. The main character Manhattan, is a young boy who we as the audience see him go from a naïve young child to a more confident teenager. He is always s second-guessing himself and always unsure of whether he is doing is the right thing or not. Manhattan and the experiences he goes through along with the other characters within the hectic environment create a realistic reality that kids and adults can connect with. An abusive environment, parents going through divorce, dealing with outside sources and others can feel like a battleground to the person that goes through these experiences. It could feel like the world is falling apart around them, the outside world doesn’t care, and they person feels alone. It was important for me to be able to connect with others to discuss their struggles that they have dealt with and have a conversation with someone who has also read the book the feel the relief fall from one another’s shoulders. I wanted the characters to have defects that anyone could connect with and see how they can conquer those defects we all have.
Sonam: Well that sounds promising. I’m really curious to know, when did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Ean: It took a couple of years after I started writing to realize I wanted to be a writer. I had already written the first, second, or third drafts for Legacy and was working on typing it up. I realized that I wasn’t a writer, and it was never going to be released (not by someone like me at least), so I let it go. I hid it in the closet and didn’t touch it for half a year, maybe a year. But one day, while I was playing video games, I went looking through my closet and saw the red folder filled with my book and it hit me that I had to finish it. I didn’t care how long it took, what I had to do, who I had to talk to. I was going to get it out even if it “killed” me.
Sonam: Being a writer is tough. Sometimes you just get stuck, your mind stops works. What do you do on days like that? Have you ever gotten writer’s block?
Ean: To me, writer’s block means a misstep in a person’s natural writing process working well as stumbling when trying to find the right words. If someone is used to writing a thousand words a night and the next night the person can only write twenty words, then the flow falls apart and the writer has trouble forming even a sentence.
Sonam: Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
Ean: I did consider it. When I had written a few short stories I thought about using a pseudonym that had a nice ring to it. I wanted to go under the name of Wade Winchester. Wade is my middle name and Winchester is from my love of the television show, Supernatural. When I discussed it with my creative writing teacher, he gave excellent advice and reminded me that Ian Fleming wrote James Bond.
Sonam: When looking back, we all have some piece of advice if we could we would definitely give our younger selves. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Ean: I would tell him to keep writing, keep fighting. Since I had only started writing in 2012, I was in my early 20s and I was in the Marines, I was only learning to focus on something with all my body and soul. I had always second-guessed myself and I would tell myself to keep fighting through that and never stop. When you feel something wholeheartedly within yourself and you know that it is something good and it means so much to you then you shouldn’t quit even through the struggle.
Sonam: I keep wondering, What made you write this book?
Ean: Well, I guess you could say sobriety made me write this book. In rehab, I was sitting down one night and just started writing. I wrote about a boy named Manhattan running through Los Angeles. I didn’t think anymore of it other than it was something that I seemed content with. Something that slowly began to take the place of alcohol. But once I got out of rehab, wany more my second deployment in the Marine Corps, I began to realize why I continued to stick with it. Legacy was a way of letting go of the relationship (or lack thereof) with my father. A way of moving on with my life and becoming someone, I ne.ver thought I could be.
Sonam: How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
Ean: It changed by finding more information on who I can come to for what I have written down. Or the ideas that come from talking to those that have read Legacy and may have an idea. I still write down the story before typing it up. The editing is still and always will be a difficult process but when I know what works and through publishing it helps even more.
Sonam: Today, there are so many John brass to select as a writer. Why did you select this type of content for your book?
Ean: I enjoy,the saying that I didn’t chose it, it chose me. I never intentionally meant to write, nor did I ever want to write but when I wrote Legacy it was a culmination of the alcoholism, my chose, the experiences I had throughout which helped develop the novel. When I was a kid in Kansas, I saw the music video for “California Love” by Tupac and Dr. Dre. The wasteland that they created stuck with me and created the story. The decadence that I learned about in Los Angeles, while growing up in Kansas. Motley Crue, Guns and Roses, Tupac, etc. was something that I was fascinated with. The content along with my experiences and so on helped culminate and was eventually released in this novel that I never expected to write.
Sonam: As we all know life is full of ups and downs. What were the failures you faced on this journey?
Ean: Looking back now I can’t necessarily call them failures because they helped me deal with the honesty of the business I fell into. When I look at all the literary agents, I sent emails to I couldn’t call them failures based on the biased opinions through the book industry. I also look at the ideas I have put on paper and through other people it made sense as to why those ideas would not fit in. To me the failures were never failures they were more like an obstacle that I had to move around or go through.
Sonam: It was so good to talk to you Ean. I wish we’ll have you again with your next book soon, hopefully. Do you want to say something to your audience?
Ean: As a person who has never felt that he could accomplish anything with his life, I want to connect with the person that feels the same or struggles with finding their path. If I can connect with the audience in one facet or another through Legacy and see that something has changed or want to change something within their own lives. I enjoy letting anyone know that Legacy had helped me in so many ways I couldn’t fill them up on a single sheet of paper. I want to thank the audience for taking the time out of their day to read something that had the smallest chance of being released from a person that was never meant and always told that he would never amount to anything. The audience no matter how old or young means so much when they want to read the novel and want to give their opinion on the matter. I am always thanking anyone and everyone that take time out of their day and is always open to discussing the novel or how it connected to life in general. From the deepest darkest blackest pit of my soul thank you so much.