Sean T.M. Stiennon is the 17 year old author of Six with Flinteye, an action packed sci-fi adventure short story collection which has been published by Silverlake publishing. A homeschooling student, he recieves much support and encouragement from his family in his journey towards recognition as a published writer.

Sean is currently a staff book reviewer for Deep Magic publication, where three of his Flinteye stories have been accepted and published.  His stories about Flinteye attracted the attention of Silverlake editor, Stephanie D. Weidner, and are now available as a collection of short stories, Six with Flinteye, from Silverlake Publishing.  

Aside from these accomplishments, he has also written two short stories which have both placed second in different short fiction contests.  

"Asp", which placed second during the 2004, SFReader.com short story contest and most recently, "Sultan's Well" which placed second in the Storn Cook Razor-Edged Fiction contest, sponsored by Pitch-Black Books.

His short story, "On the Road," recently appeared in The Sword Review, first issue .

The Interview:

Q: Sean, can you name one particular incident that made you say, okay, I want to become a published author and I'm going to work towards that goal.

Sean:I’ve always made up stories, and occasionally wrote fragments of novels, but one summer when I was 13–the summer before I started homeschooling, in fact–I decided that I wanted to write a novel.  So I got out a sheet of paper and starting listing ideas.  I came up with three and picked one: An alien invasion story with a twist.  I sat down at the computer and started writing it.  A year and a half later, I finished that first novel and immediately started on a second one.  I’ve wanted to be published ever since I starting writing that first book.

Q: When you started writing, was there any particular genre or style that you wanted to specialize in?

Sean:I always have been, and continue to be, interested in writing roaring adventure novels and stories, with space opera and high fantasy as my primary genres for that.  My focus is overall on adventure and high conflict, but I like to go a little deeper and write about internal conflict and clashes on planes besides that of combat as well.  My Flinteye stories often include elements of moral conflict as well as simple armed conflict.

Q: So far, most of your work seems to center around scifi, is this a deliberate choice? If so, what what was it that made you make the choice to focus on writing scifi?

Sean:Not really.  As I said above, I’ve always been interested in space opera, which is really just a story told against a science fictiony backdrop that has more in common with fantasy than with hard science fiction by such authors as Asimov.  I see space opera as being stories that take place in a starfaring settings, but which aren’t particularly concerned with realistic science, and in which science plays, at most, a secondary role.  Star Wars is the best example of this–it has spaceships and laser guns, but the focus is on heroes and battles, on the mystical Jedi and the war against the Empire.  I think it’s a great genre for the kind of epic adventures I like to write, including the Flinteye stories.  I’m also very interested in heroic fantasy, and I’m starting to write more of it, so I wouldn’t say I have any particular attachment to science fiction.

Q: Who are the writers who have inspired you the most and in what way have they inspired your work?

Sean:Tad Williams is a writer whose high fantasy I’ve greatly enjoyed, particularly his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy.  My work is very unlike his, but the depth of his characters, plots, and worldbuilding is something I aspire to.  His prose is also fantastic.  Brian Jacques, the author of the Redwall series, inspired me to write tales of battle, adventure, and heroes, although in retrospect the series is very flawed.  The various authors of the Star Wars novels have greatly inspired me, too.  Overall, though, I find it kinda difficult to track my influences–I’m sure there have been many, but it’s hard to dissect them.  I also didn’t actually become a particularly avid reader until after I started writing, although I had greatly enjoyed books before.

Q: As a young writer, what were the obstacles that you had to overcome in order to achieve your goal of becoming a published writer? Can you tell us how you overcame these obstacles?

Sean:Actually, there have been very few obstacles–most editors and writers I’ve encountered have been very supportive and eager to help me out.  I’ve also got more time to hone my craft then other writers, so I don’t think there’s anything particularly difficult about being a young writer.  Of course, my dad has had to co-sign my contracts, but even that hasn’t really been a problem–the editors I’ve encountered thus far have been glad to revise the contract to allow for this, including the editor at Silver Lake.

Q: In a post on another forum, you mentioned your concern regarding the kind of publication you want your work to appear in. Can you share with us the reasons for your concern?

Sean:I was just starting to submit short stories seriously, and I was basically concerned about supporting a publication whose values conflicted with mine–I wouldn’t want to encourage readers to pick up a magazine filled with pornographic stories, say.  Right now, my general guideline is that if the magazine publishes a mix–some stories I don’t have any problem with, others I might not recommend–I’ll send my work to them.  However, if a publication’s goal is to publish immoral material, I won’t submit to them.  Thus, if a magazine occasionally publishes stories with objectionable erotic elements, but publishes other pieces that I have no or lesser problems with, I’ll submit.  If they say in their guidelines “We publish mainly steamy, X-rated stories, but occasionally publish non-erotic adventure stories” I’ll stay far away.

Q: How much does your faith influence your writing?

Sean: Quite a bit.  I rarely write openly religious fiction, but I strive to never write anything in contradiction to my religion (Catholic).  That doesn’t mean that my heroes are saints–far from it, as Flinteye shows–but I keep the ideal in mind.  The good aspects of Flinteye–his courage, his compassion for the weak, and his deep determination–are what make him a hero, not his tendency towards violent anger, vengeance, and a few other vices.

Q: What inspired you to create Flinteye?

Sean:The origin of the name is fairly odd–I was trying to remember the first name of Captain Nathaniel Flint from Treasure Island (I thought it was Salazar.  Salazar Flint...nice...).  I used to read a lot of Star Wars novels, and those roughly inspired the setting and character.  In them, and in the movies, there were hints of a fascinating criminal underworld in the Star Wars galaxy, along with intriguing criminal side characters such as Boba Fett and Bossk.  The books tended to focus on the heroes, though, and that stuff was usually left in the dark, unexplored except when Han or Luke got involved with it.  So, Flinteye is my attempt at space opera told from the side of the underworld–the mercenaries, bounty hunters, thieves, and other such scum which probably make up a good chunk of a given galaxy’s population.  The character himself is someone I’ve been imagining in various forms since I first made up stories in my head–originally, he was a violent reptilian crook named Gortrix.  When I finished my second novel and was thinking up other ideas, the basic character returned in his current form.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish with the publication of Six with Flinteye?

Sean:First and foremost, I hope to share Flinteye and his adventures with as many readers as possible.  That’s not all, though–I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t hope to make a little money, and it would not displease me if my sales/reviews were good enough to attract the attention of editors and agents who could further advance my career.  I hope to make a living at writing someday.

Q: As a teenage writer, how do you balance social life, studies, family life and writing?

Sean:This has never really been much of a problem for me, partially because I don’t write nearly enough.  I take the time I need to get my work done, do things and talk with my family regularly (we eat dinner together every night), and get together with my friends when I feel the need to do so–or, of course, if I’m invited to do something.  There’s no real plan to it, and so far it hasn’t caused me any problems.

Q: How has your life as a writer influenced the way you look at life in general?

Sean:I’d say that I’m a writer because I view life a certain way, not the other way around.  I had ideas for stories long before I started to write seriously, and I’ve always been the sort to daydream.  Writing has only amplified that.

Q: What do you think are the key factors that contribute to becoming a published writer?

Sean:First and foremost is writing well.  Nothing else really matters if you can’t generate prose and tell stories well enough to get your stories accepted by editors.  In addition, I think it’s important to always act professionally in your interactions with editors, publishers, fellow writers, book reviewers, and other people involved with the industry.  If you’re inclined to be abrasive towards editors, or difficult to work with in any way, their interest in your work will suffer.

Q: If you had the ability to travel in time, which time would you choose to travel to and why?

Sean:Assuming I didn’t have to stay there permanently, and also assuming that I could speak Latin fluently, I might go back to the Middle Ages and have a chat with St. Thomas Aquinas (I owe the T. in my name to him).  He’s probably the wisest, most rational, and most intelligent man ever born, just from the little of his work that I’ve read.  I might also like to go to Italy fifty years ago and meet with St. Padre Pio, although that would certainly be a soul-changing experience.

On a less responsible note, it would be very interesting to watch such things as the siege of Jerusalem in the Crusades, some of Alexander the Great’s battles, the battle of Hastings, the battle of Zama, or any other number of battles.  What can I say–I’m into military history, especially the ancient and mediaeval kinds.


Sean has short stories coming up in Amazing Journeys Magazine and in Pitch Black Books.