Sean O’Connor - An apocalypse. A love story. A tragedy.

Sean O’Connor has been an avid writer of horror for as long as he can remember. He used to write short stories which would creep people out, leaving them wondering if the world they lived in was safe and secure. Now he has turned his hand toward the novel, and has written his first book Blood Ever After.  As our Author of the Day, he tells us all about his book, Blood Ever After.

Please give us a short introduction to what Blood Ever After is about.

Blood Ever After is a weird and wacky tale about a young boy (Tyler) who finds himself traveling through a post-apocalyptic world with the love of his life and an odd man who cannot be trusted. He is searching for other survivors and hopes to find his parents alive. However, what he does fide will haunt him for life, for something mysterious and deadly awaits, something that will change him forever.

What inspired you to write this story? Was there anything in particular that made you want to tackle this?

I was a schoolteacher when I started writing this. We were reading Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden, and I thought, I can write a book as boring as this. So I started BEA, and I actually managed to finish it.

Tell us more about Tyler. What makes him tick?

Tyler’s an interesting character. On the one hand, he is quite authentic, and nice to people, and rather studious. On the other hand, he has anxiety issues and PTSD from the death of his older brother. He hasn’t gotten over these issues, so in a sense, this tale of how (and if), he gets over those issues. AND, it gets a little more real than he’d like. Some things are better left dead, I guess. Wha, ha ha (insert evil laughter).

What makes Charlotte so special?

Charlotte is special because a) she has the strength Tyler is seeking. She is the yin to his yang. Tyler wants someone to save him, and maybe it will be Charlotte. He is also incredibly attracted to her dark looks, because, who wouldn’t be? She has a sparkling nose ring, after all. Isn’t that really attractive? Yes, this book is real deep. Real deep.

Why did you pick a zombie-ridden world as the backdrop for your story?

Eleven years ago I was short-listed in a writing competition when I wrote a novel about a boy traveling through a post-apocalyptic world. Honestly, the book was pretty good. Probably better than this one. Oh well. As it turned out, I watched so many zombie flicks trying to ‘prepare’ for that old unpublished book, that, well, the ‘undead’ stayed with me, and manifested in this pile of trash you guys are interested in reading now. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Only joking, of course. Blood Ever After is a great zombie book, and the zombies don’t even show themselves until half-way through. It’s all character, sex, and humor, baby.

What drew you to horror as a genre?

I remember being really young, staying in a caravan park with my poor family (actually we’re still poor). Anyway, there was this old TV, and my older bothers were watching this moving where this giant rat rips off the arm of some dude in a mine or something. I bloody loved it. From that moment forward I was like, “Heck yea, I’m gonna create stories where my own people get their arms ripped off too.” So I fell in love with Goosebumps at a young age. I have R.L Stine to thank that I am even semi-literate. Then Stephen King. Then I tried to combine them both, throw in some Lord of the Rings, J.D Salinger, and some other stuff, and you have Blood Ever After.

Do any of your characters ever go off on their own tangent, refusing to do what you had planned for them?

Yeah, Tyler doesn’t seem to know the plot of his own story, and spends the entire time on weird but wonderful tangents. Making these tangents ‘logical’, by the way, was really damn difficult. Like, I tied hard to make you suspend your disbelief – eight years of hard. But there’s some stuff in this book that … well … I think people will really like. You’ll see it. You’ll just have to get through a lot of illogical rubbish to get there, but it’s worth it. More seriously, this book is an entire side-mission, with a wonderful ending that will make everyone hate me. BUT, no pets die. So you’ll at least like that.

What did you have the most fun with when writing Blood Ever After?

Thanks for the good question, but none of it was fun, actually. I remember watching the extra’s of The Wizard of Oz, and the Tin Man said, “A lot of people ask if we had fun dressing up like this.” His response? “It was not fun, it was hot, and damn hard work always dressed like that. I hated it.” Well, OK, I liked some of the first draft, and the funny parts were good, but, trying to get it into shape for an audience, trying to make it logical, to fit all the bits and pieces together that never made sense. I aged a lot. I look horrible. But, the book is beautiful, and that’s all that matters.

Did you plan out all of the twists and turns in your story, or did some of them just "happen" along the way?

I read Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ at the curtail developmental age of 19 or something. (I’m 39 now. I look 68). Anyway, he said you shouldn’t plot. Being that I was ignorant, and a mad SK fan (still am— both, actually), I decided that discovery writing was my thing. So, I discovery wrote BEA. It went well. I really liked how it took me away, and when someone died I was like, Wow, that was cool, its arm went through his whole chest. I just wanted others to experience what I experienced on that first draft. There are three or four scenes that made the 13th complete rewrite (yes thirteen times, and it's still crap), that I need people to read. I don’t care if people don’t like it. All I want them to say is, “The book sux. Your four best scenes made it worth it. You’re a weird dude, dude.” “Thank you,” I will say.

Interesting cover. Please tell us more about this.

The cover went through as many iterations as the book itself. (Seriously). I started with some covers on Fiverr. They were OK, but … just not right. I hired really expensive cover designers after that, cause I like spending heaps of money for no reason. These designers did great jobs, but … they still kinda sucked in their own way. So I went back to the drawing board, hired a guy who had never done a horror cover, showed him what I had done before, and he created what you see today (marmarko78 from Fiverr). Which is the perfect mix of madness, horror and humour. It’s like he’d read my book. It was wired. It was like Marko and I had some weird collective consciousness going on, and he manifested my desires. Great minds think alike, they say. Or at least weirdos do, so thanks, Marko.

Where do you find your best ideas? What do you do for inspiration?

I have too many ideas. Too many ideas, and not enough success, time or ‘could-be bothereds’ to write them. In many areas of this life, I suck. Finding ideas is not one of them. I live an interesting life. I talk to people I hate, get out and about, and put myself in David Goggins type of situations, just to see what happens. The result? Ideas, bro, and lots of them. They come at me like flies on a hot day. But I can’t wait to get to them. That’s why I want BEA to do well. It’s not that I like the book – I hate it as well. I just want it to be successful enough to write decent books. I promise my next one will be better. I promise!

Do you have any interesting writing habits? What is an average writing day like for you?

The most interesting writing habbit I have, that I always have had, is I wear construction earmuffs when I type. This takes me to my own world. I love it. No one, I mean no one (expect Dad, because he’s a crazy Irish bastard), brothers me when I type, or, things get nasty. These blocks out the world for me. You know what, writers need to learn to take the earmuffs off eventually, though. There’s a real world out there. Your characters are out in the real world, and if you’re always inside typing, you a) ain’t living, and b) aren’t experiencing things you need to be writing about. We need to blend those two worlds together. And I’m too lazy to do that, that’s why I’m telling you to.

What are you working on right now?

Just promoting this heap-a-c**p. Good luck to me. Thank God the cover looks good. Jokes aside (okay I wasn’t joking), I’m working on promoting this, because at the moment I’m working 13-hour days at three different jobs because apparently I have good customer service, and got asked to work another job. Which was so lovely. No time for writing. I’m using Jasper (AI writing software) to see if it can create me a book with one click of my finger. It isn’t great for novels yet, but one day I shall rule the world of AI-created crap FOREVER! Whatta you mean it seems like I already wrote this first one with AI, take that back! (By the way Jasper is pretty good for many things, particularly non-fic).

Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?

I don’t like people interacting with me unless I get some kinda financial benefit from it, but you can locate me on

Facebook here: Sean O'Connor Writer
YouTube here: (for writers): A Fiction Life - YouTube 

I’m just starting off on these webpages because, unlike you other fools, I spend 9 years trying to write a good book rather than create a good Facebook account. So my marketing is a little behind the eight ball, but so I am, so I guess we’re a good damn mix. See ya all in the socials.