People at the Core
Bonus Episode! Sean Welsh Reading
Books by Sean Welsh
One From the Ice
Daylight Maybe
Follow us on Instagram! People at the Core Podcast
Email us! peopleatthecorepodcast@gmail.com
Books by Sean Welsh
One From the Ice
Daylight Maybe
Follow us on Instagram! People at the Core Podcast
Email us! peopleatthecorepodcast@gmail.com
From the Greenpoint Palace Bar in Brooklyn, new York, writers and bartenders Rita and Marissa have intimate conversations with an eclectic mix of people from all walks of life about their passions, paranoia and perspectives. Featured guests could be artists or authors, exterminators or private investigators, or the person sitting next to you at the bar. This is People at the Core.
Speaker 2:All right, we're back with Sean Welsh. He's going to read a little excerpt from his novel entitled Daylight Maybe. That was released by Eclectic Press in February of 2022. Sean has read sections of this for our reading series, the Palace Reading Series, held the third Tuesday of every month. You can follow our Instagram at the Palace Reading Series for more info about future readers and writers and, without further ado, here is Sean.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much, marissa. The protagonist's name is Paul, and where we're finding him at this particular piece, this particular excerpt, if you will, is he's just waking up from a heavy night out with his friend Adam, and there were a couple bartenders from the previous night. Their names are Noel and Siobhan. And then mentioning is the local across from where he lives in Astoria, a place called Ned Dolan's. So just to bring you up to speed, and we're finding him waking up. So here it is.
Speaker 3:On Thursday, paul woke in his underwear. It was 6.05 am. His mind was blank, so he lay back down on his pillow waiting for his head to kick. Everything started. His hands began to pound the right more than the left and he assumed he had must had fallen. He tried to remember at least walking through his door, but could not, as he wiped the crust from the corners of his eyes. He waited for a headache to emerge, but it did not. He assumed he was still drunk, and that aggravated a notion of sobering up at work and having to deal with it. Then, standing, he remembered Shaban, openly flirting with him, and a feeling of confidence arose with it. Though he had no immediate plans to act on it.
Speaker 3:He listened for several moments for any madness happening outside or in, but all was calm. He found his clothes by the side of the bed and checked immediately for his phone. He found it with no messages Fucking shocked there. Then he checked further for his wallet, with everything expecting it of it being bone dry in the fold. He was surprised to see any bills at all, which he could not explain to himself how or why. Kneeling over the strewn pants, he was quite sure that he did not steal from anybody, but worried if anyone would be looking for him. Did I find it? Where? Did I go to Ned's? No, maybe Did Adam give me more. What the hell happened to Adam, he thought as he counted out $68 and smiled. What the fuck? He grinned. Then a startling emotion shocked his system that came on the heels of remembrances. He stood up fully awake and fingered the money. Ah, fuck, it was Adam's tip. He thought. Did Shaban see it? Fuck that. Did Noel see it? I'll give Adam his money back today. We were both hammered. Wait, I'll give them half. Nah, they're cool, they're fine, but Adam, I'll give him his money back today". He thought further. He figured he definitely did not go to Dolan's, since the full $68 was there. He did not even stop for food. He could not remember the train ride home or walking up the stairs through the door into his bed. He found his keys on the counter in the apartment the same as he had left it early last evening. He knew he was still drunk because he was not so horny, and also quite happy. He turned on 1010 Winds and got in the shower.
Speaker 3:I'm John Montone. Remember the heydays of Coney Island, the boardwalk mob, the water Well somewhat clean. I remember smelling the Coney air from Midtown on some days, the days where it was a foregone conclusion that at least a week out of your summer would be spent there. Angie Sickle from Bay Ridge certainly remembers as a little girl my brother, joe and me spent every waking moment at Coney Island. Sure, I remember. My favorite spot or time of day, rather, was just at sunset. It was cool, so I was not sweating. You know, too much you know. And when I was old enough, mind you, the most romantic times a young lady could have, once as consistent as time itself.
Speaker 3:This Memorial Day, the visitors and shopkeepers of this once glorious paradise found themselves in a fight to keep them afloat. I've been here 33 years. All of a sudden some guy knocks on my door talking in my ear about zoning laws. Zoning what get out of here, says benny diaz of surf avenue. I've owned this stand for the past 10 years. I think they should clean this area up. I gotta shut down at sunset now. We used to be in the summer. I'd be here until at least 10 11, no problem. Some real animals around here, I'll say offers Teddy Gallagher, who owns the popular handmade belt buckle stand just blocks from Nathan's Famous. Either way you look at it, this Memorial Day finds Brooklyn's seaside getaway in flux For 1010 Winds. I'm John Montone, 1010 Winds News Time 626.
Speaker 3:By the time Paul was ready it was only 7.15. He opened up the fridge, smiling at the beer. He thought that if it was his day off he felt good enough to crack one. Lord knows, I'm not afraid. Then he realized if it was his day off he certainly would have not have gotten up this early. He was hungry but did not feel like going through the process of heating the sloppy joes. He thought of the money in his pocket and rationalized a breakfast sandwich and large coffee at the Dunkin' Donuts. Just as he headed for the door he stopped and paced back to the living room and thought it would be better to not spend any of it until he talked to Adam. Fuck happened to him anyway. Come to think of it, it was kind of a shit, he said aloud. Stepping outside onto 36th Avenue, he took in the sun, warm and full. He checked the clock on his phone and saw a message from Adam See you. Later it reminded him that it was payday, which left a bittersweet mouth, a bittersweet emotion, settle in On the platform into the city.
Speaker 3:He walked far right to his usual end, looking down the tracks to see no train. He did it several times in succession, trying to wheel the white lights en route. He did not feel like profiling the crowd waiting with him. He felt that there were quite a few, as usual, and their presence became rather bothersome. He wished to be alone, with no good reason. Then he heard the train approaching and the feeling left. The train car was nice and cool, as it rocked, stopped and creaked. He started to sweat a little. He thought that he must be sobering up and found it strange that he was feeling still very good. For how much, how long he put it away last night. It must be the lunch. That was a good meal, a good base, he thought.
Speaker 3:As the train emerged, entered into the tunnel to 59th Street, he thought further about Adam. He felt ashamed about the money on both counts. He calmed himself down by making a plan to make it right as soon as he punched in. Then, with every sigh, while hanging on to the pole, paul started to remember more and more of the night Flashes of Adam smirking at him as if they were new acquaintances, figuring one another out. Adam's sarcastic inquiries of Paul's relationship with Noel. His profession of lust for Hallie Mincer Hallie fucking Mincer, he thought. The belittling passive aggressiveness about his drinking habits, which had never happened before, not even a hint. The sloppy exit to the point of Paul's embarrassment, which was also something new. All of it began to circle in his mind, spinning his blood faster Fuck him. He took the subway stairs eagerly and, to his surprise, was not out of breath.
Speaker 3:The day had started to take shape, much as it had all week sunny with a brimming spring. His blood continued to rise as he walked up exchange, thinking about ways to confront Adam. The sidewalks were thick, with masses moving in droves east and west, mostly up the short escalators that sometimes worked. He chose to walk in the street just off the curb. Then he saw a familiar pair of sneakers, then Trita sitting on her red standpipe, looking directly at him as if she had been waiting for him. You think you're tough or something. She smiled at Paul. Huh, you walking in the street, all mean and shit like my cousins. "'no, I mean no, not at all, sorry'. "'you don't have to be sorry, polly, it's cute. You like my hair'. "'it's straight now. Yeah, it looks nice. It looks nice in the sun, thank you. "'you know I like you, trina'. "'i know I mean you do, oops'. She laughed. "'i do Listen.
Speaker 3:Next Tuesday I'm going to this fundraiser in Midtown. It's a bar, nothing fancy. A friend of mine is throwing it. You wanna come? Few drinks. I guess that's cool. I think I would like that, you know. Cool, you gonna come by for lunch. Yeah, maybe, maybe I will. I think you should. She smiled. Lunch it is Crossing Broadway. He hit the light clean. He walked down Wall Street, glancing at the Washington statue as he passed, turning on to Williams as he did. The buildings pitched a perfect shade, affording him calmness. He smiled and thought about lunch.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Sean. Oh, my pleasure uh, so I feel after our conversation that I have a little context perhaps on your inspiration of paul, that it might be a little auto fiction ish yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:Okay, um, but fiction nonetheless, correct. Yeah, there's a lot of things like there's a later in in the tale, if you will, there's a piece where there's a a, a part where he gets into a fight with a homeless guy, and a lot of people have read that, read that and come back to me and have asked me, as if it, you know, thinking that it had had happened, which it didn't you know, which tells me I did my job. But it's, like you said, auto fiction. Yeah, I think you know, you know it all comes from you, with they're all pieces of you, et cetera, et cetera. But I think that I definitely write, uh, from the composite, you know taking pieces and you know it is fiction, you know, but definitely they're, you know.
Speaker 2:Inspired by true events. Inspired by true events, yes.
Speaker 3:Having gone through a situation or two for sure.
Speaker 2:That gives you some details or access points or launchpad for your imagination. If this happened in my fantasy, this is how it would have.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent. And also the second novel that I'm working on takes place in, or it's steeped in, jazz in the world of jazz. A player I don't play in jazz in the world of jazz a player I don't play, but I have access, I'm lucky enough to have access to people who do so, trying to get what, obviously, what horn they use, what reeds they use, how the jargon is when they're practicing, how they would think if they do this, for instance, they do this. For instance, a musician who makes a living off of of their, of their, their art, um, they, they watch how they, they have their hands, or you know, uh, how, how something would affect their mouth, how they eat soup. You know their teeth, you know they're, they're very, they're aware of little things like that and it, it, it goes to um, I really want to put you there, I want to make it as real as it can be, you know. So, going through it or doing extensive research for me is absolutely necessary.
Speaker 2:I love it. Yeah, um, have you? Oh, obviously you've learned more. I mean, you're just speaking of the jazz conversation, have you? Were you interested? I mean? You're just speaking of the jazz conversation. Yeah, have you. Were you interested? I mean you were interested in it, but you've gotten to another appreciation from the actual creation of it not just the voyeur listening to it.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Do you have that experience with other characters or other research that you've done for your novels?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah for your, for your novels. Um yeah, um, I I well see for this for daylight it's, having gone through it. You know the it's. It's really about, um, having a shit job, having shit bosses walking in new york in New York and how that all relates with jazz. It deals a lot with mentorship and breaking it down, but there also touches on another thing that I've had experiences with in this play that I'm also working on.
Speaker 3:It's about two brothers in their 40s though this hasn't happened to me yet, but I've seen it happen and they have to tell their alpha male, half a gangster father that he can't drive anymore, which is essentially taking away. And I have seen that and it was inspired by my two, my father and his brother, my uncle and then my grandfather, and my grandfather doesn't necessarily he was definitely alpha, but the gangster stuff he wasn't that. But it was a trying time and stuck with me and I definitely. But if I were to tell another story like, for instance, I'm really interested in the art world and I really associate with painters and I really get a lot from them, and so if I were to tell a story about that, having to deal with that, I would definitely immerse myself more and more into that world to see how fun is that.
Speaker 3:It's so I'm so excited. Yeah, I have constant conversations. It really sets me alight, man. I really, you know, I really I dig the research Nice.
Speaker 2:Have you? There's a little sidetrack. Have you read Percival Everett?
Speaker 3:I have not.
Speaker 2:He wrote. It's called so Much Blue. All of his if you're not familiar with it, everything that he writes, all of his novels, are completely engrossed in very different, polar opposite even, tone but personality and everyone has a different um, really, one is a trees, is like southern police and racism and so much blues and individuals who has a brother fighting um narc cartels in south america and then he's a painter and all of these really rich characters.
Speaker 3:But I mean, I've never read him, but I can tell you that all of what you said just jives with exactly how I would think and process things. For sure, a hundred percent how, where I would initially want to or begin to tell a story.
Speaker 2:But you do, you write fiction. Have you ever done any like creative nonfiction kind of stuff. I haven't no, no and rita, I know that you have done both fiction and creative non-fiction, auto fiction, all of those fun nomenclature but I do.
Speaker 4:You know, with that I've had a lot of people ask me, you know, is that real? Did that really happen to you? Or you know, and it's so funny because some of them you know there is that one story that I wrote of a little boy that murders his dog and people are like, I can't believe you killed your dog. And I'm like, first off, it's a little boy, yeah.
Speaker 3:Second, I'm like okay, you know what I mean, but that means you've done your job, yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, and it's funny too because it could trickle into personal relationships. For instance, I wrote this story called 238th Street and it's about a game of catch and I had another friend it's essentially about my brother, kevin, and and myself before, you know, he's a marine and he went, you know, he got shipped to iraq and it was like an ode to that and he and I in a the purest form at the time, you know. But I had a friend who's from jersey and when that came out he cornered me and he's like yo man, I remember that day and I'm likeed me. And he's like, yo man, I remember that day. And I'm like what day he's like when we were playing. I'm like, no, brother, that's not about. And he's like, yeah, all right, he's like, I know you can't say, and I'm like it was a surreal moment.
Speaker 3:I'm like, yo, it wasn't about us. And the more I told him I learned something, the more I told him I learned something. The more I told him that it wasn't about us, he got pissed off, wow. So now I tend to just be like, yeah, well, you know, give him a little wink and a nod.
Speaker 3:It's very, it's, it's flattering and it's really. The story has its own legs and it's just like okay, here you go. Yeah, you know, exactly, I did this, I created. You Go, you know, and if you want to break it down further, the responsibility to telling the cleanest story you can and have a responsibility to the characters you create. You know, it is essentially giving birth in that theory. If you want, yeah, I agree, for me anyway.
Speaker 4:Oh, I agree completely. That's magical. I know I love that. So, sean, if you can tell us a little bit about where people can find your book titles of a few of the books, because you've got more than one correct.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I do. Right now, unfortunately, I have to point to Amazon. You can get it on Amazon. And look, I don't have an agent. I'm not really in the publishing world. You're catching me at a spot. Well, here I am. I have these books that were published by basically a brilliant painter in his own right, but it's just one guy and he's got a bunch of titles under his umbrella, if you will, and hopefully better platforms are to come about, but right here, right now, you can find them on Amazon.
Speaker 2:And we'll put the full titles and the show notes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and links yeah.
Speaker 1:To all.
Speaker 2:Awesome Purchasing. Well, once again, this was amazing.
Speaker 3:It really really was great. Really appreciate you sharing. Thanks very much. I'm very flattered. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we loved having you All right One day off spending it with us yeah.
Speaker 3:We're lucky, I mean we're better, all right.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Sean.
Speaker 3:My pleasure, thank you. Thanks very much.