Sean Patrick Flanery Talks About Karate Kicks, First Love and His First Novel, Jane Two

First-time novelist Sean Patrick Flanery knows what you’re thinking: You’re an actor. What makes you think you can write books?

“I didn’t have a desire to become a writer or author,” says Flanery, best known for his roles in The Boondock Saints, The Dead Zone, Powder, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Dexter. “I just had one story I wanted to write. And this is it.”

“This” is Flanery’s novel, Jane Two, which he recently discussed as the headliner at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, Tennessee. Before he hit the stage, the Texas-raised actor, who’s been in over 100 movies (some he hopes you’ve seen, some he really hopes you haven’t), talked to Parade about his semi-autobiographical book, first love and the real reason he became intrigued by martial arts.

How did this book come about? Did you always want to write a novel?

The story in Jane Two is something that happened to me when I was 10 years old. It was something I always wanted to compose in my own way. The medium I come from—filmmaking—it just doesn’t lend itself to pure auteur storytelling because you’ll write a script and they’ll change it five times. The director will change it and the actor will change the dialogue. I really wanted this to live permanently the way I saw it.

Some writers—they pitch an idea, then research it, make an outline, research it some more—to me that’s a term paper! It’s a job. This wasn’t that.

But you have written and published stories before?

I’d written under a pseudonym for other periodicals (Details, Detour) for a number of years. At one point, Jane Pratt from Jane magazine, which was around from 1997–2007, asked me to write something. I didn’t know what I could possibly lend to a woman’s magazine. She said, “Why don’t you write about your first kiss?”

Serendipity! The first girl I ever fell in love with was named Jane!

From Jane Two?

Yes. I’d always wanted to write this story. I thought, I’ll write this as a short story for the magazine. Then, some people tried to buy the rights to it. It was very flattering, but I declined because I knew it was something I’d like to write later on.

You also had—and still have—a popular blog.

Right. I started a blog for my martial arts academy in Los Angeles, mostly to help with search for the website. It became a popular health and fitness blog, then I changed it to my personal blog, shineuntiltomorrow.com. I started posting more personal stories that were important to me, especially about my granddaddy. That gave me a little confidence to write my story in long form as a novel. At first, I was going to release it on my blog, maybe in 10 parts.

But then I sent it to some friends and a producer I know said, “You should publish this.”

I thought, Nobody’s going to publish an actor’s novel!

But they did. And now you have another one in the works?

I have two books in me. This one and the next one, they’re intersecting storylines that I’m writing right now. So much of it is about my granddaddy. He was the best man I ever knew.

He wouldn’t be considered the greatest man a lot of people knew. He was politically incorrect. But one of the best things about him was he knew his flaws. He’d say all the time, “Listen to your Memaw, because she and I disagree and I’m a little bit right and a little bit wrong. So listen to her, too.”

To me, his influence was invaluable. He was uneducated, but he was the most insightful human I’ve ever come across. So I’ll finish the next one and after that, I probably won’t write another book.

Will Jane Two be made into a movie?

I think so. And I’d like to be involved in the creative part of it.

Was it challenging for you to write the book? That’s a lot of sitting in your chair every day.

I was compelled to write this book. I probably finished it in about two weeks if I counted all the days. But I know the story! It’s not like I had to stop and figure out what was going to happen next. It would have been very very different if I had to stop and do research. Writer’s block doesn’t apply to your memories.

Do you have a pretty good memory?

I do. When I first came out to L.A., I worked as a waiter. And I could remember everything. I never wrote it down. I’d have huge tables and would remember everything everybody ordered.

I made a lot of money because of that. I have huge deficiencies in other areas but that I could do.

How did you do it?

Just by listening.

So, here’s a total left turn. How did you first get interested in martial arts? Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu no less!

Growing up, everybody was watching Bruce Lee movies. But then I saw Elvis doing Suspicious Minds and on stage he would do these moves, these karate kicks. I thought, I want to be like Elvis! That’s what got me into martial arts. The King!

What’s been the craziest part of becoming a novelist?

A lot of fans got tattoos of the image on the book cover. They’ve sent Instagram photos of getting tattoos. It’s so flattering!

You seem to work all the time. Don’t you want to take a vacation?

I take a lot of time for myself, to be with my family. But the last thing I want to do is take a conventional vacation. The last thing I want to do after traveling and working is dial 9 for an outside line or to order room service for food. I want to be home and do regular family stuff.