Jun Sekiya (Episode 1/3)

About today's conversation: This is my first conversation with Jun Sekiya, a writer of scripts, novels, and raps from Yokohama, Japan. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he works as the creative assistant of Soman Chainani, author of the YA fantasy series “The School for Good & Evil”, soon to be a film from Netflix. Jun is working on a novel about an expat kid split between two cultures and friend-groups at his Tokyo international school. His logline is a work-in-progress. When not on his grind, Jun can be found in the local park doing soccer tricks and chasing after dogs who steal his soccer ball. He’s 5’6, decently quick, and is currently training for a marathon. Thanks for this conversation, Jun. References from this episode: 1) “If you are a poet you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. If we look even more deeply, we can see the sunshine, the logger who cut the tree, the wheat that became his bread, and the logger’s father and mother. Without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist. In fact, we cannot point to one thing that is not here—time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat, the mind. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. So we can say that the cloud and the paper ‘inter-are.’ We cannot just be by ourselves alone; we have to inter-be with every other thing.” - Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen master, poet and peace activist 2) Nothing Much Happens: Cozy & Calming Stories to Soothe Your Mind & Help You Sleep by Kathryn Nicola. You will find the book and podcast here. 3) TV Show: Floret 4) Log Line Formula by Rachael Herron Protagonist’s Job Title: Full Name: Has what already: _______________________ But when __________________, will he _________________? ***** About Ease Lessons: Music: “Meekness” by Kai Engel, used under Creative Commons Attribution license Editor: Damien Pitter Host: Monna McDiarmid (pronounced Mona McDermid) | Coach, Writer and Counselor Website: MonnaMcDiarmid.com Newsletter: The Sunday Reader Patreon: where I share monthly excerpts from my writing memoir in progress Instagram: @monnamcdiarmid