Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a drink with a president, dead or alive, and get their take on pressing issues in the modern world?

Well, Newtown resident Dan Coonan has, and that idea inspired his debut novel Presidential Spirits in 2020. Its sequel, Another Round of Presidential Spirits, was just released on July 4. Both were published through Goose River Press.

Coonan told The Newtown Bee that his passion for writing long predated his love of history and politics.

“In sixth grade I had a phenomenal creative writing teacher, who was the principal of our grade school. He was one of those teachers you always wish you had or that your kids would have for every subject. He encouraged me and seemed so enthusiastic about my writing. He made me want to be a writer,” Coonan said.

Those dreams were almost fully eclipsed when he decided to get a business degree at the University of Notre Dame. However, he went out of his way to get permission from the American Studies Dean to take a fiction writing course as an elective.

“That was the only real way I followed up on that interest of creative writing. It was a great course,” Coonan said. “[The professor] was a screenwriter and a novelist herself and taught creative writing. I told her that I would write a novel at some point.

“It was around that time that I was also taking political science courses, history courses, and government,” he added. “Then I really developed that passion, as well.”

Through those classes in college, he was able to get a variety of perspectives on government, because he was taught by both conservative and liberal professors. He also began reading biographies about presidents in his free time.

After graduation, Coonan’s writing aspirations took a back seat to the time-consuming reality of jobs, kids, and marriage.

It was not until recently that he circled back to the idea of writing after learning that two of his friends wrote novels outside of their day jobs.

“I thought, ‘They are living the life that I’ve wanted’ ... That really inspired me to do it,” Coonan said.

When Coonan and his family moved from California to Newtown six years ago, he took over as Commissioner of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), that has its headquarters in Danbury. He was excited to find that at this point in his life it was finally conducive to having evenings and weekends free.

So, in August 2017, he sat down with his file full of book ideas that he had jotted down over the last 30 years and began to write.

Goodbye Writer’s Block

After about a week, he realized that he was not thrilled with the direction of the story he was writing. He felt it was okay, but ultimately something was lackluster.

His mind began wandering to other writing possibilities during a late-night drive home from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum while his family was asleep in the car.

“The concept of being at the Hall of Fame, this epic museum of baseball history, led me to think bigger. I started thinking about [the movie] Field of Dreams,” Coonan said.

In turn that led him to ponder about his favorite movie Midnight in Paris, a fictional tale of a modern writer visiting Paris who can interact at night with famous novelists, such the late Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

“I wondered if there has ever been a US history version of either Field of Dreams or Midnight in Paris, and what would it look like. I was overcome — I run a little passionate at times — with the thought, ‘Why don’t I do this?’” Coonan said.

Thrust onto this new path, he abandoned his first idea and began writing what would soon become Presidential Spirits.

He reveals that he never once got writer’s block during the process and was constantly fueled by current events going on in the country.

“I am a political and policy nerd in a sense. I consume it a little too much, which can be a bad thing these days. I was quite concerned about our country and political dysfunction and how, especially at that time with the 2016 election, we were on the verge of two options — neither of whom had favorable ratings,” Coonan said.

As a result, he decided to make his main character a moderate president governing in today’s world, struggling due to the polarizing push-and-pull from the left and right side of politics.

The story also features a magical centuries-old saloon in the White House that the main character can access at night and drink with various presidents, regardless of whether they are dead or alive.

“I needed some kind of vehicle where we are all equal and together to disrobe of our partisan gear, so to speak, and a saloon is a place to do that,” Coonan explained. “There have even been famous cases in American history of politicians sitting down to have a few drinks and bury the hatchet or to try to come together.”

The character is not only able to gain camaraderie with his predecessors, but he also addresses the political dysfunction taking place and gets much-needed advice.

Instead of making fictional responses from past presidents, Coonan did research and sourced actual quotes to incorporate in the book.

“The nice thing about the presidents is that it is all there: their letters, their speeches, their interviews, their memoirs, you name it. On any subject. As I started it, I found it to be easier than I thought it would have been. I was able to, I think, more credibly write what Washington or Jefferson or Kennedy or any of them would have said, because they actually did say it at one point,” Coonan said.

He was also able to find out each presidents’ actual drink of choice to make it even more authentic.

“I knew that there was some colorful history about presidents drinking and other examples, such as George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who famously didn’t drink, and that’s fine, too. In the saloon they are all drinking what they would have in real life,” Coonan said.

‘Another Round’

Since Presidential Spirits was released roughly two years ago, it has gained admiration from political conservatives, liberals, and everyone in between.

“I’m thrilled with both the sales and reviews,” Coonan said.

Although he did not originally foresee a sequel, the positive response was so overwhelming that he was back to writing just a few months later.

“I thought if I’m going to do it, I didn’t want it to be a repeat of what I already did and the same old themes. So, I spent three months really thinking about it and tried to have a high bar for myself of what the story would be and what types of themes I could develop and new characters. I came up with something that I really did love,” Coonan said.

The new book, Another Round of Presidential Spirits, features a female president and new problems to overcome.

“The president in the new book at one point is going through some really challenging personal and political issues at the same time,” Coonan said. “In the saloon, all of them support her … the presidents talk about how so many of them went through personal tragedy, just almost unimaginable tragedy in some cases.

“It’s not just about politics, it’s life and things the presidents experienced,” he added. “In both books, there is a chapter where all the presidents’ dogs are with them, and it’s the dogs they actually had when they were in the White House as president. Another one is all about their interactions with baseball, which is significant. So many of them had an interesting relationship, and close relationship, with the sport of baseball.”

While Coonan does not have plans for a third Presidential Spirits book, the amount of historical information available about presidents makes it that he would be able to if he so chooses.

As of now, he is most looking forward to receiving feedback from this second installment and the joy of getting to write a new story to see where it takes him creatively.

Copies of Coonan’s books are available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, as well as through his official website at dancoonanauthor.com.

For those interested in supporting local business, people can contact their preferred bookstore to request either novel. Additionally, Books On The Common in Ridgefield currently has both books in stock.

For more information, follow Coonan on social media at facebook.com/dancoonanauthor.

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Reporter Alissa Silber can be reached at alissa@thebee.com.