Thomas Sullivan: SEGAMI RORRIM

If something has to be kept secret, it must be true.  Secrets are self-proving.  Lies are loud and wear red hats, e.g. Santa Claus.  Okay, I’m being a tad glib here.  I do not mean that only secrets are true or that all red hats – i.e. loud proclamations — are lies (your red hat [...]

Thomas Sullivan: FATE, DESTINY, SERENDIPITY, KARMA, KISMET AND STAR-CROSSED IRONIES & COINCIDENCES

As one control freak to another…  Uh-oh, way to go, Sully.  You’ve alienated your entire readership already.  But the essential thing about being human – about being anything with a pulse and choices – is trying to control one’s living conditions to make them beneficial to one’s self, isn’t it?  AKA survival.  Like I was [...]

Thomas Sullivan: SEX & ROMANCE, BORING BINGES, and WHY MOSQUITOES SHOULDN’T HAVE GUN PERMITS

The Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition hisself – Torquemada – has nothin’ on you guys!  What a bonanza of questions and comments came in from around the globe last month in response to the Q. & A. format.  Probing, intelligent, deep and even beastly stuff – and damn near Truth or Dare.  You’re having [...]

Thomas Sullivan: PANNING GOLD, FREEDOM, & THE GREAT SHOPPING CART FIASCO

Help…I have locked myself in the bathroom with a loaded pistol and I don’t know how much time I have left before I pull the trigger.  I know this is where I have to be now.  It’s a desperate move, but I am desperate.  I saw the mosquito fly in here, and if I don’t [...]

Thomas Sullivan: FINDING WOR(L)DS

Hey, you want to bug out with me?  You know, ditch this horrible, awful agony of trying to create characters, plots and settings?  I’ll tell you a secret.  When your imagination goes stale, you don’t have to put it to bed until it recovers.  In fact, that may be the worst – and certainly the [...]

Thomas Sullivan: LION LUNGS, DEMENTIA DOG & THE KILLER GARAGE DOOR

Maybe I’ll write humor today, you decide.

It is 4:41 AM and your sawdust-for-brains next door neighbor has just “unleashed” Lion Lungs – the hyper barking pooch – for his pre-dawn serenade.  Your spouse slumbers next to you, and if you move to the computer downstairs, there is a good chance you’ll wake the baby.  Better [...]

Thomas Sullivan: LION LUNGS, DEMENTIA DOG & THE KILLER GARAGE DOOR

Maybe I’ll write humor today, you decide.

It is 4:41 AM and your sawdust-for-brains next door neighbor has just “unleashed” Lion Lungs – the hyper barking pooch – for his pre-dawn serenade.  Your spouse slumbers next to you, and if you move to the computer downstairs, there is a good chance you’ll wake the baby.  Better [...]

Thomas Sullivan: STUDYING CORPSES TO LEARN CHARACTERIZATION vs. UNPLANNED LESSONS IN REANIMATION

You don’t have to read too many of my columns to know that I am an advocate of first-hand inspiration as opposed to letting one’s imagination do all the work.  No matter how good you are, standing pat on your knowledge and memory as you create whole worlds is a sure way to cheat your [...]

Thomas Sullivan: WRITING WITH COYOTE PEE, THE WALTER MITTY SHUFFLE & METAPHOR MULTI-TASKING

Having spent most my life outside the box, I love being lost.  All right, go ahead, nod your head and smile sadly.  But I mean physically lost.  Like in a snowstorm in the woods.  To be lost is to shed all shackles, to erase the façades of society for a time and – if there [...]

Thomas Sullivan: HANGING AROUND THE STARTING LINE, SKIN IN THE GAME, & THEY'RE PLAYING YOUR SONG!

Janus, the Roman god of gates and doorways, has kicked off another January.  True, he is two-faced, looking forward and backward at the same time (you can’t sneak up on him!), but I like that.  It sort of shows the circularity of things.

By [...]