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 [...]

Thomas Sullivan: BLEEDING FRESH, MILES ABOVE TINTERN ABBEY

Picture a carrara marble room whose fire pit blazes silver in its reflection on a curved glass wall which overlooks the Grand Canyon by day and tilts upward to magnify the universe at night.  The jaws of the black granite Sphinx in the center of the room open in a kind of Savonarola throne made [...]

Thomas Sullivan: A BULLET IN THE BRAIN, A KICK IN THE TEETH, AND OTHER ORGASMS

Used to be that my muse had to put a bullet in my brain to get my attention.  Now I can hear the gun cock.  Hell, sometimes I hear the barrel clearing leather.  All by way of saying that recognizing where stories come from is an acquired skill.

Yes, you can take the shortcut just by [...]

Thomas Sullivan: WOULD YOU WRITE A BOOK FOR ME? or WHAT DO YOU REALLY KNOW ABOUT SEX, LOVE AND TERROR?

Yoo hoo!  Attention everyone who has been broomed out of a job by Donald Trump.  And you uncounted millions over and above the counted millions who all are out of work — gotta minute?  Also to the rejected, the downtrodden, day dreamers, spurned lovers, adventurers, searchers, fantasizers, philosophers, natural-born psychologists, sob sister, questers, trapped housewives, [...]

Thomas Sullivan: KIDNAPPED BY MAGIC, WRITING LIQUID GOLD, AND HOW I ESCAPED THE OLYMPICS

It’s happening again.  I am suffering from postpartum depression in the wake of an Olympics.  Call this one Vancouver games detox or 50K skinny ski hangover.  It is very similar to what I feel after penning the last word to a novel (been there, done that, as they like to say on Death Row).  In [...]

Thomas Sullivan: KIDNAPPED BY MAGIC, WRITING LIQUID GOLD, AND HOW I ESCAPED THE OLYMPICS

It’s happening again.  I am suffering from postpartum depression in the wake of an Olympics.  Call this one Vancouver games detox or 50K skinny ski hangover.  It is very similar to what I feel after penning the last word to a novel (been there, done that, as they like to say on Death Row).  In [...]

Thomas Sullivan: HOW TO LOVE A VILLAIN, RIDING DRAGONS ON PANDORA & AVATAR

I don’t know if I can do this.  I want to, but I don’t know if I can.  I want to tell you about characters, about heroes & villains and the necessity of empathizing with them, but I think it’s a lot like telling you to go through psychoanalysis. 

That’s because you have to be bigger [...]

Thomas Sullivan: WHO’S THE STIFF, THE GANG OF 5 & AN ADAM ‘N’ EVE SLEEPING BAG

Who you were at your best moment is always who you can be again.  Kind of like summiting a mountain, it becomes a benchmark.  You’ve proven you can reach that far, be that person, do that thing – a minimum standard of excellence that cannot be taken away from you.  That applies pretty much to [...]