Todd Sullivan Author Interview

Introduce yourself; who are you and what types of books do you write?

My name is Todd Sullivan. I was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. At 18 years old, I moved to Atlanta, where I lived for ten years. I graduated from Georgia State University with a Bachelor of Arts in English with Concentrations in Creative Writing. At 28 years old, I moved to Queens, New York, where I received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

At 31 years old, I moved to Asia, where I lived for 16 years. The story of this is long, and I am currently writing a memoir of my experiences in the East.

My published books are fantasy and horror.What are your books about?

My fantasy books, THE WINDSHINE CHRONICLES, are about young men who go on quests in a medieval version of South Korea. They are accompanied by a woman, who chronicles their journey. There are currently three books in this series: HOLLOW MEN (2019), THERE WILL BE ONE (2020), and BLOOD STEW (2021).

My vampire series also has three books: BUTCHERS (2019), THE GRAY MAN OF SMOKE AND SHADOWS (2020), and A SOUL A DAY (2025). If THE WINDSHINE CHRONICLES is a fantasy metaphor for following your dreams, the vampire series symbolizes the loss of dreams.

The vampires in these books are spiritually dead and damned to work a terrible job for eternity. They have no passion, they have no hope. They exist in a hell on Earth.What was the inspiration behind writing your first book?

HOLLOW MEN came to me after being fired from an English teaching job in Korea. I realized as I walked home from that job that night that the path of a writer is difficult, a long journey with metaphorical dragons and demons that one must overcome. Many give up along the way, and this is where the idea of BUTCHERS came from. If in HOLLOW MEN, the lesson is to remain resolute, then BUTCHERS is a warning to avoid losing your way on your path to your dreams.

What did you learn while writing your second book?

THERE WILL BE ONE, the second book in the fantasy series, was my attempt to understand xenophobia, the fear of the other. I wanted to build a logical, if flawed, framework for how an individual could learn to distrust, and even hate, the outsider. THE GRAY MAN OF SMOKE AND SHADOWS, which was written at the same time, both books coming out in 2019, taught me the danger of allowing darkness to consume the psyche. In this book, the antagonist has allowed himself to be possessed by a dark entity to do dark and dreadful things.

What is the most rewarding part of being an author?

The pursuit of authorhood has made me mentally, emotionally, and physically stronger. The challenges I endured as I sought fresh and unique sources for narratives have brought upon a certain enlightenment. As I write in my memoir, I am not the same person who entered Asia as left it, and it was in Asia that I first started to publish at 35 years old.

What elements do you think make for a good story?

I think the best stories are ones that have something to say. This does not mean it has to have a moral core. The narrative can be completely amoral. The best stories are when the writer has an idea that has been going round and round in their head, refusing to be quieted until it is finally put on the page. These are narratives that refuse to be ignored, and will be compelling to read if the writer remains honest when putting them on the page.What is the hardest part of being an author for you?

Being broke. It is more than the times in life when I had only a few coins to my name and subsisted on crackers and water for days. It is wanting to engage in a new activity, wanting to travel to a new place and not being able to. I would love to live in Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Thailand, etc. I would love to be able to sit down in strange locales where I’m the only me in the town and watch the natives of the land engage in their daily lives. I am a traveler at heart, and the less money one has, the more their travel is difficult and can lead to ill health and dangerous situations.

What is your current writing project?

I am currently writing a memoir of my 16 years in Asia. My time there fashioned the me of today, and I believe that that is a story worth telling, and a story worth being read.

What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

There is no such thing as writer’s block. I was told this by Jacqueline Woodson way back in 1997 when I attended the now defunct National Book Foundation Summer Writing Camp. Writer’s block occurs when you are not writing the story you want to write, or when you are not listening to the story you are writing and are forcing it in directions it does not want to go.

If you listen to that inner voice and allow it to have its own agency, you will find the words to tell your tale. They will spill out of you as easily as water from an open tap.

Where can readers discover more about you and your books?

You can find me on:

1) YouTube: https://youtube.com/@toddsullivanacrowsflying?si=3F62Hf888z8QLtK5

2) Samjoko Magazine: https://www.samjokomagazine.com/

3) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/todd.sullivan.75?

4) Instagram: @denevius

5) TikTok: @tsierus

6) X: @denevius

You can find my books on

Amazon: 1) HOLLOW MEN: https://a.co/d/2LIuFlc

2) THERE WILL BE ONE: https://a.co/d/btkb8Gc

3) BLOOD STEW: https://a.co/d/7Q0Uiay