Today I'd like to welcome Daniel Sullivan to the blog. Tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Daniel Sullivan, and I am
a Sci-Fi/Fantasy author. In addition to writing, I am an avid motorcyclist and
a martial arts instructor (Kendo and Hapkido – 4th degree black
belt). I am also the proud parent of two adult sons, whom I raised as a single
parent.
That's impressive, I have a brother who is a 2nd degree black belt. I know it takes a lot of work. What got you into writing?
I’ve always loved coming up with
stories and have had story ideas for as long as I can remember. I loved
creative writing assignments in school, but the bulk of my work ended up being
on world building and adventures for my Dungeons & Dragons games. I actually
hand-wrote a fantasy novel based on the game world my friends and I had created,
and later, wrote a vampire story, but never made any moves to publish either
one.
I was an avid fantasy reader and
sci-fi moviegoer, and always would think, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if someone did a
story/film about this or that …’ Eventually, I asked myself why I kept waiting
for someone else to write my ideas. One of the things that I loved about tabletop RPG
was creating and developing the game-world, and I found that years of doing
that proved very helpful in creating the world in a story.
I decided to try my hand at actually
writing a novel, which ended up being “The Silver Liner: Takes Flight!” I
published it in 2015, and now, I have a “Silver Liner” series.
Share a short excerpt from your novel
An excerpt from “The Silver Liner:
Takes Flight!”
Oblivious to the activity around her,
the doctor ordered another drink. She normally did not have more than one, but
this might be her last drink as a free woman for the foreseeable future.
“They will catch you, you know,”
Casey said to her as he poured the drink.
“It doesn’t matter; I can’t leave,”
she lamented. Picking up the drink and looking at it as she swirled it around,
she exhaled a deep sigh. “My passes are all deactivated. I’m out of money, so I
cannot even bribe my way onto a ship.”
“Have you tried Father O’Bannon?”
“No. I won’t put him at risk. I’m
classified as an interplanetary terrorist now. Involving him will only hurt the
only church on this damnable station. You know they’ll close it down at the
drop of a hat. I cannot be the cause of that. No, this is the end of the line.
Fifty-two years with nothing to show.”
“Ah, lass, but that aint true,” Casey
protested, but the doctor shook her head.
“Casey, I’m a penniless, childless
old maid,” she lamented. “I had wanted … so much more; a husband, children, a
family … but it’s over. There is nothing left for me to do but wait until they
finally close in. Hopefully, my last hours of freedom will be interesting.”
“Well don’t look now, Doc,” said the
bartender, “but interesting is sitting two stools to your left.”
She looked over and saw a tall man
clad head to toe in black leather. The jump suit had a high collar and was form
fitting enough for her to tell that he was fairly well built. He wore his hair
in a pompadour style, something she would never have recognized had she not
seen an old movie from the twentieth century at a museum as a little girl. The
man had an air of cool confidence about him and his upper lip was in a
perpetual curl resembling a snarl. At his hip was a pulse pistol. When she was
a teen, she would have swooned for him. Now, she just looked admiringly.
“Who is he?” she whispered, leaning
in close so that “Interesting” would not hear her ask.
“Captain Ken Royce,” replied the
bartender softly as he absently cleaned a glass. “He delivers our beer and
whiskey.”
Sounds intriguing. Which do you prefer: print books or ebooks?
Print, but due to lack of shelf
space, I’ve begun purchasing more e-books.
I feel the same way. I love print, but when I travel e-books are so much more convenient. Daniel, currently, what are you working on?
I’m currently proofing the edited
copy of the fifth and final Silver Liner novel. I just finished a fourth draft
of a new Sci-Fi book, “The Cyber Secession,” and the second draft of a fantasy
novel.
Will you tell us a little bit about your main characters?
The main characters of the Silver
Liner books are Captain Kendrick Royce and Doctor Fiona Kinsale, the AI of
Royce’s ship – Selene, and an android woman named Lena.
Kendrick Royce is a Rockstar-turned-starship
captain, who makes his living transporting goods and passengers. He’s a widow
of seven years and has become content just flying his star-liner, the Selene. That all changes when he
meets Doctor Fiona Kinsale.
Fiona really drives the series, as it
is her flight from government and corporate agents that both brings her aboard
Royce’s ship and draws him into her conflicts. The addition of the android Lena
to the crew adds another layer, as she is likewise being sought by government
agents.
Along the way, he picks up a
gunner/martial artist named Kang, a whiz kid engineer named Heather, and a middle-aged
priest with a dark past.
They are pursued collectively by
government agents, corporate thugs, a renegade captain, and the mafia. The only
person who doesn’t have someone actively trying to bring him in for something is
Captain Royce, though through his association with the others, he becomes a
target of all of these forces himself.
Is this a stand-alone novel or part of a series?
“The Silver Liner: Takes Flight!” is
part of a near-future sci-fi series. The fifth and final book in the series
will be released in June of this year.
A five book series, that's impressive.Daniel, what is the easiest part of the writing process? What is the
hardest?
Coming up with ideas is the easiest. Consistency
with science and numbers is the most challenging. I write near-future sci-fi,
so I deal with launch windows and changing planetary positions. It would be
easier if I wrote about ships with FTL and hyperdrives, but that’s not the world
I’ve chosen to create.
Do you have people read your drafts before you publish? How
do you select beta readers?
My fiancée and I beta read each
other’s work, and I pay an editor – Sheryl Polycar – to edit each book. After
this last Silver Liner book, I plan to seek out more beta/proof readers, and to
add a second editor.
Who designed the artwork for your cover? Or did you design
it yourself?
Ashley Martinez of C.M. Wright’s
Author Services has done the covers for all five of my books. I gave her a
general idea of what I wanted and she has masterfully translated my ideas into
images.
That's great. It can be hard to find someone who can visualize what you want and get it write. What was your biggest challenge when writing? Did you have any
writer’s block? If so, how did you work your way through it?
The biggest challenge is sticking to
my original ideas as I write. Sometimes, changes are very necessary, as new
and/or better ideas come to me, but it’s easy to lose track of your intended
direction. RE writer’s block, I just force myself to write everyday and just
accept that when going through periods of writer’s block, most of what gets
typed will simply be a placeholder for when ideas finally do come. I am often
surprised to find that just by writing, the ideas tend to come.
I think writing everyday is important. What was your writing process like?
I come up with an idea and write it
down/type it up. It can be as simple as ‘five people on a spaceship are being chased
by hitmen and the captain is a rocker with a pompadour a fast ship’ or as
detailed as an actual plot synopsis complete with an outline.
Once I have the idea, I usually let
it sit for a few days, and then I go back in and add more. Usually, I’m already
in the middle of an existing project, but once that project is finished or
comes to a stopping point, I then jump into the new idea and start fleshing it
out. Eventually, it turns into copious amounts of author notes, and then into a
first draft.
Which do you find more challenging inventing the hero or the
villain? Why?
Honestly, the hero. I find that creating
a compelling hero is more challenging because it’s so easy to simply write a
virtuous hero who fights for what’s right. I like my heroes more nuanced. Not
all of my heroes want to fight, and not all of them are virtuous. Also, there
are so many well-defined hero archetypes that are ingrained into our psyche, so
I try to create characters that deviate from these archetypes.
Daniel, any last words?
I thank you for taking the time to
interview me!
Thanks for sharing with us today. Before to check out more from Daniel at the links below. Happy Reading!!
My website:
The Silver Liner: Takes Flight on
Amazon:
My Amazon Author Page:
Daniel Sullivan on Facebook:
My cover designer:
