Fantasy Author Todd Sullivan: So is being a writer fulfilling? + giveaway

The Sneakiness of Space

By Todd Sullivan

So is it fulfilling?
This is the question all writers have to ask themselves as they struggle to get their voices heard. When you’re a child, you dream of being an author before understanding what it is to be an adult. For my generation, born in the late 70s, growing up in the 80s, a teenager in the 90s, being a writer was a more realistic dream. This was before the internet when cable television was an expensive summer luxury and satellite T.V. was an exciting new technology beyond the affordability of most families. We didn’t have access to the World Wide Web, 100s of television channels, and 24-hour news cycles.

When I was young, being an author meant you were someone who wrote books. Period. What did I know of the lifestyles of Roald Dahl or Madeleine L’Engle? Were they rich or upper-middle-class? Did they live in mansions, dine at 5-star restaurants, wear designer clothes, travel to exciting and exotic locales around the world?

I can’t remember seeing a single interview of my favorite authors in the 80s and 90s. Sure, maybe they’d occasionally show up on Sesame Street, NPR, or answer questions in a national newspaper or magazine. But in my childhood, we knew the books, not the authors. When we dreamed of success, we dreamed of just that: words written and enjoyed by readers.

In those days, it was easier to be fulfilled as a writer. If you got something published, you assumed people were going to read it. Analytics and algorithms were reserved for math and science class. An acceptance letter was a time of celebration, especially if the publication featuring your work was located in the public library or bookstore. You’d get your check, a contributor’s copy, and voila! you had fulfilled your childhood dream. Who thought about fame when authors, like most people in those times, existed in obscurity? You didn’t expect the world to know, or want to know, about the minutiae of your daily life. Maybe one day you’d have a biography written about you which would never sell as much or be as beloved as the words you wrote.

The internet and plentitude of information pathways have changed all of that. A window has been opened onto the lives of a very small percentage of internationally known authors, and writers can’t help but compare themselves and be compared by others, to that 1% of the very wealthy and famous of world’s society.

Think about that for a second. How many people do you meet as a writer who genuinely expects you to reach some socioeconomic heights that they themselves, or anyone they know, ever come close to, and honestly have no realistic expectation, of achieving?

As a result of these unreasonable expectations, writers today desire millions of followers on Twitter, invitations to opine on news shows and popular podcasts, have their writing published in the most prestigious markets with huge subscription bases that pay equally impressive checks, get offers to turn their books into Hollywood movies or dramas on Netflix. Writers today are in serious competition with the top 1% of their field, a race that’s only a phenomenon in the art world. Every day on social media, you witness the angst and frustration of these competitors because not only do they not reach those atmospheric stratums, but many realize they never will no matter how much they wish to.

So is being a writer fulfilling?

I think part of the problem with answering the question is not knowing what it feels like. Would it be happiness, which is often fleeting anyway? Contentment would be nice, though for the lifelong pursuit put into the endeavour of being a writer, feeling nice doesn’t seem nearly a sufficient enough emotional reward.

Perhaps self-fulfillment is one of those states of awareness that sneaks up on you over time. You come to know its presence when weeks have become months, and you look back upon a period of years and realize that you’ve felt engaged in the reality you’ve been living. Engaged in your daily activities, engaged with the people you’ve been interacting with, and the work you’ve been doing 40+ hours a week.

When the life of a writer feels like you actually fit within the space that you’re existing in, you may be able to answer the question with, “Yes, this world of words is fulfilling.”

In a world of swords and sorcery, illusionist Kim Nam-Gi has a dream: to become a hero.

Blood Stew (The Windshine Chronicles Book 3 of 3)

by Todd Sullivan

October 1, 2021

Genre: young adult, sword and sorcery, dark fantasy

Born in the land of South Hanguk, cursed with a malformed spine, Nam-Gi longs to prove his worth against dragons and monsters. Instead, he toils in his family’s restaurant while studying advanced spells under the tutelage of a Dark Elf.

When his father, Kim Joo-Won, goes deep into debt in an attempt to attract new customers to their struggling restaurant, Nam-Gi is once again denied permission to put his name forward on the governor’s registry. Joo-Won needs him for the restaurant, and a greedy money lender hovers over them with the aim to keep the Kim family in perpetual debt.

Desperate to solve their financial woes, Nam-Gi uses magic to trick customers into believing that the restaurant’s meager bottom feeders are actually carp and abalone. If he can keep up the deception, his family might prosper enough to escape the lender. Then his father may grant him permission to abandon his post at the restaurant and take the challenge of a quest.

A perfect opportunity soon arrives. On the other side of South Hanguk, two fishermen discover a corpse with strange leathery wings drifting in the sea. They haul the body back to the village. Tragedy ensues when their unexpected catch proves to be more terrifying than anything they could have imagined.

The governors of South Hanguk seek out adventurers who can slay the monster that now terrorizes the besieged fisherfolk. Will Nam-Gi be allowed to roam across wild lands and wander through dark forests to vanquish this threat? Can he push his crippled body beyond the limits that have plagued him since birth?

Find out in BLOOD STEW, the tale of a disabled teen who must face overwhelming odds in his quest to become a hero.

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The Windshine Chronicles

Vampire Series of Extreme Horror

Samjoko Magazine

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Todd Sullivan currently lives in Seoul, South Korea, where he teaches English as a Second Language. He has had more than two dozen short stories, poems, essays, and novelettes published across five countries. He currently has two book series through indie publishers in America. He writes for a web and play series in Taipei. He founded the online magazine, Samjoko, in 2021, and hosts a YouTube Channel that interviews writers across the publishing spectrum.

GIVEAWAY

All three Windshine Chronicle books signed!

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Alpha Male Diner: guest cook TASTING FIRE author Shelly Holt

Author Shelly Holt is your guest cook here today with an exotic Asian dish that will keep you satisfied all night long. Sit down, grab a bib and dig in!

Kai Tenzin (Asian Snow Leopard)

recipe created by Shelly Holt

Tasting Fire

-1 set of the dark brown eyes of a predator use to taking what he wants.

-A conservative short hair cut to better blend in and hide among unsuspecting humans.

-1 firm square jawline and high cheekbones, a predator in his prime.

-6 feet of male with pectorals as defined as an alabaster sculpture.

Prepare twenty thousand years prior to serving with the DNA of one Asian Snow Leopard and bake at high altitude in the mountains of Tibet.

Serve hot with a side of borsch which is a powerful aphrodisiac for those with the shape-shifter gene.

Makes one serving of sizzling hot alpha male with an distinctly Asian flavor. 

Taste Test

Rae took an admiring look at the vista below as she dropped her heavy pack on the ground. The mountains in the distance looked purple and the desert brush spread out below them like a master oil painting. It was awe inspiring to human eyes. Rae wondered what would it look like to a snow leopard. She suddenly realized many a biologist would sell their very soul for the opportunity she had at that moment. Rae turned to Kai who had been sitting on the ground with his pack and fishing around for lunch and asked him “what is it like when you're in your Shan form out in country like this?” Kai rewarded Rae with the most brilliant smile she had yet seen to grace the handsome shape-shifter's face. He seemed truly delighted to discuss the subject with her. Kai stood up to answer Rae's question. He addressed the human scientist. “It's like nothing you can imagine Rae. Every sense is in tune with the planet. See that tree over there” he pointed a few yards away at an ancient gnarled pinyon. “Yes” Rae replied. Kai walked up behind Rae and put his hands on her shoulders and directed her to look even closer at the tree. He whispered intimately in her ear as if they were in a church or another sacred space “when you look at that tree with your limited human vision, the average person can certainly appreciate its form and color. A biologist like yourself would ask what type of tree is it and how old it is. A philosopher might ask who may have sat underneath it in the past or who might sit underneath it in the future. All of you might even wonder when will it die. That's the limit of your human perception. When you're in Shan form every single leaf will bid you a glorious greeting as you walk up to the tree for the first time. Every drop of sap tells you the history of the tree's life like an intimate biography written in the utterly sensual language of scent. The tree itself will tell you if it's healthy or sick. You can smell if the water that nourishes it is bitter or sweet. If you deeply pay attention you can smell every animal that has ever been there.” Kai looked to Rae like he was experiencing a spiritual moment and Rae suddenly realized he was. The enthralled shape-shifter continued to explain to Rae the nuances of the animal world “when you are ready to move on to another place you reach up with your powerful claws and dig deep into the bark to mark the tree with your scent. It's added harmoniously to the scent of hundreds of other animals. You do this not just to mark your hunting territory, but to tell every animal after you have left this world that you lived and breathed here at one time in the great mystery that is life. That is your only immortality in the animal world. There are no monuments to mark a man's ego, or family albums for a mother to remember her children by, but neither is there hate, nor fear of the future or regret of the past. You are fully alive in each and every moment. It's a wonderfully free existence. I wish I could truly share it with you... words, words pale in comparison.” Kai looked so happy at that moment. Rae was so moved by what he had just shared with her that all she could do was reach out and touch his wrist. “Thank you!” she whispered. Kai nodded at her in acknowledgment, but he was too emotional to even speak. 

Shape-shifters have always walked the earth. Shrouded in myth and folklore, hiding in the shadows, watching and waiting. Advances in modern science are now about to reveal them to the world. Kai Tenzin is the self appointed leader of the Pari people. He and his kind evolved from the most reclusive predators on earth, the Asian Snow Leopard. They live and hunt in the most fearsome and rugged terrain known to man, the Himalayas. As a young man, Kai left his small village where the mountain touches the heavens, determined to do anything to protect his people. When he is forced to enlist the aid of the beautiful American scientist Dr. Rae Hales, the last thing he expects to find is a woman who will ensnare his heart and endanger them all. Their action-packed adventure will take them around the world to discover the truth behind the legends and reveal the future of humanity.

only $.99 for the kindle

About the Author:

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My name is Shelly Holt and I live in the middle of the harsh and unforgiving Mojave desert. I write my stories looking out of a window that shows sweeping desert views. Outside is a barren and severe landscape, yet inside my head lives a world filled with exotic shape-shifters come to life, pulled from the pages of myth and legend, ready to entice and seduce any reader brave enough to take them on.