About Kyle Michel Sullivan:
Kyle Michel Sullivan is a writer and self-involved artist out to change the world until it changes him…as has already happened in far too many ways.
He has written books that range from sunshine and light ("David Martin") to cold and dark ("How To Rape A Straight Guy", which has been banned a couple of times) to flat out crazy ("The Lyons' Den") to mainstream ("The Alice '65"). He has now ventured into SF-Horror-Suspense with "The Beast in the Nothing Room" and taken Capitalism to its logical extreme in "Hunter".
He is now working to complete "A Place of Safety", his Irish novel, using Tolstoy as his guide, and is trying to build characters as vivid and real as possible. He has a lot of fun doing it mixed with angst, anger, and amazement … but that's the lot of a writer.
What inspires you to write?
Writing is the best form of therapy there is, where you can work out your demons before you become one, yourself.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Leonid Tolstoy. "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" are my two favorite books. Period. His depth of character, honesty, and beauty of structure is amazing.
I like Steinbeck and Hemingway for their clear, clean prose.
Tell us about your writing process.
That ranges all over the place. Sometimes I see a story in the news or hear someone giving an interview and then a story comes knocking at my head, its characters already set and ready to go. I almost never do the "what if" kind of development, but that usually works its way into the story as I go along. I almost never work up an outline but do work out the characters in a bit of depth, then let them run. I usually know where the story will end up; it's getting there that's the challenge…and fun.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I cannot write unless my characters are talking to me…and there have been occasions where we've had some serious disagreements. The story I'm working on, right now is about a stained glass artist and the man who turns out to be both his lover and his muse. I initially had the lover being damaged but a nice guy who senses the artist needs his support. He sat me down and said, "We ain't going that way. I'm a feral creature due to the damage inflected on me in my life. I don't see him as a guy who needs my help; I see him as meal ticket. A means to an end. Until I've been with him and can trust him. I'm not nice…only a bit tamed." Which changed the entire story. Changed the form it took. Everything. But I learned long ago, if I don't go with what the characters want, what I turn out will be crap.
What advice would you give other writers?
Read and write. Keep at both of them. Write what you want to read, and do not let anyone tell you it's not right or good enough or should not be done. Your stories are yours to tell, and no one else can say yes or no to that.
On a technical level, publish nothing until you've written three books. Have a copy of Strunk & White's "Elements of Style" and use it to double-check your grammar. Same for a dictionary. Then have two different editors go over what you want to publish. Each will find different typos, and make different suggestions. Belong to an online writers' group and ask for beta writers to give you feedback, then choose what works, for you, and ignore the rest.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
Initially, I published my books with a couple of different companies, but one of them paid me nothing in royalties, even though I know the books were selling well. So I dragged the rights back to myself and now I self-publish everything, using Ingram Spark for the physical copies and Smashwords for the e-books. This gives me full control. I have an art background and an old version of Photoshop so can work up my own covers, but that's usually not a good idea.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
It's wild and exciting. With self-publishing so easy and available to all, anyone can write and publish a book. Most of what gets out there will be crap, this is true, but no longer do a few publishing houses in New York get to determine what does and does not get made available to people. Unfortunately, some good books will not get noticed because they haven't been well-publicized, but there is no limit, now.
What genres do you write?: Gay adult (sub-genres erotica, suspense, mystery, Sci-Fi, horror), rom-com, farce, fiction
What formats are your books in?: eBook, Print, Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Kyle Michel Sullivan Home Page Link
Link To Kyle Michel Sullivan Page On Amazon
Link to Author Page on Smashwords
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
