Interview with Author Jason Sullivan

This is not only the first interview I’ve posted here but this is the first time I’ve posted about this book. It’s one of my recent favourites along with The Suburban Vaistes. So here is the author of both these books, Jason Sullivan who also has interviewed me on his blog Different Outcomes. He’s just moved them over to Amazon so I’m excited to see how far up the charts they fly in the near future!

Tell us a little about yourself and how you got started writing.

I was born in Massachusetts and I am currently living in Kansas with my family. Even as a little kid I wanted to write books. I guess a lot of writers share that experience. Then in high school I had a teacher who had us write every night. It didn’t matter what we wrote, but we had to write a couple of pages each night. This was a great habit to get into and perhaps I haven’t been able to break it yet. I never considered writing a novel, though, until I was in my thirties at which point it sort of snuck up on me and happened. Now I can’t stop.

Who are your influences?

The first name that always comes to mind is Richard Brautigan. I don’t know if readers see this influence in my writing, but when I was in high school and read Trout Fishing in America it had a profound effect on me. I saw it as an example of how prose could be written with the feel of poetry, his use of language was so creative and unconventional. Reading Brautigan takes the reader from the sublimely beautiful to the hardnosed hysterical and back again. I also am inspired by the somewhat defiant writing techniques Camus employed to express angst and pathos in his books. There are many more authors that I love, but I won’t bore you with a long list. Essentially, I have a great deal of respect for anyone crazy enough to write a novel.

I noticed your short stories are also Science-Fiction. Have you always written in this genre?

I think so and yet I am not so much interested in the futuristic technology aspects of science fiction as I am in the greater scope it provides for the imagination. I guess what I write more or less turns out to be science fiction. I like the term “speculative fiction,” as well, for this sort of thing. When I try to confine my writing to reality, it doesn’t tend to work. Funny, my life is like that, too.

Do you use music when you write?

I love music and I often listen to it while writing, but I don’t have a favorite band or kind of music. My son sings Christmas songs all year long, so there is that.

Did you set out to write a series when you started The Dark Yergall?

I didn’t set out to write a book. I was merely going to write a few installments for a web page back in the ancient days of the internet and it all sort of took off from there.

How did you come up with the names for your characters and things in the world of your books?

I got pretty tricky with the names in The Dark Yergall and The Suburban Vaistes. You can take them apart and rearrange them and see what you come up with, but I’m not going to give away any secrets! In general I tried to come up with something that fit the aesthetic of the book.

Cats play a pretty big role in The Dark Yergall, do you have cats?

My cat died a couple of years ago—I miss him a lot—I am a big cat lover. They are definitely a higher life form. Cats are so much fun to write about. Just look at all the cat videos on youtube! They are always doing something cute or funny!

The Suburban Vaistes is quite a bit darker than The Dark Yergall, was that intentional?

This question has had me thinking the most. You are right, it is darker, but I really enjoyed writing The Suburban Vaistes because with one book behind me I felt I could experiment a little more. I was pleased to see a fairly coherent book come out of a process in which I dared to do some new things. In a Hegelian sense (here’s my philosophy angle) the second book is the antithesis, it sort of plumbs the depths of despair, and I thought this was necessary in this book—but I hope there were some laughs in there as well. And my final book in the trilogy will probably be the most uplifting of the three—and hopefully entertaining, too!

My favourite character across both books is D-Bot. A lot of writers would have made her one-dimensional given her occupation how did you avoid this?

As a writer you know how characters come alive. You have a great story exploring that, I believe it is called Chapter 14. I always wanted D-bot to be something more than a sexbot and she really did turn into an amazing character, more human than the human characters in many ways. I think we are at a time in history when we are reevaluating what it means to be sentient and considering whether or not humans have a monopoly on this. By the way, a quote from The Dark Yergall is listed under “sexbot” in the Wiktionary. I know, something my mom can be proud of.

The experience of working in a fast-food joint is very realistic in The Suburban Vaistes did you ever work in one?

Never a fast-food restaurant but I have worked in similar places. I won’t bore you with the gory details but I have experienced what it feels like to have the full onslaught of sale crazed shoppers coming through the doors in attack mode. In such cases you build up a comradery with your co-workers, so I think I was relying on those experiences.

Will there be a third book in the series?

Yes, I hope so. However, the book I have coming out this spring is not part of the trilogy. It is a really weird time-travel alien ascension world transformation book. Fiction, of course, at least I think it is fiction. And as I am finishing it I am kicking around the idea of another book to follow it, maybe just as a sequel rather than leading into another trilogy. But I will get to the third book in The Adventures of Nosir Rag eventually, hopefully later this year.

Is there one message you would like your readers to take away from these books?

I don’t think there is one message. I hope readers take away several messages, or new ideas and perspectives, or maybe just a few laughs. I start out with certain ideas in some scenes but then the story takes over. I try to stay with it, sort of like a cowboy attempting to stay on a bucking bronco, but I never know exactly how it is going to come out. It is one of the things that makes writing fun and keeps me doing it even when a year’s work is selling for 0.99 a book!

Thank you for the interview and the chance to visit the famous Write in Life blog!

And thank you Jason for agreeing! Everyone click here to buy The Dark Yergall and the Suburban Vaistes on Amazon!