Writing horror novels with Todd Sullivan

Interview with Todd Sullivan

Emma Dhesi  00:00

Hello, I’m Emma Dhesi and welcome to another episode of turning readers into writers. If you’re brand new here, welcome. And here’s what you need to know. This is a community that believes you are never too old to write your first novel, no matter what you’ve been up to until now, if you’re ready to write your book, I’m ready to help you reach the end, I focused on helping you find the time and confidence to begin your writing journey, as well as the craft and skills you need to finish the book.

Each week I interview debut authors, editors and industry experts to keep you motivated, inspired, and educated on all things writing, editing, and publishing. If you want to catch up, head on over to emmadhesi.com where you’ll find a wealth of information and tools to help you get started. Before we dive in, this week’s episode is brought to you by my free cheat sheet 30 Top Tips to find time to write. In this guide, I give you 30 ways that you can find time to write in the small gaps that appear between the various errands and tasks and responsibilities that you have in your day to day life.

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Get your free copy of 30 Top Tips to find time to write by going to emmadhesi.com/30 TopTips. Okay, let’s dive in to today’s episode.

Todd Sullivan, author of the wind chimes series teaches English as a Second Language and English literature and writing in Asia. He has had numerous short stories novelettes and novellas published across several countries, including Thailand, the UK, Australia, America and Canada.

He is a practitioner of the sword fighting martial art Kundu or kendo and has trained in fencing muy Thai, capoeira, Wing Chun, and JKD. He graduated from Queens College in New York City with a masters of Fine Arts and creative writing, and received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgia State University.

He attended the breadloaf winners conference and the National Book Foundation, summer writing camps. He currently lives in Taipei, Taiwan, and looks forward to studying Mandarin. So let’s find out more about the wind chimes series and Todd’s life in Asia. Well, thank you, Todd, for joining me today. I’m really thrilled to have you on the show.

Todd Sullivan  02:57

Oh, thank you for having me on. 

Emma Dhesi  02:59

I wonder if you could start just by telling us a little bit about yourself and what took you to Asia? Because I believe you are in Taiwan at the moment?

Todd Sullivan  03:07

Right! Yeah. So Okay, my name is Todd Sullivan. I am originally from America so a New Orleans is actually fairly common and like a fairly well known place, Louisiana. And I came out here to Asia about 11 years ago, and I was 10 years in South Korea. And I’ve been in Taipei, Taiwan for about one year now. It’s been just about one year.

Emma Dhesi  03:32

And now you’re enjoying it there. Obviously Asian life suits you. How does Taiwan Taipei differ from South Korea?

Todd Sullivan  03:42

You know, South Korea is very fast. Like there’s a saying that you are told when you first arrive in South Korea. It’s like Bali, Bali, which sounds a certain way it sounds was like that fast. That’s what basically means. And so South Korea, and they do things extremely fast. They walk fast, they drive fast, they do their work fast.

And so it’s a very fast paced culture, while Taiwan, it’s much, much slower. And so, you know, it’s a more relaxed here, more casual feels the way they do things here. So that’s basically the two main differences that most is this South Korea is really fast, Taipei is really Taiwan is much slower.

Emma Dhesi  04:27

Nice. That’s quite a welcome change of pace, I imagine. And I understand that. Taiwan has beautiful beaches, which I’ve not yet visited.

Todd Sullivan  04:35

I have not visited beaches, either. You know, I came here again October of last year, and then around January is when the whole Covid thing became quite a big thing. And so, basically, how my life would have been, if Covid hadn’t happened and how he is now actually quite different. So I haven’t really done a lot here in Taiwan in the past year.

Emma Dhesi  04:58

I should just point I appreciate listening in the future, we’re recording this in October of 2020. And we’re still in the grips of pandemic and lockdown and, and so on and so forth. But, um, well, I used to live in Asia as well. And I love Asia because I was part of the world. No, but I mentioned in the introduction that you took part in an MFA in creative writing, which I know a lot more people are doing now. And I wonder, did you enjoy the course what might have been one of your kind of biggest takeaways from studying literature?

Todd Sullivan  05:34

So the MFA, I think one of the good things about MFA is that you do learn different literary writing techniques. And so that’s, you know, you can take that and use it for any other kind of writing. So that’s the main takeaway, you know, thinking about the language of the writing and thinking about the character that those are the two main things, language in character. And so that’s basically what I took away from my two years it was MFA and New York and in Queens, New York. And so that’s what took away language and writing were the main things.

Emma Dhesi  06:09

Because I think traditionally, MFA programs have been very much about literary fiction. was yours about literary fiction? I think a few more no branching into genre and recognizing that genre fiction has its place as well. But was your is sort of more about literary fiction?

Todd Sullivan  06:26

It was exclusively literary fiction, right? So there was no direct fiction, it was only literary fiction.

Emma Dhesi  06:32

Okay, interesting. And so talking about genre fiction, you write a vampire stories. And I wonder what appeals to you about that, that particular genre of writing your storytelling?

Todd Sullivan  06:47

Well, I got into I was always into kind of vampires. So it began back in elementary school. And I just took it with me throughout throughout the years that I got from elementary, high school, University. Graduate and then just on and on and on, but when they’ll see me, I don’t know maybe just the inclination, like, you know, I was younger, I wasn’t a big fan of Sesame Street, but I did like comfort calm, the guy will cost the the numbers and the blogs at this is mystery I really enjoy for people who are a bit older than your audience, there was a very popular cartoon called count killer.

And about vampire duck. There was a book about vampire Bunny and so these are more or less for kids. Then after that, I got into Dungeons and Dragons, and there’s ravenloft there’s straw, and after that there’s into the vampire Anne Rice, Vampire Chronicles. So really, I just always had an interest in the whole vampire myth those just I don’t know where it came from. But you know, it was always basically there.

Emma Dhesi  07:57

Okay, appealing. Yeah,  Cuz it’s so it shows actually, I’d forgotten that there were all these programs when we were growing up. But it shows that and Twilight’s just one in a met you know, it’s kind of made it fashionable again, but it’s just one in a long history of vampire stories and, and lore and fascination with the kind of dark side of human nature.

Todd Sullivan  08:18

Right, yeah the woman of Twilight of Stephenie Meyers I think it is?

Emma Dhesi  08:22

That’s right. Yeah.

Todd Sullivan  08:24

Twilight took it in a kind of a newish direction that that hadn’t been journey vampires were, I mean, vampires, all the people, at least after kids were much more tragic, much more brutal, much more dark. But I think we’re, I mean, like, people always say, I haven’t actually read it, i watched the movie, but they glow or something.

And so it’s like a very different take on the whole vampire was funny when I got published, because it was a unique take on something that’s been done really to death is there’s a lot of vampires out there. And so she had a new way of doing it. And I think that was very well obviously, it was very successful for her.

Emma Dhesi  09:05

Mm hmm. So that kind of leads on to my next question, actually, I was gonna ask about the tropes of the vampire genre. So traditionally, in most vampire stories, what might the common tropes be? And that if someone was looking to start writing in this genre, what might you guide them towards or suggest that they start looking at?

Todd Sullivan  09:26

I mean, I know the vampire Dracula was it was the monster outside the city. So it was the that that terrible thing that kind of exists outside? And then for humans, of course, it’s a metaphor for I guess the darker nature of humans are darker because, of course, vampires are humans. They’re not, you know, werewolf actually looks like a human. And so that’s the thing. They are tragic. Originally, they were tragic. They were damned.

You actually probably didn’t want to become a vampire because you are now dead. Like eternal damnation that was kind of wet, wet that part but those, and then they were again, they were kind of like the monster the monster have so it’s just kind of much, much darker back in the day. Because even now, for people who do play kind of video game things like this, usually the vampire is the thing you’re trying to kill normally that’s not a character you become.

So it’s generally just something that’s on the outside that needs to be vanquished, not something that you know, people glorified back in the day. That’s how it was.

Emma Dhesi  10:35

And so do your stories, tell that kind of your novels tell that kind of storyline? Or do you or your vampire scene in a more aspirational way? Or a less frightening or a less, outsider character?

Todd Sullivan  10:53

No, they are the kind of vampires you don’t want to become. So they’re not more aspirational? They are more, right. They’re more traditionally the vampires who you who you would feel bad if you became that thing, I guess a vampire meant those.

Emma Dhesi  11:11

And then what about the person who are maybe there aren’t any troops around this, but I’m wondering about the person who finds the vampire or comes in contact with the vampire. In my head. It’s a woman, a vulnerable woman who the vampire decides they want to get their teeth into. But I don’t know if that’s just because I’ve seen too many movies. But it’s not something that is in fiction as well, or they’re often kind of male protagonists as well at the vampire stories?

Todd Sullivan  11:37

The vampire literature is very big. I mean, it fits, it’s probably, it’s so big. And so what’s your that thing about the like, you were saying the I guess the woman being seduced by a vampire, I think that’s what you can live for. But that’s been done. I mean, there are there’s vampire romance is it’s a very, very big genre. So it’s, I mean, if you write I’m sure someone’s gonna want to read it, if that’s actually your question. Yeah, if you write it, someone’s gonna want to read it.

Emma Dhesi  12:07

And so you being an Asia, I think Asia does for a particularly well, maybe Japan in particular, but they have a fantastic team and a really dark take on board. From the movies, I’ve seen that promoted Asia, they’re not scared of really going direct and being very, very scary, has that impacted your ratings or the way you tell your stories? Have you find yourself getting darker?

Todd Sullivan  12:35

Oh, no, actually, I don’t know about other places in Asia, not in Korea, where most of these vampire stories, cuz I was out for 10 years, and I started writing the vampires in my 3 – 4 years. So my third fourth year up to my 10th year, but I didn’t realize until much later that the, in Korea needs the vampire. I mean, the horror genre was kind of limited.

There wasn’t really a lobbying going on because people who are younger can’t even get access to it. And they were really big on violence being portrayed, like being shouted at kids. Because when I grew up in I saw a poster guys, for a cougar. Jason, this is like elementary school because this used to come on Saturday TV in America.

Whereas in Korea, again, this is everything is changing now because coaches are mixing but before that kind of stuff with our people at young we’re never really exposed to it. And the horror market wasn’t the horror genre wasn’t really Oh, that big. It’s changed now. But in the past, it wasn’t really very big and at least Korea was I did access to

Emma Dhesi  13:46

Alright, that’s okay. I didn’t realize that. My my, my thoughts were that yeah, that it was very big there. And that was kind of quite common. Oh, that’s really interesting. Okay, cool. So tell us about you. You said you started writing and four to five, six years ago. And so what’s your writing routine? Like now? And what what prompted you to write your first story?

 Todd Sullivan  14:09

Was that writing the vampire, the vampire stories but it’s not like maybe seven years that now, okay. It’s been like a long time. But I guess this particular one butchers and then the vampire seems extreme for that particular version of a story, but I was living in a place called jvzoo. And what started really the comparison I’m using in the Vampire Chronicles is having a very bad job.

That’s actually what the vampires have. They are very bad jobs. And so that’s what basically started was making them I was making a metaphor for a job that’s bad that you can’t get off. And that’s basically what started with kind of started died.

Emma Dhesi  14:49

Because you were in a job you couldn’t get off.

Todd Sullivan  14:52

Yeah, I mean, how many people are in jobs? You know, work for many people isn’t all that fun. And that’s what I’m trying to That’s why I hope really enjoys it people who have a job, that many people out there who have jobs that day don’t particularly like, but they’re kind of you know, there’s no real way out because as a vampire, wants to become a vampire, you’re stuck. You know, there’s no getting out of it until you die. And so that was the, that was the idea behind it.

Emma Dhesi  15:18

Okay, okay. So you I know that you’re busy, I know that you teach. And so how do you fit your writing time in around that kind of rest of your life, you know, your work life, your social life? I don’t know, if you have a family, but kind of around the other aspects of your life? How do you fit the writing in?

Todd Sullivan  15:39

So previously, I would wake up around five o’clock in the morning, five or six, right before we met, and that’d be it for right of the day, I did that like five days a week. And so that’s it, I actually only write one page a day, one new, unique page a day. And that’s how I make it fit. I don’t do a lot every day. But I do a lot over a long period of time.

So if you write one page a day, five days, a week, over a year, then I’m not very good at math, that should be more than 200 pages. And if you do it consistently over, you know, five years, that’s, you know, 1000 pages that you’ve written. So that’s it just a little bit every day consistently over time, is what I did.

Emma Dhesi  16:18

Fantastic, exactly what I teach my students as well as that you don’t need to sit down for two hours a day, you just need to find a little bit of space regularly. And it’s that kind of compound effect, isn’t it, the more you do it, just keep doing a little bit a little bit. And eventually you’ll get there.

Todd Sullivan  16:35

And mercy upon that, that people who write a lot at one time, I’m not talking about professional authors, but just people regular people who want to write who I like a lot. At one time, they burned out with a fire they had, and they don’t tend to complete these projects that they that they began.

So I actually think just like a fire, if you just like do a little bit of time to keep it stoked, it goes a lot longer than you just sit down for like a weekend, you know, right, like 10 hours. And then after that, you know, you’re kind of you’re out there output just dies down the line after that

Emma Dhesi  17:10

You burned out. So do you tend to write a very clean copy. So because you’re taking your time you’re writing doing one page at a time? Do you tend to sort of edit as you go along and make sure that the copies as good as it can be before you move on to the next page?

Todd Sullivan  17:28

Make sure does good they can be. But since I write one page a day, I mean, that means that I do take a bit more time perhaps on that one page, but again, only do 40 minutes. So no matter what I tend to end around 40 – 45 minutes no matter what memory, the proponent of workshops, critiquing workshops.

And so I have been part of that in real life for a long time. And then online for like the last six or seven years online workshops. And I have everything workshop. So I always have multiple eyes looking at what I write before I send it off to get published.

Emma Dhesi  18:05

And where do you find your critique groups where there’s been a good place to find? 

Todd Sullivan  18:10

I belong to many over the years, but the one I recommend is wave analysis is kind of debatable. But I say skip a file such as scribophile.com. And that’s what I belong to probably the longest of all of them, but I actually have joined many over the years.

Emma Dhesi  18:34

I haven’t heard that one, but I’ll link to that one in the show notes for people to go and go and check out.

Todd Sullivan  18:38

Yeah, I recommend that it’s one that belong to for many years now.

Emma Dhesi  18:42

And then you’re in personal critique groups. How did you find those ones?

Todd Sullivan  18:46

I’m sorry, what was?

Emma Dhesi  18:48

your in person critique groups, the ones that you go to? 

Todd Sullivan  18:50

Oh. So that was just you know, when that question, was it, yeah, you, you know people talk they you meet people who like writing, you get so good. The reason why I don’t do those anymore is because those groups always fall apart. Like, you know, we do we normally we get through at least one story each but then after that, you know, people stopped coming to the group and things like that.

So but basically it’s just you know, talking to someone and they may say oh, we like writing you like write letters other person who likes writing the 3d get together for the get together. You do it for you know, a couple of weeks and then it kind of ends. But that’s how I found that just by conversation. 

Emma Dhesi  19:28

Okay, cool. So you do a lot of martial arts as well. When did you tell us a little bit about that? It sounds like that’s a big part of your life.

Todd Sullivan  19:38

Right when I was in Korea, I did martial arts called kendo which is certified martial arts. So did that for the 9 of the 10 years I was there. And before that I did fencing in America for about five years. So there are 19 years old. But yeah, I enjoy exercise. I enjoy the movement. Like I enjoyed dancing.

All these martial arts is a dicey component, because like rhythm and distance and things like that. So yeah, I do enjoy and it shows up in my fiction, my fiction tends to be very combat heavy combat heavy, there’s a lot action, a lot of fighting going on. So it’s just something that I get the inclination, I’ve always kind of had

Emma Dhesi  20:22

When I was growing up, we had a friend who used to do kendo as well. And I remember as a child going to these reenactments with, you know, up to 100 men, women turning up in, in Japanese costume, I assume was Japanese costume and Battlefield. And I remember thinking is a very strange thing to do in Scotland. But no, he loved it. And it was quite a spectacle to see these amazing, amazing battles take place.

Todd Sullivan  20:52

There’s a lot of exercises, too, so I recommend it to people.

Emma Dhesi  20:57

And I also wanted to ask you about I think it’s an arch project called for the gods open eyes, I wonder if you tell us a little bit about that.

Todd Sullivan  21:07

There’s a web series slash graphic novel. And it is, uh, I started doing this about three months ago that I they kind of started kind of began and it’s been growing since then. So it’s a superhero genre based on African mythology, African religion, African ideology, because the guy who approached me, for me is from Africa.

And so that’s the source material. And from there, I built like character and narrative and plot and things like that. And it takes place here in Taipei. So it’s a kind of an interesting mix of Africa, and then Taipei, Asia, and then America, which, you know, superhero genre, I don’t know if It was born there, but definitely is where it’s most known.

Emma Dhesi  21:58

So it’s a graphic novel. But I when I’ve gone on Facebook, and sort of had a look at the page and things as a few of you on video. It looks like Jenga weaves through or doing I’m not sure what it is. Could you…?

Todd Sullivan  22:12

Right, it is through so we were doing we’re working on the first season right now we did Episode One last month Episode Two of the second edge just came out today, actually. And there’s like maybe 10 different actors who are and the different episodes is 12 episodes for season one.

Yeah, we have readers is basically on Monday night where people you know, be look at the material, see how listen to highs read, make changes, depending on what needs to be changed. So it’s kind of like the kind of a workshop, I’m bringing on workshops. And so it’s kind of like a workshop, where we get together just figure out what works, what doesn’t what should be changed things like this.

So that’s what those are, those videos are just clips of us doing the breakthroughs.

Emma Dhesi  22:57

As we said, there’s a season so where is it that you’re doing it as an audio production or a video production? The final production, you know, the final edits, if you like, where..?

Todd Sullivan  23:10

Each one is, each episode is like a mini episode. So just imagine a regular episode that comes on TV. These are only like six minutes long, about six minutes long. And yeah, it’s like a regular episode. So condense a six minute episode that’s going to be on just online. So YouTube or anywhere that there are videos is where you probably find it, but YouTube is the most common one.

Emma Dhesi  23:37

So what are you working on at the moment in terms of your own fiction? what’s what’s next in the pipeline for you?

Todd Sullivan  23:43

Right now there I have a third and the fantasy, the fantasy series of which I Chronicles, which should come out in March 2021. That’s the third book that was gonna be a novel. Other ones were novellas. And that was called blood stool. And I’m like editing revising that right now. And besides that, I have to begin the third one of the Vampire Chronicles. But mostly I’m kind of working on just for the guys open eyes like that project. I’m still waiting for that.

Emma Dhesi  24:18

Cool, your and your vampire series, will it? Is it a three parter? or will there be more to that more than the series?

Todd Sullivan  24:28

not necessarily have like, like a definite conclusion, because the way I’m writing them is that each book has a central plot. So they like the something starts, there’s a middle and then there’s an ending. But the characters themselves go on to a new type of plot.

And there’s like other additional characters added to book two, and then some of those characters because I guess, the main characters that go throughout all the books, but basically it’s different characters that kind of are in each, each volume. So there’s there’s a list goes on, I guess until one just goes it’s gonna probably go on indefinitely.

Emma Dhesi  25:07

So so they are part of a series but you could read them as standalone. If you wanted to dive in a book number two part wouldn’t…

Todd Sullivan  25:14

I am writing them so that you don’t have to be the ones that come before like you’d be doing before and the hassle is your understanding of the thing, but you should still be the real one by itself and completely under more or less complete. Understand what happened. 

Emma Dhesi  25:29

Okay, cool. So listen, where can listeners find out more about you and your various projects online?

Todd Sullivan  25:39

The easiest place is finding social media. So Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, those are the easiest ones. I have guest on podcast, I’m guessing on done blogs for different people have blogs, interviews.

But either places just really just Google my name, Todd Sullivan, SULLIVAN I have done enough now that my dad kind of has like been just kind of come up just in the Google name. And so yeah, you just go there. My name, you should find beginnings of information about man, we follow that you’ll find more and more.

Emma Dhesi  26:14

And what is your handle on Instagram?

Todd Sullivan  26:19

I Think it is dvnius, Dvnius. That’s what it should be the same for Twitter. They both should be the exact same dvnius.

Emma Dhesi  26:29

Lovely. But that’s great. Thank you, Todd, for your time today. I really appreciate you talking to you.

Todd Sullivan  26:35

Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Emma Dhesi  26:40

Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. I really enjoyed talking to Todd and learning about his experiences in Asia, and what the horror scene is like over there. But one of the biggest takeaways I had from my conversation with Todd is how much he manages to write on a relatively small amount of time each day.

He has made it his daily mission to get up that little bit earlier, and fit in just 40 minutes a day to write one page of his book a day. And look at him now he has published multiple books in two different series. And he’s working on a web series with his creative arts team. So it just goes to show that if you are consistent, there is a fantastic compound effect.

And before you know it, you’ll have a finished book on your hands. So hope you got a lot from that. Please let me know in the comments what your biggest takeaway was. And of course, if you’ve enjoyed the podcast, then please leave a review wherever you get your downloads. Until next time, take care

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Emma Dhesi

Emma writes women’s fiction. She began writing seriously while a stay at home mum with 3 pre-school children.

By changing her mindset, being consistent and developing confidence, Emma has gone from having a collection of handwritten notes to a fully written, edited and published novel.

Having experienced first-hand how writing changes lives, Emma now helps beginner writers find the time and confidence to write their first novel.