Guest Post (And Giveaway) from Sullivan Lee

Sullivan Lee, author of Brightwing, is on the blog today! She sent Stef and me a copy of her novel, and you can check out Stef's review here. The following is a guest post about authors and their quirky tendencies that may come across as mental illness in non-writers. It's an interesting and funny take on writing, so check it out. Then stay tuned, boys and girls. There will be deets on a giveaway at the end!!

It's All In Our Heads

When I was in college there was a student comedy group called the Skits-o-phrenics. It being a very liberal school, there was soon a massive protest, not from, exactly, but on behalf of the mentally ill, saying that the troupe was making light of schizophrenics. Of course, students would also take over the quad to change the name of the history department to the hers- and his-tory department, or block traffic for days because the dining hall served more white bread than brown, so it might have been more an excuse for a rally than a real objection. Good times.

Needless to say I'm aware that my old college chums will probably burn me in effigy when I say this, but all writers are schizophrenic.

We have multiple personalities.
At any given time, a dozen characters might live inside us. We don't just create them – we are them. We possess them to give them life, and they possess us to transfer that life to the page. We're grandfathers and children and sociopaths (hi Mallory!) and fairies, until we almost forget who we really are, if only for a moment.

We hear voices in our heads.
Our characters talk to us – and they tell us what to do. People who don't write assume that authors have full control of their stories. But I bet every writer can attest to the fact that characters sometimes take over the plot. You better believe I was going to kill off Mallory (the very bad guy in Brightwing) but the characters wouldn't let me. They had their own reasons, but I finally relented, because I need him for the sequel, Swamp Bordello.

We talk to ourselves.
Er, maybe that's just me! I've gotten into such a habit of talking to myself at home – working out snippets of dialog – that I've caught myself doing it in public too. Luckily I have big hair, so I'm hoping people assume I have a phone hidden in those curls, somewhere.

We live storylines that parallel our real lives.
Writers work full-time, even if they only type for ten minutes a day. Life is research, and every time something happens, every time someone speaks to us, we (sometimes unconsciously) use that event as a catalyst to spark new stories. We can be calmly sipping our sangria at a garden party, but in our heads we (or the characters we're being at the moment) are falling dangerously in love, thwarting terrorist plots, being sucked to the underworld – all using the guests and garden as props. The fantasies might only last a second, but we're always trying on new ideas for books, using the things we're familiar with as experimental models.

Please no hate mail – I know mental illness is a serious matter. I'm just glad we writers can put our delusions on paper and convince readers that the people in our heads are real. Now back to my padded cell... I mean my writing room.

Thank you so much for having me on I'm a Book Shark!

I write. A lot. As Laura L. Sullivan I write books for children -- middle grade and young adult. UNDER THE GREEN HILL-MG Fantasy-OUT NOW! GUARDIAN OF THE GREEN HILL-MG Fantasy-OUT THIS FALL!! LADIES IN WAITING-Bawdy YA Historical-OUT NEXT SPRING!! DELUSION-YA Historical Fantasy-FALL 2012 As Sullivan Lee I write crime/action/suspense for adults. BRIGHTWING-A Criminal Love Story-OUT VERY SOON!! As LuLu Sullivan I write everything else.

Check me out on my blog and on Amazon to buy Brightwing!

Giveaway Alert!!

I have an ebook copy of Sullivan Lee's BRIGHTWING to giveaway to one lucky winner! Here are the details:

• Leave a comment with your name and email address/twitter handle plus which format you want and you're entered.
• Leave a separate comment for one extra entry if you tweet about the interview/giveaway. Please include direct link.
• For every TEN entries, Sullivan Lee and I will add another ebook copy to giveaway! The more entries, the more winners we'll have!
  
• Must be 16 or older.
• Since we have ebooks, this is international!
  
• You don't have to be a follower, but it's appreciated of course!
• Ends at 11:59 PM PST on Saturday, 8/20/11.
  
• Winner(s) will be picked with random.org.
• Questions? Email me at imabookshark AT yahoo DOT com!