Ask the Author: Sullivan D. Cohen

“Ask me a question.” Sullivan D. Cohen

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What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Sullivan D. Cohen Write what you want to write, not what others want or expect you to write. The world of fiction is overcrowded and oversaturated with every cliche, stereotype, genre and niche that you can think of, the only way to join the game is the create the worlds, stories and characters YOU want to create. Your target audience should be yourself, because that way, even if you never get a single reader, you can at least be proud of what you've made.

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What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Sullivan D. Cohen Having the power to create stories that resonate with others, knowing that the ability to build an entire world and populate it is hiding just beyond my fingertips, and of course, the wild rush of finalizing a work and being ready to share it with the world.

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Sullivan D. Cohen

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)["Ruby Bird," book one in "The Flight" series, originally began as an attempt at a rewrite for a much older story of mine called "All These Little Things."
In the original story, Paul McKenzie actually was terminally ill, and he succumbs to his pancreatic cancer at the end of the novel. That ending never entirely sat right with me, even though it's clear from the beginning that he's going to die, it felt uncomfortable. It felt like Paul wasn't supposed to die.
It felt like he was supposed to end up banging his best friend in the car on the side of the road in the middle of a rainstorm.
In the rewrite, I initially only wanted to change one thing, Paul's sexuality. Paul was always a "queer" man to me, and even though I was a staunch-ish Jehovah's Witness at the time, I was still very drawn to queer characters. My attempt at making Paul come off as queer without explicitly stating that he was attracted to men was to make him polyamorous. It was something "other" than heterosexual monogamy that could still fly under the radar for a character trait when being analyzed by my JW family members, after all, there's plenty of guys in the Bible who took multiple wives, right?
So the rewrite that later became Ruby Bird was simply going to address Paul's queerness openly and exclusively. He's a gay man, and in the rewrite, he's damn proud of that. But the entire story soon took on a direction of its own; Alan Eberly, the overnight successful author of motivational poetry, became Ruben Eberly (name changed so as to not cause confusion with "Hail Santa!") the down on his luck aspiring author of vampire x wizard erotica. Paul McKenzie, the dying man determined to celebrate his last days, is now, well, Paul McKenzie, the depressed alcoholic who's hopelessly in love with his best friend and finds it next to impossible to comprehend and regulate his emotions as the result of severe religious and sexual trauma as a child.
I talk a lot more about subjects that matter deeply to me with "Ruby Bird," such as addiction, mental health, suicide, trauma, sexuality, religion, all aspects I could draw from my own life and of others I've seen suffer at the hands of twisted minded religious leaders, unaccepting families, and themselves.
And through it all, what began as a mere rewrite is now an upcoming series with 2 future books planned for release, and in all honesty, I couldn't be more proud of this book. It's my baby, my pride and joy, and I hope you'll love it as much as I do. (hide spoiler)]

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What are you currently working on?

Sullivan D. Cohen I'm working on a short story called Strawberry Starships, a sci-fi horror I plan to submit to a few literary mags. It's about a man experiencing an alien invasion that only he can see.

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How do you deal with writer’s block?

Sullivan D. Cohen A couple different ways. Typically I take a break and try writing something new and come back to what I was stuck with later. Other times I read books or short stories with similar themes to what I'm working with until my "Aha!" moment kicks in. But one of the best ways I've found is to turn off the internet, lock myself in a dark room with only my laptop, and bored myself into coming up with the next scenario to get me over the hump.

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