Interview with James A. Sullivan: About himself and progressive fantasy

Created: 06/29/2022Updated: 07/01/2022, 16:45

By: Jessica Bradley

Author James A Sullivan © James A Sullivan

I had the great pleasure of chatting with fantasy author James A. Sullivan at FeenCon in Bonn.

Like his path to becoming an author though, it was also about progressive fantasy.

Note to our readers:

Author James Sullivan describes himself as a couch potato.

Nevertheless, I was able to meet him at FeenCon last weekend and ask him a few questions for our readers.

Since he says of himself that he writes progressive fantasy, I wanted to know more about what it is about.

Many thanks to James Sullivan for this interview.

What is progressive fantasy?

What it means exactly: fantasy that is progressive, in the political sense.

We mean that much broader, by we I mean the community in which I move.

So it's not a one-off thing, we're a small movement within the German-speaking fantasy world.

We question traditions at all levels.

We ask ourselves: What are we doing?

Why have we done it this way before?

Are the things we do here good?

Sensible?

Can they harm?

Of course, the focus is on things like racism, queer hostility or misogyny.

Focused on all things that have been done in the past without questioning or even noticing.

Do you also have an example?

An example would be something like horror films or action or adventure in general, where you look at the characters who die first.

Unfortunately, in the past, these are mostly black figures or queer figures.

And that's where certain tropes come from, which are just super damaging when they keep coming back.

If they only happened once, no one would say anything.

But it's a pattern.

Because you get the feeling that marginalized characters are expendable.

According to the motto: Now we've done it for diversity, they're there, but then we'll let them go again.

You can question things like that.

We do that on all levels and we also see it as a way into the future, that we say we no longer burden ourselves with things from the past that are of no use to us,

and in which we can no longer express what we mean when we talk about the world.

That's the problem with the fantastic, you think it's some kind of escapism.

But actually it's just different how we talk about the world. 

In short, progressive fantasy is we travel with baggage and we don't want to travel with baggage that weighs us down.

So you leave it behind and travel with the luggage, which brings you something else on the journey. 

How long have you been an author and how did it come about?

That's a good question.

The question is when do you cross the line from non-author to author?

Like many authors, I started with role-playing.

The impulse to write stories very early is very close.

About any characters or any adventures that you played in the round.

Gradually, this developed into a regular writing activity.

I don't know if I saw myself as an author back then.

But if at some point you realize: oh I've written a novel, then it's clear that you're basically an author.

You are still an unpublished author, but an author.

How did things go for you?

During this phase I met Bernhard Hennen.

He basically became a kind of mentor to me.

He was very impressed by what he read and I learned the craft of writing from him.

We're super different writers, but I learned from him how to write exposés, what an agent is, how publishers work and things like that.

And at some point, because I was very good at talking to him about literature and we had similar ideas, he asked me if I wanted to write a novel with him.

It was during the examination phase of my studies, I studied English, German and general linguistics.

In that phase, Bernhard called me and said, "Hey, Jamie, would you like to write a novel with me about elves?" I was completely surprised that I said to him, "Call me back in an hour, me I have to think about it.” As it is in life, there are times when you just can't say no.

Because if I had said no at that point, I would not have found out whether I would have had what it takes to be a writer, whether I would have published, whether I would be standing here now.

Everything that has happened now would not have happened if I had said no back then.

And I would always have asked myself: "What would have happened if

would you have said yes then?” So I said yes and we wrote the novel “The Elves” together.

And that was quite a hit and my start as a published author.

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There was a big outcry on Twitter that you, as a co-author of this book, were not mentioned on the cover.

And your name was not visible in the new edition in 2021 either.

How did that make you feel?

That's one thing that was clear from the start, that I wouldn't be on the cover.

It was from the time when I wasn't quite sure how visible I wanted to be.

Especially as a Black author.

Marginalization is usually such that you first have to look into which rooms you are going and how visible you want to be there.

That was exactly this phase for me and therefore totally okay not to be on the cover.

But over time, the more visible I became, the more this question came up: "Why aren't you on the cover?"

how did you deal with it

I was able to explain that for a long time by saying: “In the beginning we set it that way and the publisher wanted it that way too.

It was okay with me and then we stuck with it."

That was the answer.

But it became increasingly difficult to give a good answer to this question when Bernhard Hennen wrote "The Phileasson Saga" with Robert Corvus and was on the cover.

The question was no longer "Why aren't you on the cover", but "Why is he on the cover of the project and you aren't?".

I didn't have a "good" answer to that that people bought.

And then it happened that with the luxury edition, which was released in 2021, there was an incident in which the publisher's employees didn't have it on their radar that I was a co-author of "The Elves" and wanted to convince someone that this is not the case.

What were the consequences of this?

This then made waves, so that some of my colleagues also wrote an open letter to Heyne and asked them to think about it after such a long time and to write me on the cover.

There were internal discussions with Bernhard, who was totally open about it, and it didn't take long, not even a week, and it was clear that we would change the contract.

Someday, when the current edition is sold, my name will be on the cover.

Whatever the reader is interested in, the writing routine.

how does yours look

(laughs) If you can talk about it.

I have a writing routine, but it tends to realign itself with every new writing project.

I think it has a lot to do with the writing project itself and it has a lot to do with life circumstances.

My wife and I have children and when they were little, writing was available at times when they were in bed or my wife and I take turns looking after them.

Then there was the writing time.

It's like this now, both children are older and in school, my wife left for work and I'm sitting at my desk at 9 a.m. and working.

But there are also phases where I only become active after 10 or 11 o'clock in the evening.

Then I write at night and in the morning I do e-mails and things like that.

Sometimes I'm a day person and on some projects I'm more of a night person.

At the moment I'm more of a night person. 

Do you have a favorite place to write?

Yes absolutely!

I'm a proponent of writing on the couch.

I love writing on the couch.

I don't think you should be ashamed of it.

The couch is usually a place where you make yourself comfortable and maybe take a nap.

I think that's a really good place to work, because a lot of writing consists of staring into space and imagining things.

It's great on the couch.

I write sometimes by hand and sometimes with my laptop.

When I'm lying there with my laptop, my wife often says "please think about your back", but the couch is my favorite place.

Do you also have favorite authors who you like to read and who are perhaps a kind of role model for you?

Yes, one of them is Samuel R. Delany.

He's older, he's about 80 years old now.

In the beginning he wrote science fiction, later also a bit of fantasy.

He always impressed me because he could create a lot of world in a very small space.

Then the stories got bigger and more complex, but even then I found it impressive how dense the stories were.

And a role model too, he was one of the first black writers in the US fantasy.

Does that affect you personally?

Yes, I notice that the further I get here in Germany, so to speak, I also feel connected to him because I assume that he has had experiences similar to mine.

I'm also one of the few black authors in German fantasy.

I really can't think of many, I think of Patricia Eckermann and then it almost stops again.

At least in the genre.

That's why I found myself not only in Samuel Delany's texts, but also in the other writings where he reports about himself and his experiences.

That means that for me, like many German-language fantasy authors, I look at the USA.

Of course, you can clearly see that the English-language fantasy is already very dominant.

This also applies to me, I am also an American.

What would you like to convey to your readers?

That's a super hard question!

I would simply say: be curious, question your reading habits and sometimes reach for books that you would not normally pick up.

For example, in my case it was now Nita Tyndall's Who I Was With Her, a romance novel that I read and thought was fantastic.

This curiosity to try new things.

But also things that appear new but are done differently.

That means: many of us try to pick up readers where they are at the moment.

And if you are interested in dragons or vampires, the first impulse for many is, oh dragons again, vampires again.

Or with me, elves again, but it's the same there too, many of us are trying to get a new twist.

Readers who are interested in certain topics early on can be picked up there if the stories are told differently than you are used to.

As am I, who is now reimagining elves.

In the past, mostly with elves it was like "everything was better before", or "magic is fading", "we mourn the past" and for me it's a progressive idea.

It used to be no good, the elves come out of slavery, escaped and travel from world to world,

This means that when you shoot these things, completely different stories emerge that may fit our time better than stories that were told before.

Or to put it another way, every era has its own stories, which can come in unusual guise, but also in well-known ones.

The robes are similar, only the people who are in them are different. 

Cover of "The Legacy of the Elven Sorceress" James A. Sullivan © Piper Verlag

Sullivan's elven protagonist, Ardoas, bears the soul and memories of the legendary mage Naromee - and with it a difficult destiny: only he should be able to restore the soul magic stolen long ago to his people.

A mysterious oracle is supposed to help him, but it seems to have disappeared without a trace - and powerful enemies are on his heels.

Numerous dangers lurk on the way to the rock temple of Beskadur, where Ardoas' fate will be decided.

"The Legacy of the Elven Sorceress" James A. Sullivan

James A. Sullivan "The Legacy of the Elven Sorceress"

2021 Piper Verlag, ISBN 13-978-3-492-70671-1

Price: paperback €16, e-book €12.99, number of pages: 448 (deviating from the format) Order here!

Cover of The Oracle Abroad James A. Sullivan © Piper Verlag

The elves have almost given up their desperate search for their stolen soul magic.

The enemy magician Erlun is still holding the Oracle of Beskadur prisoner.

Ardoas' companions, having lost their best hope with the disappearance of their leader, must risk everything and face one last great battle.

"The Oracle Abroad" by James A. Sullivan

James A. Sullivan "The Oracle Abroad"

2022, Piper Verlag, ISBN 13-978-3-492-70672-8

Price: paperback €17, e-book €12.99, number of pages: 432 (deviating from the format) Order here!