365 Interviews

Interview 84: henrysullivan

 Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

I'm tall (6'4"), I go to the gym regularly, but no one would consider me athletic. My favorite shows are:

House of Cards, Homeland (hopefully we'll have another season), Sherlock, The Good Wife.

The pattern is obvious, I like politics, I think a lot about social issues, and I love colorful, misfit characters.

People often say they listen to all kinds of music. I've listened to music from several genres, but for the last couple of years I've been listening to: Suba, The Chemical Brothers, Ian Pooley, Coldcut (Atomic Moog), Jazzanova, Bebel Gilberto, and electronica that basically sounds like music released by these artists.  Here's a link to one of my favorite playlists:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF8A63AAB11B1B7F9

My favorite books include:

the Hyperion Series by Dan Simmons, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, Towelhead by Alicia Erian, The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, 11/23/63 by Stephen King.

 What inspired you to write?

Anger. Desire. Confusion. In a way, this is a hard question to answer. I've enjoyed reading for as long as I can remember, and I discovered writing as a great way to sort out emotional issues about when I was in the fifth grade.

Two years ago, I started developing the story for THE ANALYST. All I had at the time was the idea that a guy who'd recently had an implant surgically attached to his brain, had his privacy invaded without his knowledge by a Hacker, who was using the Sixth Sense Cranial Implant to see through his eyes and hear through his ears.  In my world, not being able to find a job in spite of your education and experience is an ongoing issue, and I've done some policy analysis work so it didn't take long for me to make that the main character's occupation.

This was actually the third time in my life that I'd made a commitment to a writing project, but it has since become a habit I refuse to break. I love it. It's too important to me, to stop. There are many ways to spend my time, but writing has become one of the few activities that truly fulfills me.

 Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

 How much of your book is realistic?

 Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

What do you do when you're not writing?

These questions work well as a group, so I'll tackle all four at one time

The experiences of the characters in THE ANALYST are based on events in my life. I worked on a university campus as an IT specialist, and I've worked on research projects as an analyst.  

Policy analysis and IT work (GIS) is mainly what I'm doing when I'm not writing. GIS - Geographic Information Systems - is a combination of data analysis and graphic design, so I have to use Adobe applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Fireworks to refine and enhance the maps I produce with ArcGIS. These skills made it possible for me to produce my own book covers:

http://www.wattpad.com/story/10088474-the-analyst http://onyxcommunitysolutions.com/vcard/images/Kindle_Cover_THE_ANALYST.jpg

I'm concerned about how hard it's become in the U.S. to make a decent living. We're at the point where many people with professional skills - IT, accounting, law, engineering - will have to freelance in order to earn enough money to live a prosperous lifestyle. Barriers to earning money is the root of so many problems in our society, which is why I have Bryce working as a labor policy analyst.