C.J. Sullivan's Blog, page 9

Pretty Awesome Rendition of "Time"

A Former Professor's Fabulous New Book

Reading literary non-fiction short stories and poems can be a profound experience. It's one of the reasons I chose to be an English major. Literature reaches down and grabs you by the soul in a way that little else can.

I wanted to recommend one-such collection written by a former literature professor of mine. It's called Motherland: Stories and Poems from Louisiana by Lynn Hoggard. If you're a fan of the kind of writing that has true soul, this is a book to add to your library.

Click the pic to go to its Amazon page. A couple of the poems I felt deep in my heart, where there are still scars from the wounds of old love. Some of her stories made me laugh out loud. Others made me tremble in awe and also horror.

It really is a great book. And since I had a class with the author back when I was getting my BA, I figured I'd do my part and give her a little love here on the blog. :) Do check it out.

Here I Go Torching Things Again

I don't know what it is about me that has to go All Or Nothing, but it's the way I work. I just deleted my Twitter account and my Instagram account.

You know, you kind of have to have a committed relationship with social media sites these days. I already broke up with Facebook a while back... But seriously, you feel pressure to "check in" and have this compulsive need to make sure you respond to people's posts, and if you're marketing something, you feel this strange need to market your books but at the same time hate doing it because you know how totally annoying it is to see other authors Tweeting their books all the time... And you get on there when you're bored, throwing hours of your life into a black hole, and you're seeing ads from people you don't even follow, but the Tweets are there because someone paid to have them flashed in your face, and...ugh. Back to the relationship comparison, when I feel like a relationship is more trouble than it brings joy, I tend to walk away from it. I know I may have pissed off a bunch of people because of that (both online and in real time throughout the years), but when things start to make you feel icky day after day after day, with more negative than positive, they just need to go.

I'm either into it, or I'm over it.

I'm also kind of dramatic. But there it is.

Autumn Equinox and the Night from Hell

Hey, it's the Autumn Equinox! How about some cooler weather now, Texas, eh??




So I don't know if it was the Equinox, or the fact that I'm trying to experiment getting off of Benadryl at night (sick of being groggy the next day), or because I recently read one of the most disturbing True Crime books I've ever read, but last night was one of the worst nights in dreamland that I've had in a while.

I went to bed around 10 because I'm an old lady now. But the freaky stuff all began when the house alarm started doing its stupid beeping-in-the-middle-of-the-night thing. Occasionally it does this; it's random. And I have to get up and press a button and it stops.

Well, I thought my clock said 6 a.m. when I got up to stop the beeps. But when I went back into the room, it was somewhere close to 1:00 a.m. I'd been having nightmares when the alarm woke me up and I wasn't looking forward to going back to sleep. I tried, but all I could think about was the horrors in that true crime book, which I don't recommend you read because it really is disturbing. And I love true crime. But too much is too much.

Heart pounding, I started thinking that there's some evil vibe nearby, like it's humming or something. I could hear it. So I got out of bed and turned both my overhead fan and stand-up fan off.

Silence...

Okay, so the humming was probably my blood-pressure. I checked some emails and finally went back to sleep.

Had some more creepy dreams, but this time, the kind where you think you've woken up again and are in the same room/house. But I wasn't, and some eerie things happened that I wouldn't like to recall, and then I woke up again for real. This time, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 a.m. Still dark as hell outside, and I was still scared and annoyed. And I had the sniffles from not taking a Benadryl. (This year has been the *worst* for allergies for me.)

So I turned on some lights and got my phone and a book and started looking up psychological withdrawal symptoms of Benadryl. I didn't find a whole lot. And really, I don't even know if withdrawal even applies to me because I've only been taking one pill at night. Oh, and during all this, I also played some gospel music because I was still scared out of my mind.

Fighting sleep because I didn't want to have more nightmares, I stayed up for about an hour until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. The next time I woke up, it was about 4 a.m. and I'd had more dreams, but these were more along the lines of a drama/suspense movie than horror. Better than the alternative.

Finally, the sun arrived, which brings us to this morning. So now I sit with my coffee, contemplating my psychological state, wondering if it's all just my vivid writer's imagination and if I should stay away from books and movies with disturbing themes because I'm ripe for being influenced by them...

What do you think?

September: The Beginning of my Year

I was talking to a long-time friend of mine and fellow teacher/scholar about how magical September always feels to both of us. She said that for us, it's really the start of our year. It's the time when we start fresh with our classes, the time we reconnect with friends, make new friends, etc. It's also a time that holds a lot of memories, especially romantic ones, that can trigger nostalgia.

September and the Autumn season bring relief from the horrible Texas heat, as well as relief from dreaded ragweed allergies. The leaves start to turn this month, giving the trees some new vibrant colors to wear.

It truly is a time of beginnings for me, a magical, exciting month that I always look forward to, the true start of my year.

Do you have a special month where you feel your year really starts, instead of the calendar start, January?

Illegal Downloaders of my Book! You Know Who You Are, You Silly Rascals!

So tonight I found a website that is offering a free PDF download of my book Wings of the Divided. I'm both flattered and face-palming this special bit of information. Why? I'll tell ya.

On the one hand I am so totally thrilled that y'all liked it so much that you've gotta share it for free. That makes me feel great! It's why I wrote the book--so people could read it!

But on the other hand, I am a little bit sad because I'm already offering the book for pretty cheap. Also, if people are downloading it free from alternate sites, I have no record of how many people are doing this. And if I don't have a record of people buying it, I assume that nobody is downloading it, and nobody is interested. That doesn't fuel future projects of the same sort, if you know what I mean.

See where I'm going here?

Look. I know people are going to download things for free. I used to do it back in the day with CD's because it was so temptingly easy. But now, I understand that artists make their living based on sales of their albums, books, etc., so I make sure I actually *buy* their work now to show my support and keep them working.

I've set WINGS at $0.99 this past week. I did this before I even knew about the illegal freebies. It'll stay that way for a while. I also run legal freebies a few times a year. So I'm trying to make it easy on people (like me) who are on a budget.

I'm not here to gripe or tell you that you're going to hell for downloading a free PDF of my book, or even to tell you that you're stealing. I'm just saying this: please consider what you're doing when you d/l my book(s) for free. I've got no record that you bought the book when you do this, no review, no feedback, and definitely no money--though the money is the least of my concerns.

And for the offending sites: if you are offering my book for free, please consider taking it down out of courtesy to me, the author, who just wants to make a few cents per book. I'm not even out to get rich; I'm just wanting to know people are interested! And I can't know if you're giving it away without my knowledge.

If you are one of the folks downloading my book for free, please consider buying a print copy if you liked it, or getting a $0.99 copy to let me know you're interested, or gifting it to a friend if you liked the book enough to share.

Or write a review or comment here a the blog or shout out to me on Twitter, at the very, very least!

Laphelle would really appreciate it...

Okay, that's all I have to say on the subject. Carry on.

Phantom Tour

Gosh, seeing the Broadway Tour of Phantom of the Opera last night in Dallas transported me back to being a theatre major. I couldn't stop marveling at the magnificent sets, nodding my head in approval at the beautiful costumes, and being very impressed with the gorgeous singing. The chandelier part was my favorite ;) And as per usual, I cried at the end when the little monkey music box played. We got very close seats, so we could see the actors' expressions. And aside from the guy with the huge frickin' head that sat right in front of me (grr--I wanted the whole theatre to myself!!), it was truly a night to remember.

Some of My Favorite Robin Williams Moments

Writing Private Creative Non-Fiction

Lately I've been writing short, creative non-fiction pieces that may never see the light of day. They're incredibly personal and very private. But I'm still writing them.

I am, after all, an English Major at heart. I have both analyzed and adored so much classic literary art over the years that I will always respect and admire it.

Sometimes it's good for people to write something just for themselves, or that maybe only one or two other people ever will see. It takes you back to the purely creative, cathartic form of writing, almost like a form of meditation. You aren't worried about genre or demographic or sales or anything of the sort. And there's something very freeing in that.

There's nothing wrong with writing stories to entertain the masses, but I encourage every writer to keep in touch with her heart and write some private pieces if need be. Sometimes we get so busy trying to escape real life by writing fiction and hoping we'll hit it big and turn it into our source of income that we don't ever deal with, analyze, and exorcise the old demons that haunt us. And what better way for a writer to do that than write some creative non-fiction?

Today I Learned What "Eid" Is

The end of the Ramadan fast is here, and some of my students at the ELI dressed up all nifty for it. The holiday after Ramadan is called "Eid." One student even gave me chocolate - I'm always up for an excuse to eat chocolate.


Here we are in color...




And in sepia!



I've just learned all kinds of things this summer! Where will life take me next??