Kathryn Sullivan writes science fiction and fantasy, including Middle Grade fantasy novels THE CRYSTAL THRONE, TALKING TO TREES, and short story collection AGENTS, ADEPTS & APPRENTICES. She is owned by a large cockatoo, who graciously allows her to write about other animals, as well as birdlike aliens. Kathryn lives in Winona, MN, where the river bluffs along the Mississippi River double as cliffs on alien planets or the deep mysterious forests in a magical world.
If you could have any magical power, but it came with a ridiculous side effect, what would the power be and what would the side effect be?
I’m having to travel a lot, so the magical power I’d like to have nowadays is teleportation. And I’d like the side effect to be changing my hair color. It would be kinda fun to have striped or purple hair. I can’t do it in real life because it would freak out my pet bird.
If you had to choose between being a mermaid or a dragon, which would you pick and why?
Dragon. Mermaid would be limited to water, where the dragon can be on land, in water or the sky. Flying would be so cool.
If you had to survive in a fantasy world with only the contents of your fridge, what would be your game plan?
Raid someone else’s fridge. Although I did stock up on Pepsi recently, so I should be good for a week or two.
If you could swap lives with any of the mythical creatures from your books for a day, which one would you choose and why?
For just one day? Rafi, the gryphon pictured on the cover of Talking to Trees. He’s still a kid, but he’s also learning magic from his big sister. So I couldn’t goof things up too badly with her to protect me and I’d have a chance to fly. Gryphons are cool.
If you were to write a love story between a human and an alien, what challenges would they face?
Major one would be reproduction, unless they had access to advanced genetic splicing. Where would they live? Would earth food have the proper nutrients for survival? Gravity and bone density? They’d have to have great communication skills in order to offset missing body language cues.
If you were to write a book about a group of superheroes with completely useless powers, what would their powers be?
You mean like the Legion of Substitute Heroes? Yes, I was a major fan of the Legion of SuperHeroes comic. The writers, though, usually found a way to make those ‘useless’ powers useful in specific cases. Useless powers… The ability to lose things. Herding dust bunnies.
If you had to choose between being a time traveler or a space explorer, which would you pick and why?
Space explorer. As much as there are some time periods I’d like to visit, the idea of going out among the stars is too cool to resist.
If you had to choose between having the ability to speak with animals or plants, which would you choose and why?
Animals. Plants take sooooo looooong to respond (why yes, I do have characters who can talk to both).
If you could have any magical power, but the catch was that you had to perform a ridiculous dance every time you used it, what power would you choose and what would your dance look like?
Oh, please, I had to attend dancing school from the age of 2 and a half to 16. Ballet, toe, tap, jazz… I know so many ‘ridiculous’ dances, and will still break into dance to the right music. Also to coax my cockatoo out of a screaming fit (she’s very partial to bobbing up and down with wing flourishes).
I’ll stick with teleportation. The dance… Stomp (to activate the magic), step (with finger snaps), step, step, slide right, slide left, twirl, and stomp to end (and grab suitcases).
If you had to live on a spaceship with one fictional character for the rest of your life, who would it be and why?
If the spaceship is the TARDIS, then definitely the Doctor. It might be a dangerous life, but never dull. If you were secretly an alien visitor to the Earth, why are you here?
Trying to find intelligent life. There’s a few, thankfully.
Define “Science Fiction” as Damon Knight did (“What we’re pointing to when we say ‘Science Fiction'”), but without using your finger.
Pointing with my chin?
If you could transport yourself to any fictional universe you’ve seen in a book you liked, which universe would you go to?
Oh, so so many. The Liaden Universe® as depicted by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, with space travel and psi powers (though I’d mess up so many bows and be thought so rude)..
Miribile or Hellspark, both books by Janet Kagan. I love both books.
And the universe James White’s Sector General is set in.
Which trope of science fiction (phasers, transporters, time machines, much more) would you like to see put into our own reality? And how would you use it in a mundane way?
The Worldgates, those in Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series, though I’d need to be a wizard to use them, or the transmitters/transporters in Lloyd Biggles’ All the Colors of Darkness and Watchers of the Dark, which were already set up as a way to travel, replacing airlines and buses and trains. Walk though one gate in New York and instantly appear in Paris. Or another world. Yes, I want those.
What’s next?
Upcoming conventions for January – CONsole Room this weekend, February – Gallifrey One, followed by FenCon, and March – MarsCon and Minicon.
In 2022, two books were reprinted. Talking to Trees was released by Zumaya Publications and Michael and the Elf by Fox Pointe Publishing.
Michael and the Elf is a picture book, with Michael finding a tiny elf in his parents’ garden.
In Talking to Trees, 13-year-old Jody Burns is pulled into a magical world to help trees threatened by an ancient evil.
Kathryn Sullivan’s website http://kathrynsullivan.com
Facebook author page https://www.facebook.com/KathrynSullivan.author
Steve Davidson is the publisher of Amazing Stories.
Steve has been a passionate fan of science fiction since the mid-60s, before he even knew what it was called.
