Faith Sullivan

Latest News

Faith Sullivan — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:14:56 +0000

I will be teaching July 12-16 at the fabulous Madeline Island School of the Arts, off the Wisconsin shore of Lake Superior (transportation back and forth by ferry). My week-long workshop is called, “Where The Action Is: Gripping Characters Create Gripping Action.” I love teaching this material, and especially in the Madeline Island setting. If you’ve been there you know how wonderful it is. If you haven’t, you’ve got a real treat in store.

For more information, please click here.

Thoughts from the hammock

Faith Sullivan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:16:28 +0000

Morning in L.A. Sun through the heavy curtain still warm and bright. Sitting and schmoozing. Chris waiting by the door. Patient little man. An elegant gentleman to the core. Ready whenever you are, he says.

When such matters are considered

Faith Sullivan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:20:42 +0000

I believe that in the misty future when such matters are considered, the overshadowing historical feature of the twentieth century will not be the unleashing of the atom or the rise of the Third World, but the rise of the Second World – women. The novels I write, whether comic or serious, deal with the oftentimes subtle, unconscious, evolving image women have of themselves – women who do not ordinarily or consciously perceive themselves as feminist, but whose perspectives and expectations have been radically, irrevocably altered by feminist politics and the mid-century emergence of the female work force.

What are the new conflicts and satisfactions, losses and rewards – emotional, intellectual, as well as tangible – for the ubiquitous, nonexistent ‘average woman’? This sort of question underlies the kind of intimate, personally detailed novel I enjoy writing and reading.

Colloquial saying from readers

Faith Sullivan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:19:24 +0000

A hop, skip and a jump from here
What the Sam Hill–?
What in tarnation–?
I’ll be a monkey’s uncle
A month of Sundays
Once in a blue moon
Can’t teach an old dog new tricks
No fool like an old fool
Raining cats and dogs
Curiosity killed the cat
Hold your horses
For Pete’s sake
For the love of Mike
For crying out loud
You can’t get blood from a turnip
Blood is thicker than water
Blood will tell
So help me Hannah
Jeepers!
Jeepers Creepers!
I’ll betcha two bits
Up the creek without a paddle
Scarce as hens’ teeth
Hubba hubba
My stars and garters
Hotter than a gangster’s pistol
It’s the cat’s pajamas…the cat’s meow… the bee’s knees…
He’d lie when the truth would serve him better
She looked as if she’d been dragged through a knothole backwards
It’s a pip or pipperoo
There are more hoses’ behinds than there are horses
Whipper-snapper
I’ve got a hitch in my git-along
It’s not where you sit on Sundays but where you stand the rest of the week

Critics praise Gardenias

Faith Sullivan — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:50:50 +0000

It’s 1942, just a month after the United States entered World War II. Lark, her mother Arlene, and Aunt Betty are in a station changing trains, leaving their lives in Harvester, Minnesota behind, and waiting for the train going to Los Angeles. Young men — soldiers — swarm the platform, heading off to war. Against this dramatic backdrop, Gardenias revisits Faith Sullivan’s most beloved characters from The Cape Ann, taking them from their hometown to new lives, new dreams, and new risks. Arlene has left her husband behind after he gambled away the money she’d saved to finally build the Cape Ann house of her and Lark’s Depression-era dreams. As a new life takes shape in San Diego in a wartime housing project full of neighbors they know little about, Lark wonders, as does the reader, if a dream means losing everything of value or finally finding it.

Critics praise Gardenias

“Gardenias proves that even life’s missed opportunities can offer some of the most rewarding story lines.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Fans won’t be disappointed.”
St. Paul Pioneer Press