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Read Clayton Sullivan's profile
SLR:
Hi Dr.
Sullivan. Let's start from the very beginning for those who don't
know you. Where
were you born and raised in
Mississippi?
CS:
Born and raised in
Mississippi.
Lived for a while in
Louisville,
Kentucky
and
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania., but mostly in
Mississippi.
SLR:
I
understand your background to be in philosophy and religion. First,
what led you in that direction and second, how did you come to write
fiction?
CS:
I
felt an inner voice, an intuition if you will to become a southern
Baptist minister. I wanted to be a lawyer, I mean, who would
voluntarily be a clergyman, a pastor. It’s a demanding, low paying
job with high expectations. The only explanation I can see for
anyone going into the ministry is this intuition, this inner voice.
I talk about this in my book,
Called To Preach, Condemned To Survive .
SLR: A
calling from God.
CS:
Yes, a calling from God.
SLR:
And you turned to fiction because?
CS: To
answer your other question, I turned to writing, and now writing
fiction for something meaningful in my life. I’m salvaging what I
can out of a broken dream. To me, the novel is a walk through the
human heart and that’s what I’m interested in now. That’s what’s
meaningful to me. A lot of people don’t like what I’m saying. A lot
of folks were pretty upset with my book Saving Jesus from the
Christians, but I’m an old man and I don’t mind. I have to say
these things now. I have to do what’s meaningful.
SLR:
Before
talking about the novel, I wanted to ask you about your studies. I
know you went to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and later
you studied middle-eastern religion. What made you interested in
studying middle-eastern religion and did it change the way you
viewed the Baptist theology you grew up learning?
CS:
It was academic. I had to take comparative religion courses you see
in order to fulfill my requirements. I chose religions that dealt
with Judaism. I studied them for professional reasons, but as I
grew older and got to know the religions and people of these
religions I realized that they had a lot to offer the world. They
had valuable religious traditions. The Southern Baptist do not teach
us to rejoice in the pluralism of religions and that’s a shame.
SLR:
On your
debut novel, like your other books, it has a great title, which
frankly I find hard to do. Do you come up with these titles?
CS:
I come up with my own titles. I just try to think about what will
grab a person’s attention.. I go through a lot of titles in my head
before I settle on one. With
Why Beulah Shot her Pistol Inside the Baptist Church church, well, I hoped that a person would read that
title and want to know the reason why.
SLR:
Humor
can be difficult to write, and you do it well in this book. Do you
find humor to come naturally, or does the hard work seem effortless
to those of us who read the book?
CS:
People
tell me all the time how funny this book is and that surprises me. I
didn’t mean for it to be funny. I mostly wanted it to be real. I
wanted young girls who come from the kind of life Beulah comes from
to be able to relate to her. That’s what I wanted. I had no idea
people would find the book so humorous. It’s a nice surprise.
SLR:
I heard
you say at a book reading that Beulah’s character was a result of
years spent counseling young women in
University of Southern Mississippi. How much of her character is
authentic to the Mississippi
culture of young women there, and how much of her character is for
the sake of entertainment? Because Beulah is certainly an
entertaining character.
CS:
I would say that 99% of Beulah comes from the women I taught at the
university and women I’ve counseled as a minister. My niece is a
psychologist in
Birmingham
and she’s seen a lot of women in the South like Beulah. They are
slaves to their husbands. This happens all over I know, not just in
the South, but the South is what I know. I know these women in
Mississippi.
SLR:
I would
like to talk about the narration of this book. The voice is strong
and it’s all Beulah. While you did an excellent job writing from
the point of view of a young woman, you have, of course,
never been a young woman. Did you find it hard to write in this
voice?
CS:
I always knew I had to write this book from Beulah’s point of view
and frankly it wasn’t hard. I guess all those years of counseling
and teaching made it easier. You see, Beulah was in what I call the
rural rut and there are a lot of women out there just like Beulah.
Stuck in the rural rut. I wanted those young women to read this
book and know they weren’t the first to go through something like
this.
SLR:
There
were several times in this story when I thought, oh, that’s why
Beulah shot her pistol in the Baptist
Church, and then the story would go another way and I was wrong.
Without giving away the ending for those who haven’t read the book,
can you speak to the process of writing this novel? Did you know
the ending before started writing?
I had a
pretty good idea of where the story was going. There were scenes to
work out, but overall, yes, I knew.
SLR:
Are we
going to see Beulah again?
CS: No. This is it. I’ve moved on.
SLR:
What
writers influenced you the most when you were young?
CS:
I
didn’t take an interest in stories until I went to college and took
an American Literature course. I was introduced to Sinclair Lewis.
A had a real thirst for knowledge and read a lot, but Sinclair Lewis
was probably the most influential. An early favorite.
SLR:
Though you’re a well published author, this is your first novel. Do
you plan on writing more novels? How did you find this experience
different from your non-fiction writing?
CS:
Yes, I have another novel coming out call Why Professor Sinclair
While Naked Sat on a Thorn Bush.
SLR:
As a
well-read southerner how would you define southern literature?
CS:
Southern Literature, in my opinion, is literature that captures the
essence of the old confederacy.
SLR:
Who do
you like to read now?
CS:
Now? Well, I have to say that right now I’m so busy writing that
when I get a spare moment I don’t want to sit. I’m doing too much
writing right now to read.
SLR:
What’s
next in terms of your writing?
Well
there’s the novel I mentioned and I have another book that comes out
in March 2006, Saving Sex from the Christians.
SLR:
That sounds like a whole separate interview. Look forward to that.
CS:
I’d like to come back and tell you about it. It’s a topic that
needs to be talked about.
SLR:
It was a pleasure talking with you Dr. Sullivan. Thank
you.
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