How #1 NY Times Bestselling Author Mark Sullivan Writes

#1 New York Times bestselling author, Mark Sullivan, spoke to me about the story that saved his life, how to write history’s darkest chapters, and his latest novel based on a true story, All the Glimmering Stars.

Mark Sullivan is a journalist and award-winning, bestselling author of 20 novels including Beneath a Scarlet Sky, The Last Green Valley, and the #1 New York Times bestselling Private series, which he writes with James Patterson.

His latest historical novel, All the Glimmering Stars (May 7, 2024), is “Inspired by a true story [of] two teens kidnapped by an African warlord [that] find salvation through love in a powerful [story] … set in 1990s Uganda.”

New York Times bestselling author Gregg Hurwitz, said of the book, “Mark Sullivan’s All the Glimmering Stars is the pinnacle of an already distinguished career. A searing piece of historical fiction steeped in a yearslong deep dive into the horrors of child soldiering, it is at its core something tender and rare: a love story between two profoundly good people striving for light in unimaginable darkness.”

Mark Sullivan graduated with a BA in English before working as a volunteer in the Peace Corps in West Africa. Upon his return to the US, he earned a graduate degree in Journalism at Northwestern University.

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In this file Mark Sullivan and I discussed:

His former life as an award-winning investigative journalist

How his cross-cultural skills inform his work today

Why he decided to make the transition from suspense to historical fiction

Searching for the deeper meaning behind his storytelling

The four things he has to have before he can write a story

His intensive research process

And a lot more!

Show Notes: