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Trees can talk.
A silver bracelet can be the key to another world.
This is the world of science fiction and fantasy — and it’s a world Kathryn Sullivan loves to live in.
“There’s so much possibility,” Sullivan said. “Anything can happen.”
And it does.
Sullivan inherited her love of science fiction from her father. He passed on books by Hal Clement, Isaac Asimov and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
“Our basement was basically one huge library,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan’s love of reading nurtured her love of writing. She has two new books in release: “Talking to Trees,” the sequel to her first published book, “The Crystal Throne,” and “Michael and the Elf,” a children’s picture book.
“The Crystal Throne” was first released as an e-book in 2000 and published in 2003 by Amber Quill Press, the same company publishing “Talking to Trees.”
In March 2003, “The Crystal Throne” won in the best fantasy category at the Electronically Published Internet Connection convention in Seattle.
Sullivan is from Berkeley, Ill., and has been a librarian at Winona State University since she moved here in 1978.
With her day job, finding time to write can be a challenge. She gets inspiration from the books she reads as well as from her two birds, a cockatoo named Bayla and a Jenday named MacGyver, who both often perch on her shoulder while she writes.
She named MacGyver after the popular TV show that she’s happy to report has just been released on DVD.
“He can turn any household object into a toy,” Sullivan says of her bird.
Sullivan’s ability to suspend disbelief carries to accepting sound in outer space as seen in “Star Wars” and time travel as witnessed in “Dr. Who.” That doesn’t mean she’s OK with sloppy science fiction.
“Too many movies get the science all wrong,” Sullivan said.
In “Talking to Trees,” Sullivan makes an unlikely hero out of Jody Burns, a young girl whom Sullivan describes as a bit of a screamer and an airhead.
The character was a challenge for Sullivan to write.
“Sometimes if I get stalled, it’s better to switch universes,” Sullivan said. That’s when she’ll continue with one of the other projects she’s working on.
She’s always enjoyed going to sci-fi conventions but now brings her books along to sell.
Last year, she attended the World Science Fiction convention in Scotland and will attend a Dr. Who convention in Los Angeles in February.
Sullivan was part of a Dr. Who club in Winona until 1989. Her favorite Dr. Who — and there have been 10 — is the second one.
“He could fool people,” Sullivan said. “He seemed very childish, but he knew what was going on.”
While some people have preconceived notions of science fiction, Sullivan is quick to point out its limitlessness.
“With science fiction, you never know what you’re going to get,” Sullivan said. “It could be a mystery, a romance, history. You’ve got all the different genres within this one.”
Contact Käri Knutson at kknutson@ winonadaily news.com or 453-3523.
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