Interview with Tom Sullivan
about "Adventures in Darkness"

Added June 26, 2007

Joyce: Welcome to In the Library Reviews! Thank you for agreeing to answer a few questions for our readers.

After reading your book, Adventures in Darkness, many people will look upon you as a hero. But who is your hero?

Tom: I suppose I need to look at this question on two levels. Today, my hero clearly is my wife, Patty, who has put up with me for 38 years. Her love and support has been the most consistent part of my adult life. In relation to Tom, the little boy, my heroes came from radio dramas, the Red Sox, Billy Hannon, and my father. For me, heroes are critical, inspirational people that keep life on track, and allow me to believe that anything is possible.

Joyce: Okay, you wanted to be a "normie", but are you leading a normal life? From what I read about your accomplishments, you have achieved a measure of success many people only dream about. Is there any other mountain for you to climb?

Tom: As a little boy, my sense of "normie" was all about belonging to the world I so desperately wanted to be a part of. As an adult, I've come to understand that "normal" isn't enough. Exceptional is necessary if any of us are going to succeed. By "exceptional," I mean that everyone has uniqueness to offer life, and it's in our recognition of our individual uniqueness that we find a purposeful meaning for living. The little boy who wanted to be "normal," now strives to be a contributor, and special.

Joyce: I was amazed at the word pictures in your book. I saw it all. I remember you describing Perkins' School for the Blind with these words: "...even a blind person couldn't miss the beauty of the place." Did you find it difficult to write scenes from your childhood and make them come to life with such startling details? (I can still hear the whoosh of the ball as you pitched in the Little League game!)

Tom: I think my appreciation for detail, or pictures, comes from the way my memory plugs into four terrific senses rather than just one. I believe most people with sight live in visual immediacy. If you don't see it...it's not there. Blind people build awareness on the input of listening, smelling, touching, and tasting. What a great way to live! I literally can taste Miss Green's cookies just thinking about them. Ocean smells come to me with complete clarity. And sound is constantly vivid in my head. Even more important, I can always remember the feeling of a hug offered by someone I loved. Who's handicapped anyway?

Joyce: Your childhood had two very different boys affecting your life. Eddy teased and taunted you, while Billy became your best friend. What did those two boys see in you and what did you see in them?

Tom: About the boys: Eddie was real, but probably not as dark as I framed him. He came from a difficult childhood, and gray is probably more accurate in describing his temperament. After our fight, I actually got along with him. Though we never became friends, he clearly came to respect who I was, and I hope went on to be more balanced in his sense of people.

Billy, on the other hand is as good as I portrayed him. My mother always said he should have been a priest, but he is married to the most wonderful woman, and enjoys sports and Irish pubs just as I do. All in all, he remains the best human being I have every known.

Joyce: In your book, you told about a couple of dangerous adventures, one involving a rescue by the Coast Guard and the other requiring a trip to the ER. Are readers right in assuming that your desire to become involved in the world was greater than your desire to live?

Tom: Let me be clear, the risks I took to be part of the world were the risks of a boy who did not measure the consequences in the way I would today. My skiing is a good example. At 25 years old, I roared down hills with no fear of falling. Today, I still ski fast, but I'm far safer and much more careful. Reward was worth all the risks I took, but I sure would not approach my life that way anymore.

Joyce: What happened after you walked to school with Billy that day? Was it everything you always imagined and wanted? Was it the key that unlocked your potential?

Tom: This is one of those places in the memoir where fact intersects author's license. In actual fact, I did not attend public school, but went back to Perkins. In this book, with all the pressure to integrate disabled kids into society, I felt the message was more important if Tom took his place in the public school environment. I graduated from Perkins in High School, and then attended both Providence and Harvard Colleges.

Joyce: Who is your target audience? I'm sure you're an inspiration to blind people, yet I sense you wanted to give sighted folk an important message too.

Tom: Hopefully my audience for this book is the American family. I believe there is very little literature in the marketplace that prompts families to share together. In your review you mentioned Tom Sawyer, and you were so right. I am committed for the rest of my life to write books that prompt families to connect through the sharing of literature. Let's hope I can continue to get better at this craft.

Joyce: Is there anything you would have wanted to change about your life? Or are you reconciled to the wonderful truth of Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

Tom: I'm very interested in your quote from Romans. Because I believe I was placed here in God's plan for a purpose. Think of it this way: If I had been born 3 years earlier, there would have been no incubators and I would have died. Had I been born 5 years later, the oxygen flow in those units would not have cost me my eyesight. So, in effect, I was placed in exactly the slot I was meant to fill. I believe I have been far more valuable as a blind person that I ever would have been as a sighted human being. As I noted in the book, I have had a wonderful life, and wouldn't change it for the world.

Joyce: Once again, thank you Tom Sullivan for sharing your thoughts and for providing readers with an exceptional book!

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