Timothy Robert Sullivan (June 9, 1948 – November 10, 2024) was an American science fiction novelist, screenwriter, actor, film director and short story writer.

[3] "Under Glass" (2011), a well-reviewed semi-autobiographical short story with occult hints, has been translated into Chinese and is the basis for a screenplay by director/actor Ron Ford.

Tim and Charlie developed a love of genre fiction from their father, who brought home for them books and comics ranging from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Vladimir Nabokov to Mad magazine.

Tim shared these with his neighbors, who included Richard Tozier (who has become a jazz radio personality at Maine Public Broadcasting Network,[5] and who is featured in three Stephen King novels, It, Dreamcatcher and 11/22/63[6]).

Sullivan helped Dr. Collins create what has become the prestigious International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA; originally called Swanncon in honor of fantasy author and former FAU professor Thomas Burnett Swann).

Among his day jobs, Sullivan has worked in construction, in a bookstore, in a library, in a liquor store and other retail sites,[9] as a night guard, as a taxicab driver, and with helping and teaching the mentally challenged.

This science fiction novel was followed by The Parasite War in 1989, The Martian Viking in 1991, and Lords of Creation in 1992, and another horror anthology, Cold Shocks (Avon, 1991), among other books.

Among the fiction and nonfiction he reviewed are included: Kathleen Ann Goonan's The Bones of Time;[10] a review of a novel by Walter Jon Williams, Metropolitan, which Sullivan characterized as highly readable "due largely to pungent characterization and persuasive dialogue"; and Allen Steele's novel The Tranquillity Alternative (1995), which he praised in the same issue of Book World.

[12] Throughout the 1990s, he scripted, directed and acted in several low-budget science fiction and horror films, most notably Twilight of the Dogs (1995) and Hollywood Mortuary (1998), both of which have become cult favorites.

The book proved to be a complexly moody depiction of humanity at the end of its tether in an array of Dying-Earth venues, as Secret Masters from the stars with quasimagical Technologies manipulate the course of events.

Other sf of interest included The Parasite War (1989), which garishly intensifies the premises of V with a few scattered humans engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Aliens who have nearly destroyed the planet; The Martian Viking (1991), in which a prisoner escapes from Mars and roams space and time with stern but rowdy Vikings; and Lords of Creation (1992), which combines palaeontological fantasy including dinosaur eggs and another alien Invasion.

"[31] Science fiction scholar Fiona Kelleghan has written that Sullivan "often turn[s] to classical history and mythology to dramatize his concerns about contemporary American culture - although the historical settings suggest a Santayana-esque view of our so-called post-historical era.

His books are viciously funny in a deadpan way..."[32] The Locus Index to Science Fiction: 1984–1998 described Destiny's End as a "transcendental, philosophical space opera.

"[36] Robert Silverberg, who purchased Sullivan's early story "The Rauncher Goes to Tinker Town" for his New Dimensions series of science fiction anthologies, called it "vivid and energetic".

"[41] Colleen Chen, writing a review for Tangent magazine of "Through Mud One Picks a Way", said, "Sullivan revisits a space and time he's written about before — a future in which main characters hail from Cet 4, a heavy-gravity planet tough to live on but with abundant natural resources.

In this story, taking place on Earth, Uxanna Venz has been hired by a fellow named Hob to communicate with three Cetians whom he has illegally obtained and wants to use for his own benefit.

There's more twists to the story, though, as Uxanna learns the truth about their appearance on Earth, and then unveils her own surprises as she tries to do what's best for the Cetians at the same time as earning her money.

"[42]Eamonn Murphy, writing for the SF Crowsnest, agreed: "Through Mud One Picks A Way" by Tim Sullivan ... is genuine Science Fiction about three aliens from Cet Four who have been transported to Earth by a businessman for purposes unknown.