Professional bio

Before scrolling down to review my creds, start with this:  According to Anthony Bourdain's TV producer of "Parts Unknown", I am the  "anti-editor."  Not sipping cognac in the smoking room at Oxford, but popping open a beer to share with my orangutans in the jungles of Borneo.  Not booking a flight to the Frankfurt Book Festival, but paying a smuggler to get me and my family across the Straits of Singapore at  2:00 in the morning after the gunboats passed. I bring literary experience and LIFE experience to my course.

I am a professional editor and publisher; my most notable of perhaps thirty or forty clients are Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jonathan Freedman, and Fred Rivera, whose novel I edited and published under my own banner, A Word with You Press. Rivera’s Raw Man won the Isabel Allende Miraposa Award for Best New Fiction. Furthermore, one of my own novels, The Boy with a Torn Hat was a finalist for Best Literary Fiction by USA Book Awards. I wrote the lead reviews for The San Diego Union Tribune for seven years, have been awarded grants by Pen USA to teach novel writing, and have conducted north of 150 writer workshops.

I wrote lead book reviews for the San Diego Union Tribune for seven years, have published the work of approximately 25 authors under my banner, and was the founder of Kid Expression, a 501(c) (3) to develop children’s ability to write their stories.

Published works include:

The Boy with a Torn Hat 2010

Almost Avalon 2015

Anthologies:

The Coffeeshop Chronicles: Oh, the Places I have Bean! 2010

The Courtesans of God:  Book One-The Prophecy of Che' Wan  2022

The Courtesans of God: Book Two - Defiance 2024

Kid Expressions 2012

Inside the Lines—Outside the Box 2012

5×5: Keeping the Dream Aloft 2019

Non-fiction:

Fire in the Belly: How to Write Your Novel with Purpose and Passion April 2021

It is my pleasure to endorse Thornton Sully as a capable and inspiring creative writing instructor. His engaging teaching style and unique lesson plans helped draw stories out of our students and convinced them that they were talented, innovative storytellers.

Heather Simons
Manager of Pen in the Classroom

I toiled long and hard for years on my book Raw Man before I met Thornton Sully. He helped me realize that I did have a story to tell and his belief in me raised my own hopes of being a published author. I would never have had such a wonderful experience without his enthusiastic help. He is easy to work with and a joy to be around. He guided me through the rough spots and as a team, we created a work that has drawn praise.

Fred Rivera

Published Author and 2015 Winner Isabelle Allende Miraposa Award for Best New Fiction 2015 and Pulitzer Prize Nominee

Thorn intuitively seemed to get where I was going and lent remarkably sound and salient advice for honing and refining my manuscript to its best outcome. Thorn has great “people skills” and is able to impart his professional wisdom including constructive critiques in a very firm yet gentle and palliative way. I have emerged from Thorn’s care with a new-found confidence regarding my soon-to-be manuscript.

Kristine Grant

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and author of Relationshift© Your Heart—My Words…What You Meant to Say