Who is Mac Sullivan (Part One)?

I’ve mentioned previously on social media that I’m a habitual plotter and outliner when I write a book. I have hundreds of ideas flying around in my head for my books and characters at any given time (thanks ADHD!) and organizing things in this way allows me to embrace my brain chaos and really cook when it’s time to start writing!

One of the things I do is create character sheets for all major characters in my novels (and sometimes minor ones too if they play a pivotal but small role)

This is the character sheet for Marcus “Mac” Sullivan, my main character for my “Cook’s Guide” series that starts with “A Cook’s Guide to Supernatural Philadelphia” (currently on the query journey as of 11/12/2025). The idea for this character actually started when I was watching a re-run episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. At one point in an episode he mentions: “Barbeque may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start.”

I found that line incredibly awesome. That started the gears turning in my head.

Random idea 1: You know what? The dinner table is the great leveler, and can bring people together who might not otherwise sit in the same room, and immediately have a common bond.

Random idea 2: Anthony Bourdain rocked. His philosophy should be quoted more.

Random idea 3: Could a fantasy book centered around food, cooking it, serving it, and highlighting the people who eat it, be fun to read?

Random idea 4: Philadelphia is one of my favorite cities, especially for good eating.

Random idea 5: What if Philadelphia was ground zero for like, Supernatural Switzerland?

Random idea 6: What if the main character was a chef, hugely inspired by Anthony Bourdain?

Random idea 7: What happens to the sidekick of the hero once the world has been saved?

Random idea 8: Could I start a book off with that “barbeque” line and make it not be complete cheese?

*ZANG*

A Cook’s Guide to Supernatural Philadelphia took its first breath on a late evening in June 2025. I immediately wanted a main character named Marcus (inspired by Marcus Brody in Indiana Jones). Initially, I had imagined Mac as a bit of a bumblesaurus, good hearted but clumsy, accident prone but it somehow always helps a bad situation. Nah…that’s been done too much. But what if…

That’s when I started seeing Mac as the quintessential sidekick that the hero could not be successful without. Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings immediately came to mind. You can absolutely argue that the quest for the One Ring would have inevitably failed if Frodo did not have Sam by his side. Now Mac was taking shape.

Mac became the one in the party that fed everyone. That planned the logistics so the party (and the hero Garrick, he was born around this time too) had the supplies they needed, and a differing opinion to Garrick to keep all the world-saving quests moving.

A funny shift started to occur at this point as I wrote up Mac’s character sheet: Mac became supremely competent, impeccably good hearted, and did not have a spec of supernatural powers. What he did have was a gift of reading people. Of understanding what they needed (especially when it came to food) even before they did. Mac became the one staying up late at the campfire pouring over a book to understand Fae etiquette and food serving customs in order to prepare the group (mainly Garrick) for a big diplomatic summit between the Summer and Winter court.

Garrick became the bumbler. The act-before-thinking-it-through, fire from the hip superhero. His intentions are always good, but he tends to screw things up in a glorious way. That’s where Mac comes in, to save Garrick from himself, to smooth things over in diplomatic situations where talking can avoid violence.

And so, Mac was born. I started exploring the idea of what would someone like that do after the world has been saved? And as it turns out, Mac wanted to take his cooking skills and start a food truck, allowing him to feed the Supernatural community, to continue his passion for cooking and bring people together.

In the next part of this series, we’ll explore some of Mac’s earlier life before the start of “Supernatural Philadelphia” (for anyone interested, I’m halfway through writing book 3 in this series.

Subscribe and stay tuned for the next part in this series of posts as we explore more of the main character of the “Cook’s Guide” series and what makes Mac tick!