Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
—William Shakespeare, Macbeth
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Hi, I’m Christopher Ryan, a hybrid author with forty years of experience in journalism, education, sketch comedy, indie film, unions, community service, parenting, public speaking, acting, podcasting, and, most often, writing fiction, poetry, and pop culture essays. Now I’m working to discover what more I can achieve and share with the world, and whether an older author can find a place in the storytelling business. Together, let’s see what’s possible.
***
NEWSish Stuff
Appearances
No upcoming bookings. For now.
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This Week’s Tell The Damn Story Features a double episode with John Collins
We’ve been working on this one for awhile because John Collins’ story is one every aspiring writer and/or creative should hear. And we let him tell it. Here is an author of exceptional talent that did not know he truly had it in him but tried anyway. An author who got serious about writing a bit later in life and found a way. A storyteller who is largely self-taught, who listened to key advice from talented friends, and invested in himself with time and belief and self-discipline. An author whose hard work and dedication and study of his influences is now paying off in great tales that are beginning to catch on.
Warm, funny, and heartfelt, these dual episode s will entertain, inform, and, hopefully, inspire you to check out this emerging author’s worthwhile work.
Here are the links:
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Soul Scream Antholozine – Madness Takes Its Toll gets its first five star rating
Last week we released it, and we’ve already gotten a five star rating on Amazon. Thank you to whomever posted it. And yes, we encourage all of you to check out this feast of fun and post your ratings as well!
Here’s the link: https://a.co/d/0hHn7Zoa
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Even as I’m marketing Soul Scream Antholozine, the next project is in the works
I love the eighth issue of Souls Scream Antholozine, this one called Madness Takes Its Toll as it deals with a wide array of emotional trauma and, yes, insanity. If you follow my socials, you’ll see more promo for SSA as the days and weeks follow, but here at the home office, we’re already working on the next projects.
Okay, I’m working on them. Sonny Mehlman is laying around near me claiming he’s doing security.
The Security Chief hard at work.
Isabella Crumple is hanging out wherever she damn pleases alleging she is working on the marketing campaign that will catapult (I see what she did there) us to the top of bestseller lists around the world.
The marketing genius, hard at work.
Meanwhile, I’m at the keyboard every day writing short pieces of fiction to submit, columns to post, and editing our Next Big Thing.
What is it, you may ask?
A pulp anthology.
I’ve always loved the pulp genre, and suspect that everything I write be it novels, Soul Scream, poetry or what have you, always have a streak of pulp coursing through it. This time, there’s no hiding it.
Resurrected from a project Alex Simmons and I were preparing for another publisher (which fell through as many projects do), over the last year or so I grew more and more obsessed with the possibility of these beloved heroes fighting an evil that is still very present today.
After many iterations, and edits, the title is The Fight Never Ends!
Wanna know the authors and characters they are going to be writing? Here we go:
- The fun takes off with an introduction by Jim Beard
- Alex Simmons will be writing Blackjack and Secret Agent-X
- I’m writing Sally the Sleuth
- Jon Frater is bringing back Captain Zero
- Bobby Nash is gracing us with a new Domino Lady adventure
- James Chambers is doing a pulp turn on The Heap
- Charles Barouch is writing The Moon Man
- And Thomas Sniegoski and Jeannine Acheson will bring all home with Grim Death
These are mostly public domain, except for Alex’s Blackjack character and Thomas Sniegoski’s Grim Death. We believe the public domain characters deserve more time in the spotlight, and are immensely grateful to Alex and Tom for allowing their characters to take part in this anthology/novel-in-short-stories project.
Look for it around the end of October.
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Bob and Grace
Bob: Grace, I haven’t heard you make jokes about the government for awhile; what’s the matter?
Grace: With grocery and gas prices rising, losing a war to Iran we started, importing beef we know nothing about, contaminating fruits and vegetables, starting a cold war with Canada, renaming Lake Ontario, trying to build helipads and ballrooms and redecorating everything with his name, who can compete with this clown?
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On Writing: Even writers take a vacation, sort of
Yes, I’m hard at work on all of the above, but Glorious and I, and Sonny Mehlman, took time for a vacation last week.
For all of 36 hours.
And even on vacation, we were still working.
First of all, Chief of Security Sonny Mehlman kept vigilant watch:
And we did research all the way there and back, listening to the excellent horror noir audio book Grim Death and the Electrocuted Criminal by our friend Thomas Sniegoski.
It is available wherever podcasts are, and it is highly recommended by all three of us.
And just to add to his legend, Sonny kept vigilant even though he was truly pissed at us for staying up to the ungodly time of 11:30 pm.
You know them writer families on vacation just go buck wild.
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Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
—William Shakespeare, Macbeth
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Feel free to share this with anyone you think would enjoy it. Thanks.
Awright, thanks for stopping by. Talk atcha next week.
Chris Ryan 