Hello from Ryan

Here goes.

Do you have a nickname?
I've been called many things in my life.  Some were not very nice.  I go by Ryan, though.

What do you like to read?
First and foremost, anything by Guy Gavriel Kay.  I love the Fionavar Tapestry.  Other than that, mostly fantasy with some science fiction thrown in for seasoning.  I love stories that are stylistically elegant, that have an emotional punch like a bullet to the head.   My three favorite short stories are "All the Little Gods We Are" by John Grant, "The Logic of the World" by Robert Kelly, and "Kreisler's Automata" by Matthew David Surridge, and I'll defend them to the death.  I've even ventured into the depths of fanfiction, of which Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is by far the best.

Oh, and Terry Pratchett.  Never have the hilarious and the heartbreaking been so closely intertwined.


What kind of stories do you write?
As with my reading, mostly fantasy, broadly defined.  I want everything I write to be beautiful and moving, without descending into melodrama (a goal I sometimes fail to achieve).  My stories are often dreamlike, sometimes surreal, with a lot of focus on style, sometimes to the detriment of the rest of the story.  I also write fanfiction, a fact about which I'm not sure I feel ashamed or defiantly proud.

How would you describe your personality?
Ascerbic on the surface, caring and compassionate deep down.  There's a lot of barnacles and detritus that's built up on the hull of this ship, and sometimes it needs a good scraping.  Other than that, I try to laugh a lot and make other people laugh.  Do not take everything I say at face value.  I am an unreliable narrator, and I poke dragons for fun, just to see what they'll do.

What would you do this summer if you hadn't been accepted to Clarion?
Ossifying in Arkansas.

Who will miss you most while you're in San Diego (cats, kids, partner, boss, coworkers)?
My coworkers have already told me that I can't possibly leave for six weeks.  Thankfully, my boss said otherwise.  As for my family, well, they have lives of their own, and shouldn't miss me too much.

Have you participated in an intensive writing workshop before?
Nope.  I've been in some undergraduate creative writing workshops, but never anything with the intensity of Clarion.

What scares you most about Clarion?
That I'll be revealed as a bad writer.  That I'll say something stupid that makes everyone angry at me. Everything one might imagine would plague an unpublished writer when among others of equal or greater talent.

What do you do to relax or for recreation?
I read.  Read, read, read.  I have over 1500 books or stories on my Kindle, of which about 300 are anthologies of short stories.  This does not include my boxes and boxes of physical books, of which there are at least 200.  I am a bookaholic.

I also play RuneScape when I should be writing.

What 1-2 essential things will you bring to Clarion besides your laptop, watergun, and espresso maker?
My electronic paraphernalia and my pet dragon.

What is your ideal career?
Omnipotent ruler of the universe.  If that is unattainable, then I would like to be a bestselling, critically-acclaimed writer.

What else do you want us to know about you?
I was once asked to be a stunt double for the Titanic, and though I have been known to say nasty things, I hardly ever mean them.  As I said above, I am an unreliable narrator.