Featuring

The Grey Isle Tale - now available!

Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

How to Write & Publish - notes for the road



How to Write & Publish

By Ryan P. Freeman

Hey all, here's my notes for my 2017 Author Tour! Along the way, I'll be stopping at one college and three high schools, talking with students about what it takes to Write & Publish. My goal is to empower new writers to finish their stories and get them published. Without further ado, here's my rundown:
 
Introduction

- About Me

How to Write

- Getting Your Story
            - Vision and Feel

- Pantsers Vs Plotters

- Write!
            - Write what you really, honestly love
            - “Writing is easy, all you have to do is sit down and bleed.” – Hemingway
            - Addressing the voice of doubt
            - Where-How: 1k words/day x 6days/week x 3mo = finished manuscript
            - Take a Break

- Feed Your Imagination
            - Read (Know what good stories are like by immersing yourself in them)
            - Travel
            - Explore
             - Join Writers Groups

- Beta Readers

- When is your story finished?

How to Publish (begin PR)
- Different Publishing Routes
            - Traditional
            - Indie
            - Small Press
            - Self-Publishing

- Design
            - Formatting
            - Feel/Physical size

- Finding a Cover Artist

- Day-of-Publishing
            -launch event

- PR (Keep Writing!)

Summary
- Write!
- Feed Your Imagination
- Publishing
 - PR
- ‘Make Good Art’
- Questions! – Get to it!
- Join Writers Groups in your Area

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Breaking NEWS!

If you haven't seen already...


I've got a brand new
Super-shiny

WEBSITE!!

Behold it in all its glory here:

http://www.ryanpfreeman.com/

(thank you, yet again, to Jennie Kelly and my various contributing concept artists!)

Also:

I've started a super-cool new YouTube series called  
Ryan Talks 
- where I blather on about what it takes to write Fantasy.
 
Feel free to subscribe! 

(That is all.)

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Firehall Beckons!

The Phoenix of Redd, Volume I: Rienspel

Coming this Halloween!

"What Rien discovers about his past will change his future…"

"Rien Sucat wiles his days away, bored-stiff in his small backwoods village. But soon gets more than he bargained for after he befriends a magical Phoenix, accidentally witnesses a secret necromantic ritual, and comes face to face with a league of racist, knife-wielding assassins out for his blood. Travel with Rien as he and the Phoenix journey from the unassuming Rillian village of Nyrgen through the enchanting depths of the Great Wood where the unquiet dead lurk, to the high north country of Firehall - elusive sanctuary of the Elves. Launch into an epic quest with consequences farther reaching than Rien could ever possibly imagine."
 
 
 
"Rienspel is about heart. It is about family and about how the power of love played out in everyday life often carries lasting consequences. Rien’s tale transcends the dim shadows of our own world by revealing the lingering power we all carry through how we live and treat others. It is a tale about the Story we all reside in which readers both young and young-at-heart will find compelling. As C.S. Lewis once penned for his colleague and friend J.R.R. Tolkien, so it is with Rienspel, ‘here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron. Here is a story which will break your heart”… and re-forge it anew in Phoenix-fire."
- Available as ebook via Amazon and print-on-demand via Createspace Halloween, 2016.
 
In the meantime, check out Freeman's The Grey Isle Tale, now available on Amazon!

Monday, May 16, 2016

Awake, Oh Sleeper!

 Awake, Oh Sleeper!



Every small thing is meaningful -
Especially when it comes to writing.

Sometimes, over the long-haul, it's the endurance to keep writing which is the hardest. Be aware of what you're writing and when you have ideas. Jot them down. Don't put them aside until you have! Inspiration can come from the strangest of places. I've come to realize that imagination is the back door to the soul. We humans are creative powder kegs waiting for just the hint of the smallest spark. Be aware of who you are and what excites your passion at a knee-jerk level. Take time to get away, even if its just a walk through a nearby park. Pacing your endurance and tending to your imagination are essential not just for creating great art, but for you as a person.

Too many times, I've heard the term escapism flung at my genre, fantasy. If you're not familiar with the term escapism, it has to generally do with the idea that fantasy is just 'escaping from the supposed real world'. It's an objection which has floated around for quite some time now. Tolkien once asked C.S. Lewis who was opposed to escape.

His answer?
“Jailers.”

Now, I'm not trying to be overtly conspiratorial here or anything; however, who's to say what 'real' is? The two most powerful words in existence are as follows: What If. It's easy to go to school day in day out, or punch the time-card Mon-Fri, 9-5... but is that really the entire circumference of our lives?

One of the reasons I like fantasy is because I feel like the world of long ago has a soul-stirring straightforwardness to it. It's one filled with unlikely peasant heroes, who take up the enchanted sword or the impossible quest against Darkness. It's one where words like heroism and justice mean more than just civil service or legality.

Imagine, for a moment, that the lens of fantasy is not relegated to quasi-medieval Europe. If there was a wicked aunt or an evil king, what would a hero do? Protagonists from legends past would resist and eventually overcome them. Similarly, Niel Gaiman once said, "Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
How much have we been pacified and numbed by our modern culture? What modern spells have put us into an enchanted sleep? And what will it take to break the spell?

I don't yet know.

But I do know that imagination is the backdoor to the soul. I know that with the right story, as a key to ancient locks of secret gardens, slumbering heroes can once again be re-awakened.

My favorite part of the entire Chronicles of Narnia is when for a moment, as Lucy wanders through the forest at night, the trees have all half-awakened at the coming of Aslan; in the moonlight, they all dance around the Great Lion.

I do not count myself as one of the waking ones, but one of the half-slumberers still. When I write, I am trying to wake up - rising up through deep waters to waking. What we see meanwhile, in this dreamtime, may indeed be frightening. It is not overt terror of monsters we now flee from - but the Yawn. From the lie of purposelessness, determinism, and timidity. 

I believe that who we are is yet to be seen. Good stories help awaken us with a whisper and a gleam of something far better and higher than we can now imagine or dream. 

Have you felt it, too? 
Will you heed the clarion summons?

When I read from the great masters, those who have seen and have written back for us, I know I am not them. I am not a great hero nor a wise sage. I'm just me. But perhaps we're exactly who we need to be, where we are, for a reason and purpose greater than all our modern culture has presupposed. As someone else once wrote, "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

What you do and who you are matters. Never forget that.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Ryan P. Freeman's Back Cover Exclusives

 Hey all,

Just wanted to give everyone a head's up about upcoming releases!

My novella, The Grey Isle Tale, will be releasing via Amazon by May 20th, 2016!

Back cover exclusive:

            "Prince Janos of House Ulian is having a rough day. No, scratch that - a rough life. So when the watch tower he is inspecting begins exploding all around him, Janos soldiers on like usual. Race through the countryside of the island empire of Rumenjia, as one unlucky Prince, along with a stubborn local watch captain join forces with staunch Generals and legendary Wizards to confront the greatest (and potentially last) threat their country has ever faced: their own inner darkness."

"The Grey Isle Tale chronicles the last breath of a crumbling empire. Adrift upon its own momentous tides of conspiracy and hate, something even more sinister lurks beneath the nation’s waves. The Grey Isle Tale is the sort of story which flows from hair-raising novel to epic northern legend. The Grey Isle tale tells the story of a nation on the brink, and how even the smallest gestures can tip the balance between good and evil. Within, experience tremors of horrific casualness matched against the indestructible bonds of friendship and kindness."


And my main series, The Phoenix of Redd, will available via Amazon this Fall with the first installment of the trilogy. Here's your back-cover exclusive for Rienspel...

What Rien discovers about his past will change his future…

Rien Sucat wiles his days away, bored-stiff in his small backwoods village. But soon gets more than he bargained for after he befriends a magical Phoenix, accidentally witnesses a secret necromantic ritual, and comes face to face with a league of racist, knife-wielding assassins out for his blood. Travel with Rien as he and the Phoenix journey from the unassuming Rillian village of Nyrgen through the enchanting depths of the Great Wood where the unquiet dead lurk, to the high north country of Firehall - elusive sanctuary of the Elves. Launch into an epic quest with consequences farther reaching than Rien could ever possibly imagine.

Rienspel is about heart. It is about family and about how the power of love played out in everyday life often carries lasting consequences. Rien’s tale transcends the dim shadows of our own world by revealing the lingering power we all carry through how we live and treat others. It is a tale about the Story we all reside in which readers both young and young-at-heart will find compelling. As C.S. Lewis once penned for his colleague and friend J.R.R. Tolkien, so it is with Rienspel, ‘here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron. Here is a story which will break your heart”… and re-forge it anew in Phoenix-fire.


It's hard for me to imagine that in a couple short months or so, the first taste of my world will be out for all to finally enjoy. I mean, seriously. SERIOUSLY. What began as a chance doodle ended up becoming a major facet of my life. I don't know if I can say thank you enough to you: my friends, family, battle-hardened beta readers, editors, artists, dreamers and fellow adventurers. In only a few months' time, Rien will finally begin his journey... Janos will face his demons and a whole new chapter of mythos will open up. If you know me, then you know just how much I can wax poetic on all this story stuff... so for all who follow and comment, encourage and create with me along the way:

Thank You

 

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth...  

than are dreamt of in your philosophy."