Who Do You Love (Literately) ?

Writers are nothing without reading - so who literately inspires you most and why?

First and foremost, are those two fairy-tale giants, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien for me. They loom quietly in the background of my imagination. Most of the bedrock from which I build my sandcastles are founded on one or both of these men. But it's not just their fantasy works which get my mind salivating - it's also their non-fiction works, as well. Works like On Fairy Stories (Tolkien) or The Discarded Image (Lewis) delve into the philosophy and structure of Faerie in a way unparalleled.

The next great abiding spirit is George MacDonald. If you know anything about C.S. Lewis, you'll already know about this imaginative titan of a Scottish pastor and lecturer. This is the guy who wrote the original Alice in Wonderland (yes, you read me right... Lewis Carol and George MacDonald were friends, and would often use each other's stories). If Tolkien and Lewis are giants, then MacDonald is the Great and Powerful Wizard. Seriously, his stuff transcends reality. While he's written a ton of all sorts of genre, his fantasy is hands-down the best (although his non-fiction isn't too shabby, either...).

From there, of course, the literary influence become widely scattered. But as suggested in my previous posts, it has mainly been the fantasy authors who have helped me most. Folks like Ursula LeGuin, Madeline L'Engle, Brian Jacques, J.K. Rowling, Niel Gaiman, and Susan Cooper. Non-fiction authors include Peter Berrisford Ellis, Donald Miller, Bob Goff, Edith Hamilton, and Susan Bauer.

Then there's poetry: Robert Frost (*drools). Luis Borges. Homer. Whoever it was who wrote Beowulf.

My point is, here, long list not withstanding, is that who you read and why you read them is vital to the formation of your imagination and writing abilities. Spend time walking with the masters - not just those who are purportedly to be be excellent from others, but with those whom you truly love. You truly enjoy spending quality time with. They're just like relationships. Spend time around people and you can't help but become familiar... And through friendship you can wind up sharing something so unique, only you and that other person, at that given moment in history, could create.

Write (and read) on!

Ryan  

Please give lively, steadily-building applause for... The Grey Isle Tale's cover!

Hot off the Italian presses from our good friend, Laura Faraci, comes the newest cover design for Ryan P. Freeman's upcoming novella, The Grey Isle Tale!

The Grey Isle Tale will be available soon via Amazon for ebooks and print-on-demand orders.

Why I Write

I don't care if anyone doesn't read this.
Well, that's a bit of a lie - just a touch, though.
Why do I write? Why do I want to write?

Part of it comes from pride. The idea, thought, notion of being able to claim the title and be called a writer - or even better - an Author calls me. Beckons me. It's easy to want these things when they're already done, or when you say you're working on some creative project. But as for the actual doing, that's hard.

When I was little, the library in my elementary school was magic. I actually had trouble learning how to read well, and so libraries were a bit of a mystery for me back then. Oh sure, I loved being read to, or adventuring through the innumerable picture book tales... but I was embarrassed about not being able to read like everyone else. It frustrated me - and publicly shamed me in front of my other classmates and friends. I was in first and second grade, so it was kinda a big deal (and it still is, I think).

I owe an undying debt of gratitude to Mrs. Yorth, my second grade teacher, for taking the extra time, after school, to help me to learn how to read. My school, River Grove Elementary, also put me into a specialized reading class. Looking back on it all, I feel like I had my own Marvel origin story in that class... I don't really know what they did to me, but once I got out I was reading at a high school level - and soon after, at a college level.

I remember the day some time not long after I was out of that special class, I walked into the library. To this very day, I can't remember why I walked in there... because I'd usually pass it by... maybe it was a Scholastic book fair or something, and I was drawn in by the bright pictures... who knows... But I remember walking in to a place where only a second before had been like an empty room full of absolutely nothing... and then suddenly it had been transformed without flash or bang. I was now standing in a vast treasure trove - unexplored and all mine. I could look at endless row after endless row and know what I was looking at. I could read any book I choose (or not). I think this ability is lost on most people. The simple wonder - the marvel - of being able to do as you please, when you please... I also experienced this wonder with words, as I suffered from severe stuttering during that time in my life, too.

To get into the computer lab, full of all those glowing green-screen Macintosh computers, we had to stand in line along this library back row... which just happened to be where most of the fantasy was shelved. Since my last name begins with 'F' I was sort of jumbled somewhere in the middle of the line. So as we waited for the Powers-That-Were to do whatever it is that they did back in the early 90's, I would stare at the fantasy titles and wonder. It's funny. Usually I kind of don't like how I am generally shorter than other people, again thanks to my bout with childhood leukemia... the same disease which stunted my growth, had also been involved with scarring my vocal chords, as well as affecting my critical thinking... So when it comes to book shelves, the first thing I generally see is anything about midway up or slightly lower. I see the buried authors first. I remember seeing the Susan Cooper's (The Dark is Rising series); I saw the Peter S. Beagle's (The Last Unicorn); and the Patricia C Wrede's (The Dealing With Dragons series).

People will find your books. They will. My self-pride about writing and authorhood is just full of itself. The right people will find your work at the right time, and in the right place. You will probably never hear about it. You will most likely never know about it. But good stories have a curious way of transcending time and space. They slip out into the world and nestle into strange hands in unimaginable places. I should know - I was one of those readers. To this very day, there are still lost bookish treasures I'm still desperately hunting for - still gems which gleam in the darkness of obscurity, waiting once more to be reclaimed.

Good books are treasures. They are invitations sent out into the lost parts of the vast world. They are keys to secret kingdoms with hidden gates tucked away in unlikely places (like the threshold of an elementary school computer lab...).

So write on - who knows what will come of your next good book.

- Ryan

There is a Place I Know

There is a place that I know
It's an old house full of stories I don't know
The smell fills my nose
the memories, my mind
I wander and hurry
the space full

There is a place that I know
past round-abouts
and long flying wings
through lines
and past screens
ticket lines and aeroplanes
In the snow I skitter
Half gone away

There is a place I know
tucked away like a silly joke
golden in glory of times gone by
people line shelves
blinking with eyes that are embossed
fading
looking on through letters
from linolium floors to ceiling tiled heights
now all gone away

There is a place I know
which no longer knows me
We are familiar ghosts
from Christmases past
each year fades us just a touch more
until our relationships glisten
just lights on the tree

There is a place I know
over the plains and beyond the tall mountains
those that are frosted with the Joten gleam
I know a place
which is quiet and close
my heart hurts to go
yet my mind always clears
Old wooden houses in all the worlds we know
they are quiet
no space for who we are now
only more tales which crackle and spin

- Ryan P. Freeman

Current Musings

So do I want to make writing what I do all the time?

Sure thing!

How? - that's the question I'm buzzing my brain about lately... I'm currently reading an excellent book on the writing career of Neil Gaiman... and one of the big things I've noticed so far is how he didn't just try to get published... with the whole traditional route and everything. What he did (as well as Stephen King, to an extent) was go to where people would publish him. And he would typically only write and pursue what he loved. What awesome advice. A lot of times, the beginning people who would publish him were softcore porn magazines - buying up his articles to fill those pages not full of pictures. Through this process, he made connections... like-minded friends who loved similar things. It wasn't about networking- it was about continuing to pursue what he loves - and I think that is the key to staying above the soul-less papermills...

Another thing I noticed was how Neil Gaiman didn't just write- he branched out into different mediums of story, too! Wherever the story was fresh and new - that's where he ended up... because he was following whatever he loved and he had an excellent BS detector. He invested in himself.

The last thing I've noticed so far, it's that he surrounded himself with friends who lived in a place where they could meet and get right to their art. They weren't necessarily at the whim and mercy of big publishers or had to yell into the hurricane of social media or e-publishing.


I know with the advent of e-publishing and the shifting of publishing power, the story landscape has and is changing... but it leaves me wondering what is possible now! And since I don't know what is possible, it means I can do anything I like - which is perfect.

-Ryan

For What It's Worth...

What Writing the End of Rienspel Was Like 

and How It Changed Me

 

After reading a delightful post from one of my favorite living authors, Christopher Paolini, I was inspired to write... so here we go! (you can read his article HERE)

What was writing the end of Rienspel like?

I actually got really serious about making headway with Rienspel at about the the 6th or 7th year out of the 8 total it took to finish writing it. I was in a terrible place then. I was out of work for the first time in my life and was quite literally living on others' mercy and the answers of bitter, desperate prayers. I would get up in the morning - finally - make some coffee (if we had any that week), pull out a laptop and write. It was my job - the only job I had.

As I've written, who I really write for are the heartbroken - the dispossessed - and down-and-out. Real people who I know - not some pie-in-the-sky feel good sentiment. Hard times at their best can melt and carve our arrogance, but I never imagined I'd be one of the people I write for. There, at the end of Rienspel, I was who I wrote for.

For awhile, I had known what the ending would generally be like for my first book (and no, I'm not giving the conclusion away, either! Rienspel will be out by no later than Fall 2016!!). But by having something meaningful to do - where I could see daily progress which I did by my own hand and will - helped make me a better person. I feel like just about every other job I've ever had quails in comparison to the strength unveiled and developed within myself from the final few delirious keystrokes of Rienspel.

I know... I realize... I understand I am, in the mad grand scheme of things, just one more random shmoe cranking out books... but one of the engines which hurtles me forward was forged during those last few summer months of 2014. I really do hope you enjoy Rienspel, for what it's worth, when it finally releases.

When you find out what you love to do - what you can do and ought to do... what you know you must do and can't help but do - do it. Do it with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength (even if you're weak). For when your heart is broken, perhaps it's because you've broken it over Principle; when your soul is sick, perhaps it is because you Hope; when your mind is fogged, perhaps it is because you Care; and when your strength is gone perhaps it is because you have have learned the power of weakness found in Humility.

Write on, fellow adventurers... write on...

-Ryan

Spirit.

Why do you write?

The general answers may vary, but I am convinced that people write specifically because they are animated by a guiding spirit. It's what fires their typing fingers and speeds their pens. Something deep within you keeps you burning the midnight oil to keep writing on long after the initial fervor burns out. It's something which is invisible, yet produces page after page of highly visible words- stories- tale: A Vision, meant to be shared with the world.

What you do, as a writer (go ahead, dare to call yourself one) is special. If you're still a bit timid about calling yourself a writer, then here- take a knee (internally or otherwise). I've taken up my sword letter opener from my desk! By the spirit within you, I dub you Writer of words. Rise a Writer, or not at all! Beware the naysayer and self-doubt- but be quick to safeguard others, by word and by deed. Write! and fear no darkness! For your words are Powerful - and even more so as you continue to hone your craft and art unto perfection.

Rise a Writer.
Rise a fellow Adventurer into the Realms yet unknown.
Writer so that others, too, shall take up the pen and the keyboard, and with their imagination, heart, and guiding spirit, inspire others to take heart in their own journeys.

May the pain of your next writer's block ever remind you of your oath.

Welcome, fellow Writer!