Matthew D. Ryan's Blog, page 3

Thanksgiving Book Deals

Hi, all. It’s me again. Just a quick post to inform everyone of some Smashwords specials I have in honor of Thanksgiving. Each one of my books that follows will remain on sale from now until November 30th.

The sales are:

The first book on sale is The Children of Lubrochius. It is the first book in my series, From the Ashes of Ruin, excluding the prequel Drasmyr (which is free). Although it demarks the beginning of the series, I recommend reading Drasmyr first. “Children” continues the story o...

Status of Next Book–The Citadel

Hi all. I just figured I would give an update regarding my next book in my series, From the Ashes of Ruin. The book is entitled The Citadel. It constitutes book three in the series (four, if you count the prequel). I am planning one more book after that (for this series). Somewhere along the way, I think I claimed that I would get it done by Christmas. That’s not going to happen. You can blame the ungodly summer we had as well my antichrist stuff. Anyway, I’ve completed the final reread of th...

Hiatus Again And Musings On Being The AntiChrist

Okay, I am going on hiatus again, unfortunately. I was on hiatus for about a year and a half, maybe even longer, and a few months ago, I returned and started posting again. The plan was to funnel visitors to my download page to distribute my second fantasy book, “The Children of Lubrochius,” and collect e-mails for my newsletter. So far, after several months of work, I’ve only collected one new e-mail address. My e-mail list is pathetically short, so, I’m going back on hiatus as far as this b...

Science and the Vampire

It’s no secret, when it comes to vampires I prefer the magical approach over the scientific one. I think a certain degree of horror is lost when one insists on giving a scientific explanation for everything. In the case of the vampire, once science is dragged into the explanation, it ceases to be a force of demonic origin and becomes simply something from the animal world. A natural occurrence. Humans might have to deal with it, but it doesn’t conjure the same kind of supernatural horror that...

Origin of the Vampire: Where Do Vampires Come From

Today, once again, I’m going to talk about the origin of the vampire … not the origin on Earth, like in myth and folklore, but the origin for your fantasy story. Where do vampires come from in your world?

 

This is actually a two part question. One: you must decide how vampires propagate. And two: you must decide where the original vampire/s came from. These days a lot of writers rely on the virus. A mutant virus infected a human and created the first vampire. Then, that vampire spread the vi...

Dialogue: A Few Thoughts

What makes good dialogue? The topic, as a whole, requires more room to effectively deal with than a single blog post will allow. Still, a few points can be made. Overall, the question is one that all beginning writers must struggle with. Poor dialogue can sink a book over the course of just a few pages. But the good news is that developing good dialogue is a skill that comes with experience.

 

Dialogue in books is not the same as dialogue in real life. It is supposed to sound like real-life...

Update On Next Novel For “From the Ashes of Ruin.”

Okay, I have some good news. After a hiatus of at least eighteen months, and most probably even longer, I have returned to work on Book III in my four book series (five, if you count the prequel). The clouds of ennui and depression have mostly passed and I’m ready to dive into it. The book is, currently, entitled The Citadel. So far, I’ve done about three rewrites and am five chapters into the fourth. I expect at least two more rewrites after I’ve finished with this one.

There are problems, o...

Announcement: Last Week of Free Purchase Price of “When Storm Clouds Rise.”

Okay everybody, in roughly one week’s time (think Friday, May 11th), I’ll begin charging for my small anthology of exciting short stories entitled When Storm Clouds Rise. That’s right, as of this upcoming Friday the anthology will no longer be free.

Unless I forget.

Then, the change will probably just happen on Saturday.

As of this moment, I intend to set the initial price at $2.99. I’m not sure if I will set up a Smashwords code–I may just do that for my Newsletter subscribers. In the meanti...

Themes in Fantasy Literature

What’s in a novel? Is it a story? Or something more? The real classics of literature, more often than not, endeavor to do more than just tell a tale. Charles Dickens, for example, used his novel, Oliver Twist, to bring attention to the plight of the poor. The greats always incorporate a bit of social commentary into their work. At least, that’s the norm of regular literature. That’s not always the case when it comes to fantasy. Very often, a fantasy story is just that: a clever story without...

Linking Vampires and a Poll

I haven’t done a vampire post in ages. Eons, in fact. So, I guess I’ll do one for old time’s sake.

 

An interesting characteristic of most vampire myths are the details of how a vampire procreates and the relationship it maintains with its victims. Usually, the vampire creates other vampires by feeding on a human being. Sometimes the human victim must also consume some of the vampire’s blood (as in the original Dracula by Bram Stoker); other times, the initial bite is all it takes. Anyway, th...