Matthew D. Ryan's Blog, page 31
March 11, 2013
Reminder: Drasmyr Available In Print on Lulu.com
Yep, I did it; I took the plunge. My dark fantasy novel, Drasmyr, is now available as a hardcover book on Lulu.com for $24.99. It makes a great gift for yourself or others, particularly for those who want a physical copy of what previously was only available as an ebook. Get your copy today! Filed [...]
Literature: On The Nature Of Writing (Part II)
Last time I wrote, I listed a large number of writing types and a few means of looking at each type. From the large list, I selected the following types: philosophical essays, novels, and short stories (and poems); and I claimed that of the many different ways of looking at a piece of writing, the [...]
March 7, 2013
Literature: On The Nature Of Writing (Part I)
Perhaps, this was covered in English 101. If so, I missed the class. I thought I’d take a few minutes (or paragraphs, as the case may be) to ruminate about the various types of writing and the reasons for writing. Both for your edification and my own. Off the top of my head, I count [...]
March 4, 2013
Drasmyr Available In Print on Lulu.com
Yep, I did it; I took the plunge. My dark fantasy novel, Drasmyr, is now available as a hardcover book on Lulu.com for $24.99. It makes a great gift for yourself or others, particularly for those who want a physical copy of what previously was only available as an ebook. Get your copy today! Filed [...]
Old Movie Review: Looper (2012)
“Looper” was a kind of interesting idea for a film. Time Travel and all the resultant paradoxes it entails has been done quite a bit by Hollywood. This film takes that well-traveled plotline and throws in a few unique twists of its own. I normally don’t like stories where the protagonist is evil, but this [...]
February 28, 2013
Age of the Vampire: The Sweet Spot
As most of my readers know, I’ve written a dark fantasy novel about a vampire entitled “Drasmyr.” Talk of vampires almost always engenders talk of immortality, because that’s usually considered one of the advantages of being a vampire: they don’t die of old age. In my novel, the vampire is one thousand years old. I’ve [...]
February 25, 2013
Book Review: A Memory of Light
The final installment in the Wheel of Time series entitled “A Memory of Light” has been completed by Brandon Sanderson, the stand-in author now that Robert Jordan is dead. Like the other thirteen books in the series, it is a colossus coming in at 908 pages. It is a good book, although flawed in several [...]
February 21, 2013
Can a Vampire Starve for Lack of Blood?
This will truly go down as one of the critical questions answered in the early twenty-first century: Can a vampire starve for lack of blood. The obvious answer is: It depends on the particulars of the vampire myth in question. Let’s look at “Dracula,” for a moment, a book I’ve recently read. When Jonathan [...]
February 18, 2013
A Discursion into Grammar: And Then
This might be a boring topic to write on, but today I’m going to write about the meaning of the word “and.” And then, in defense of Bill Clinton, I’m going to write about the meaning of the word “is” (just kidding). You may think this to be a relatively simple topic, but as it [...]
February 14, 2013
Book Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle
C.S. Lewis’ epic series, “The Chronicles of Narnia,” comes to a conclusion in book seven, “The Last Battle.” Yep, it’s “The Apocalypse” for kids. I can’t say much else, because that’s what it really is. Book seven is the eschatological conclusion of the series. There are a number of significant characters in the book: Shift, [...]
