Matthew D. Ryan's Blog, page 4

Violence in Fantasy Literature: Is It Appropriate?

Yeah, you can tell I’m starting to run out of ideas for my blog this week. How can you possibly write a fantasy novel without having violence? The knight can’t slay the dragon, he must lull it to sleep with a bouquet of roses. J

 

Anyway, in all seriousness, I see nothing wrong with violence in fantasy novels. There certainly is plenty of violence in my own novel, Drasmyr. Some “ultra-pacifists” might want us to water down our stories in the hopes that we can raise more peaceful children by t...

World Building: The Fantasy Role-playing Game vs. the Fantasy Novel

This is going to be another post on world building where I compare and contrast some of the differences between the world building involved in a fantasy role-playing game and that involved in a fantasy novel. I’ve had experience doing both and I have written elsewhere on this topic.

 

Generally speaking, the world building of a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) is more extensive than that of a fantasy novel. This is for two basic reasons. First, the world of a fantasy RPG is intended for multip...

Harry Potter Poll and a Smashwords Code

All right, I missed posting last Friday because it was Good Friday. Nor did I post on Holy Saturday or Easter Sunday because those are, basically, the holiest days of the year for Catholics. Anyway, I had an idea that I would run a poll to see which Harry Potter story is the best from the original seven book series. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never read the books, but I have seen the movies. From that, I’d vote for “The Chamber of Secrets” as my favorite, partly because it can b...

World Building: The Place of Deities (And a Poll)

Deities are an important part of world building, particularly in the fantasy setting. That’s because, in the fantasy setting, deities are generally understood to actually exist and intervene on behalf of characters here and there. That is not really true in sci-fi. Having actual gods and goddesses would be kind of strange for a sci-fi adventure (not to say that it couldn’t be done, it would just be unusual). In the fantasy setting deities exist and they act. Whether it is a fantasy role-playi...

After A Long Absence, A Poll And A Smashwords Code

Greetings all. It’s me. Matthew D. Ryan. I haven’t posted regularly on this blog for at least a year and I decided I would try to get back into it. Hopefully, I won’t burnout. Again. I’m going to limit my entries to once a week; so, that should help.

Anyway, this blog is still dedicated to the Fantasy genre. I’m holding a poll to see if I will add material dealing with philosophy and religion within the context of my mental illness (I believe I am the antichrist. Seriously.) If you wish to vo...

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The Smashwords “Read An Ebook Week” Sale

For the first time, I will be participating in the “Read An Ebook Week” Sale at Smashwords. The promotion will last until March 10th, 2018. By joining this promotion, I am offering all my books at a discounted price: 25% off, 50% off, 75% off, or FREE!

For a listing of all my discounted books go right here.

For More Specials by other authors check out the Catalogue here.

Make sure to join up on my mailing list as well; go right here.

The Future of this Website

As you may have noticed, I have not been posting very frequently on this blog. In fact, I haven’t been doing much writing lately; I’m kind of burned out. Also, my interests are shifting out of the fantasy genre into something more impactful: mental illness (although to be honest, I don’t think I am mentally ill; I really believe I’m the antichrist). As a result, most of my most recent writing has dealt with the philosophical issues and religious implications of my understanding of the antichr...

Long Belated Greetings and Some Smashwords Codes

Hi y’all! For a number of reasons including burnout, depression, and lack of financial reward, I have not been updating this blog for quite some time. I don’t know when the next time I will make a literary entry to this blog, but in the meantime, I’m going to use the blog to post the occasional Smashwords coupon codes for my books. I’ll list a code here; you grab the code and go to the Smashwords site; type in the code; and if you are one of the first few customers (see below) you get one of...

Tricks, Traps, and Puzzles in RPG’s and Stories.

I used to Gamemaster a lot for … well, not necessarily AD&D, but my own system based on that game. It was lots of fun. I especially enjoyed designing clever tricks, traps, and puzzles. This has carried over into my writing, as well. Many of my books and stories have some kind of puzzle in them. In RPG games (like AD&D) puzzles are an integral part of the game. I mean, after a while, even the most bloodthirsty person will tire from the endless hack and slash of your basic dungeon crawl. Tricks...