The Web Haunt of Ryan K Lindsay

I have never felt so defined by a date change. Coming into 2010 really seems to mean something to me, whereas usually a new year just means a hangover and a continuation of my end of year holiday. Instead, i find myself looking at 2009 and all that I managed to accomplish in 12 months and I start setting some goals for 2010. It’s almost kind of fun to see what I want, to put myself into the speculation. I’m a simple creature so I’ll divide my list of wants and needs into two categories, my writing and my reading. Here we go.

The Writing of Ryan K Lindsay

Obviously, the top priority is to get published. 2009 saw me get my Australian Noir essay published within the back pages of Marvel Comics’ Criminal, but I feel I’ve plugged that enough and so need to find a new horse to flog. Getting published, in any form, feels slightly out of my hands, and possibly even a tad of a lofty want, so I won’t expressly say that’s what I want, but I can control myself, most mornings, and so my aims will work more towards what I can do on my end to work towards getting published. I feel like a munitions factory trying to pledge to kill more people this year; I can’t exactly do that but I can flood the market with more bullets and cheaper firearms. There’s always something to work towards.

Shop Two Novels
I have two novels finished, proofed, and ready to shop. Each one managed to see eyes once in 2009, and both were summarily dismissed, but it was a start. I now need to exhaust all possibilities in 2010. I will be submitting to all available agents and publishers in Australia over the coming year. I’ll either get one published or add to my growing letters of rejection, which currently feature prominent names such as: Ellery Queen, Hard Case Crime, The Australian/Vogel award, Australian Literary Management, and a John Marsden award.

Proof One Novel
I have one novel to proof and so that must be done as soon as possible. Once it is complete, which will take some months, I will send it out in the rotation sweeping behind the previous two.

Finish Current Novel
I have started one novel, and I like it, so I want to continue writing that. I have over 10k of words, and it will probably only run about 60k, so I feel pretty good that this one can be finished. I’ll slowly chip away at it, just like I did last year that saw me finish three novels.

Start One More Novel
I’d like to start one more novel this year, which would, in a perfect theory, put the total up to five novels. Surely with five novels circulating I’m bound to hit something eventually. That’s like sending a Persian army of arrows after a fleeing jackrabbit. I’m bound to hit one shot right through the damn heart, aren’t I?

Short Stories x 2
I’d like to write a few more short stories, and then also go through my back catalogue and see if anything is fit to print in certain publications. I will flood the market until it is dripping wet with the short of Ryan K Lindsay. Well, not really, not all of them are that good, but I’ll put a few more of them out there. I like a good short, and it can’t hurt to start the publishing career in this manner.

Short Film Scripts x 2
I co-wrote one short script with my brother, James, and we have optioned that to Thunderstorm Productions, so it would be nice to see that flick get made at some stage in 2010. I also have another short script of which I am really quite bloody proud, so I might shop that one around a little bit, see what’s cracking out there.

Comic Scripts
I have an idea for an ongoing webcomic, but still haven’t been able to find an artist for it. It isn’t that any artists have passed on the project, it’s just that I can’t seem to post on digitalwebbing and have no other way of looking, and have also been a little lazy and preoccupied on other work to put in a full effort. I’d like to write some more scripts for it because I really like the characters and the way I get to write in this series.

Articles
I wouldn’t mind scribing a few more pieces for The Weekly Crisis, but I don’t want to be the best that constantly inundates them with material either. I’ll just send on a few really top ideas that I think might be worth their while. I’d also like another article in the back of Criminal, but I’m aware that lightning rarely strikes twice, so I won’t hold my breath.

Blogs
I’ll keep posting right here and try to keep it up to the schedule of maybe 2-3 a week. I do this because I honestly like writing here. It’s nice to have a little audience, and the chance to spread what little of my word people can tolerate. I’ll continue reviewing my weekly comic habit by talking to the titles, and I’ll review the books I read, as well as the odd good film that’s worth while, and I’ll keep people up to date on my writing status and what it’s like sitting here in this mid-morning sunny office, with podcasts or Sarah Blasko rocking, Twitter at my disposal, and different thoughts running through my head. I hope I get just as many more friends in 2010 around here as I did in 2009.

Summary
It looks like I’m planning on doing a bunch of stuff with my fingers on the keys here in my office. I worry that I am stretching myself a little thin, but then also think that if my attack wave holds archers, swordsmen, horses, cannons, flying zeppelins, monkey warriors, and S.H.I.E.L.D.-trained agents, then surely I’ll be able to win the war. I’m not planning much more than what I really accomplished in 2009, I just want it all to be on a grander scale.

The Reading of Ryan K Lindsay

I read, a lot. I read novels, I read short story collections, I read comics, in trade and weekly. I like to read, and a better reader should be a better writer; you can only hope. I have some reading plans and hopes for 2010, so let’s set them out.

Stephen King
I haven’t read a lot of the latest Stephen King outings; Duma Key, Lisey’s Story, Blaze, Just Before Sunset. I plan on rectifying this, but not in a year, but I can make some dent in the pile, surely. First on the list is Under The Dome. I am strangely excited by this novel and really hope it lives up to the hype I have given it in my head. I get the feeling from this novel that I get from the King of old. The King from the late-70’s who completely won me over when I was a youngling first getting into his work. I want that vibe again and I’ll try for it. Then I’ll get to the others, all in good time. I really only have about 6 more of his book left to read, and he’ll more likely than not stop writing before I stop reading, so no major problem spreading them out.

Duane Swierczynski
I’ve read The Blonde and Severance Package and loved them both, and I have Secret Dead Men and The Wheelman waiting for me. I’ll get to them both this year, and when Expiration Date comes out in April I want to be all over that business. This guy is a massively awesome writer and I can’t wait to travel along with his works over the many years he’ll have to come.

Old School Crime
I have really taken a shine to many of the old Gold Medal style pulp crime paperbacks that are available if you hunt hard enough for them in the right places. I’ll read a few more of these and try to track down as few more Hard Case Crime books as well. Just great stuff all around.

Classics
There’s no need to be a pretentious ass about it, but each year I like to expand my horizons way back into the past. Sometimes it works and I like the book, something like Moby-Dick really captured me, but sometimes I really don’t like the book, Pride and Prejudice annoyed the shit out of me; though it was awesome once zombies were added. I feel it is important, to a degree, to check out the odd classic and I’d like to continue that trend into 2010.

Michael Chabon
The man just wrote what I have deemed my favourite book of all time. I now want to read more of him. Picked up A Modern World recently, I guess that’ll be on the list. I just hope he impresses me even half as much as he did with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

My Shelf of Nexts
These are the books that I really want to get around to reading and so will mostly like feature a few titles in my list of 2010. You never can tell what will suddenly jump out and make you want to read it, but these ones should get a run too.

Comics
Just in general I want to try a few new things. I am not a Marvel Zombie by any stretch, really, and I read no mainstream DC, so I should branch into some crazy new stuff. 2009 saw me try Viking, Resurrection some more, Cowboy Ninja Viking, and a fair few Image titles in trade. And I liked them all. My budget is modest, but every now and then I will send an Amazon order, when the price conversion is comparable, and I will see what can blow my mind at that time.

So that’s what I’ll be aiming to do in 2010. It’s nice to have a mapped out battle plan, not that war ever follows orders.

Posted on January 2nd, 2010 by ryan
Filed under: Uncategorized