Here Be Dragons - June Round Up

Sign of life, and some reading/watching thoughts.

“So long as one's just dreaming about what to do, one can soar like an eagle and move mountains, it seems, but as soon as one starts doing it one gets worn out and tired.”

― Ivan Turgenev

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This newsletter goes through what I’ve been up to in my writing - I have to account for myself and what I have to show for my efforts recently. Have I been productive, or not…? A map of my brain, so to speak, and here be dragons.

2025 -- appreciate.

Nothing to complain about.

Getting one of these out before I enter the end of semester darkness of marking and final admin and then prep for next semester. It’s always a good time - reading interesting student work, putting whole packets of work to bed, thinking up mad literary schemes for the coming semester- but it’s busy and I know I’ll have my head down.

My writing has been focused on one thing. I’ve been taking notes and tweaking and moving this thing around. It’s been a fun process where I try to problem solve and some out with something I’m still in love with and honestly, each iteration has become better than the last. It’s this stage of story/character Jenga where the good stuff gets ironed out - why are characters doing what they are doing, how should they best interact [how, when, where, why], and what will it all build to.

I’m appreciating the chance to play and it’s making my mindset as I come to this something of wonder and fun. I feel like there’s one last hurdle to get past and then the rest of my year will be spent running alongside the dominos and ensuring their fall consistently and successfully.

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Reading - it’s good for the soul.

I finished Northanger Abbey and it was an interesting experience. I found it really difficult to read at night when I was tired because Austen’s prose just doesn’t click with my brain then. The sentences are long and she often says one thing and means another and you have to be sharp on your wits to keep up and tired Ryan is not that.

I was chipping away at it, but when I was sick recently I gave myself some time to read in the day and found I finished the final third in a few days [after weeks of short night jabs at it] and I found it so much more clear to really appreciate the layers. I really dug the central conceit of how Catherine’s perceived status is created and destroyed by the men in her life. It’s a really strong series of moments that unpacks a lot about the time.

I then took the opportunity to get back to a quick Russian and read Ivan Turgenev’s double novella collection of Faust and Yakov Pasynkov.

I love the design on that cover and would love to track down the others in this series. But besides that: both novellas were good. Each a consideration of the power of love where events occur that genuinely surprised and delighted me. I’m finding it really interesting how much the Russians write about the human experience/condition and how their 19th Century lives and world creates a place where this existential thought about how a life could/should be lived was so openly put onto the page.

The consideration of literature unlocking the heart [and the consequences of this] is a really interesting ride, and Yakov has one turn I really thought was powerful and left me thinking, so I can only imagine how well these landed nearly 200 years ago. There is something to human interaction and reaction that will always be fascinating in story.

I then finished off Michael Ondaatje’s A Year of Small Things,which is a book of poetry, but also some short form prose/response style work. At its peak, it is peak Ondaatke, putting it above pretty well anyone else out there.

Like all good poetry, some lands with you and some does not. There were numerous pages where I absolutely dove into what Ondaatje was saying and considered how articulate his eye is at drawing together details that create a specific moment with a mood.

I’m now entering the mid-year season reading Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for Cleaning Women and a Ray Bradbury biography because the more I teach his work the more I want to infuse my understanding of the man himself - something I find really powerful for the reading process, and the teaching process. Also: not the kind of thing AI does well or deeply, but a classroom [nd reader] deserves.

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Film is alive and well [in this house].

I’ve watched well over 150 films this year and have loved how many of them have managed to delight and dazzle me with their high quality filmmaking and belief that good and new story is still out there waiting to be unearthed.

Particularly, A Ghost Story by David Lowery and Perfect Days by Wim Wenders have both jumped out and shaken me in the choices of focus and story, and how they are shot and presented. I can think of small shots where the camera is used intentionally that I find staggering artistically. Each might find their way into my Top 10,and that’s nice to see when that list sometimes feels like it’s more really old stuff than new.

But The Fabelmans by Steven Spielberg also having maybe two of my favourite cinematic sequences, and The Brutalist by Brady Corbet also being a massive victory of intent and meaning, has left me hungry for good story that’s clearly still being made and every other massive franchise puzzle piece raking in billions can help fund. I’m left inspired to write just from my heart and see what spills out.

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Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.

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Who is Ryan K Lindsay?

I’m an award-winning Australian comic writer. I’ve been published by Black Mask, Dark Horse, ComixTribe, Mad Cave, IDW, Heavy Metal, Vertigo, and a few more. Kickstarter has been a home for many short comics. I often get to collaborate with great mates, and this brings me joy.

I write about balancing this creative game alongside a full teaching load [currently College English and University Intro to Creative Writing] and a lovely family load and the forever melting brain that is modern man. I think about a lot of stuff, I still don’t know if it’s the right stuff. ymmv.

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POST CREDITS SEQUENCE

I think I need to write more snippets. When I’ve been reading short stories, I keep short 1-3 sentence reviews/reminders of them in my phone. It helps my brain process things, but also inspire future things as I can go back to how something made me feel and why/how it did that.

I should write more short stuff like this - and go both short review and short creative burst from it - and just save it on my phone. The more we use muscles like this, the stronger they become.

Plus: it’s fun.

I’m going to sit with this.