Here Be Dragons - The May Update
F— cancer. The ol’ 2023 plan goes in the bin, is set on fire, and from the ashes rises a new mindset.
♫ Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere. ♫
The Sun Rising, John Donne
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This fortnightly[-ish] drop 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.
2023 -- better.
Or worse.
Well, it’s been a pretty shitty month.
Strange to say, considering the family and I took a week holiday to a lovely beach up north and just spent days on days of absolutely relaxing and checking out. Daily beach walks, coffees, ice cream parlours, pancakes, burgers, a cool movie trivia game, and a rooftop pool that gave up hours upon hours of vitamin D fuelled relaxation.
The place we stayed also had a small cinema you could book and so a few movies were watched splayed out in the recliners or this one long kinda lounge that you could lay on [and lay and sleep a few times I did].
I took no school work. I switched my brain down and off completely. I woke in the mornings to tinker with a story idea that’s slowly building steam. It was brilliant.
Alongside that, I got to table next to my two novelist brothers at the Supanova convention on the Gold Coast. Just two days of selling our stories and talking shit. Every time we get to do it, it’s a dream. It’s really something special to get to our age and still want to spend a whole weekend together just shooting the shit and laughing.
It was a real Highlight Holiday. Also a Life Highlight.
Then we came home. Which is normally fine, but this time we’ve been really hit with a sucker punch. I’m fairly reserved with most actual personal info, and details aren’t something I want to express right now for those same personal reasons, but I know there are some people who I know and care about who I have not yet reached out to and so rather than leave every thought in their head, I will express that my family is now going to have a very difficult year ahead of us as we support and care for my wife, and we all wish to just vaguely and completely express the following sentiment of Fuck Cancer.
As a husband and father, I can’t even begin to express what we are all going through [and I won’t even try - that’s why I’m grateful to have a pretty superb network here on the homefront]. But this newsletter is about me as a writer, and on that front…
Honestly, who gives a shit?
I love writing, it’s a core piece of the puzzle that makes me who I am, and in the face of this, well, it can easily just be put aside like a notebook on a desktop. It feels gauche af to even bring it up or consider it, in all honesty.
When tragedy strikes the homefront, it really aligns priorities and so this month has quickly flipped itself around. I mean, how could anything else matter?
It’s been interesting to feel myself still drawn to storytelling, still tinkering with ideas and sentences in my head, but to also not be completely stressing about this and immersed in it and trying to maintain The 20 Year Plan that cannot be derailed.
First of all, do I look like a man with a plan?
Secondly, of course I love my writing and I always want to be telling stories, but I’m not going to do anything that could derail my family this year and so the writing has easily been pushed back as needs arise each and every day. There is no momentum or opportunity that could or would ever supersede this.
In the same way that we’ve continued to watch films, and I am still exercising, and all of the other little life supports of life, I am still somewhat writing. It’s a mental health balance for me. I am waking at 4am, still, but I’ve put away all stress and insane drive and everything else so I can just focus on doing the writing that helps me heal my brain. I always said writing is therapy, and at the moment that’s still proving true.
I am still tinkering with this new comic I want to make - and will pitch once it is done, but I have no idea when that will be.
I have spent some time working on a new solo rpg I want to create. I’ve done a lot of the structural work and the nuts and bolts, and next will be time spent polishing and expanding, and eventually designing. This has been a good one because it’s low stakes, and there’s no deadline, and it’s just creativity for the fun of it, and that’s helped my brain a lot this past month.
Other than these, there’s nothing huge and pressing on my desk and mind, and that’s a pretty good thing as we prepare for a fairly intense home care plan soon and I appreciate my head being there and only there. I will think about family, I will do my best to care for them all [and myself], and the rest can sort itself out, surely.
The writing - it’s always been fun, and it’s paid bills, and I love it; but it was always there to supplement the life off the page. I wouldn’t ever want that to change.
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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 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 have created my new favourite pizza.
I make the dough, let it prove, then spread it out on a floured tray. Preheat the oven to about 185 degrees C.
Lay down a BBQ base - my wife made a brilliant low sugar bbq sauce out of a stock of home grown tomatoes which was amazing - but I’ve finally worked through it all, so can confirm that Stubbs BBQ sauce is the best alternative as it’s the lowest sugar one I can find. Because, jeez, bbq sauces use a whole mess of sugar, and I’d love to avoid it.
Sprinkle some chilli flakes over the bbq base.
Lay down some thinly sliced pumpkin - Kent is what I’m using.
I’ve got a stockpile of green tomatoes I picked just before ripping the plant out before winter struck. I slice these up, though some turned red in the bowl and while they’re softer, they also work.
I slice up some mushrooms, enough to pretty well cover the whole pie.
Then I got some plant-based mince, and I pre-cooked it with some spices that basically emulate the patty in the Sausage and Egg McMuffin. Those spices are: salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, and the real hero doing all the heavy lifting is the sage [go here for more accurate numbers, though I advocate for doubling them]. I pack little freezer bags with about 100g of the stuff, maybe a touch less depending on pie diameter, and I sprinkle one around.
Last, the cheese mix - I blast a tasty, mozzarella, parmesan combo into it. Sometimes a little cheddar.
Bake it for 8 minutes either side. I might not make it pretty, but four slices of this is enough to bring the week to a mighty fine close.
It seems silly, and sharing a recipe when your food looks like a spicy cow pat and you have the kitchen prowess of a cockroach might feel like a stupid idea [is any reader ever actually here for this kinda shit?] - but, making pizza every Friday night has become a weekly spiritual cleanse that helps my soul in ways I never would have imagined. It’s this time where I just pop some music on, feel the rhythm of everyone having finished their work/school week, and I slowly assemble what I need and I calm my mind down.
When I’m making pizza, I’m not doing anything else. That’s the beauty of it. Then, at the end, there’s pizza to eat. Double win.
Whenever I can find elements like these in my life, I celebrate them, appreciate them, and hold onto them tightly.
Here Be Dragons - The May Update
Best to you and your family, pal.
Holy crap Ryan :( I know we haven't been great at keeping in touch but if there's anything we can do, Andrew and I will be there in a second. Even if reconnecting and normality is what you guys need!