The 2024 Wind Down/Wrap Up of a Quiet Aussie Writer

Honestly: the year has been pretty great :]

♫ Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;

This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere. ♫

The Sun Rising, John Donne

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It’s been a long time.. Thinking about looking back at the year, and into my brain, and, yeah, the title feels as apt as it ever did…

2024 -- dig it.

Yes, I did [dig it].

It’s been a wild ride of a year, and I’m all the better for it. My writing isn’t. But that’s also fine, in a way. My writing has sat to the side, and sometimes you never know if something is fermenting, stagnating, rotting, or just kindly waiting patiently. You have to dive right back in to find out.

If I think about 2024, I think a lot of positive thoughts. If I think about my writing in 2024, it’s not crowding that plate. I think a younger Ryan would have been unable to manage that, such separation of Writer and Man was impossible, but in some blissful miracle, despite some pitch knockbacks, some things taking me longer than they should, and a fairly gaunt 2025 outlook, I’ve loved a lot of this year.

I think my key has been allowing myself to shift and not be so rigid in who I am, what I do, and what success must look like. This man in his 40s must [and should] be different from the young buck in his 20s who was writing up a storm.

So I sit atop 2024 [I know it’s only the start of December, but I’m very much winding down in many ways] and I see a lot of good stuff and I smile about a lot of things. What more can you ask for from a year?

I’ve watched a lot of awesome movies, read a bunch of amazing books, had some great times with the family as wife and kids have remained awesome [and dare I say improved on all previous awesomes], finally got DEER EDITOR collected in a beautiful trade collection through Mad Cave, sold some comics at conventions and caught up with friends, and taught some excellent lessons and students. I’ve kept fit, happy, and energised, and I’m left really excited for 2025.

Although, fair play, a large part of that excitement stems from a promotion at work, which will impact the writing considerably, but which is something I’m really ready to sink my teeth into. Those who have heard me speak about my teaching know it’s something that also brings me a grand amount of purpose and joy, so I can confirm it’ll be doing a lot of that in 2025 with a new leadership role I’ve taken on at a new school.

Which begs the Q: what’s up for 2025?

Straight up: this promotion takes centre stage. As it should.

Comics: I’m excited to push a certain sequel for a certain rad character of mine closer to becoming real. Also excited to share more visuals when I know more.

There are a handful of graphic novel pitches I’m tinkering with. I know what I want, which is always a difficult place to start from, but I’ll work towards those goals. Timeline: :super shrug emoji:

Prose: there are some short story ideas and flash fic pieces I have/want to write, and I’m mapping out possible pathways for 2025 to be more productive in this arena.

Essays: there are currently three essays I want to write, with one really crowding my mental plate, so I’ll see what can be done on that front.

Adventures: the year ahead should bring more opportunities to explore the world. Just looking for a high to match going on a long rock walk with an old friend and seeing these crabs just hiding and chilling.

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A Fistful of Pain wins a Silver CAAA

This was pretty awesome, I won’t lie. Louie Joyce and I put a decade of ourselves into this comic and so many times it felt like maybe it would be too difficult to complete, or it wouldn’t come out just as we wanted, and yet we pushed on. Because we loved it, and I can say working with Louie is a process I absolutely love. We were so lucky when ComixTribe came in to pick it up and turn it into the hardcover beast of a book it ended up being. Thomas Mauer lettered it, guest artists dropped so many good images on up as pin ups, and the result was a book we adored with our whole broken hearts.

So to see it win Silver at the Comics Arts Awards of Australia was a huge boost. That award is for the book, but mostly for Louie’s art [don’t worry, I would never delude myself of anything else], but it’s also an award for our friendship.

You can see the livestream recording of the awards here - our award is 37 minutes in.

It’s my second CAAA award [previous the Ledger Awards], and Louie’s 3rd, and I do feel honoured to have another, but it’s better to have it with Louie.

I currently have one copy of the hardcover left, so I might put it up online to sell next year [unless someone desperately wants it as a holiday present to someone they know and reach out here].

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Everfrost TPB?

For those of you who have been patiently waiting, I have pseudo-good news. The trade paperback collection is indeed still coming, and is a solid step closer to appearing on shelves, so, uh, stay tuned…?

I do so love this weird and wonderful book I did with Sami Kivela, Lauren Affe, Jim Campbell, and Dan Hill over at Black Mask. I’m assuming a shelf date of early 2025 will be confirmed…soon.

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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

Summer just kicked into gear, and so far it’s been humid amid heat and rain. For me: this means early morning walks and excuses to watch mid-afternoon movies to beat the heat. For my garden it means: a lotta growth.

The raspberries are already popping, the tomatoes showed the first signs of life in little green fruit this weekend, and my blueberry house seems to be keeping the hungry animal hordes out so far because we just saw the first signs of a round bauble turning blue yesterday.

It’s always a nice life and place for me in the morning cool tending to the things and taking edible stuff inside. I wish you something similar, in however you find it, for the wind up to your 2024.