Two Months Older, Same Fool
Antlers and Envelopes and The Lumpy Brain Landscape Tour
♫ 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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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.
2024 -- dig it.
What’s next?
Ah, the dead zone of my brain is right in the sweet spot of this question - “What’s next?”
I’ve taken to being honest - I have absolutely no clue. Nothing is greenlit.
I have the DEER EDITOR tpb landing this week. I am sending out the finalised and printed zines of WITHIN THE KIND RED BUILDING. I have no scripts due. I’m sending a pitch around, of which I’m quite fond. I have an inkling of two new ideas to explore.
But when I get into the office each morning, I’m really wondering what my answer for this one should be. When nothing is greenlit is usually the time I fire up anyway and make something happen - new pitches, a cheeky Kickstarter one-shot, something. But my focus seems scattered.
It’s probably a wave, and I should ride it. I have in the past. But when your work landscape is your brain, and your brain feels [insert appropriate arcane worrying alien lumpy word here] then it’s hard to get to work.
Which is not to say there’s nothing, check this:
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What’s really next?
I got these two ideas and for these two I want to really run with something a little wild, and very meaningful. First ideas and thoughts need not apply, I’m digging beyond layers on both. Honestly - I just need the time to be able to dedicate to sort the wheat from the chaff around what I think about this one.
I must admit, Within The Kind Red Building reminded me how fun the rpg stuff is, so I’m keeping my mind open about putting something else together. I’m soon going on a Writers’ Camp - this is where I’ve assembled a roster of 5 presenting authors, and have 30 students to take, and we all assemble in a campground out of town and just nerd out for 3 days. It’s a whole mess of coordination - the plethora of email and the 5 figure budget keep me moving - but once we get out there I often get to allow the creativity to just flow and vibe. I’m hoping to drag one rpg idea and one of the above stories through this fertile space in my calendar.
I’m wondering if my brain just needs to do more reading to top up the creative tanks. I certainly know I’ve enjoyed reading much more this year, and have been finding a bit more time for it, so I’m considering just servicing my brain for the coming months ahead, too. Which segues into the next point.
Short stories. So far this year, I’ve taught sci fi short stories, I’m currently teaching short stories 101, and this term I’m moving into teaching myth retelling/adaptation and then really short and meaningful stories. My brain is away with shorts, and I’m wanting to read more [Angela Carter’s THE BLOODY CHAMBER is up next] and I’ve been tinkering with writing some. I’ve always loved the short story form, which leads into this cool thing…
The Australian Writers’ Centre runs a monthly challenge called Furious Fiction, and last month I submitted one that ended up making it into the Longlist for that month’s challenge. This means my title and name were published [and there’s never any money involved], but it was nice to be seen.
For that month, the challenge was to open with a question, having something being pulled, and then include the words ‘post’, ‘tear’, and ‘thunder.’ I wrote a Fighting Fantasy-style second person piece that gets interrupted by a Post It note where one brother tells his younger brother how to survive and then says he’ll see him in a few months after he finishes his tour [tour could mean army, could mean music, I was happy to leave it open]. Considering you get about 55 hours to do it all and it’s under 500 words, I was really happy with The Cacophony at Cawthorne’s Castle - though, spoilers, my entry for this month came hard, late, and terribly. But I got it done.
This focus doesn’t shock me because I’m starting up my Intro To Creative Writing course again this month for the rest of the year at my local university. Prepping and planning for that takes a bit of time away from the usual work, but I’m more than happy to do it because I find it so enriching and fulfilling.
To sit alongside the busy extra work, I’ve spent the start of this term acting up in the role of Faculty Director for English at my school and it’s ensured my days are busy - though I’ve also really enjoyed this role, too. Finding a balance between the writing and a full time teaching role, and the extra stuff I do at that school like running the Writers’ Camp and online creative writing challenges and some other small roles, and then taking on the uni course, and then still trying to chill and exist with my amazing family has never been “easy” - it always means I prioritise and there are things I can let fall aside, and parts I refuse to give less. That balance has been a focus for the past decade, and so long as I’m not crashing and burning then that’s the success at times.
All of which is to say, well - What’s next? Plenty. But I also don’t know. I guess there are worse ways to be.
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DEER EDITOR TPB in stores this week!
I don’t yet have my hands on my copies of this, but it’s been a decade in the making and I am AMPED for it!
A sleep-deprived, pun-fuelled, noir-injected dream of antlers and indie comics. Sami Kivela and I had a dream, and we stuck to it. The result is now bringing on board Lauren Affe for colours and Jim Campbell for letters, and Mad Cave Studios to sling it around the globe.
If you hit up your store this week, please give the tpb a flick through, and if you dig it then take it home and let it give you a weekend of crime, vampires, newspapers, and one fresh buck trying to better discover who he is and how that person can best help the world around him.
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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’m going to the ComicGong show in Wollongong this weekend. Alas, it doesn’t look like my copies of the Deer Editor tpb will be with me - but I do have full runs of the 3 issue mini, and some of the variant covers, so I’ll be slinging those alongside some other good reads like A FISTFUL OF PAIN, ETERNAL, SKYSCRAPER, and more.
This show is always one of my favourites, and there are plenty of people I cannot wait to catch up with, alongside driving in with an old friend to catch up with.
Should be a good weekend, and I hope I see some of you there.
If you aren’t there then maybe I’ll see you in Melbourne for June’s long weekend :]