Mark Ryan's Blog

Again I must say a huge sorry for being so quiet on here as of late. There is no real excuse except being lazy and letting life get in the way. TV has picked up with GoT, Penny Dreadful and Preacher all being on. I have been hard at work continuing to write ‘New Fragrance’ and it is shaping up really well, I am over the moon with how it is growing and flowing. Also I have been playing a lot of The Witcher 3 on ps4, such a brilliant game, the pacing of it is perfect for me, I can jump in and explore a hidden location for ten minutes or spend a few hours following quests.

My writing goals of May have been to do at least 1000 words a day and so far I have been beating that each day but we have a problem. June the 25th. No Man’s Sky is released. This is a video game if you didn’t know and basically it’s a game perfect for me in every way, a lot of science fiction nerds are gonna fall in love with it if not already. So the goal is to have the first draft written by June the 25th. This is a gonna be hard to do but I like having a goal to work towards.

Firstly sorry for the little dry spell, I have been a busy busy bee. 

I have been reading Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation

This is the first in the Southern Reach Trilogy and I can’t say much more as I think it is a book people should discover. Do not go into it expecting anything, just go along for the ride. I cannot wait to read the other two.

I have been watching GoT (like the rest of the world) & Penny Dreadful is back!

I love both these shows and I hate having to wait a week to watch the next episode.

I have been listening to 65daysofstatic a lot recently, mainly because they are providing the music for No Man’s Sky and my hype just increases for the day for that game. Also it’s damn good writing music.

And the important one is I have been writing New Fragrance (working title).

This is a new novel and is my first attempt at a full outline. It is a near future story and is in a small part inspired by Children of Men. I am 6 chapters in and the story is evolving wonderfully. Cannot wait to show you guys it.

I have had an original poem accepted into the upcoming summer issue of Arcane Contemporary Art Magazine.

I am very proud of the piece and excited to be featured in the issue with a selection of awesome artists and writers.

Please check out the magazine at

http://arcanecontemporary.weebly.com/

So as you know I have been working on finishing my short story collection Not Quite Right and its had been going really well but an idea I had a while back has squatted on my brain and is growing at an incredible rate. So I now have a novella being planned and I’m in love with the idea so I am putting my all into this while the ideas keep coming. I am so excited about this story!

There it was again, out the corner of my eye. Second time that’s happened on this road.

Must just be some old signs, ignore it Phil, we need to get home. I was driving home from a late meeting and after coming face to face with a road closure had diverted to the B roads for the rest of the journey, I had a slight familiarity with these roads during the day but at night it was so foreign. No street-lights and a lack of smooth tarmac made sure I had to keep my eyes sharp and focused, which is why I noticed something at the side of the road for the third time.

Stopping would be the stupid thing to do.

I put the car in reverse and maneuvered onto the grass verge. Stepping out the door I noticed how cold it had got, and how quickly. My exposed skin felt that chill that makes you feel kind of wet, like you are covered in a strange type of condensation.

It was an arm, a fucking arm. Not a real one, well I hoped not. It was incredibly detailed, tiny hairs and wrinkles, blemishes and moles, even dirt under the nails but it had a ball joint on the end. Must be from a mannequin I told myself, ignoring the horror movie trailer voice in my head ‘he shouldn’t have stopped to look, what happens next will make you scream!’ I threw it back into the hedge and got back into the warm cosy box of my car. The windows nearly instantly steamed up and I cursed as I had to open one. The cold whistled around my neck and after a few miles it began to seize. Trying to stretch it out I felt a sharp pain shoot down my shoulder and found I could only move my head to the side, any movement up and down just made the pain worse. I would be home soon and I could have a nice hot shower and some painkillers, just have to get there.

I clicked on the radio and left it on in the background, some discussion about foreign fish levels, perfect Grey noise. I took the corners slowly and started to enjoy the drive, my mind finally emptying as the blackness sped past me. I was going to make good time, I knew it, then, pulsing like the moon in the darkness of space I saw another limb, this time hanging from a sign for a train crossing, not that there was one. I didn’t get out the car this time, just pulled a little closer and stared at the pristine leg dangling in front of me. It was more obviously from a mannequin this time, you could even see the manufacturers worn details on the inside of the thigh. Why was I wasting my time with this, it was just fly-tippers being their usual lazy selves, I pulled back on to the road. I felt something deep in my thoughts nagging at me, I settled back down to pierce the road alone and tried catching the Moby Dick thought currently eluding my brain. It was just beyond my reach, so I turned off the radio and stopped in the middle of the road, I replayed the last stop over in my head, trying to remember details and then it hit me. Not as groundbreaking a thought id been expecting but I was sure the leg had a similar scar as me, just below the knee. From a school trip. I had been riding my bike behind the rest of the group and for a second I took my eye off the path and hit a rock. The wound made a perfect smile for my knee cap, but that was my left leg.

Why did that thought bother me so much, it was stupid, just tiredness and solitude playing tricks on me. I got back into my box and turned up the radio, lets learn about the Japanese stock markets. The corners I kept taking had me feeling a little lost but I was still following the diversion signs and I had seen enough other cars to not feel part of a mutant red-neck low budget b movie. I picked up some speed going down a hill and slipped back into my comforted cocoon-like state when the car hit something, nothing big, but enough to have me stop and check. Already expecting to find a near-dead animal pleading to be finished off, I took a deep breathe and pulled up my sleeves. It wasn’t wildlife that lay there in front of me, not a mangled squirrel or bruised deer. Not a dead pheasant or even bloody stain of something unknown, it was of course another mannequin body part. This time a pelvis, smooth and clean, looking at me. It may have been the strangest thing I have ever seen, on a road, at night. My brain took some time before confirming that it was indeed a smooth, shiny pink pelvis-shaped lump of fiberglass. Someone must be dumping these as they go, I hadn’t seen a car in front of me on this road so there was no telling when. I didn’t like it though, it was weird now, definitely disconcerting. I rushed back to the car checking for damage and then bundling into my seat, I slammed the door closed and put my foot down, I wanted to be home as soon as possible.

As I turned another similar bend in the road I found myself struggling to place home in my mind, I knew I lived in a house, well an apartment at least and I had a wife, that I was sure of. Her face though, I could not remember that. The nagging, pulling feeling came back. I shook my head to clear the fog and decided to try and not think, just focus on driving and getting home as quickly as possible, I raced around corners and through crossroads always following the yellow signs that kept me going. Traffic lights up ahead were my next reason to stop and honestly, I thought more than twice about just running them, no one about, no one would know. But I would, and with my luck it would be the one time a car full of kids with no headlights on was coming the other way. I trickled to a bumble and waited for the lights to change, the inside of my car bathed in red glow it looked like some neon comic book panel, I kept my eyes on the lights as they changed, flipped to green and I was stuck. I have no idea how it got there but in front of the car was a full size torso, had it fallen from somewhere, was it there all along and I just had my focus elsewhere. I blinked, and again, once more, it was still there. Fuck this I thought and I drove around it in ignorance. One thing I did see was on its back there was what looked like a switch, kinda like those action men that had ‘real-punching moves’, and when you pressed it they moved their arms. I kept on driving, I had wasted too much time on these strange throwaways this evening and I needed to be home, I was late because of, I strained to remember why I was late, was I late? I couldn’t recall much beyond getting in the car.

Again I stopped myself over-thinking and focused on the yellow diversions. I must be getting close to the end soon, why did I not recognize the roads, I could not have gone that far from home, wherever that was. Finally the sign I had been waiting for all night, DIVERSION END, appeared in front of me and I sighed a lot louder than I was expecting, my oasis in the desert of night had been reached, I indicated and turned the direction it pointed. I slowly drove along what looked like a fairly new, narrow road. It wasn’t a road, but a drive-way to a gatehouse and entry arm. I was confused, the window opened and it was empty, I called out and got no reply. The gate stayed closed. I turned off the engine and stepped out to have a look inside, I found the door unlocked and went in seeking out an inter-comm. I pressed the buttons and heard static, I asked if there was anyone around and only got a reply of crisp static.

‘Philip!, Mr. Clayton!’ I heard a shape calling me from the other side of the gate-arm and walked closer. A tall man wearing goggles and a white coat approached me and went to hug me, as he came closer I saw the logo and writing on his pocket ‘E.M.C.I – Ergonomic Mannequins Created for Industry’ I felt my brain rushing to put pieces together, in the confusion I forgot that the man had come to hug me and I had no time to refuse, his arm clasped my back as I tried to question him ‘what’s going on…..’

CLICK!

Written and Owned by Mark Ryan

This story is a part of the upcoming collection Not Quite Right

How has everyone’s weekend been?

For us it was a very busy but fun one.

If you didn’t know we have a 10 year old Rottweiler named Milo who 2 months ago was diagnosed with an inoperable tumour in the roof of his mouth. The operations and recovery would have been fraught with risks and just horrible moments for Milo so we decided to choose the quality of life route. So each weekend we are trying to take him out somewhere new, give him a few treats maybe and just enjoy our time with him.

On saturday we had a vets appointment with him to see how he was doing and get another set of painkillers. The vet was incredibly positive and happy with how he was getting along. He has put on some weight which is good. Then he got to spend some time with both of his Grandads. Which of course he loved.

Then on Sunday we took him to the beach at Weston-super-mare and the weather was glorious. We had a stroll along the beach and got some fish and chips, Milo got a sausage, then we got him a whippy ice cream which he relished in as you can see below.

All in all a very good weekend. I hope all of your weekends were enjoyable too.

It’s weird how it hits you. Here I am, 10:16 pm on a Thursday night and I’m in bed. The hardworking wife is snoring lovingly beside me and the rottweiler is lay across my feet.

And I’m wide awake with a story idea that needs to be captured before its lost forever. So I hope inspiration finds you just like this or in anyway, I’m just happy to be writing.

Finally.

After sitting down this morning with my little notebook and planning out some structure to my short stories I found my mojo.

The moment I started writing it just kept coming and now I feel like the dam has burst open. Remember that writer’s block will pass and you will find your motivation. Never give up.

Today I have managed to get a lot of writing done and this is always an awesome thing but I have come to realise I need to plan ahead a bit more with my longer stories. I come up with an idea or beginning very easily but I rarely plan where I’m going. This leads to me becoming lost.

Tomorrow I’m going to spend most of the day planning out all the long pieces I have on the go. I think I will still leave it quite loose but give myself an ending to aim towards and some more structure. How do you guys plan? Do you get every little detail sorted out or do you just let it evolve?

Rachel was elated to finally have her lucky rabbit’s foot. For years she had heard people talk about horseshoes and feet as lucky charms and she needed all the luck she could get. The rabbit, was less than thrilled when it was awoken being dragged out of its burrow by a human who for some reason had an obsession with its foot. It tried to fight but there’s not much you can do when being held by your tiny ankle.