Almost Getting Laid by a Vampress (c/w ugliest Vampire Picture I ever Drew!) and Avatar Contest

My latest chapter of "Too Dumb to Dance" is out complete with an incredibly terrible picture I drew.  Not sure why I am insisting on drawing a picture to go with each and every chapter but hey, what the hell.

One more little detail.  I am running a contest over at Threadless (User Name Disgruntled_Pacifist) to design me a new avatar for use with regards to my writing.  Are you a designer?  Want a free signed copy of my book and a chance at designing a cover of a book later (if I can talk whatever publisher I may have into it).  Show me some ideas.

Anyway go ahead and catch up or read it all in it's entirety for the first time.  Off to work some more on my #SaturdayShorts (look it up on Twitter)

Thanks For Reading
D. Ryan Leask

Too Dumb to Dance

Dear Constant Readers:

I hope that none of you are crying in your pillows about the demise of Karma's a Bitch.  I know I'm not (and as I am likely the only "Constant Reader" they you aren't either).  I have replaced it with an epic journey of three young men trying to make it in the world of Competitive Men's Throw Dancing.

Not Since Slingovich and Flotosky has there been such talent unleashed upon this world.

I hope to have weekly chapters added to this saga on the Too Dumb to Dance page of this blog.  Read, follow, comment, critique, pan, review share, make fun of.

So far there are three chapters up.

Too Dumb to Dance
Enjoy!

D.

Karma is really turning out to be a bitch & A "Novel" Idea for an agent I'm following on Twitter

Part One

So over the past couple of days I wrote several pages outlining my character Karma. I ran into a pitfall that perhaps others can understand. I was making her a situation driven character. I made everything work out just right so she would be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing in order for the story to pick her up however in doing so I made her waaay too nice and waaay to unbelievable.

I had to shake my head when I realized that I had a 19 year old owner of a tattoo parlour who got there because of incredible book smarts and the kindness of others. To that I say

POPPYCOCK!!!

Yes, that's what I said.

I have decided that she got that tattoo parlour out of pure manipulation, seduction and black mail, that's more like my little fiery vixen!

Part Two


Sara Megibow, of the Nelson Literary Agency wrote on her facebook:

What am I looking for from young adult novels in the slush pile?...dorky
heroes, Vikings, pirates, ocean adventures, space ships, terraforming, first
contact (that's geek sf talk for "aliens"), romance, spring vacations gone awry,
travel, multiculturalism and global settings, elves, dragons, magic, monsters,
haunted houses...and, of course, a great story that's well told. :)

I think I have just the thing for her. It is very unlikely she is following this blog and as right now it isn't much more than a couple of pages and an idea I wouldn't contact her but it has inspired me to get back to it. This is the concept:

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An 11 year old boy can't wait until his 12th birthday, actually to be exact the first full moon on his 12th birthday. You see Harold Ware is a Ware (or as they are known to the rest of the world "Weres") Most people are familiar with Werewolves, which are by far the most common type, but there are all kinds of other creatures that Wares turn into as well; Bears, Jaguars, Birds of Prey, Foxes and even Deer and Songbirds to just name a few.

The prophecy states that on the first full moon of the thirteenth year your true identity shall be revealled. This means Harold will get to find out what he will be. His branch of the family is particulary revilled for it variety. His oldest brother is a Werebear, his sister (female weres are incredibly rare) is a Great Grey Owl. His father is a wolf but his Great-Great Grandfather was a great Black Stallion and strangest of all was that his grandmother, who was from a very distant family branch of Wares was a beautiful maiden, not that she was homely during other phases of the moon but during the full moon her beauty was beyond enchanting and ageless. Never before and never since has there been a Were-human.

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See, I am getting into it already. The above is just brain farts and just more of a description than anything you would see in the story. A couple of other things about Harold is that he is a narotic child who believes (and may be right) that he suffers from an OCD, he is the super geekiest, wierdest child (may tune it back a bit). He is so excited to become something else. Here's the kicker though, when his true identity is revealed to him he is a squirrel.

Nuts eh?

Anyway, I hope it doesn't sound too lame, I think it will work and seems to be working out in my mind and on paper so anyway, I'll keep you posted with my progress on that.

D.

Writing and Giving It Away For Free

Earlier I had posted about Kindles and a thought I had had of giving all the rights to Counting Down the Storm to them for free. Still thinking about that. Today I saw a twitter post that read:

Would we have had Shakespear, if he'd had to write for free? (part of a link to this article which is not what I am discussing here really)

Tis true but it would be exceptionally difficult for a man in his era to have access to media that would showcase his work without having someone who paid him. Today is not the case. I have to admit that at this stage in my writing *cough career *cough that exposure and having people actually read what I write, like you kind folks for instance, is far more important than any kind of financial reward. I am willing to give things away for free. Even if later on down the road I have to fight to get what is rightfully mine it is still worth it, that fight could very well be the publicity I needed anyways.

Here's the thing. Whatever I do write and post online is more or less in the public domain and very unlikely to be touched by any reputible publisher. That's okay with me. Maybe one of them will see something and wonder what else I have written.

In the end does it really matter? I have a day job and I highly doubt that I will ever be lucky enough to not need one. I want to be read and not because I have some ground breaking philosopies to share or because I think I'm important, I want to be read because I want to entertain people, and I want to entertain people to give me purpose for my writing. Lets face it no one (without major psychological defects) would write fiction if they never believed anyone would read it.

So this post is probably all over the place because I keep getting interupted but what I really want to say is that I am going to just toss out my story "Karma is a Bitch"

Start Reading it Here