Blogs – Ryan La Sala

Getting away with magical murder

February 27, 2018February 19, 2018 by Ryan

Last weekend we murdered our good friend, Anna.

Actually, I murdered Anna. Did it with some poison and then a bludgeon. See below.

Our apartment doesn’t have a ton of places to murder someone, so we had to crowd the whole party in the entry, which was actually the “Courtyard” for the evening. Everyone got real close. Jess made a big announcement that the lights were going to go out in three seconds, and that she sure HOPED no one was murdered during the resulting darkness. The lights went out. I cut the twinkling fairy lights we’d hung earlier that day. The room went black and the party counted down: 3, 2, 1!

And then I murdered Anna.

I’m writing short stories again

February 17, 2018January 14, 2018 by Ryan

I began a new short story yesterday. It started as a warmup for a day of writing, but a few hours later I was still within it, toiling away. I think this was a trick I played on myself. I’ve already resolved to write short stories this year, though yesterday was not the day I planned to start. So why was it the thing I started with? Probably because it’s the thing I should be writing.

Writing in 2018

February 17, 2018January 6, 2018 by Ryan

I didn’t write a ton in 2017, mostly because I was busy revising a project, revising it again, and then creating auxiliary resources (like a series synopsis) for submission. Once that all got handed over, my job as a writer became: WAITING. For the first time in two years I was without a project to hold my attention, and it was a feeling that was both liberating and stupefying. What was I going to work on next? I’ve avoided asking myself this for ages, for two reasons.

Creating our Hawkmen cosplay for New York Comic Con

February 17, 2018October 14, 2017 by Ryan

At some point this summer, Sal and I fell into the habit of using our gym time to discuss cosplaying. We’d gotten tickets to New York Comic Con (NYCC) and needed to figure out something spectacular. Our deliberations looked like: one of us rhetorically debating the pros/cons of being the Thundercats while the other suffered underneath a bench press; one of us rhetorically discussing how to make the Demogorgon into a ‘Sexy Demogorgon’ while the other dangled from a pull-up bar. It was a very specific and odd series of vignettes and I think a lot about what we must have sounded like.

Plotting new things in 2017

August 22, 2017January 25, 2017 by Ryan

For a while I avoided considering writing another book because it seemed like an act of defeat. It felt this way because my first book was this big, messy thing that lived in pieces upon my desktop, and I hadn’t really sent it around to agents, and it wasn’t published. For that reason alone, the idea of starting a new book felt like giving up on the old one.

Unabridged Disney Song Intros: Under the Sea, The Little Mermaid

August 22, 2017September 11, 2016 by Ryan

Sebastion: Ariel listen to me
The human world is a mess
life under the sea is better than anything they got up there

…
Sebastion: And besides, you’re a young girl who has been forced into a premature fame by your royal heritage, so it’s extra important that you, of all people, don’t compromise this kingdoms secrecy nor sovereignty by exposing our ‘mythical’ existence to humans, who we can all agree are absolutely monstrous when facing something they don’t understand.

How to avoid your publishing dreams in the summer of 2016

August 22, 2017August 3, 2016 by Ryan

It’s hard to write in the summer. At least for me. And maybe I’m alone in this — other people brag about how much writing they’re doing on Twitter, but the quiet irony of this pleases the jealous and bitter part of me (which is, really, most of me) greatly, and so I have to repeat myself: It’s hard to write in the summer.

Things I Have Lied About: At Summer Camp

August 22, 2017May 13, 2016 by Ryan

Something you should know about me is that from a very young age I decided that reality just wasn’t for me, and that I was going to spend about 100% of my time pretending I was anyone else. The result was that I was a horrible little liar fascinated with my ability to trick people, especially kids my own age.

The Rasputin of Bloggers

August 22, 2017November 30, 2015 by Ryan

Hi, blog.

Okay so don’t kill me but… I’m back? I’ve been on hiatus from about 80 different projects for the past several months (including this one) but, after a truly incredible summer and a surprisingly busy autumn, I’d like to re-invite myself back into the hearts of my readership. **new moon emoji**

What the hell is a Praline? An investigation

August 22, 2017May 25, 2015 by Ryan

The other day I posted a status on Facebook that earnestly asked what a praline might be, because honestly I’ve never been able to figure it out passively, and by god I do NOT plan on googling that. What if it’s horrible? I hate googling horrible things.