“The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human.”
― Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion
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This newsletter goes through what I’ve been up to in my writing/life - I aim to account/atone for myself and what I have to show for my efforts recently. A map of my brain, so to speak, and here be dragons.
AI Statement: at no point do I use generative AI in any way to inform, create, or assist the publication of this newsletter, nor the life lived behind it.
2026 -- whatever.
Geek Markets Next Weekend with a New Comic
I’ll be tabling at the Canberra Geek Markets next weekend, July 18-19. It’s a good stack of comic people attending, and I’ll be there with Louie Joyce, which always brings me joy.
I’ll also have a new comic - a short story one-shot with the entire script and thumbnails process in the back half. Behold: THE UNDERGOD
This is a Philip K. Dick inspired short story about a space traveller lost onto an unknown planet and who finds themselves wrapped up in the slippery slope of beliefs and deities found there. I’ve tried for a nice balance of short story landings; like a good ending, some nice prose, and room for the art to sing - because - Adam Masterman illustrated this and it’s so damn beautiful.
Adam’s pages consistently gave me a sense of wonder and joy, and his hand-painted cover should let you know just how much care and love he poured into this one.
The single-issue, staple-bound, full-colour, process-packed comic will be available on my table for its debut run. I hope some people pick it up and dig it.
It was nice to bring something short, punchy, and beautiful to life, and then pack the whole script in for people who might dig that kind of thing. Here’s page one, just to let you know the inner beauty, too:
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Half Time
Hitting that Winter Solstice makes me think about half a year down and whether I’m halfway through or towards…something. Gotta be more than just a calendar year, right? And shout out to John Lees for the solstice reminder in his incredibly productive newsletter [though, this tells you I started writing this a few weeks ago and only got to finishing it now - which tells you a lot about this year, honestly].
Reflection often needs to go hand-in-hand with intentionality. What did I set out to do with 2026? I used to be really good at this - I’d have clear goals and projects at the start of the year, I’d map them across months, and weeks, and days. I was precise, and probably not shocking to me: I got shit done.
So, I don’t have a clear list of 2026 So Far to really check off, which means I’ll just have to vibe it. The over-under would be: it’s a good year, for many reasons, and that’s enough to celebrate.
I also sold an essay this month, which was nice to do, and on a comic I really dug recently. It should be live soon.
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Refilling the Tank
I still feel like I’ve got a big project in me. There’s something I’m tinkering with that feels genuinely special, and so I’m trying not to rush it. Treating it more like the massive projects my favourite authors work on for half a decade and try to get right, rather than just one bullet in a Gatling gun I’m hoping to spray out upon the world of editors, collaborators, and readers. I just don’t have that pace in me anymore.
As such, I feel like I’m spending a lot of time refuelling my tank with films and books and such. Maybe a good excuse to be giving it more time, or maybe just the best excuse for doing such a thing.
I recently saw Disclosure Day by Spielberg and co and found it…a really complex and beautiful mess. I wrote a review on Letterboxd I’m really proud of [or “of which I’m really proud” if I want to write more gooder].
I found the film thematically really fascinating. The film itself is, well, not a mess, because I was all in throughout, but it’s messy, and perhaps simplistic, and I feel like it needed another few drafts to pick what it was doing [or maybe just what I wanted it to do]. I wish it was a more harrowing political thriller, with less schmaltz and deus ex machina aspects. But maybe it’s all by design and Spielberg knows what he’s doing. Maybe - check the review to see my take on the theme, which I believe goes well beyond just “The media should be more truthful, and if it were we’d all listen and be better for it.”
It goes way beyond that - and uses my favourite: intertextuality.
I also recently watched All That Jazz and have subsequently been unable to get the final number, and its conclusion, out of my head.
Other ones informing my way of thinking and writing lately are: Suddenly, Last Summer because the characters are just so Big and the hidden concepts so skirted around and my love for Tennessee Williams grows and grows; [500] Days of Summer because I’m a sucker for structural play in stories; Mother Mary because I appreciate David Lowery and the things he tries to say through the symbolism in his work.
Wrapping all of that up with Fellini’s 8 ½ really makes me want to infuse this coming comic pitch with something personal and moments of depth.
Alongside that, I have been reading a lot of Cormac McCarthy recently as I prepare to teach The Road once more, and his prose continues to astound. I found Child of God to be a really engaging and ultimately brutal take on the thin line between social civility and the underworld of depravity that exists and of which we don’t have a handle on it in any true capacity. The book captivated me and took only a few days to read because I kept returning to it in every possible spare moment. Then I hit Outer Dark and it just slowly escalated for me. You hear McCarthy touted as Faulknerian all the time, but this one truly felt in conversation with As I Lay Dying in the mythic quest as discovery of self and also of the world around you. The book feels more esoteric in narrative drive, but the final chapters really pull it together into something quite special.
I’ve also been mainlining academic readings about The Road and it’s allowing me to consider the small choices we make in stories, and the multitudinous readings we can allow and hint towards. There’s a level of control and landing in certain moments that matters.
Putting all of that alongside Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own and Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus as they tumble through my brain this year has me consistently thinking beyond plot and aiming for something more in my work.
Where all this will ultimately lead, I have ideas, but am uncertain, but I have to admit: the ride is just about worth it on its own.
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Sometimes the stories that matter most are the ones that chase you.
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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 Head of 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
There is going to be an anthology of short stories set in The Overlook Hotel coming out next year - and, alas, I won’t be in it. It’s from the crew that brought you the anthology of stories set in the world of Stephen King’s The Stand.
This one is going to have Daniel Kraus [recent winner of the Pulitzer], Mike Flanagan [renowned King adapter to the screen]. Chuck Plahniuk [Fight Club], and it looks rad.
So I did submit something to this open call they ran, and without too much detail can confirm I cleared one hurdle, then cleared another hurdle, and then could easily be seen in the photo finish of the final selection round - but did not mount the podium.
Gotta admit, I really wanted it - The Shining was my favourite novel from my teens into my 20s - but I also knew I’d have no shot. Having multiple readers pass my story through to the next rounds, though, was genuinely exhilarating and a real shot in the arm.
If nothing else, it was a nice ego boost. But, man, it sure would have been cool.
Perhaps next time - they could do an anthology of stories set in the world of The Dark Tower, or in ‘Salem’s Lot, or on The Long Walk, or previous contestants on The Running Man, or other calamities from the Pet Sematary, or previous interactions with Pennywise [which as I type it, feels like the one that would get the most eyes/press/traction, right?], or other walkers of The Green Mile, or other people who have stumbled through the time portal in 11/22/63 and I’d take a genuine run at any of these.
Though my real hope would be for other students at the university in the Hearts In Atlantis novella, but that one seems like a stretch.
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