Dan Ryan's SmallStories » Introduction–About

The Logo Idea—A small idea for a logo

Dan Ryan — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:01:27 +0000

Teeny stylized nano-robots. I think the one on the left is named Gozai and the one on the right is named Masu. Maybe I should have a naming contest. Lemme know.

After the Ball Drops—A small cautionary

Dan Ryan — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:37:56 +0000

It happens every year, you know, around Christmastime. The suicide rate goes up, as does the attempted suicide rate. And it pretty much extends from Christmas Day on into New Year’s Eve, according to a cop I know. People drink way too much, of course. And they get to thinking about how lonely they are, especially people estranged from their families or who don’t have any family. They feel unwanted, unappreciated, worthless. They feel very alone, and don’t see a bright, shiny future or a reason to go on.

And people aren’t the only ones, you know.

Meanwhile, yeah, we’ve had another one just across the street. I know it looks pretty straightforward and obvious, but I still need to go call the police…….

Another Non-path—A small recollection

Dan Ryan — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 01:45:09 +0000

When I was a kid, I used to love to take the caps off of Bic pens and set them on fire. I’d light the very tip of the clippy extension, typically with a paper match stolen from my mother’s kitchen, and hold the rocket-shaped cap as the plastic caught fire. Then, little fireballs would drop from the flaming pen cap and make this remarkable “Ffffwip!” sound as they descended down to whatever concrete surface I happened to be standing on. I always played it safe with flaming plastic.

And even though “Star Wars” had just come out and I knew better, when I had my fun melting Bic pen caps into flaming meteors and death rays from above I felt like the greatest special effects geek in the world.

So, for awhile in my early teens I built weird stuff, because I was going to be a special effects man. The next John Dykstra. Mostly, I built things by sticking together a couple of items that shouldn’t function as a unit, but looked as if they might have potential. These constructs had some other-worldly function our limited human brains could not yet fathom.

Mostly, though, the stuff I built just looked odd and not very promising. By the time high school rolled around, I had college to worry about and I gave up my special effects dreams.

These days, I’m just happy if I can manage to take an interesting picture of myself, another odd object I’ve built which might have potential.

Toy Division—A small warning

Dan Ryan — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 08:14:55 +0000

Quite often the thing you need to do….

….is the last thing you usually consider.

And that is: Always watch out for the toys.

Christmas Ornaments—A small observation

Dan Ryan — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 07:55:33 +0000

The ornaments you put on your Christmas tree often say quite a bit about your state of mind during the year-end holidays.

For example, some ornaments suggest wistful recollections of Christmases past, of childhood memories. They make you think of the things you had growing up, the movies and TV shows you loved, and the things you were certain you were going to be.

Other ornaments, they reflect later times in your life, perhaps when you were in college or a young adult on your own for the first time. There is adventure suggested by these dangly things. That, and the idea that you at one time passed from childhood into a grown-up state where many things seemed even more possible because you had the experience, education and the means to make them happen.

Then, hopefully, there are ornaments you put on the tree that pretty much just scream out “Joie de vivre!”

Certain people—A small quote

Dan Ryan — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:09:08 +0000

“Loving certain people is like loving god: there is no payoff, and it’s just easier to hate them.”

SmallStories–An Introduction

Dan Ryan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:33:46 +0000

I have wanted to do this for a long time. If I had started trying to be a writer of fiction twenty years ago, I would have failed because I did not have the experiences I believe one needs from life to tell a good story. At least not the kind of stories I want to tell to you. Surely, there are have always been gifted youngsters right out of college or university who have always been able to sit in a room and craft beautiful tales out of circumstances created entirely in their minds. I have never possessed such gifts. And I have never had the patience to write a story and attempt to get it published in the traditional submission-and-rejection manner, even in this age of the internet and email.

I want to tell you my stories my way. So I offer you this, SmallStories, an outlet, ego trip, and, perhaps, a refuge for stories crafted from all the ideas and observations that have been rattling around in my head for the last twenty years.

Not all of my stories will be happy, nor all of them sad. They will reflect experiences I have had and people I have met, and will come in the order in which my brain decides to concentrate on them and my fingers to write them. There will be some bad words and some uncomfortable ideas. But I have faith in your ability to enjoy my stories, just as I finally have faith in my ability to write them.

Welcome, and enjoy—Dan Ryan