Ryan M. Patrick

So I’ve said this a few times…but I need to post more!

Going to do four posts per month:

• Beginning of month, where I go over big-picture stuff and post my monthly reading & writing goals
• An in-depth look at something writing or reading related, think some random thoughts on a writing topic or a review of a book that I think does something well
• A post about a space topic
• End-of-month wrapup

This is the last category.

First off, Lag Delay was released on Tuesday! this week! It’s my favorite piece that I’ve written in my 12 years of writing, and I highly recommend that you all go check it out on Amazon. My ARC readers did a great job and I had a bunch of reviews on release day. We’ll see how sales go, but I’m feeling stoked.

Howvever, this month, my Skillbridge ramped into high gear as I had a bunch of deliverables due at its conclusion, and I also not only had to go through the interview process for the job I’ve been doing since early January (!) but I’m also in the middle of outprocessing from the military. Not to mention that my wife is in the middle of her grad school program. Time is at a premium, but all of my life-changing career moves are going in the right direction.

However, I did meet some of my beginning-of-month goals! I read all of the books I had planned, save for Weapons Grade – more on that later – and I got to Chapter 17 of my “secret project” – more on that later as well! I didn’t get quite as far on Crush Depth as I would have liked, but that’s ok – I have a lot of margin this year to work on it. I spent a great deal of time on that book this month, but I also am taking care to make sure I have all of the setups necessary for the insanely fast-paced second half.

For the books I read:

• The Sword of Shannara (4 stars) is a paint-by-numbers fantasy story that takes a lot of its inspiration from The Lord of the Rings – a painful amount. It’s not a bad story, it’s well executed, but even for when it was released (1977) doesn’t tread any new ground. I’ll probably read the sequel.
• Tiger’s Claw (4 stars) is classic Dale Brown. I’m still locked in, it’s a great series that has a bit too much buildup and not enough payoff on the back end. It does have a shocking ending that I’m curious as to how he’ll follow it up with Starfire.
• The Green Ray (3 stars) is one of Verne’s weakest, but it’s still an ok story. It’s mercifully short and provides a great travelogue for Scotland. I wouldn’t recommend unless you’re a Verne afficionado.
• Submarine (5 stars) is a great nonfiction tour of U.S. and U.K. nuclear submarines. It’s a bit dated as it’s over thirty years old, but the details are great and it flows logically with plenty of little anecdotes that show that the authors did their research. One of the better nonfiction books I’ve read in a while.
• Orconomics (4 stars) is good, but not great. It’s got a perfect concept, the characters are well-written, and the satire is spot-on. However, it’s too long for what it provides, and there’s a lot of info-dumping and the author explaining to the reader at a much lower level than I would expect for an adult (not YA) book. I’d recommend, but it’s a bit of a slog.
• I started Weapons Grade, and I’m about halfway through it. And – like a lot of the post-Clancy Clancy books – it’s not great (I don’t know why I keep reading them!). There’s tons of technical inaccuracies that a simple Google or Wikipedia search would have solved, and the prose is not what I’d expect in a thriller. The tropes are getting tired, we’ve seen them all before in previous Clancy novels, and I’m just not invested in any of the characters anymore. I think I’ll finish it, but it might be my last “Clancy” for a while – other authors are doing it better.

“Secret Project”

So, I’ve been talking about this for a while, both on Twitter and Discord, and I’m ready to unveil some details!

It’s a trilogy, and while I’m calling it “science fantasy,” it’s really a hard sci-fi novel written as a fantasy adventure – obviously inspired by my recent re-read of The Book of the New Sun. The trilogy is called The Mystios Chronicles, the book is called Trials and I’m working on a cover. I’m planning for each book to be 60,000 words and the entire series be roughly 180,000. I have the first book outlined in detail (and am 30,000 words into the first draft!) and rough outlines of the second and third, and the ending already mapped out. It’s very different than what I normally write, with much more in-depth, colorful prose, and I’m having a blast. It’s working great as a palate cleanser from all of the sci-fi and technothrillers I’ve been writing. I plan on finishing it by June and getting it to the Pentagon shortly thereafter, then publish it in late 2024 or early 2025.

More to come!

Crush Depth

I’m going slow – just a little bit at a time, really trying to invoke the Preston & Child feel that I tried for – and at least partially succeeded – with Lag Delay. I’m about 9,000 words into a planned 90,000, and the second half is already drafted. I think I can get this one done late this year for a Spring 2025 release. I’m also planning out some cover ideas – this isn’t one that I’m going to be able to do myself, and I have some concepts that I think might work but I’m going to need help from an expert.

I’ll be back next week with my April goals!