It’s been a minute since my last letter so allow me to present you with a brief update on my life:
The good news is that I sold the follow-up to my 2017 novel The Student to the publishing industry and it is now beginning its journey into print.
The bad news: it’s slated for release in 2020.
That’s it, actually.
Look, I’m a novelist, not a journalist. For novelists, only one thing of merit happens every 2.5 years.
Onto the main event:
"I’ll Never Work With Him Again”
In person, Terrence Malick (director of Badlands and The Thin Red Line) has a bit of a rep for being am aw-shucks nice guy. Everyone likes him it seems, everyone except Christopher Plummer, hahaha:
Sabrina by Nick Drnaso
I don’t think I’m going to do a Year End list of books. I’ve tried my best to remove as much obligation from my reading as possible. These days, I read whatever the fuck I want to read. And yet for some reason, I read this Booker-nominated graphic novel and spent days thinking about it.
SIDE BAR: The best thing I read in 2018 was Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion — who I had not read before. Everything else was good but not as good as the TV adaptation of Sharp Objects, which itself was better than the book.
Sex Machine by Tegan Elizabeth Webb
Every now and then, I just want to read about someone fucking a robot. The only time it’s ever been a bad idea — in fiction — is Solo: A Star Wars Story. But here, this short horny story opens in Melbourne’s rock pub The Tote and involves a robot rock star hooking up. What? You need more?
The Best Christmas Record got Re-Issued
It’s this. And it’s also on Spotify. And the bonus live re-working enclosed is brilliant.
(I’ve listed some of my favourite 2018 releases on Instagram. Go to the Story Highlights, they’re in there. If you don’t know what Story Highlights are, be sure to congratulate yourself on living your best life.)
Cobain: Montage of Heck (dir Brett Morgen)
There’s a moment halfway through this film about the mythology of Kurt Cobain where a choral version of Smells Like Teen Spirit plays over footage from the music video that changed rock. It’s such a cheesy/obvious move — a wretched play for pathos — that it pays off, circuiting straight to the reptile brain and screaming All this success is a nightmare. In 2018, this is the unfiltered Nirvana experience. I don’t buy it. But I’m as surprised as the next person that I can still feel it.
Is Forensics junk science?
I don’t put forensic detective work in my novels (or haven’t so far) for two reasons: (1) that stuff is about 10x slower than it is on tele and, (2) from what I can tell, it’s not how crimes are solved, which is the drama of crime fiction. In reality, police mainly use forensics to substantiate their cases. They still solve the things by talking to people. Anyhow, this piece from Crime Reads calling the whole thing into question is pretty interesting. It’s terrible but a small part of me read that and thought, I hope it really IS garbage simply so my work won’t date.
Ahhhh, the pettiness of writers is endless, yes?
ENOUGH!
- IAIN RYAN
PS: You can buy my books here.