Mike Ryan is the leading author in the Hyadeswars universe, under the Hyadeswars Publishing umbrella.
He began writing as a child, first crafting songs, helped along musically by family members, and then by his own hand after years of study and dedication to the craft. He was intelligent, if not always the best student, as boredom, a quick wit, and sharp tongue usually found him in some sort of trouble. It was during these formative years that he began writing about science fiction, following closely the much loved and newly released Star Wars movie. His initial characters, Logan Spaceblaster and Privateer Johnny Corsair, were copies of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, written into his first screenplay. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, A Space Odyssey, and Alien movies gripped him.
Just after that, Dungeons and Dragons lured him into fantasy, providing escapism from the monotony of forced adherence to the norms. The animated movie, The Hobbit hit cinemas, further fueling the desire to delve into those magical interests.
Art and music were favorites, as were the stories about animals characters, like Charlotte’s Web, Animal Farm, The Black Stallion, and Call of the Wild. He collected comic books, and along with his cousins, created and drew his own comic book characters. Books by Edgar Allen Poe were never far away, and episodes of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica were watched regularly.
Junior High watched Mike fall in love with architecture, the only study he reveled in. But as classes leaned more and more toward mechanical drawing, his interest in drafting waned. He didn’t take it up again until college. However, he dabbled in Legos, one of his favorite toys as a child, always constructing things such as buildings, spaceships, bridges, and anything else spurred on by his desire to create what he loved.
As a teenager, school became less and less important than the creativity he was filled with. His songwriting progressed, as did his story telling, but his studies suffered. Even with consistently high test scores, he received his first and only failing grade as a high school sophomore; cutting classes amounting to too much time missed according to the laws. French II was decidedly useless and no homework was ever done. He left school.
Adulthood found Mike as an accomplished musician, playing and performing original works, as well as cover music. He wrote jingles in the NYC area for a short time too, before returning to drafting. Getting married and having children, along with the associated constraints of time and finances, all but shut down the pursuance and continuation of music. Jam sessions with friends occurred with less regularity over time. Work moved more toward sales and management, eventually culminating in Mike owning and operating several real estate offices. He diversified his networking and knowledge by finding employment in banking and real estate appraising during the great recession. World of Warcraft, Warhammer, and various super hero films were huge influences during that time.
An injury, and subsequent scans, revealed permanent and progressive damage to Mike’s spine. Pain, weakness, and the inability to perform previous tasks caused him to assess his abilities in order to contribute to society and be as active as possible. So, he returned to online college, a solution to the difficulty he had driving during that time. It was during a creative writing class that he rediscovered the ambition to share his stories and characters with others. He was able to work around the disability by jotting down notes as ideas came to him, regardless of whether he was sitting, standing, or lying down. Old works were touched up, edited, or completely rewritten over the years while new, unwritten, and sometimes, undiscovered works were catalogued. Mike even wrote with his mother, Joan, each creating one page at a time until a finished story evolved. He remembers fondly the aforementioned interests that contributed to his writing. Not to be discounted were works by Tolkien, probably the biggest influence on the genre of fantasy.
Today, Mike writes as much or as little as he likes, always weighing limitations against providing readers with new material.
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