ryanlewisandclark

[ryanlewisandclark]

Katy is good people and does good work. Support Katy if you can!

I am not sure where my fascination with disasters came from, but I have had it for a long, long time. So much so that I very specifically remember being in Middle School and writing a short story about a tornado hitting our school and trapping all the students in the gym (but none of the teachers, of course, because what fun would it be if the teachers were around?). My poor teacher didn't quite know what to do with me when she tried to pair everyone up by genre to critique one another's stories, as no one else had written something remotely similar. It didn't matter though, I was hooked. That afternoon I was standing in my garage and thinking about how I wanted to grow up to be an author who wrote disaster stories, and I wanted to write one story about each kind of disaster.

After several years (and two agents) trying to get these books picked up traditionally with no luck, I've decided to just do it myself. And so, the Little Disaster Books collection has been born! When you pick up a Little Disaster Book, here's what you're going to get:

A short read. Each book is around 50,000-70,000 words. That's a bit longer than a novella, and shorter than most novels, because sometimes you just need a quick book, not a door-stopper.

Each book is a standalone. Because, again, sometimes you just need something quick that you don't have to invest in for a decade while you wait for each book to come out.

Lots of queer characters of all sorts. The disaster genre is, unfortunately, pretty notorious for either not having queer characters at all, or killing them off. Little Disaster Books will instead center them and their narratives. But, the stories won't be ABOUT queerness, they'll just have characters that are queer.

No quickie romance. There will be characters in relationships (I'm a sucker for books with couples that are already together at the start), and maybe the first blooms of a potential romance, but nobody is falling head over heels when they should be focused on survival.

No gore for gore's sake. Characters might get hurt, or even die, but these aren't horror books or slasher books or anything in that vein.

A realistic look at disaster. I'm not just obsessed with fictional disasters, I'm obsessed with the real ones too. I have spent a lot of time studying disasters, myths around disasters/disaster response, and the sociology of disasters. With Little Disaster Books I have worked very, very hard to make the books as realistic as possible when it comes to things like civilian responders, everyday heroes, and how disaster response tends to work. At the end of the day they are still fiction, but they're fiction heavily grounded in reality. No "everyone for themselves/we're all animals when the lights go out" nonsense here.

Full endings. There's a bit of a trend in survival thrillers for them to end right at the climax/moment of rescue, or within a few pages of it, even if things haven't been fully wrapped up. Little Disaster Books will all have more rounded endings that delve, at least a little bit, into the aftereffects of what the characters go through, because sometimes the after is the hardest part of all.

The first book in this collection, Lie Down in the Ashes, is launching on Kickstarter on Janaury 15th, 2025! Sign up to be notified on launch here. It is about a group of teens who get caught in the middle of a fast moving wildfire that one of them accidentally starts.

Sign up to be notified on launch here.

[ryanlewisandclark]

If you guys can share this around; even though my dad's improving it's still gonna be a while before he can work again.

[ryanlewisandclark]

[ryanlewisandclark]

i’m not saying this in a mean way, but i really hope with all my heart that everyone posting about community & loving each other right now is wearing a mask in their daily life !! like that’s one of the most straightforward ways you can take care of the people around you, and keep each other safe!

i know it’s a hard adjustment if you’ve stopped masking for awhile because the government/media has been pushing their propaganda about how covid is mild/isn’t a threat anymore. it’s scary to accept that a comfort you thought existed was just a lie, but we need to care enough about each other to put in the work of unlearning that propaganda. (and if you’re not sure how to start doing that, feel free to reply to this or send me an ask or DM me for help!!)

we need to be brave enough to build community on actual safety measures and concrete support, not just vibes and empty statements about love and community.

[ryanlewisandclark]

i am allowed to need and accept help

i am allowed to need and accept help

i am allowed to need and accept help

i am allowed to need and accept help

i am allowed to need and accept help

keep saying it until you believe it

i am allowed to need and accept help

[ryanlewisandclark]

it’s deeply annoying that more of my life’s problems can’t be solved with stabbing.

[ryanlewisandclark]

Hey, you:

You are a terrible and wondrous thing made from the bones of dead stars and the emptiness between atoms.

Please stop being a passive participant in your own experience of your self.

I love you.

[ryanlewisandclark]

in the vein of "how do you stay safe from getting sick", I wanna say that something I always noticed as a kid was that a lot of the time when I went to people's houses and we would leave at some point to the mall or the park or something and then come back home…I don't remember any of them washing their hands when we got back inside. they'd just immediately lead me back to their room or the living room or something, and then I'd feel incredibly self-conscious about going to their bathroom to wash my own hands. and I always thought it was absolutely bizarre because the way I was raised, the first thing you do when you come back home after taking your shoes and jacket off is go wash your hands. it's common sense. why on planet earth would you not wash your hands. you've just been touching a hundred public surfaces that could have anything on them and you think as soon as you set foot in your own house all the germs you've picked up just evaporate? it's absolutely insane to me to know that so many people don't bother washing their hands. WASH YOUR HANDS.

[ryanlewisandclark]

Are you a boy or a girl?

I’m incompetent.

[ryanlewisandclark]

Written to a friend, on January 25 of this year:

“i found four grey hairs on my left temple last night.

not sure how to explain the experience of evidence of survival as someone whose expectation has always been to leave the party early, so to speak.

gratitude, perhaps, is the least effusive, most concise. overwhelm is not inaccurate. words i don’t know in other languages for feelings that haven’t moved through me before, whose faces are familiar like old friends and glaciers.

whatever the simplest way to say thank you is in this moment. i want to mean it that way when i say it.

i’m glad to still be here.”

there is life after survival. there are lights in the darkness. we are marvelous creatures who change and age and fade and deepen and expand. marvel at it, don’t recoil.

I will never understand the hate for grey hairs. Your hair has sliver in it now. You have the color of stars on your hair. You have proof you survived and grew up. You have proof you are living. How is any of this bad?

[ryanlewisandclark]

I will never understand the hate for grey hairs. Your hair has sliver in it now. You have the color of stars on your hair. You have proof you survived and grew up. You have proof you are living. How is any of this bad?

[ryanlewisandclark]

don’t really enjoy being fragile

[ryanlewisandclark]

“I’m terrified of singin’ my fears.

What if God doesn’t listen?

What if he doesn’t care?”

-Dave Armstrong, “Jesus in the Ring”

[ryanlewisandclark]

i have been a ghost, haunting my own stories.

i want to rematerialize, to feel my self again.

[ryanlewisandclark]

ill take it, but to be honest im kinda tired of just making it through the year. think it would be nice to make something of the year. maybe this year just making it through is enough, but i want to believe in the future and i want more from it than that.

[ryanlewisandclark]

Hey.

I love you.

I hope your discomfort eases.

I hope your worries pass away.

I hope there is joy and warmth and light in your days.

I hope there is rest and comfort and peace in your evenings.

I hope the night holds you close.

I hope the morning finds you hoping.

May tomorrow make us closer.

May tomorrow make us free.

[ryanlewisandclark]

i cannot punish myself in any way that will unmake the past.

i cannot hate myself into a version of me i will love.