Ryan wrote his first fantasy story at age fourteen when he discovered that writing about the lands and magic of centuries past was quite a bit easier than hunting for magical portals to transport him there. Since then he’s published short stories and quite a bit poetry but still hasn’t found one those elusive magical portals just yet.
He’s often looked up into the stars and thought about that quote. It comes from J.M. Barrie’s novel Peter Pan. They were the directions to the greatest portal of all, Never Never Land. Of course, those directions were made up by Peter Pan to impress Wendy but that doesn’t matter. It reminds him of his writing journey. He aims to reach his own Never Never Land, a magical place where he can write for a living and can live anywhere he wants, especially if that place is a warm beach with waves crashing all around him.
In the novel it was said that Never Never Land was found because the island itself was looking for them and not because they were looking for it. Maybe, just maybe, his own Never Never Land will find him because it was looking for him too. At heart he’ll always be a Tar Heel traipsing through the woods looking for those portals, but now he lives in Georgia with his wife, his son and two furballs. If he’s not working on his latest fantasy story, you can find him reading, people watching at Starbucks or secretly swinging lightsabers around in the backyard. Maps to hidden magical portals are always welcome.