Welcome to Manic Pixie Dream Himbo, a digital dissection of the creative process through the journals of author Ryan La Sala, in the form of an old-fashioned blog.
Each issue will contain some writing, some updates, and an annotated glimpse into Ryan’s personal notebook. Like this:
What to expect?
✨ In addition to a digital dissection of my journal(s), each issue will include:
✨Writing updates & rants on Ryan’s unreleased projects
✨ Early access to announcements, content, and chances to win advanced copies of books
✨ Cat photos, presumably of Ryan’s cat but who knows!
✨ And at least one strange story, per issue, as such:
Why this? Why now? Why me?
This is perhaps the least amount of thought I’ve put into any project in a decade, which is exactly why I’m doing it. Books are slow and deep — they remind me that in the abyss of the ocean, the heartbeat of a whale drops to just 3 beats per minute to conserve oxygen. Most of my work is written from such depth, darkness, consideration, and isolation, which makes trying to surface insights for posting on social media akin to coming up for air too fast — you get the bends and the thought ruptures itself in its expression. It arrives upon the waves as oil and seafoam.
But a blog has just enough containment to keep the pressure, and keep the shape. And unlike a book, I don’t need to dive away from the world to render it. Still, I want to offer insights into the dimension from which I create—I spend most of my time there, not here, so how do I transgress that distance?
The answer is the diary! The diary is the psychic deep-sea submersible. Essayist Maria Popova said this of Mary Shelley’s diary: “A diary is a record of how someone pays attention.” This blog is a manifest of what I’ve got on my mind as I dream, while also an exercise in demystifying deep creativity.
Every book I write, I keep a digital journal, and everywhere I go I take a physical journal (currently it is blue). I am my own penpal. I write to myself constantly. In MPDH, I’ll open the pages to you all and let you read along.
luv youuu,
