Ryan Williamson
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Ryan Williamson
@rywilwrite.bsky.social
13 followers 72 following 31 posts
Former soldier writing dark and gritty, gripping literary genre fiction with the guardrails ripped off. Stories that make you think, not tell you how to think. 📝 ryanwilliamson.com
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rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 17d
My books have been called “A literary work in a military fiction trench coat with a fantasy fedora” and “Better than any other military fiction I’ve read.”

I write SF/F about smart people solving impossible problems—no plot armor, no easy answers. www.amazon.com/author/ryanw...
Ryan Williamson: books, biography, latest update
Follow Ryan Williamson and explore their bibliography from Amazon's Ryan Williamson Author Page.
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rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 2h
I’ve been drowning in AI video options for my promo content. Google Veo 3? Kling 2.5? Runway Gen-4? The marketing claims sound identical—until you test them. I’ve researched which models excel at what, and the differences matter. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/31/p... #aivideo #bookpromotion
Picking the Best AI Video Model for Book Promo Videos and Trailers
I’ve been drowning in AI video model options while building promo videos and trailers for “Doors to the Stars.” Google Veo 3? Kling 2.5? Runway Gen-4? Sora 2? The marketing claims all sound identic…
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 21h
Sarai’s impossible pregnancy—the biological union of incompatible castes—exposes a galactic theocracy’s foundational lie. When prophecy turns her daughter into a symbol, the only way to save her child is to burn an empire. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/30/t... #AmQuerying #ScienceFiction
The Dark Dominion Sequence
The child growing inside her shouldn’t exist. Sarai izt Kviokhi’s bloodline is genetically incompatible with the divine elite—especially The Name, the immortal tyrant who’s ruled the galaxy for thr…
ryanwilliamson.com
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rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 1d
What makes a book YA isn’t avoiding darkness—it’s how the protagonist processes it.

When publishers optimize for adult readers instead of teens, we lose stories that trust teenagers with complexity.

It’s time we took YA back. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/30/w... #YALit #BookTwitter
What Actually Makes YA Literature “Young Adult”
A reader challenged me after I posted about “Doors to the Stars,” my YA space opera: aren’t you just writing adult fiction with a teenage protagonist? It’s a sophisticated question that cuts to the…
ryanwilliamson.com
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rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 3d
How to design the ultimate secret villain lair.
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 3d
Meet the Crew of The Gambler. www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8DNMuqQ/ #DoorsToTheStars #YASciFi #TeenReads #ReadingCommunity
Meet the crew of The Gambler—the most wanted ship in the galaxy. There’s Toren, our gruff Kzari captain with a cybernetic leg and a hidden heart of gold. Marc, the idealistic tech genius who believes ...
TikTok video by Ryan Williamson
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rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 3d
Stop asking if your story is original and start asking if it’s true. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/27/f... #writingtips #writingfiction
FernGully and the Last Space Marine: or Why Desperately Seeking “Originality” Is Bullshit
Cameron’s Avatar is “Pocahontas in space”—yet it’s still the highest-grossing movie of all time globally and millions of people reported post-film depression because he made them feel truth. Shakes…
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 4d
Sometimes your true writing voice is the one you’ve been fighting all along. It took me nearly a million words (over half discarded) to learn how to write authentically. Share your writing journey with me. I’d love to hear about it. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/27/l... #WritersLife #AmWriting
Losing My Voice to Find It
A reader gave my book three stars despite putting it in her top 10 of the year. Her reason? My protagonist felt like three different people. She was right. She’d documented the exact moment I was f…
ryanwilliamson.com
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rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 5d
“Doors to the Stars” is a story about choosing to fight even when victory costs everything, finding family in the wreckage, and opening doors even when you’re terrified of what’s on the other side. #YASciFi #SpaceOpera #YA ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/09/s...
Doors to the Stars: She Who Dares, Wins
Wulan scavenges radiation-poisoned ruins on Miller’s World, trying to keep a handful of kids alive in a galaxy fractured by a war three centuries past. Then she finds something the Ascendancy has b…
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 6d
I have 123 days to build 1,500 readers from scratch for my YA space opera launch.

D-Day is 2/24/2026.

Here’s my OPLAN. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/24/h...
How I Plan to Build 1,500 Readers from Scratch in Four Months
I have 123 days to launch Doors to the Stars with the wrong audience and no real platform. My Twitter followers are mostly middle-aged men, not young women who want dark YA space opera. Email lists…
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 7d
Fiction that interrogates you isn’t mystical. It’s craft.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

My novels are Rorschach tests—but the inkblot has teeth. Explicit moral architecture forces you to reveal what you believe when principles collide with survival. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/24/t...
The Rorschach Test With Teeth
Someone on Twitter wished authors could be “mystical” again—writing stories that let readers project their own meanings without accountability. That’s not mysticism. That’s cowardice dressed in art…
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 7d
As a philosophy, Kintsugi (金継ぎ) treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

It’s a metaphor for human life.

#beautifullybroken #survivor #warrior #abuse #trauma #ptsd #mentalhealth #selfestreem
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 8d
Autocrats always claim they’re saving the country. It’s the standard justification for dismantling democracy everywhere it happens.

What’s happening in America right now isn’t unique. It’s paint-by-numbers tyranny. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/23/h...
He Who Saves His Country Does Not Violate Any Law
Over the past three months, I’ve documented how we’re moving through recognizable stages of democratic collapse—from the banality of ordinary people embracing cruelty, to how algorithms amplify con…
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 8d
An open letter to r/Republican. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/22/a...
An Open Letter to r/Republican on Reddit
I was permanently banned from r/Republican for warning that the precedents conservatives celebrate today become the powers they’ll face tomorrow. Not for opposing Republican values—for defending th…
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 10d
In March 2025, democracy monitors warned the U.S. had 6 months before losing democracy status.

It’s now October.

We’re there.

Over the last several weeks I documented what I thought were 3 separate crises. I was wrong. They’re one integrated mechanism— ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/20/t...
Things Aren’t as Bad as They Seem; They’re Much Worse
In March 2025, the V-Dem Institute warned the U.S. was “on track to lose its democracy status in six months.” It’s October 2025. We’re there. I’ve been tracking what I thought were three separate c…
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 11d
At this point supporting Trump is supporting the destruction of constitutional government. Of our republic.

Which means if you still support him you’re either ignorant, stupid, insane…

Or a fucking traitor.

Those are the only options left for you now.

#NoKings
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 12d
I took an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

The founding fathers built checks and balances to prevent tyranny. Now "patriots" are dismantling them while claiming they're saving America.

#NoKings ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/07/t...
This We’ll Defend
I raised my right hand in January 1994 and swore to defend the Constitution with my life. That oath didn’t expire. Now I’m watching domestic enemies dismantle it while calling themselves patriots. …
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 12d
Cover concepts for the novel and reader magnet.
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 12d
Kris has the SOUL. Wulan has the disk. Both ask: when something alien reshapes you from inside, is saying yes really a choice? A space opera for #Deltarune fans obsessed with agency, guilt, and refusing to be puppets. #YALit ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/18/y...
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 12d
You were six years old when they took you, a demon-possessed child destined for the pyre—but the Church saw your potential. They implanted you with AI, transformed your body with nanotech, and trained you to become a strategic weapon.

An Immortal… ryanwilliamson.com/2025/09/29/d...
Dark Dominion: The Anointed Path
You were six years old when they took you. Cursed Anathema marked for death—until the Church saw potential. They implanted you with AI, transformed your body with nanotech, and trained you to becom…
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 13d
The median indie book earns $300 lifetime. Custom professional cover illustration costs $1K+. I searched for evidence AI covers hurt sales and found… nothing.

The kicker? Readers prefer AI in blind tests. Here’s the data nobody wants you to know about. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/17/n...
Nobody Boycotting Your AI Cover Was Going to Buy Your Book Anyway
The median indie book earns $300 lifetime—yet the anti-AI crowd demands you spend $2,000 on custom illustration to protect an industry that was never serving you anyway. I searching extensively for…
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 14d
According to a BookBub survey this year, only 12% of authors still use X/Twitter on a weekly basis. It now ranks 6th behind other major platforms—including Bluesky.

If your goal is to sell books, social media is a colossal waste of your time. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/17/h...
How Not to Build an Author Platform in 2025
I hired a social media brand strategist to fix my Twitter woes and help me build a new audience—she delivered 47 pages of optimized posting schedules, hashtag combinations, and engagement tactics “…
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 15d
I wanted my daughters to have a heroine who looks like family.

So I wrote Doors to the Stars.

Releases 2/25. Stay tuned…
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 15d
Better with sound on. This is definitely getting good enough to make a damn fine trailer.
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 15d
We pass a mural of freedom fighters, weapons raised in the air, emblazoned with the slogan: No Silence, Only Defiance. The Spark Ignites Today!

But their spark died, their voices silenced, and the Ascendancy rolls on, same as it ever has.

Same as it ever will. ryanwilliamson.com/2025/10/15/t...
The Galaxy is Just Ash and Liars
Wulan is a sixteen-year-old junk rat dying on a dead planet, scavenging ruins just to survive another day—until she finds an ancient alien artifact that hums with impossible intelligence and won’t …
ryanwilliamson.com
rywilwrite.bsky.social
Ryan Williamson @rywilwrite.bsky.social · 15d
You can find all my parody political takedowns of popular children’s classics here: ryanwilliamson.com/category/oth...
Guest Reviews – Beyond the Margins
In which my esteemed colleagues deconstruct popular literature to expose the political ideologies lurking beneath.
ryanwilliamson.com