We Shall Be Monsters wins a Silver Quill Award!

I’m now officially an award-winning author. We Shall Be Monsters is the epic confrontation between the kids of Moreau High and Anika’s mad-scientist father. In order to succeed, the kids will have to become the very monsters they are trying to defeat.

Check out Anika’s story from the beginning: https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Microscope-Ryan-Decaria/dp/099902051X/

Anika begins her adventure as a budding science prodigy, saving rats, winning awards she can’t keep, and running from the law with her mother. When her mother doesn’t come home, she learns that her father is alive, is a scientist, and lives in Florida, right in the middle of lightning alley.

He wants her to come live with him. In spite of her mother’s warning, Anika moves to the small town built around her father’s laboratory, but instead of getting to know him, she is ushered off to high school where she starts to notice strange things about the other students.

Anika is dropped into a world of mad scientist and the monsters they create, but with the strange abilities of her new friends, Anika is determined to learn the truth. What strange experiment is her father planning to do to her?


After the events in Devil in the Microscope, Anika and her friends are determined to get out of Moreau with scholarships and their lives. https://www.amazon.com/We-Shall-Monsters-Devil-Microscope/dp/1733908560/

Winner of the 2020 Silver Quill award for best published Youth novel!

Check it out!

We Shall Be Monsters is Live

My book is available and ready for consumption. Check it out!

This is the sequel to Devil in the Microscope.

Living in the shadow of her father’s science laboratory might have been everything Anika dreamed of if only her father wasn’t planning to use her blood as his personal fountain of youth. The secret to his eternal life had been brewing in her veins for the last sixteen years.

Anika needs to change his mind or run for her life, but first, she has a mutant alligator to catch, her would-be boyfriend to save, a renegade principal to stop, and a monster to rescue.

Anika leverages her new friends and their strange abilities against the scientists and their creations. In order to survive, they will have to become the monsters they are trying to defeat.

Release Party!

You are cordially invited to help us celebrate the release of Ryan Decaria’s newest book, We Shall Be Monsters, the exciting sequel to his first book, Devil in the Microscope. 

On September 24, 2019, come be one of the first to see the new book, hear Ryan share a few insights about Anika’s story, and hear him read a selection from the book. After, he will lead everyone in a fun mad science experiment. 

Refreshments will be available. Come meet Ryan and the book’s cover designer, Monica Clark. We Shall Be Monsters will be available for purchase, which Ryan and Monica will be happy to sign.

This event is hosted by DaVinci Academy which is located at 2033 Grant Ave., Ogden, Utah, and will be held in Room 305. Please enter from the 20th street side and follow the signs to the 3rd floor.

Cover Reveal for We Shall Be Monsters

We Shall Be Monsters is the sequel to Devil In The Microscope, and follows the adventures of Anika and her friends in Moreau, Florida, home to a modern laboratory full of mad scientist and their wayward science experiments. In order to survive, they might have to become like the monsters they are trying to defeat.

The awesome cover was designed by the talented and delightful Monika Clark. Find her at https://www.behance.net/munchyqart?tracking_source=search-all%257CMonika%2520clarke and @munchyq_art on Instagram.

We Shall Be Monsters comes out September 24, 2019.

Upcoming Events in October

On October 9, 2018, come see me and many other authors at the Speed Date with Book event at the Brigham City Library at 7 p.m. http://bcpl.lib.ut.us/bookfestival.html#utahauthor

Event Blurb

Come and meet Utah authors. Find out about their books and writing life in a super fast “Speed Date with a Book” format. There’ll be time to chat mingle with the authors and nosh on some tasty treats.

You’ll be speed dating my book, not me!

 

On October 11, 2018, I’ll be hosting the Mad Science Hour at the Southwest Branch of the Weber County Library. This Teen Read Week event will highlight the great mad scientists in literature and then we’ll do some mad science experiments. https://www.weberpl.lib.ut.us/events/teen-read-week-mad-science-hour-southwest-branch

Event Blurb

Ages 12-15.  Is your destiny to become a mad scientist?  Author Ryan Decaria will explore the oddities of mad science found in literature.  Then you’ll get to create crazy science experiments yourself.

Good times.

 

All the Podcasts…

Over the last two months, I’ve been on three podcasts talking about writing, mad science, and my book, Devil in the Microscope. In case you missed them, here are the links. Thanks to all of the hosts for being awesome and for listening to me ramble about stuff that I love. I had fun at each one.

 

Dungeon Crawlers Radio

I talked with the awesome DCR crew about the choices I made writing Devil in the Microscope, including why I chose a teen girl as a protagonist, why my story takes place in Florida, and why I chose mad science as a backdrop. They had excellent questions and were entertaining.

http://www.dungeoncrawlersradio.com/episodes/episode-the-devil-in-the-microscope

 

StoryHack Podcast

Bryce and I had a great conversation about all the fun stuff I love: board games, mad scientists, writing, and my book. Bryce is also a writer and runs the StoryHack magazine. Check it out.

StoryHack Podcast: Interview with Ryan Decaria

Writescast

r. r. campbell has a great voice and a excellent format in his podcast. He grilled me on my mad science and science fiction in general. We discussed whether the science in science fiction needed to be realistic and accurate or whether it is better to treat it like magic.

Writescast 018 – Mad Science in Science Fiction with Ryan Decaria


And if you not sick of listening to my sultry voice, you can also head over to Meeple Nation to listen to me gush about all the awesome board game action.

Meeple Nation

May I recommend episode 177. We talk about mechanics and themes that we are suckers for in a board game.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/meeple-nation/id884682903

Was Doctor Poison a Great Mad Scientist?

posted in: Mad Science | 0

I loved the Wonder Woman movie. It was nearly perfect for the level of entertainment it provided me. I loved Chris Pine and the talented supporting cast, especially Lucy Davis as Etta. But ultimately, the movie had to sink or swim based on Gal Gadot, and she was amazing at every moment. The villains were great as well, for the most part.

Image result for etta candy wonder woman movie gifs

The one thing that didn’t impress me was the mad scientist, Doctor Poison. In spite of a nickname too on the nose, Isabel Maru had a classic mad scientist look with an implied tragic back story. She could have been great, but in the end, the writer’s failed her.

 

Spoiler Warning: I’m going to spoil some stuff.


Isabel was a Spanish chemist recruited by General Erich Ludendorff to create chemical weapons for the German army. At first she seemed a master of her own fate, creating the evil of her heart. We soon see her as a lapdog to the General, at the mercy to his will and whim. Even worse, we find out that she hadn’t even developed the poison of her own doing, instead having the menace spoon fed to her by Ares. To top it all off, she seems almost swayed by Chris Pine’s charming face and perfect accent, making her seem a foolish girl instead of the powerhouse she could have been.

She served the greater plot, which is the fate of most supporting villains, which is unfortunate in a movie celebrating woman power it all its marvelous glory. Still worse is her fate at the end, a pawn in Ares’ plan to tempt Diana. He gives Diana a chance to kill Isable for her crimes. Diana of course has pity on the good doctor, realizing that killing isn’t the answer, but love and sacrifice for others is what will heal the world and end the war.

 

Related image

So, in the end, Isabel is a mere pawn in a game of immortals, which was highly disappointing to me. She had agency to act on Ares’ whispering, which made her an evil person. She did horrible things, murdering countless people. She should have had agency in her demise, for good or evil, instead of being a plot point in the conflict of the hero and villain.

A slight blemish in a fantastic film.

 

It’s alive. It’s alive!

Devil in the Microscope is alive and out into the world. I hope you have as much fun following Anika’s science fantasy adventures as I did when writing it.

 

Read more reviews on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35718498-devil-in-the-microscope#other_reviews

Here’s a highlight:

Buy the Kindle version on Amazon right now. The print copy will go up for sale in a few days.

Thanks to Immortal Works for believing in my creation, and to everyone who helped in the process of bringing my book to live.

I hope you like it.

via GIPHY

My author page at Immortal Works Press and Goodreads

Here are some awesome links:

My author page: http://www.immortal-works.com/ryan-decaria/

Immortal Works: http://www.immortal-works.com/

My Goodreads author page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17039448.Ryan_Decaria

Devil in the Microscope on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35718498-devil-in-the-microscope

If you use Goodreads, please Follow me and mark Devil in the Microscope as a Want to Read!

Thanks!