Dark bleatings everyone! Man, I have been having such a great time interrogating… er… I mean, conversing with all the authors involved in The Perfectly Fine Neighborhood. Today, I’m talking to Ryan Breadinc!
Ryan Breadinc (He/Him) is a writer hailing from Bunbury, Western Australia, where he delights in telling odd little tales about odd little people. Write what you know, as they say! You can find him in a variety of short comics and prose stories, spanning genres from horror to comedy and often both!
Kayleigh: Bleatings, Ryan, and welcome to the tribe. Can you begin by telling us a bit about your story in the anthology?
Ryan: My story was ‘THE PERFECTLY FINE FAMILY’ and it’s about a ghost called Carl who’s a bit (well, a lot) hopeless. He lives with his wife Marie, who’s still alive but getting on a little in age, and Carl believes that Marie being both living and old is inconvenient for him, so he decides that the sensible option is to try and end her life. Meanwhile, trying to counteract Carl’s impulsive bad choices is Daisy, Marie’s adopted daughter.
There was no specific inspiration for the story for me to link to, but I’ve always been a fan of horror that’s a little wacky and has more of a comedic tilt and when I saw that ‘THE PERFECTLY FINE NEIGHBOURHOOD’ was looking for submissions, I saw the perfect opportunity to stretch my writing muscles on that front.
Kayleigh: I have to tell you… your story is one of my favourites in the book. It absolutely tickled me, I was tittering away as I read it. Outside of this story, do you have a favourite of your own works?
Ryan: I find things to love in everything I write. I think being a little romantic about your own work is something that’s healthy for everyone, and would recommend it highly. It’s a bit of a nothing answer, but it’s like asking me to pick a favourite child. Wouldn’t be fair to all the others I’ve put work into to pick just one!
Kayleigh: I know what you mean. I have a favourite ending that I wrote, and it’s the one that everyone who’s read it seems annoyed by. Mwahaha! What about other people’s books – is there a story that you wish more people knew about?
Ryan: There are so many books I could put here! The truth is that there’s been so many fantastic new books out lately that it’d be a shame to pick just one. Straying into graphic novel territory, I really enjoyed Kohske’s Gangsta. But a lot of my friends aren’t horror people, so every horror book is one that I wish I had more people to talk to about, haha.
Kayleigh: Tell me about it, I started this whole website just so I could talk into the ether about books! Do you have a favourite book or author at the moment?
Ryan: While this is a visual novel author rather than a traditional prose author, I’m a huge fan of Ryukishi07 and the 07th Expansion’s work on Higurashi When They Cry and Umineko When They Cry. Aside from that, I’m a fan of a lot of the old classics and new works as well. There’s a lot of new voices out there that are yet to be discovered, and I’m going to get into them sooner or later!
Kayleigh: I’m totally unfamiliar with these works but have added them to my wish list – thanks for the recommendation! Circling back to your own work, can you remember what first inspired you to write?
Ryan: Oh, it’s been a long, long time since I started. My parents were never big on reading or horror but my father always encouraged my passion for it, and when I was young he’d go scrounging around in every garage sale he could find to bring me home a new battered copy of some or other book that I’d immediately start devouring. When I was in school, before we were carrying phones and computers everywhere, I used to cart around these busted-up little notebooks in my backpack and write stories in my spare time; sometimes expansions or threads from another book I’d read and sometimes completely original stuff. It’s always just felt right to me, telling stories through words. You know how some people have that one thing that’s them? That’s writing to me. Always has been.
Kayleigh: I was the same. I think I started off writing what I now realise was fanfiction. Alas, it’s never been published, but my story ‘The Dude with the Iron Stuck to his Face’ is – I assure you – a masterpiece. Or at least I thought it was when I was 10. What was your horror “gateway drug”?
Ryan: Ooh. I’m sure a lot of people will say RL Stine’s Goosebumps and while I did (and still do) have copies of most of that series, I fell in love with his other series, Fear Street. I will say that I was probably too young for it when I started, but I was thrilled by it. I wasn’t actually allowed to watch horror movies or games until I turned eighteen, but once I did, I went straight to the local DVD store and rented out all the classics; Halloween, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alien… the love only grew from there, and I’ve had a great time. Horror’s definitely my thing. I have a Saw tattoo, even, and I plan to get the Lament Configuration from Hellraiser!
Kayleigh: I wasn’t allowed to watch horror either! But that’s just a moth to a flame, isn’t it? Tell us, are you working on something right now?
Ryan: I am! Aside from a few anthology contributions, I’ve been working on a longer story – and funnily enough, it’s about a ghost as well!
This story follows a deceased young woman who is selfish in a different way to Carl; she can possess living people’s bodies and essentially uses them for her own gain without thinking about the consequences. The catch is, her body is still around, and it’s hunting for her. It originally started as a comic pitch with the lovely Lauren Taylor behind the art, colours and lettering, and I’m now hoping to incorporate those pages into a prose novel. Keep an eye out!
Kayleigh: That sounds…. AWESOME. Be sure to hit me up when you need reviews! Moving on, can you tell us something interesting about yourself that people might not know?
Ryan: Ooh. I like to think of myself as something of an open book, but I’ll try! It’s quite hard to know what might be interesting, given I am me and nothing is a surprise. We’ll go for something book related: one of my favourite manga in the world is actually Arina Tanemura’s Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross series, which is a lighthearted shoujo romance series that goes entirely against the whole horror-loving metalhead vibes that I normally have going on. Sometimes a palate cleanser is exactly what you need, though.
Kayleigh: You’re inspiring me to check out more graphic novels. Okay, the last question is by far the most serious and important one… what is your plan in the event of the zombie apocalypse?
Ryan: Hope they don’t cut out the power, and sit inside with my books and a reading lamp. I doubt the zombies would be that interested in me – I’m a little bony, and something of an airhead. Haha.
Kayleigh: I hate to tell you this, but I think you might end up as zombie fodder! Thanks Ryan, it’s been a blast!
If you’d like to check out Ryan Breadinc, or get a copy of The Perfectly Fine Neighborhood, there are some links below for you (link embedded in pic):
Happy Goat Horror 
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