Meet Ryan La Sala | Fantasy & Horror Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ryan La Sala and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ryan, career-wise, where do you want to be in the end?
My career as a novelist is all about inventing a new, queer mythology that finds power in queerness! My books aren’t just inclusive of queer character; they’re adventures that are only possible because the heroes themselves are queer. Yet my books aren’t niche–they’re for everyone! My career is all about showing queer youth that their adventures can be mainstream and that they’re stories matter, while also broadening the public imagination to go beyond the expected.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
People spend a lot of time dreaming. I spend a lot of time pulling my dreams out of the ether and making them real. In high school I remember looking for queer characters in books, and finding out that anyone who resembled me in fiction either died, was humiliated, or simply existed to curl a crying girl’s hair. Those stories are important, but where was the power, magic, and victory? Don’t queer people have their own adventures? I decided to write my own book, and years later that became my debut novel, Reverie, about a queer kid battling a drag queen sorceress across multiple worlds and genres. The whole point was to show what a gay hero could be, and the book was really set the trajectory of my career.

Right now I’m getting ready to publish a horror novel about a gender fluid character investigating the popular girls at summer camp that are involved in some messed up stuff. Very Midsommar meets Heathers. And all of my ideas are equally queer and wild. Typically the publishing industry would consider me niche, but I refuse to be minimized, and that insistence on existing on my own terms has always served me well. It’s certainly been difficult–I’m sure I’ve lost out on opportunities designed for someone a bit more manageable–but that’s okay. I write for my readers, but I also write for myself. Every book starts with just me talking to myself, so what’s the point in lying?

In terms of lessons, over and over I have to learn that my life is not fiction. It’s not ruled by acts and intermissions. If I want something to happen, I’ve got to do it. Realizing this always shocks me, but it refreshes me, too. Fear can keep you still and waiting, and all for nothing, so I constantly remind myself that reality is a thing that we get to shape.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live in New York City, but do you know what? I always feel so new here. It’s because the pandemic has derailed a lot of my explorations. What that means is when I show people around, it’s usually because I’m curious about something myself.

If you were with me, we’d explore the fashion district for inspiration for costumes. I recently won a Best in Show award for a cosplay I did (I know this sounds like bragging but trust me, no one was more surprised than me), and I’m craving my next project, so we’d tour fabric shops, trim shops, and perhaps a few museum collections just to ogle.

We’d spend a day in the design district, too, exploring stores with chairs worth more than my rent. My current project has a lot to do with the interior design world, so I’ve been doing a lot of pretending to be rich. This has gotten a bit out of hand, I admit. I’ve snuck into a few penthouse showings, and maybe we’d do that together. It’s always fun to surprise a friend with a bit of pretend.

For food, I’m not fussy so long as we can get bubble tea. Tiger Sugar has the most incredible brown sugar bubble tea. If we’re in the area, we could head to Let’s Meat as well for some stellar KBBQ.

I’m too new to NYC to really name the areas, but I would fill a day with exploring the galleries downtown, along with the bafflingly chic boutiques. I like to contrast that kind of high-society life with going to thrift stores in the basements of churches, and shopping for vintage toys at comic book stores. Really I can only afford the thrifted stuff, but it’s fun to look.

Somehow, we will end up getting bubble tea yet again.

And in the evenings, we’d ping pong between a few different things. I love shows, especially if they’re strange or very, very flamboyant. I love drag especially if the queens are local. And even though I will deny it right up until we enter the building, I always want to dance until 4am.

More than staying out late, I like getting up late when a friend is visiting and stumbling into the very back of a huge line for bagels. That, to me, is a NYC cliche, but anyone who has committed that crime understands that you have virtually no choice in the matter by the morning after.

I’m afraid this all makes me sound a little insufferable, like those NYC TikTok accounts. Well, I am a little insufferable, but not for the above reasons. In reality, I would not be hosting you for a week long tour of the city. I’d manage a day or three of activities and then I would beg to stay inside and play Mario Party and watch 90s anime.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My mom! She was bringing me to drag shows as a kid, giving me bills to hand to the queens and then telling me to maybe keep quiet about the whole giving-dollar-bills-to-scandalously-costumed-ladies once I got back to school. Because of her, I was raised knowing I had a place in this world, and it totally shaped my mission to carve out a space for people like me to escape, create, and imagine.

And of course, my queer elders. I literally wouldn’t exist if not for a literal pride parade of queer activists who had to fight very, very hard for a world in which I could publish my books for a hungry, diverse readership. I always try to shine light on the legacy of all those who couldn’t have what we have right now, because that’s also a sort of mirror. We fight now, so that those who come next can have even more.

Website: www.ryanlasala.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theryanlasala/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theryanlasala

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ryanlasala

Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theryanlasala

Image Credits
Lauren Takajian, Shams Ahmed, David “DTJAAAM” Ngo