Ninetoes talked to Ryan Derby about his fiction, inspirations, and his novellas.
Darren Perdue: What do you want readers to know about you as an author?
Ryan Derby: I am a horror author, but I don’t pigeonhole myself into any one classification of the genre. I find that too restricting for the types of stories and worlds I want to tell and create. I have been through a lot in my life, some very good and some very bad, and I allow that (or perhaps I don’t have as much control over it as I think) to dictate the characters and scenarios I create. I am also a voracious reader, and I strive to branch out and read a wide range of books across various genres. That also fuels my writing, both in terms of style and content. The genre mashup is something I am intensely drawn to, so while I am a die-hard horror fan and writer, my stories tend to reach out and touch all different styles.
My family is also very large, and it plays into a lot of what I create in one way or another. We’re all mutts from New York, and growing up there, along with my heritage (Irish, Italian, some Scottish, French, English, pure muttdom), shines through in a lot of what I write. I have a few younger brothers, along with many cousins, whom we grew up with so closely that they are essentially just extra siblings. Each of them has their own likes and dislikes, of which they are abundantly vocal about, and I find myself subconsciously thinking of them when I’m crafting a scene or a story. Which brother would like this, which one would hate that, and on and on. I run most of what I write by these guys before I send it out, sometimes sending them copies and sometimes just telling them the outline, so at least I know whenever a story or book goes out into the world, I got a solid basketball team’s worth of people who think it’s solid.
DP: What books inspired you to start writing? When did you start?
RD: The first story I remember writing was in the fourth grade. It was for a class project where each student had to pick one face-down picture, flip it over, and write a story about whatever it was. Mine was a man leaning against a tombstone with a camera, so I wrote a ghost hunter story. I think I named it “My Story” cuz I was much more to the point back then. Reading that to the class the next week was a rush I still chase. Shortly after that project, I started filling composition notebooks of stories, feverishly churning them out during class, with my best and most deranged flowing most freely in detention.
There are three books that I would say inspired or motivated me to write. I read them all far too young, and so many times, the books were held together mostly by good intentions and sheer willpower. IT by Stephen King. Summer of Night by Dan Simmons. The Travelling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon. I adore those books, and each of them, in their own way, inspired me to start writing and still inspires the type of things, at least in part, that I like to read and write.
I will say, for an honorable mention of sorts, that after reading the Laymon book, I was a man on a mission in every bookstore I ever entered (for those who don’t know, it didn’t used to be just Barnes & Noble and used shops). Anything that had that blessed L for Leisure horror on the spine, I scooped it up. So I’m sure that, now sadly defunct, company’s catalog also inspired me quite a bit.
DP: What works do you currently have available (solo and anthologies)?
RD: I have two horror novellas out currently. If These Walls Could Weep, a dark psychological horror drama, is the first one to be published. Vendetta of the Bambini Morti, a comedic, splattery, action-horror mashup, was the second. Both are available on the ‘Zon, and are also available in digital format as part of the ABP catalog by subscribing to Alien Buddha Press.
I also have a few poems and shorts available in various anthologies and zines, such as The Alien Buddha Loves You and ABZ75 & ABZ76.
DP: Where can readers follow you and find your books?
RD: I am currently working on setting up a website, and I’ve been told I need to bite the bullet and get a TikTok as well, so hopefully I’ll have both of those set up in the near future. For now, I can be found on Facebook or on Instagram at rcderbs9113.
My books are available on Amazon and for digital download by subscribing to Alien Buddha Press at alienbuddhapress.wordpress.com
DP: What was your gateway into horror?
RD: It’s hard to say exactly what my gateway into horror was. I know that I watched my first horror flick when I was entirely too young (the original Night of the Living Dead around Halloween when I was about six), and I’m sure my obsession was born shortly after the months of nightmares from that faded away.
I was also fortunate enough to grow up during the era of video rental stores, both the big chain giants and the mom-and-pop shops that would pop up from time to time. Growing up in New York and New Jersey in a time when kids rode their bikes around town and stayed out with friends, causing all types of shit till the moon lit up the streets, is something I’ll never take for granted. Just like I’ll never deny how wandering the aisles of BlockBuster and Hollywood Video off Parkway, The Video Store, which became The Rental Shop, which became the MOOOVIE Place (complete with a cow mascot) all by Marazzo’s and the soccer field through the woods, staring at all the gnarly covers of old school horror flicks while trying to convince our parents to let us rent some, and occasionally swiping the ones we just couldn’t leave without, all shaped me. Those are core memories, and grabbing horror flicks and pizza to start the weekend was a staple of my youth.
Trying to scare my younger brothers with horror stories and campfire tales that I’d make up on the spot was my idea of babysitting. Sneaking a copy of The Blair Witch Project in the VCR late at night with one of my brothers and my best friend growing up, the three of us huddled under a blanket and flush against the TV, woefully unprepared for the terror that awaited a buncha 7 and 8-year-olds, is one of my favorite viewing experiences of my life.
Wandering libraries and bookstores, looking at the creepy covers, and just being utterly unable to resist their pull was another big part of growing up for me. I saw ’em and I needed ’em and that was that. It’s still that way for me, that’s why I have my own library now, my own mini MOOOVIE Place (no cow mascot), of a couple thousand books and over five thousand movies.
I’m not sure if that answered the question, but that might be because there isn’t a clear answer. I got hooked on horror flicks and horror books when I was incredibly young, and I don’t think I’ve ever looked back. They’ve been a major part of my reading and viewing life for as long as I can remember. I’m not sure if I had a gateway so much as it’s always just been a part of my life.
DP: What are your favorite subgenres of horror?
RD: I have a wide range of subgenres that I will always gravitate toward in both books and movies. I love slashers, creature features, nature run amok, and doomed expeditions. I have a particular adoration for coming-of-age horror and an ever-present soft spot for zombie fiction.
DP: If you didn’t write horror, what other genre do you think you’d be in?
RD: I think if I didn’t write mostly horror or horror-adjacent, I would probably write action-adventure or crime thrillers.
DP: What are some authors (traditional or indie) that have inspired you or helped you along your journey?
RD: Authors that have inspired me or helped me in my journey, be it just from writing books I love or giving incredible advice, or the rare but joyous occasion where they do both, is a lengthy list, but I’ll do my best. In no particular order: Grady Hendrix, Stephen King, Adam Cesare, Jonathan Maberry, Richard Dansky, Brian Keene, Simon Clark, Richard Laymon, Dan Simmons, Jason Kuykendall, Jyl Glenn, Stephen Graham Jones, Joe Lansdale. I could go on and on and on and….
DP: What’s on your TBR? Anything coming out soon that you’re looking forward to?
RD: My GoodReads want to read list is well over 500 titles, and I add to it constantly. Some of the more recent additions to it are:
The Queen by Nick Cutter
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
The Bloodstained Doll by John Everson
Polybius by Collin Armstrong
Boys in the Valley by Phillip Fracassi
King Sorrow by Joe Hill
How To Survive a Slasher by Justine Pucella Winans
The Owl Witch by Claudine Marcin
Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson
The Burial Tide by Neil Sharpson
I also know Richard Dansky has a lot of new stuff coming out next year that I’m excited for. As do Grady Hendrix and Jonathan Maberry, each with titles I’m eager to check out.
DP: What are you working on now?
RD: Currently, I have entirely too many irons in the fire thanks to my OCD and ADHD (horror villains in and of themselves). I am working on a handful of short stories that are coming together, and I’ll need to edit those and send them out into the world very soon. I have two novels and two novellas that I’m chipping away at as well. If one stagnates, I jump to the other one, and so on and so forth it goes.
On top of that, I’m looking into getting that website made and some author accounts locked in on Amazon and Goodreads. Plus, the hunt for an agent is a marathon, not a sprint, and I’m in the depths of that as well.
Like I said, lotta irons in the fire, but I like to keep myself busy and productive even if that also means I’m stretched thinner than tissue paper on an escalator.
DP: What is the best book you’ve read so far in 2025?
RD: I really liked This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer and Burn to Shine by Jonathan Maberry. As far as books released years ago, The Ridge by Michael Koryta and Hell Hound by Ken Greenhall both stand out.
DP: What is the best movie you’ve seen in 2025?
RD: As far as horror flicks go: Soul Eater, Oddity, Heart Eyes. I also loved the new Final Destination movie (RIP Tony Todd) and Screamboat, cuz as ridiculous as it is, I love trashy horror, AND I’m from Staten Island and the ferry is a star in that one.
Non-horror; I loved Kill, Fight or Flight, God is a Bullet, and 11 Rebels.
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