Aaron Ryan

Aaron Ryan lives in Washington with his wife and two sons, along with Macy the dog, Winston the cat, and Merry & Pippin, the finches.

He is the author of the “Dissonance” series, several business books on multimedia production penned under a pseudonym, as well as a previous fictional novel, “The Omega Room.”

When he was in second grade, he was tasked with writing a creative assignment: a fictional book. And thus, “The Electric Boy” was born: a simple novella full of intrigue, fantasy, and 7-year-old wits that electrified Aaron’s desire to write. From that point forward, Aaron evolved into a creative soul that desired to create.

He enjoys the arts, media, music, performing, poetry, and being a daddy. In his lifetime he has been an author, voiceover artist, wedding videographer, stage performer, musician, producer, rock/pop artist, executive assistant, service manager, paperboy, CSR, poet, tech support, worship leader, and more. The diversity of his life experiences gives him a unique approach to business, life, ministry, faith, and entertainment.

Aaron’s favorite author by far is J.R.R. Tolkien, but he also enjoys Suzanne Collins, James S.A. Corey, Marie Lu, Madeleine L’Engle, C.S. Lewis, and Stephen King.

Aaron has always had a passion for storytelling.

An interview with Aaron Ryan, the author of Dissonance, Volume I: Reality:

TBE: What initially inspired the premise and world of “Dissonance, Volume I: Reality” involving alien “gorgon” invaders who have decimated humanity?

Aaron Ryan: I definitely wanted a “future Earth” environment that was attainable…not set too far into the future where it would be unrelatable and perhaps too antiseptic or cleaned up.  Something that would provide dystopia but relatability to our modern times.

TBE: Your protagonist Cameron “Jet” Shipley has endured immense personal tragedy due to the gorgon invasion. How much of yourself is reflected in his character and emotional journey?

Aaron Ryan: Anytime I write in first person, it’s fairly inevitable that what I write is going to stem from a personal perspective, and that that characters’ thoughts and worldview will more or less represent my own.

Cameron is a cynic, he ruminates on justice vs. revenge, he has internal dialogues that are sometimes scorching, and he wrestles with pride: all things that I (and most men, I’ll wager) struggle with. As far as tragedy, yes, I’ve had my share. But for obvious reasons Camerons’ tragedies are more acute, heartfelt and damaging in the loss of nearly all members of his family from the outset, to say nothing of the fact that the world has become entirely unsafe out there, and he’s having to eke out a living in the shadows like everyone else, in survival mode.

TBE: The gorgons themselves are utterly terrifying, paralyzing humans with psychic powers before consuming them. What were your influences or thought processes in creating such chilling alien beings?

Aaron Ryan: I was terrified of the 1981 Clash of the Titans stop-motion photography Medusa as a child. I truly was. And I wanted something that terrified me, of course, and the way they had her eyes come into view and light up green with that chilling high-pitched whine…oh man that made my flesh crawl. I was just a kid. I wanted something equally visceral and without the savagery of, say, a bear attack. Its brutally calm when it happens, and then, like a dilophosaurus’ venom in Jurassic Park, it allows the carnivore to eat at its leisure. And the gorgons are not human, by the way, that’s a misnomer.  They are definitely creatures from another world.

TBE: Dissonance takes some really dark turns, with revelations about the military leadership prioritizing victory over ethics. Were you worried about going too far into bleak territory?

Aaron Ryan: I was, but any good author has to go there, and it’s no secret that our governments do so many things without our consent or approval. It’s also no secret that societies generally mistrust their governments for that very reason. So it’s not like I was breaking new ground there. More to the point, there are some dark turns that I had to have the common citizen take, and that pushed me to uncomfortable margins, but isn’t that my job as an author—to take you to places that you don’t want to go, and then deliver you? If it moves me and makes me uncomfortable, if it thrills me and brings me joy, if it moves me to tears and cleanses me, then doubtless it will have a similar effect on my readers, and that’s what I’m going for.

TBE: The novel explores very profound, existential questions about what lines can’t be crossed for survival’s sake. What kind of philosophical reading or life experiences fed into these thematic inquiries?

Aaron Ryan: Good question! I love it. Ultimately, I’m a huge fan of both J.R.R. Tolkien and Stephen King. I haven’t read any of King’s material in years but obviously many of them deal with the anarchy in the human heart, and how people can do cruel things to each other and cavalierly slap the label of “survival” on it. In the name of survival, all our best intentions and morality goes out the window as we place others’ wants and needs lower on the totem pole to our own. That’s just human nature. Given that the title of the series is called “Dissonance” and that it deals with some very tangible issues of disunity among the human race even after sixteen long years of being oppressed by an alien species (and shouldn’t we therefore be working together in more harmony?), I needed examples that would demonstrate that.

TBE: The action sequences depicting combat with the gorgons are extremely visceral and cinematic. Did you draw any influences from films or other visual media?

Aaron Ryan: Oh yes! I actually had to map out the library scene and determine where each character would be in the library, for example. I’m a rabid fan of James Cameron’s 1986 Aliens movie, and have watched it over and over again. There are so many elements just to that first alien attack in the atmosphere processing station alone, that I drew from that inspiration, as well as later in the movie when they attack the survivors in med-lab and operations. I’m very visually driven, and I strove to employ that throughout all of the Dissonance novels: they’re all weaving a balance between novel and screenplay.

TBE: Dissonance has been praised for its meticulous world-building around the makeshift “Blockades” where survivors shelter. How did you approach grounding the fictional setting in such immersive detail?

Aaron Ryan: I love the question. Ultimately, your first thought to hearing that the setting is 2042 is “okay, that’s the future, so granted, things would be very different and advanced.” But that’s not necessarily the case. Nearly 80% of humanity was killed off in the three months of the initial invasion in September of 2024. Another 5% died of natural causes and calamities over the next bit of time. So, where you have humanity dying off and hiding in the shadows, innovation ceases; advancement ceases; the economy ceases; activity ceases; building and progress cease. We’re in arrested development, and there is no forward momentum.

Therefore, the Earth that you might see two years from now in the invasion is going to be roughly the same as that which you might see sixteen years from now. The same cars, the same guns, the same jets, the same everything. If one goes into hiding, one goes “underground.” So I needed humans to largely live in cloistered and claustrophobic environments where the gorgons couldn’t get at them. You do have to give your protagonists a fighting chance, after all.

The people who naturally survive the best are military who have access to guns, technology, and can build some form of protection around themselves in order to survive. That’s where the Blockades came from, but they did take several slow years, each of them, to come into fruition. After all, there are gorgons out there, and they had to do it quietly.

TBE: There are great character relationships and bonding moments amid the devastation, particularly between Jet and the character Ally. How important was injecting more tender, human elements?

Aaron Ryan: We’re humans. ‘Nuff said. We need human interactions and human hope.  That’s what carries a story forward, and bereft hope, people perish.

TBE: The book concludes with major revelations that seem to reframe the entire nature of the gorgon conflict. Did you have the overarching saga’s trajectory fully mapped or did it evolve organically?

Aaron Ryan: I love this question too. The honest answer is no! I didn’t really realize, as I was writing so organically from the start, that there was a subtext at play, until that first DTF went off at the Cumberland River. Then I thought, “hmm, wouldn’t it be neat if there were things transpiring behind the scenes that Cameron is not privy to, and that would allow his mistrust and cynicism to grow?” He obviously has some issues to work through, and what better story than to place him in an arena where he’s having to fight not one, but two enemies simultaneously?

TBE: Sci-fi technology like the “DTF” sonic weapons play a big role in battling the gorgons. What kind of research went into conceptualizing the futuristic armaments?

Aaron Ryan: Well, I do love a good action or sci-fi movie. I love Aliens by James Cameron, and it’s my favorite movie of all time. I had things like that in my mind, but that setting is well into the future, and this one is only 18 years ahead of us in 2024. It couldn’t be too advanced, in reality. The DTFs are “Dissonant Tidal Floods,” and they are technology that is similar to an EMP, incorporating the gorgons’ own technology against them to amplify frequencies well beyond our own hearing range into deadly signals that can ultimately destroy them. It’s their Achilles’ heel, and I used that to allow the protagonist (as well as the extraneous characters) to be able to move around and carry the story into different locations. In the first book they’re relatively isolated to their little inverted teardrop beyond Clarksville. That first ultra-powerful DTF technology allows them to move forward and explore the rest of the Earth around them. And that ultra-powerful DTF is what will be used near the end of Volume III. You’ll see. No spoilers. ????

TBE: Now that Volume I has established this rich world, what kind of creative avenues are you most excited to explore in future Dissonance installments?

Aaron Ryan: Well, as it turns out I’ve already explored them, because Dissonance Volume II: Reckoning was published on March 20th, and Dissonance Volume III: Renegade has 288 pages in it currently. It’s a whopper! And I do believe that Volume III will be longer than the first two. There is reconciliation and story-wrapping that needs to happen on a few different levels in Volume III, thus, it will require more narrative. I’m THRILLED with how Volume II turned out as well, and Volume III is going to be a knockout punch. It’s amazingly researched, heavy, inspiring, and provides a tremendously powerful climax.

TBE: Dissonance seems to be taking on a deeper metaphorical significance about humanity confronting its own moral dissolution in the face of crisis. Was this allegory an intentional throughline or did it emerge?

Aaron Ryan: The title was always the title. I knew it had to have a double entendre. One, it’s clearly referencing the dissonant audio waves that can do damage against the gorgons.  But two, it’s a nod to the fact that even after all of this time living underground and desiring to kick these aliens to the curb, just like in 2024, we’re still not working harmoniously together. When will we ever learn?