Campbell Award for Best New Writer that year.

Working as a book reviewer for The New York Times, Ryan was first spurred into the horror genre when his successful short story 'Sheets', based on his own job at Macy's as a sheets salesman, was reprinted in 1980's Year's Best Horror anthology. An American author of Irish ancestry visiting Ireland for the first time is the main character in Cast a Cold Eye. He had Irish ancestry through his grandmother, and Irish motifs were sometimes featured in his fiction, such as in the short story 'The Bones Wizard' (1984). Ryan was born on May 17, 1943, in Bronx, New York.

Among the best: Kit Reed's tale of an evil 'Baby,' which recalls and outdoes Bradbury's 'Small Assassin' Patricia Russo's medieval mystery tale 'True Love' Lisa Tuttle's story of a woman undone by her love for her summer rental haunted house, 'The Spirit Cabinet' Elizabeth Massie's powerful tale of an insane religious fanatic, 'Hooked on Buzzer' Tanith Lee's beautifully crafted story of an unexpected betrayal, set in the 19th century, 'The Devil's Rose' Wendy Webb's too sketchy but still quite creepy account of a warehouse sale gone bad, 'Midnight Madness,' and Sharon Epperson's chilling cautionary tale for the age of AIDS, 'Slide Number Seven.'Ĭopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.For other people named Alan Ryan, see Alan Ryan (disambiguation).Īlan Peter Ryan (– June 3, 2011) was an American author and editor, known for his work in the horror genre in the 1980s. Recognizing that anthologies of horror stories have been disproportionately dominated by male writers, Ptacek has assembled this corrective, subtitled 'Original Horror and Dark Fantasy by Contemporary Women Writers.' This satisfying volume has a number of good stories, including several by novice writers.

Tor horror books