Ryan Williamson On Writing

Men Aren’t Eggs: A Love Letter to the Westmark Trilogy

Lloyd Alexander’s Westmark trilogy won the 1982 National Book Award, yet his Prydain series has 240,000 Goodreads ratings while Westmark has just 10,900—a 22-to-1 disparity. I’m a veteran who writes about war’s moral costs, and Alexander’s trilogy shaped how I understand justified violence and political revolution. When revolutionary Florian says you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, young Theo responds: “Yes. But men aren’t eggs.” Alexander never resolves that debate. Neither do I. This is why Westmark matters, why it failed commercially, why it deserves rediscovery, and why I’m trying to continue what Alexander started.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Ryan Williamson Satire

Colonial Violence and the Monstrous Other

I’m honored to host Dr. Imani Okonkwo’s powerful analysis of Where the Wild Things Are today. What generations have celebrated as imaginative children’s literature, Dr. Okonkwo reveals as “a primer in colonial logic” that normalizes white supremacy and imperial violence. From Max’s appropriative wolf suit to his assumption of kingship over racialized “monsters,” from the erasure of indigenous perspectives to his consequence-free return home, this beloved classic teaches children that distant lands exist for conquest and that white dominance is natural. Drawing on critical race theory and postcolonial studies, Dr. Okonkwo delivers an unflinching examination of how seemingly innocent stories encode and transmit colonial ideology. This is essential, uncomfortable reading.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Ryan Williamson Doors to the Stars, On Writing

Modern YA Is Failing Teenagers—I’m Stealing it Back

I queried *Doors to the Stars* to over two dozen agents. Zero full manuscript requests. My 11-year-old daughter stayed up all night devouring it. My 19-year-old son texted me at 2 AM about plot twists. But publishing professionals? Not interested. The book features a 16-year-old scavenger who discovers alien technology, faces impossible moral choices, and carries genuine guilt for thousands of deaths. No graphic sex. Real consequences. Intelligence-driven plot. Exactly what research shows teens actually want. Traditional publishing rejected it because they’ve optimized for adult romance readers, not actual teenagers. So I’m going indie. They stole YA from us. I’m stealing it back.

Ryan Williamson Politics

You Can’t Vote Democrat and be a Good Christian?

I’m a veteran, pro-Second Amendment Catholic who’s voted Republican most of my life. Christians have quoted Scripture to condemn my interracial marriage as “white genocide.” Now they quote the same verses at my gay son. When someone says “you can’t vote Democrat and be a good Christian,” I hear the same biblical arguments once used to defend slavery and ban interracial marriage. Arguments history proved catastrophically wrong. The data demolishes conservative culture war narratives. The history reveals abortion became a wedge issue through political strategy, not theology. And the Bible has far more to say about welcoming strangers than Republicans want to admit. Good Christians can vote Democrat. Let me show you why.

Ryan Williamson Satire

Eco-Marxism for Toddlers

Today I’m thrilled to host Chad Pemberton from The Pemberton Principle podcast for his devastating takedown of The Lorax. What most people see as a charming environmental tale, Chad reveals as “the most successful piece of anti-capitalist propaganda ever produced.” From the demonization of the Once-ler’s entrepreneurship to the Lorax’s elitist activism, Chad systematically exposes how Dr. Seuss taught generations of children that business is evil, profit is dirty, and economic growth destroys the planet. Drawing on Austrian economics and his own experience building (and losing) a sustainable business, Chad offers the free-market perspective The Lorax desperately needs. Essential reading for anyone tired of eco-Marxist indoctrination in children’s literature.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Ryan Williamson Marketing

Behold the Field in Which I Grow My Readership and See That it is Barren

I spent years building a Twitter following of thousands. The analytics tell a different story: roughly 200 people see my writing content, maybe 15 engage, and statistically nobody shares it. That’s not a platform—that’s a Discord server. Worse, the algorithm has pigeonholed me based on what gets engagement (jokes, politics, legs) and actively suppresses my actual work. So I’m walking away from the “meet readers where they are” advice and doubling down on my blog instead. This isn’t a rant about social media. It’s a spreadsheet showing why depth matters more than reach, and why I’m done pretending otherwise.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Ryan Williamson Announcements, Doors to the Stars

Wanted: Advance Readers for Doors to the Stars

The artifact is changing her. Everyone who wants it wants to own her. Sixteen-year-old Wulan was dying on a scavenged world until she found an ancient Forger relic humming with alien intelligence. Now the regime hunts her, revolutionaries need her as a weapon, and a smuggler crew just saved her life—but the alien network is waking across the galaxy, and only she can control it. I’m seeking advanced readers for Doors to the Stars, a YA space opera releasing April 2026 for fans of Iron Widow and Skyward. If you want moral complexity, found family, and books that don’t pull punches—I need your honest review.

Ryan Williamson Marketing

Google Can’t Find Your Substack (and Neither Can Anyone Else)

After fifteen weeks on Substack, I’ve got little over a hundred subscribers and some hard data about what doesn’t work. Google can’t index your content. Twitter censors your links. The platform’s discovery algorithm favors paid newsletters, leaving free publications invisible. I tried everything—Search Console setup, manual indexing, strategic tagging, Notes engagement. Result? Minimal improvement. These aren’t problems you can solve with better optimization. They’re fundamental platform limitations. If you’re driving 100% of your own traffic anyway, why accept a platform that actively prevents growth? I’ve migrated everything to my own site. Here’s why.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Ryan Williamson Satire

I Think I Can, Therefore I Oppress

This weekend, I’m honored to host Dr. K. N. Rosenberg-Chen (Evergreen State College, Gender Studies) for a searing takedown of The Little Engine That Could. What you thought was an innocent story about perseverance? Dr. Rosenberg-Chen reveals it as “bootstrap pedagogy for toddlers”—a masterclass in teaching children that disability is moral failure, that saying “I cannot” is shameful, and that masculine worth requires self-destruction. Packed with citations from Butler, hooks, McRuer, and Kafer, this review exposes how we’ve been training two-year-olds in toxic masculinity and ableist ideology for nearly a century. Buckle up—this locomotive is going off the rails.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Ryan Williamson Marketing

Dr. Strangelink or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Algorithmic Suppression

I dutifully hid my links in self-replies in Twitter for years like every social media guru recommends. Then I actually tested it. Tracked impressions, clicks, click-through-rates across multiple posts. The results? Original posts with links drove almost 1.5x the traffic to my blog or Amazon page despite the algorithm penalty. Why? Because two out of three people never expand threads to see your link. Everyone’s been optimizing CTR while ignoring basic human behavior: people scroll, they don’t read replies. The algorithm suppresses links by ~30%. Hiding them in replies loses two-thirds of your audience. The math is simple. The common wisdom is backwards.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​