I’m Ryan Woods, a former history teacher, aspiring author, and podcast host.

In June of 2020, I began Ptolemy’s Tales as a place to publicly house all of my writing. The purpose being that if I let others know about my dream of publishing a novel, then I would be more inclined to get over some of my own, self-imposed hurdles.

After my first nine short story posts (now consolidated into six), I released the prologue to “Ptolemy’s Tales of the Last Frontier” as the tenth post. This, along with the subsequent first two chapters, gave me the groundwork for how the novel will open. Since it is now public, I am not going back to make any edits until the book is done. At that point I can worry about cleaning up the finished product.

As 2021 progressed, it became clear that I would not progress much further with the loose outline that I had been working with. This led to the addition of a living outline to the site. This, along with my blog, is a more often updated piece of my journey. Something I can quickly put together on my phone when waiting in line, versus the hours of concentration needed at a computer when writing fiction.

To kick off 2022 I began a new project: Sly History podcast. This had been an idea that I had in the back of my mind for almost a decade. In each episode of Sly History, I talk to people about their life story through the lens of an interest. This serves as both an excuse for me to reconnect with people in my life and to create something for my son to have later in life. Unfortunately for me, I have a very large age gap in my immediate family and only know most of my relatives through second-hand stories. Even my siblings. Sly History has helped me to rectify at least some of that.

The future for Ptolemy and Sly are bright. Ptolemy’s story is developing month-by-month and the breadth of Sly is expanding with each episode.

Follow me on Twitter @ptolemystales and @slyhistory for continued updates on both projects.