“A pair of quietly disturbing tales that will surely resonate with readers.” - Kirkus Reviews

Trampoline Games
It’s the summer of 1986 and all is not well among the sharply defined suburbs of Salt Lake City. A 12-year-old boy arrives in a land of “mountains, Mormons, crickets” to find baffling prejudice, but also intoxicating freedom, lust, moments of heaven and, in the end, a terrible violence.

The Moth Orchid
When a hereditary form of early onset dementia begins to ravage a woman’s mind, she embarks on a desperate quest into her past in hopes of finding answers. Set against the noir backdrop of a sub-zero Alaskan winter, The Moth Orchid is a gripping tale of one woman’s struggle with the inevitability of oblivion.

“Ryan Masters writes stories that pull the rug out from under you— and leave you gasping for air. I've rarely been so surprised as by stories like these. Brilliant work.” – Susie Bright

“Come to Ryan Masters for the lust and violence of youth, stay for madness, decay and death. Above an Abyss is a Borghesian tour de force.” - Elizabeth McKenzie (The Portable Veblen, Stop That Girl)

Say who now?

Ryan Masters is a writer, poet, musician, and bodysurfer from Santa Cruz, CA. He spent a decade on staff at the Santa Cruz Sentinel and The Monterey County Weekly. His words have appeared in publications such as The Iowa Review, Catamaran Literary Reader, Gargoyle Magazine, Tule Review, Portland Review, Unlikely Stories, The Surfer’s Journal, Surfer, Scuba Diving, and many others. Above an Abyss: Two Novellas, his first collection of fiction, was published in 2018.

Ryan’s a longtime member of the Santa Cruz Body Surfing Association. He co-founded the OB Big Wave Bodysurfing Challenge and founded 2020’s California Bodysurf Freakout. He’s widely considered the first person to bodysurf Mavericks, but there’s more to that story.

Ryan is also a founding member of Smoke Chaser and The Suborbitals, two original rock bands.

Finally, he’s an EMT-Firefighter with the Zayante Fire Protection District.