Who is Stan Dryer?

Stan Dryer is my pen name. I[m a writer who lives in south western New Hampshire. I’m 88 years old and, except for writing fiction, most of my ambitions have disappeared along the way to old age. For example, I no longer plan to become a concert pianist. I’ve given up the thought of a solo climb of El Capitan in Yosemite. However, I still can write. I’ve been experimenting with a variety of genre’s and topics as you can see from what I’ve written. Basiically I’m still learning about the craft and business of writing fiction. There will be more in that vein on this blog. So come along for the ride.

What has been my writing career? Or, as everyone likes to say, “What are my credentials?” I suppose you could divide me up into three parts. (1) from roughly 1955 to 1990 I wrote fiction and sold roughly 15 short stories to a variety of national magazines such as Playboy, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Cosmopolitan. Yes, Cosmopolitan which was a quite different magazine in those days.

(2) I didn’t write any fiction for about thirty years being too tied up with town government and running a used book business with my wife, who sadly passed away in early 2018.

(3) I started up writing fiction again in 2018 by dusting off and rewriting some old stories that hadn’t sold thirty years ago and also writing a few new ones. I’ve had some of these stories published or accepted for publication. A bunch more stories are out there waiting to be discovered by editors clicking their way through electronic piles of manuscripts. See the page Published Stories for the current status of recently published stories and how you can read them on-line or get copies sent to you.

And of course, the novel, Hark to the Chimes, that I recently completed. It is a mystery about a woman who tries to reform a small New England town and almost gets murdered in the process. I’m currently looking for a agent to help get it published.

So that is who I am and what I’m at. If you haven’t subscribed, please do so at the bottom of the home page. You should get e-mail messages of my posts whenever I add something new to the blog.

Enjoy, Stan Dryer