Welcome to my writer’s website!
A few questions to let us get to know one another:
Who am I?
My name is Ryan J. Cashman. I am a writer, father, husband, and homesteader living with my wife and 3 children in the foothills of southwestern New Hampshire.
What do I write?
Professionally, I am a full-time freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Epoch Times, American Essence Magazine, Fresh Cup Magazine, edible Pioneer Valley, and Tasting Table.
I’ve written several award-winning one-act plays, one (as yet un-produced) full length work of drama, and am presently “at work” on my very first novel.
However, what you’ll encounter here, besides my professional portfolio, is something more personal. The blog that accompanies this website, which I’ve titled “In the Foothills”, will aim to give you a peak inside the life of a budding writer with kids, a wife, and a growing farm. This can include anything from musings on fatherhood, working our 2.75 wooded (and rocky) acres, fixing up our 1850 farmhouse, listening to the gentle clinking of my wife’s knitting needles, or anything in between.
By the way, if you want to check out my wife’s work and our homestead product line, head over to: owlhillhomestead.com
When do I write?
Aside from my regular kept hours, as a full-time dad of young kids, I write, as the saying goes, “in the margins.” In parent speak, that phrase means “when the kids are sleeping.”
Where do I write?
We have a sun room just off the kitchen in our little farmhouse. The light in there is absolutely fantastic.
The desk I use belonged to my wife’s grandfather. It spent nearly five decades on a blue tartan carpet in an office overlooking a point on the Maine coast. On it, he traced genealogy, wrote down the history of his Freemason’s Lodge, and kept scores upon scores of journals.
The desk now looks out over our wooded hill. It’s an enormous, wooden beast, perfect for spreading out work. The inherited desk chair, however, continues its quest to murder me with wheels that fall out of their legs on a moments notice.
I will occasional sojourn to the couch or one of the old, florally upholstered arm chairs I inherited from my great-aunt. If you’ve ever seen Moonstruck, the house in that movie was my great-aunts house in a nutshell. Gives you an idea of the type of furniture these chairs are.
I adore them.
Who are some of my favorite writers?
Writers either adore or detest this question. Happily, I’m the former. Here’s a mildly condensed list:
J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, Donald Hall, Ray Bradbury, William Shakespeare, David Mamet, Tracy Kidder, David McCullough, Robert Frost, Jane Austen, Joel Salatin, and Henry David Thoreau.
Why do I write?
I write because I want to tell good stories, whether real or imagined, my own or someone else’s. I want to tell stories that entertain, move, and – hopefully – inspire.
I write because I believe good writing, really good writing, is important for the culture and needs to be accessible. I write because I believe in the integrity of the western tradition and want to continue that legacy into the future.
New England, particularly my adopted home state of New Hampshire, has a long and winding tradition of thought provoking writers. I wouldn’t dare compare myself to the likes of Thoreau, Emerson, or Frost, but their example, along with many others from my region, serves as a great tradition from which to draw inspiration. Plus, the landscape up here, where Mt. Monadnock looms around every corner, is just astounding.
My goal with this website is to show you my writing, and to invite you along on this journey of writing, raising kids, being a good husband, and growing a farm.
I hope you’ll join me.
Thank you, as always, for reading.
~ R.J.C.
note: this post also serves as my “About” page.