Chris Ringler
Author, Podcaster, Weirdo
Hi, I’m Chris!
Hey there, my name is Chris Ringler and I am an author and weirdo creative-type living in Michigan.
How are ya?
So…
I began writing as a teenager and fell in love with it after writing a short story for an English class. In my teenage years I began writing short stories and married my passion for movies with my passion for writing and started a horror fanzine with a friend. My friend and I turned that passion into a nationally published magazine called Ghoulash.
Ghoulash was not like anything that was out on newsstands at the time and captured the snotty film geek mentality we had back then but as unique as it was, it was a little TOO unique and bratty for the comics market it was pitched to and folded after one issue. A lot of disappointment came after that cancellation but also a lot of lessons were learned and life went on.
My first book BACK FROM NOTHING, a short story collection, was published in 1999 by University Editions. I was still a kid and had struck out with every other publishing avenue so I ended up with a Pay to Play publisher. While I am not happy with HOW the book came out I am still proud of that book for what it represents and for actually existing. It’s so easy to lose the steam when working on those sorts of projects I feel lucky to have gotten that start. After the book came out I began supporting it by doing comic conventions as a creator and created several chapbooks of newer content to bring with me and sell. While I never really made any traction, I met amazing people and learned a lot more lessons.
In the early 2000’s I was able to pursue my passion for art and events by joining an independent arts collective in my home city. We did art shows, fashion shows, music events, and a little of everything in between. It was amazing to be around people with similar interests and drives and it inspired me to want to strike out to do my own events. In 2009 I began doing the Punk Rock Rummage Sale, an indie rummage sale in a local bar inspired by something similar a friend was doing in Detroit. From there I began doing art shows with friends in the city and that would lead to one of my biggest ventures.
After doing a comic con in 2009 I learned that self publishing had become more than a punchline and later that year I put out my second book, THIS BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS. Discovering that self publishing was so easy to do and was so similar to the DIY ethic I had pursued since I was a teenager I began focusing my efforts on that. I had pursued traditional publishing over the years and gotten published on literary sites, in three volumes of the anthology horror franchise BARE BONE and in horror magazine Cthulhu Sex. In meeting other authors over the years and in promoting my work at art and pop culture conventions I had learned a lot about what drove me and the realities of the industry.
In 2011, with the support of some friends I began the Flint Horror Convention, a group that would put on horror themed conventions and events in the Flint area. Over the ten years I was with the group we did conventions, book events, concerts, art shows, movies in the park, and so much more. We brought celebrities to the city that would only have heard about us from the news and helped creatives and artists find their audiences. It was truly a culmination of everything I had learned before.
Since 2009 I have self published over twenty books that range from horror to children’s literature with a photo book and a mystery thrown in there for good measure. I even challenged myself and began writing novels. Over the years I have grown as an artist and author and have even branched out into making my own short films to give myself another way to tell my stories. I have talked about all of these things in my blogs so if you’re interested, take a look.
I record an occasional podcast called The Spooky Chris Podcast where I talk about art, movies, and culture topics that interest me and to have another channel for my weirdness. I recently began the Flint Monster Society as a means to stretch my event muscles again. I am always working on some sort of project or am up to some sort of trouble.
In 2022 I began the Flint Monster Society as another outlet for all my weirdness.
And there you go!
Wasn’t that fun?
I was gonna do a slide show but I got pizza sauce on the slides so, well, just make pictures with your brainium.
IT’S FUN!
Books
Back From Nothing
This Beautiful Darkness
Red Dreams
Noches de Corazones Negros
A Shadow Over Ever
Cemetery Earth
The Lies We Tell Tomorrow
Road Kill
Road Killers
In Roots of Ash
Be There/I Am Here
Tattered Tents & Whispered Wishes
Are We Monsters?
Reliquary In Black
A Shadow On the Violets
FANTASY SERIES
The Meep Sheep
The Kreep Sheep
The Last Sheep
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Danny Frankenstein
Little Sue and the Monster
Little O and the Storms
Marilyn and the Werewolf
Art Books
This is a Door
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 