Name: Ryan Powell

Pen name: Zara Bennett (not exactly publicised by Ryan)

Here's Zara folks...



PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION



the publicity photo he would really like to use...

Gender: Male

Age: 38

Hair: Black and wavy, with a few flecks of grey beginning to show through

Eyes: Dark brown eyes.  Ryan is nearsighted and needs to wear spectacles

Distinguishing Marks:

Close examination of his left hand reveals a series of small patterns of scarring from what appears to be burning.

His British accent marks him out as a stranger in Stillwater.

General Appearance:

Ryan is 5’8’’ and whilst in reasonable shape has a small paunch, as much due to lack of exercise rather than an unhealthy lifestyle.   Although he is beginning to show the signs of a man who has left his boyish youth behind, nevertheless he looks quite young for his age.

He generally wears a beard, as much due to neglecting to shave rather than a fashion statement.

He tends to dress in casual, yet conservative clothes.  A shirt or t-shirt over jeans is typical day attire. He wears slightly smarter shirt and trousers with a jacket perhaps for more formal occasions, this is the limited scope of what a man’s wardrobe could be.

Close observers will notice he wears a silver bracelet on his right hand with a small pendant hanging off it.



HISTORY

Personality:

Ryan is generally quiet but is approachable and relatively friendly.  He suffers from mild anxiety, but works hard to get on with people.  He is generally welcoming, with a smile for people and wants to like people and them to like him.

There is a nervousness about him, like he wants to open up to people but struggles to do so, like there is something holding him back.

Privately he has troubles and crises of confidence can strike leading to periods of rage leading into deep depression.  This almost certainly comes about as a result of writer’s block and a sense that what he is writing has to have higher meaning.  More than one manuscript has been destroyed…

Sexual Preferences:

Presents as heterosexual although he had some homosexual one night stands in his youth.

Employment (Employed/Unemployed/Out of towner etc.):

Ryan is the author of the moderately successful ‘Hollingwood Hall’ series of paranormal YA books featuring Amber Hope, an otherwise normal school boarder who can see spirits and essences of what may have once been there….

The ‘Hollingwood Hall’ books are written under a pseudonym of Zara Bennett.  In this digital age it’s not exactly a secret that Zara Bennett is a man but it’s not publicised by Ryan, nor his publishers and is barely acknowledged by his fans.  Indeed, Ryan neglects the decision early in his career to write under a female pseudonym to appeal to a teen market.

Ryan is moderately comfortable living off the ‘Hollingwood’ royalties, as long as he lives relatively frugally.  He isn’t rich but has enough money to live off and doesn’t have to worry too much about paying the bills.

About Ryan:

Ryan was born and raised in a small village of Wheay in the county of Cumbria, not far from the Scottish border in England.  He was raised by artisan parents, his father is a carpenter who takes great pleasure in sculpting wood carvings, his mother is also creative and is a published poet.   His parents met travelling and lived in an anarcho-primitivist commune before settling down.

Ryan’s childhood was happy and relatively ‘normal’.  He did well at school and was fortunate to read English at Leeds University.  This was when he realised he had his mother’s penchant for writing.  At university he began work on his ‘great turn of the century novel’ exploring the great social insecurities affecting modern man.  This work is still unfinished over fifteen years later…

He has a complex relationship with Zara, Amber and ‘Hollingwood Hall’.  He recognises it has made him financially secure, he recognises that many fans have grown up with the books and love them.  He finds happiness in other people getting joy out of his work.  However, he isn’t writing what he wants to write, he isn’t writing his ‘life’s work’, the one work which will leave Ryan’s mark on the world.

Ryan eschews promotion for his popular series and deep down thinks the series is over, or at least maybe it will be soon.  He hasn’t told anyone why he has left the UK.  He arrived alone in town a few months ago and rented a property.  If anyone asks he explains he was visiting his American publisher, based in New York.  In the taxi the office the radio was playing an old Motown hit which stayed in his head all day…. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSi9DJAgarw)

That night he was flicking through a road atlas thinking about where to travel when he saw a town to the North and just had to head there…