By Tom Godfrey

A long time ago, a teacher told Worcester native Ryan Staples that he was the next Salinger.  Those are tall boots to fill, but 22 year old Staples, a Burncoat High graduate, is up for the challenge.  Fresh off the high of publishing his first novel, The Angel with The Crayons, and a three month road trip west, he is in pre- production for the film adaptation of the novel.

The Angel with The Crayons is told from the point of view of Merton Thurmond Winkle, a hypochondriac who finds himself strung out in a hospital bed with a very real ailment.  The rest focuses on Merton’s interactions with hospital staff and patients (including cantankerous old roomie Oliver Booth) as he wonders what else could go wrong.

“When I was writing this,” says Staples, “I imagined it as a drama; but once I started writing the screenplay it came to be more of a dark comedy.”

Staples began writing the novel in winter of 2007, while at boot camp for the U.S. Navy.  He confesses that he skirted around the Navy’s “best efforts” to stifle his creativity, carrying around scraps of paper and reformulating them at night after lights out.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

“It was hard to get going,” says Staples. “I spent the first 9 or 10 months active.”

After leaving the Navy with a medical discharge, he jumped headlong into his writing.

Staples wrote from the heart.  A “fiction-fueled memoir,” the novel tells truths that have caused some friction, but Staples decided early on that he wasn’t going to “hold back any punches.”  Still, most were supportive.
“My grandmother loved it,” laughs Staples, “though she said she could’ve done without the foul language, but still…”

“Music always needs to be playing when I write,” says Ryan when asked about the necessities of his creative process.  “Also, I never wrote drunk!”
The book is self-published, meaning that Staples did the work of an entire publishing company, reading his own book 10 times for editing, cover layout, art, etc.  Unlike most self published books whose lone purchased copy ends up in a box in the writer’s attic, The Angel with The Crayons has sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 copies.

Shortly after the publishing, Staples packed his car and headed west.  He spent time in Georgia, LA, Phoenix, and Colorado working on two new novels and a slew of music projects.  He showed the book around and the consensus was that he should turn it into a film.

“I was sitting in my living room in Phoenix,” remembers Staples, “and I thought, ‘Why the f*ck not!?’  So, I started writing and now it’s about 75% done.”

Upon returning to good ol’ Worcester, Staples founded Seven Hills Productions, the company that will bring The Angel with The Crayons (now available on Amazon) to a big screen near you sometime in the future, although Staples does not yet have a definite release date.  One thing he does know for sure is that he’ll be involved in the entire creative process, right down to casting the roles.

Though quick to confess that the film is in the fundraising process, helmed by a close friend Lauren McGuinness, Staples hopes that eventually the company will be an outlet for his friends and local artists to get their projects to the public. Caulfield would be proud.

Want to know more about all things Ryan Staples?

Check out www.ryanstaples.com (where you can order The Angel with The Crayons for $10.00)
www.facebook.com/pages/Ryan-Staples/43379152867
www.myspace.com/ryanstaples
www.twitter.com/ryanstaples