Hello all, happy to be here.

[Ryan Plut]

I am Ryan Plut, an author of Nautical Fiction set in World War Two. I have two novels published and am working on the third. You may read about them in the Recommended Books Forum under the title "The Adventures of a British Merchant Navy Captain." The adventures of a British Merchant Navy Captain. (merchant-navy.net)

​How is it I became an author? I'll tell you. I'm now 68 and when I lost my job, followed by Covid hitting in 2018, I had to do something with my time so I started writing.

From a young age, I was influenced by stories of wartime struggles. In those days, a film produced a mere 10 or 15 years after World War II would appear in theaters, then might be shown on television. These were sweeping epics, set in foreign locales––many of these featured the actor William Holden in an exotic foreign locale, romantically involved with an exotic woman. Growing up as a teen in the late 1960s, my parents were slowly sinking towards a divorce. They had heated arguments. My father became distant, and then he left. As an escape from the family turmoil, I immersed myself in these films. I’ve been told more than once “Your novels read like an old black-and-white film.” I take that as a high compliment.

I served in the US Army as a mechanic, stationed in Germany in the late ’70s. A few years after this, I began my career in transportation design. At the time, the CPR steamer Princess Marguerite II regularly traveled between Seattle and Victoria, Canada. I rode it three times until it was retired from service, then scrapped. It was the last coastal steamer and its sudden departure shocked me. It was the end of an era that had disappeared forever.

I became very interested in the era of "romantic" ocean liners, and steamships in general. But it wasn’t until I saw the engine room scene in the film The Sand Pebbles that I realized how interested I was in actual steam power.

I retired in 2010. Casting about for something to do, I became a member of the Northwest Steam Society, and also the Steamboat Association of Great Britain. A life-long boat owner of both power and sail, my “retirement boat” is a steamboat I built myself.

I love traveling, having visited Greece, Britain, Japan, Ireland and most recently, Malta and Croatia. Oftentimes, this has given me inspiration to write. HEAVY CARGO is my first novel. THE BELFAIR PINCH is the sequel to it. THE BITTER PIT OF THE CHERRY is the third in this loose trilogy. It will hopefully be published in 2025.

Ryan Plut was a native of Seattle, but now lives in Portland, Oregon.

[j.sabourn]

Ryan sorry this is the only way I can reply to your missel due to the configuration of your post on my IPad but thank you and welcome . I hope in your romantic episodes in Japan you didn’t mess with my first true love in the Rose Bar in Kawasaki she was only 17 a year older than me and her name was Sadjico. However hope by the time you got there if you ever did circumstances might have improved for her . And she had left the sordid life she found herself in. Things weren’t too good in 1953 for the youth of japan especially if they had elderly parents to look after. No doubt you have heard this Swan Song again and again. Anyhow welcome to the site and will keep my eyes open for your books , Christmas is coming around soon. Cheers JS

[Doc Vernon]

Moved your Post JS , SO THAT ITS IN THE CORRECT PLACE NOW
cHEERS

[j.sabourn]

#1 wasn’t the Sand Pebbles made to align with the Boxer Rebellion in China . Most of those actors who took part are now all dead . It was a good film though and I enjoyed it. The bitter pinch of the cherry though has me scratching my head , unless you were a seaman yourself maybe you don’t know that the cherry was used by bar girls in Japan and elsewhere to describe a young boy as a virgin . Losing your cherry was an obvious remark that no longer were you allowed to call yourself chaste. Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

No, but after that there were many occasions when you were chased.
And if on UCL you ran like hell.

[Peter Copley]

Hi Ryan. I'm looking forward to reading your novels. I too, an author of three nautical novels. My latest novel, 'Fife's Tin Box' is also set in the second World War and follows the adventures of a 14 year old boy sent off to sea in 1940 by the magistrates (sail or jail or more likely sail or Borstal Training!!) PC.

[Ryan Plut]

Absolutely, JS, "Losing your cherry" is a well known phrase, however, by titling my book "The Bitter Pit of the Cherry" I intend to refer to Japan as the cherry and the Yakuza gangsters as the bitter pit!

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Hi Ryan. I'm looking forward to reading your novels. I too, an author of three nautical novels. My latest novel, 'Fife's Tin Box' is also set in the second World War and follows the adventures of a 14 year old boy sent off to sea in 1940 by the magistrates (sail or jail or more likely sail or Borstal Training!!) PC.

Hello Peter, Thank you and I look forward to reading Fife's Tin Box. Do you know, is it available in America by any chance? Ryan

[Peter Copley]

Hello again, its available on Amazon. Cheers.