Guys, Synth Noir Book 2: Thrills in the Night is now available on Amazon in ebook, paperback, and the vintage mass market edition. Whew. That’s two books to keep you busy this coming spring. Escape to North County San Diego’s Arkadia-by-the-Sea where the weather is warm, the sun is always out, flirtation is always a priority, and the drinks are always flowing. Whiskey, tequila, and mojitos, of course.

Book 2 gets a little spicier. A fever dream of lust and synthy songs, as we follow Mia, Ritchie, Simon, and Rochelle deeper through messy engagements, relationships, and friendships. Where fun and games start to have real life consequences, but you just can’t help yourself, can you? Hint. They can’t.

I got lost in writing this book. It was a fantasy for me. I wanted to be at the mansion. I wanted to hang with Simon and Rochelle at Banshee (the local watering hole), and cuddle with my cosmic crush (and more) while “Enjoy the Silence” lingered in the background. My time (irl) in San Diego was the best and the worst. Gut-wrenching, emotionally taxing, but so magical. The people I met, the music, the creativity that was brewing—it honestly feels like a dream when I look back. And what I love about fiction is that it lets me return to a time and place I still miss and transform it into a world of its own. That’s Synth Noir in a nutshell.

Now it’s on to finalizing Book 3. I have to say, this entire experience has been very emotional for me. It’s a lot. Publishing three books in a row is a lot of work. But I’m excited to move on to the next one, and get it out. But for now, enjoy Books 1 and 2 in the flesh.

And if you’ve already read them, leaving a review gives an indie author wings. Seriously. If you feel so compelled, you can leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. The more reviews my books get, the more books I hopefully sell, and the more time I’ll be able to focus on getting even more books out. Anyway, that’s the plan.

In other news, I have a new website. But not just any website. A cool website. I wanted something special so I went web 1.0. Old school, baby. Like HTML and shit. I’m not even going to pretend to know how to code, but there’s this thing called AI now. Love it or hate it, it can help you do things you don’t know how to do, like coding. I had so much fun making this site. I wanted it to be more interactive and reminiscent of ‘90s websites. You know back in the day when they were way more creative, kinda messy, and not clean and sterile? Hopefully mission accomplished.

Now, who’s gonna sign my guestbook?

phoenixryder.com

Fellow author of Swimming at Sunset, Nobel Red, recently sent me this review of Synth Noir out of the blue. He had been keeping up with the serialization and it always made me happy to get a tweet of his about the book. So to get an entire review was a trip to read. It’s honest and surprised me in some ways, but nails what the book ultimately is—Synth Noir might not be the next great American novel, but it’s a fun fucking read.

Housekeeping: Mild spoilers ahead. If you haven’t read the book and plan to and like to be completely surprised — warning, he does go into some depth of the story and characters. Otherwise it gives a good synopsis and doesn't give away the ending.

If all goes as well as I hope, Synth Noir will be out in paperback on Amazon by the end the year. It’s available to read now, chapter by chapter, here on Substack.

Sexual Tension and Synthesisers in San Diego

British author Noble Red immerses himself in the hedonistic world of Phoenix Ryder’s epic online novel ‘Synth Noir’.

For the past few months, Synth Noir has been my not-so guilty pleasure. Via Twitter, I connected with its author, a mercurial suntanned Californian literary pixie named Phoenix Ryder, and duly signed up to her Substack and started reading the chapters she released three times a week.

My feelings about Synth Noir went through several stages of evolution. At first I thought "This isn't very good", while also noting that I couldn't stop reading it. Then I decided "But there's something here...", before finally concluding that "She's definitely onto something!"

It reminded me of when the first series of Big Brother was screened in the UK over 20 years ago. At first I watched it in order to laugh at the idiocy of the hapless contestants, then I convinced myself I was watching it as an interesting psychological experiment, and finally by the end I just loved all the participants, regardless of their flaws, and wished them all well.

Synth Noir had a similar effect on me. The novel is alternately told from the POV of Ritchie and Mia, and at first they struck me as pretty dumb and selfish. Not blank and numb, like the characters of Bret Easton Ellis – an admitted influence of Phoenix Ryder – but pretty darned shallow, to say the least.

As the chapters piled up, however, I began to believe that Ritchie and Mia were incredibly truthful psychological portraits. We really do get to the core of these people, minus all the pseudo-political nonsense and intellectual dishonesty that most writers are obliged to go in for at the present time.

I've previously tweeted that Phoenix Ryder seems almost militantly apolitical, which in itself makes for a refreshing read these days. I don't think there is a single trace of identity politics in Synth Noir. There’s no Mary Sues, no diversity hires, no brave little transgender penguin who learns the true meaning of being a hero, there isn’t even a gay best friend. The characters never pretend to care about anything other than their immediate situations. They don't posture about saving the planet or changing the world. They are all the better for it.

So… what actually happens in Synth Noir? Well, it’s set in San Diego circa 2012, where Ritchie and Mia are both in their early thirties and have both fallen out of love with the people they’re supposed to be getting married to. They meet when they simultaneously take unpaid internships at the mansion of a hunky and fun-loving older English guy named Simon. He is supposedly launching a music blog, but really just wants some new pals to misbehave with. We also meet Simon’s glamorous wife Rochelle, who is frosty and intimidating at first, but slowly reveals herself to be perhaps the smartest character in the book, and also at times surprisingly kind-hearted.

The narrative is peppered with references to ‘80s music which Ritchie and Mia remember from their childhoods. They really bond over this and there’s an interesting touch where they lament that everyone else from their generation seems to have forgotten it. Mia is initially attracted to the gorgeous Simon, but quickly gets over it and becomes majorly fixated on Ritchie, a fixation that is very much reciprocated.

There’s an unexpectedly dreamlike fantasy element that creeps in too, which is verging on science fiction at times, but it works very well. As hinted before, Ritchie and Mia aren’t exactly intellectual firebrands, but I spent so much time with them that I feel I know them intimately in a way I don’t often get with fictional characters.

Mia can be quite annoying, turning up to work late wearing yoga pants and clutching a disgusting-sounding home-made smoothie. She can also be rather prickly, and is always bursting into tears. Ritchie is – how to put this? – a lazy bastard. He also seems to be pretty much an alcoholic and drug addict, although he never has to deal with the consequences of his vices, apart from a few hangovers and a bout of flu. He’s described as being in great shape, despite the fact that he never does any exercise. Neither Ritchie nor Mia seem to have any substantial friendships, they are fairly self-contained, but are clearly yearning for something that they’ve lost in their respective fiancées and which they find in each other. As the sexual tension rises, and the climactic chapter 50 approaches, the question is: Will they ever do anything about it?

Reading the story as a serial over several weeks was an enjoyable experience, a modern-day spin on the way a lot of classic fiction, including Charles Dickens, was published and consumed in centuries past. When I used to visit Toronto years ago, I loved the free newspapers you could pick up in cool bars and cafes. I could imagine Synth Noir being serialized in one of those, and everybody in town talking about the latest installment.

It’s not set in Toronto of course, but it is perhaps the first work of fiction I’ve read set in San Diego although I’ve since learned that the ‘80s mega-hit movie Top Gun is set there as well. There’s not a huge amount of San Diego detail, but enough to conjure up images of the good life, and to make me want to visit the place.

My only real criticism of Synth Noir is that I would like to have heard other voices in there. This week I found myself reading The Informers by the aforementioned Bret Easton Ellis, and he changes narrators so often that it becomes very confusing. However I felt that the luckless fiancées Shane and Allison deserved to tell their sides of the story, and Allison’s awful mother could have made a satisfyingly waspish narrator as well.

The romantic elements, sexual tension and soap opera quality of Synth Noir definitely suggest that someone could make a decent film adaptation or TV show from this material, though I suspect it would end up either too cheesy or too serious. Still, if that meant the enigmatic Miss Ryder found herself on the receiving end of a million dollar payday I’d be the first to raise a frozen margarita in celebration.

British author Noble Red recently published his debut novella ‘Swimming at Sunset’ on Amazon.

Purchase Synth Noir Book 1 here.