The short stories of Gabriel Ricard seem to be told with a smile, one that might or might not just have had its teeth knocked out. Whether it's the smile of wisdom or the leer of a lunatic, the joy that permeates Gabriel's story is obvious and consistent, regardless of whether the story is dark or nostalgic. There is often humor, but moreover there is pleasure in the telling of a tale. You'll feel it, too.
Gabriel Ricard was born in Canmore, Alberta, Canada on May 28th 1985 at 11:35 a.m.
His main claim fame is being the grandson of the legendary Maurice “Rocket” Richard.
He just spells his last name wrong. The jerk.
Actually, that's not true. But, Gabriel really was born in Canmore, Alberta, Canada on May 28th at 11:35 a.m.
Born to a Mother who is also a writer, and a Father who is presently MIA, Gabriel did not envision himself entering the terrible game that is writing. At an early age, what he really wanted to do was become a comic book artist.
Much like his hero, the late Jack Kirby.
Gabriel quickly found out that unlike Jack, he possessed absolutely no talent as an artist.
However, he was introduced, at a fairly early age, to the fact that maybe, just maybe, he could make it as a writer. The idea had never really occurred to him. He just happened to write lengthy fantasy stories that usually included his friends. He decided it would be best to ignore everyone who thought he might be talented as a writer.
Then he moved to Virginia at the vaguely tender age of thirteen.
This suddenly left him with even less friends than he'd had in Canada.
For the record, that was around two.
And so, with little in the way of a life, Gabriel began to search for something. Anything that would enable him to forget what a tremendously successful outcast he had become.
It was around this time he got the Playstation game Final Fantasy VII for Christmas.
Gabriel was somewhat of a videogame fanatic. And to him, this game was the greatest thing he'd ever played. He liked it so much in fact, that he began to look up information about it on the internet. By doing this, he discovered a magical concept known as fan fiction. While he himself had written fan fiction in some form or another before, he had no idea there was an entire subculture of people who wrote the things. He decided that he would try his hand at some fan fiction.
He signed up with www.fanfiction.net, a wonderful site that has been featured in Newsweek, and still runs today. For four years, he devoted himself to that particular branch of writing--publishing hundreds of stories under a large number of fandoms. His biggest success proved to be a comic book-esque series based on the cast of Final Fantasy VII. It ran for twenty-four episodes, and would go on to be published on a half-dozen websites.
He also got a good deal of positive feedback for writing the first fan fiction ever on the Kevin Smith film Clerks.
By the age of seventeen, Gabriel decided he'd done all he could do with fanfiction. He'd written a few original works here and there, and decided to devote himself to that full time.
Along the way, he also picked up an interest in writing poetry, plays, and columns.
Today, he continues at these four areas. His success up to this point has not been what one would call inspiring. Though he is pleased to admit that one of his plays has seen two productions. One, through the good folks at Theatre IV of Virginia, and another at his highschool.
His highschool used the play long after he had graduated. They used it for the district theatre competitions, and placed third out of five schools. He was quite pleased with this, as the play they used the year before, a hip-hop version of Cinderella, did not do very well.
Beyond that however, he has not seen much in the way of literary victories. He keeps at it though, confident that one of the two following things will happen.
1). He will succeed as a writer in a fairly modest way.
2). He will have both of his hands cut off by the mafia, and will be thus forced to give up writing.
At this time, he is not sure which of the two he wants most.
He still lives in Virginia--with his mother, stepfather, three brothers, and a sister. You can write to him at deep_in_liquid_indigo@yahoo.com.
Gabriel's works here at Unlikely Stories are: