About Ralph Ryan

Ralph Ryan grew up a military brat with his four brothers and his sister. He lived in six different states and spent fifteen years collectively in Europe. After attending high school for four years at the Berlin American High School, he returned stateside and acquired an AA degree in Natural Resources Management and began his fourteen-year wild land firefighting career. Ralph served on Engines, Initial Attack Helishot crews and ultimately, ten years as a California BLM Smoke Jumper.

After reluctantly leaving Smokejumping, he gained employment with the City of Redding and spent twenty-five years in the Parks and Water Departments. He acquired an AA degree in Horticulture at Shasta College and fathered two sons, Eric and Sean. He built a home on a mountain top overlooking Shasta Lake and relocated to the city of Redding.

The written word always fascinated Ralph and he began writing short stories and attended Creative Writing classes at Shasta College. One of his instructors, journalist and author Tony D’Souza, saw promise is his work and became Ralph’s mentor as he turned a short story into a novel. Wildfire is Ralph’s first self-published work and The Crossroads: A Journey of Discovery completes his second. Ghosts Of Berlin is his third novel.

Ralph retired from the City of Redding in 2013 and is now focused on writing, riding his motorcycle, and maintaining his mountain home.