Welcome! I'm Chris "Ruz" Hayes-Kossmann, born in Hong Kong, raised in Vienna, now settled in Melbourne, Australia.
I've been writing for the past eight years and studying industrial design for the past four, graduating in 2010 from RMIT with a BA Design (Industrial Design) (Hons). I'm now developing my design portfolio while also working on a number of fiction projects, both large and small. If you're interested in publishing anything you see here, please drop me a line.
I self-publish my work primarily through Amazon.com, under two pseudonyms. Christopher Ruz is where I publish my serious science fiction and fantasy work, such as my ongoing epic fantasy trilogy Century of Sand and my recent science fiction novella The Eighteen Revenges of Doctor Milan. Meanwhile, I publish pulp spy novellas under the name D. D. Marks, including my most popular omnibus, Agent 806.
A lot of hard work and a double-helping of luck has allowed me to write full time. I subsist entirely off Amazon sales, and I hope that one of my stories will catch your attention.
I've had short stories previously published by fiction blogs such as Weaponizer and Labyrinth Inhabitant's Magazine. and Birdville Magazine. My short story Long Way Home won the first Ergofiction Search Term Challenge. I've also been rejected by lots of very famous people, which must count for something.
Frequently Asked Questions:
(More to be added as people ask them)
Q: Why "Ruzkin"?
A: When I moved to Australia from Vienna in 1998, I hadn't had a haircut in months. But instead of laying flat or sticking out in a 'fro, my hair insisted on sticking straight up in the air, like a Soviet fur hat. Kids at school started calling me Moscow, which became Russian, which eventually became Ruzkin. Somehow the nickname followed me to university, and I decided to claim it.
Q: What's Industrial Design all about, then?
A: Industrial Design is a combination of design and manufacturing skills that allows me to take a basic product concept - a toothbrush, a toaster, a sports-car - and take it all the way from initial sketches through CAD modelling, all the way to the factory floor. It's a difficult field of design that encompasses everything manufactured in the modern age, from the chair you're sitting on to the laptop you're using to browse this site. It also includes interface/advertising design, photography and some aspects of fine art.
Ruzkin on Twitter
Ruzkin on Deviantart (rarely updated)
Ruzkin on Facebook
Agent 806 – Olesia Anderson Omnibus #1
Black Market – Olesia Anderson #2
Century of Sand – A $5.99 epic fantasy for Kindle
Dirty Deals – Olesia Anderson #1
Future Tides – The Collected Works of Christopher Ruz
Muzzle Flash – Olesia Anderson #3
Nothing Too Dangerous – Collected Weird Fiction
Past the Borders – Collected Science Fiction
The Eighteen Revenges of Doctor Milan
The King and Other Stories – Collected Contemporary Fiction
Read Dirty Deals FREE
Hey Ruzkin, who are you? how did you hear about the Almanac launch? ... I guess it's easy to tell from those questions that I am from Sleepers (keen as ever to know whether our marketing works). I'm one of the eds - Lou Swinn. Just wanted to say a big thanks for such a charming and sweet review of the night and the book. Sometimes you feel as though you send a book out and don't really know what people think of it - bar a couple of reviewers - so it's so perfect knowing that you, the audience we want, are hearing about us and like the book. Thank You.
Lou
Ruzkin! Dude! Wassup!
I got bored and went googling the ol CGS lot (it appears that extreme boredom comes with the territory in sunny Launceston (especially after 4 years of Engineering... nearly finished!); which also often leads to extreme alcoholism... still the liver is evil and needs punishing occasionally
) and found this marvel of modern literature that could only ever be to be attributed to the often overactive and endlessly crative mind of the one and only parkour nut that I know of, the man Ruzkin himself.
By the way it turns out that I was in Hobart trying to fly my latest sailing creating (although it was freezing cold, snowing on the hills and blowing an absolute gale at the time :S) the same weekend you were down doing the whole leaping artistically off tall buildings thing in late Feb. 'Tis a small world after all I guess; all cliches aside.
It would be awesome to catch up with you (and eventually the entire old group) at some stage and see what everyone has been up to over the last 5 years (I know, thats what school reunions are for but I couldn't be arsed going and honestly I don't want to come across 1/2 the guys we went to school with ever again). Clearly, you have been a busy little Russian - I thought that you were at ANU or UC doing something Engineeringish? Are you now in Melb doing a second degree in Arts/Literature or something? The important thing is that you're doing what you want, which is nothing short of amazing. I'm envious!
Seriously though - when you get a spare moment, drop me an email. It turns out that I'll be in Melb in a few days time on my way to my folks' new place out in the country (they're now out in Paynesville winding down into retirement) and it'd be great to fill the couple of hours between arriving and catching the train with a friendly face.
Emo
Good luck on your journey! I'll be watching.
Hey
I saw you on youtube:)
I think you look veryvery hot
My english isn't so good because I'm german
best wishes
Steffi