Because of the way Rich Duncan and I divided the intros to these posts completely randomly and with little thought, I’m delighted that one of mine turned to be this author. Richard Thomas is a guy whose work I’ve been covering literally since the beginning, and he’s been a dedicated supporter, helping me to gain access to books that I didn’t then have the “street cred” to have earned yet. But Richard apparently had some faith in me and lent me a hand that helped me to get the ball rolling. There are two things in this overview of his story “Ring of Fire” that should make you sit up and take notice. One of them is making a reader like a bad person, and the other is magical realism. As to the first, he’s a fucking master of it. His protagonist in Disintegration was a very bad man who…