Catherine Ryan Hyde's Blog, page 21

Pay It Forward Book for Children

This is a giveaway. But I'd like to do it a little differently.

While I was away on vacation, Simon & Schuster sent me a big handful of advance reader's copies of the new Pay It Forward: Young Readers' Edition.

It's scheduled to release on August 19th. It's the same book, edited by me, just pared down to a solid G rating. And it's suitable for kids as young as eight.

I want to give some of the ARCs away.

But rather than draw names out of a hat, I'd like it if you'd tell me why you want one, and one you'd do with it if you had it. You see, this book is for kids, and the people who read and follow this blog are adult readers. With any other of my books, the answer to that question would be you'd want it to own and read. But all who are reading this post would be better suited to the adult edition. The idea of this edition is to get the Pay It Forward idea into the hands and hearts of kids, kids who weren't even born when the book and the movie first came out.

So what would you do with one of these? Are you a teacher? Do you have kids of your own whose lives you shape every day? Do you have other ideas for how to get this book into the hands of kids?

Just let me know in the comment section. I'm not deciding yet how many of these I'll give away. I'm going to wait and see the responses and then decide. I probably don't have one for everyone, but let's try it and see what happens. And if you don't win one, read my post entitled "No Losers." This giveaway counts toward that magic number seven.

As always, please read some basic instructions for entering:

Leave a comment below to be entered. Please DO leave your email address in the comment form. I promise I won't use it for any other purpose but to notify you if you win. Please DON'T leave your email address in the body of your comment unless you want everybody to see it. And remember the "author" in the comment form is the author of the comment, not the book. In other words, you. In each of these giveaways one or more people comment as "Catherine Ryan Hyde" because they see "author" and think it means me. Please use your own name, otherwise I can't enter you, because I have no idea who you are!

***One very important addition: If you're reading this blog on Goodreads, please click through to the original post on my website and leave your comment there. Otherwise I'm afraid I'll forget the Goodreads people one of these times when I go to draw names***

I'll run this for about a week. Good luck!

No Losers

I've been doing giveaways on my blog for years. Pretty regularly. Right now I'm giving away six of the ten Take Me With You audiobooks the publisher sent me. I enjoy it. I don't mind the postage costs (it's a tax-deductible promotional expense, after all). And I know avid readers struggle with book budgets. And I like rewarding the readers who are so faithful to me and my books.

There's just one thing I don't like about it.

Every time I pick winners, a few of my wonderful fans who did not win leave comments, here or on Facebook, that quietly say something like, "Congratulations to the winners." You can hear the sigh. Some are more directly honest and say, "I never win." Or just sigh.

I don't want readers signing up for giveaways over and over and over and coming away feeling like they never win. That it's always somebody else's name coming out of the hat.

So I've come up with an idea. I sat on it a while. And the more I sit with it, the more I like it.

If you enter seven giveaways and don't win a book, just point out to me the seven you entered. And I'll send you a book. For the dedication of that continued effort. For being someone who's so closely involved with my blog and my books. You can even pick which book you want me to send. Just don't pick an audiobook, please, because I don't keep extras of those lying around the house.

This can be retroactive, too. Think you've already entered seven giveaways? Look back and see which ones they were and then email me. (Hint: There's a blog index in the right-hand sidebar of the blog page. All the giveaways are under "Announcements.") Count them up and only get five or six? Well, I have a giveaway going on now and at least one more for the month of July. Won't take you long to get there.

No more sighs. More reading, less sighing. 

July: The Giveaway Month

As some of you may know, I was just away on vacation. While I was gone, quite a few fun things turned up on my doorstep.

First of all, I got my author copies of the brand new Take Me With You, due out from Lake Union/Amazon Publishing on July 22nd. In the box were both MP3 and CD audiobooks. Five of each. And as you know if you follow this blog, I archive two of each. Send me five and I give three away.

I also got advance readers' copies of the new Young Readers' Edition of Pay It Forward, due out August 19th. So that will be the next giveaway.

And of course I have to give away another 365 Days of Gratitude photo "coffee table" book in July.

I thought about doing it all at once, but it made me tired to think about it. Too many ways that could get complicated. So I'm going to start with these six audiobooks.

As always, I ask only that you read the following to know how to enter:

All you need to do is leave a comment to be entered. Please DO leave your email address in the comment form. I promise I won't use it for any other purpose but to notify you if you win. Please DON'T leave your email address in the body of your comment unless you want everybody to see it. And remember the "author" in the comment form is the author of the comment, not the book. In other words, you. In each of these giveaways one or more people comment as "Catherine Ryan Hyde" because they see "author" and think it means me. Please use your own name, otherwise I can't enter you, because I have no idea who you are!

***One very important addition: If you're reading this blog on Goodreads, please click through to the original post on my website and leave your comment there. Otherwise I'm afraid I'll forget the Goodreads people one of these times when I go to draw names***

And if you have a preference between CD and MP3, please state it clearly in your comment.

I'll run this giveaway for about a week and then move on to the next. Good luck!

The ARCs Keep Coming!

Most of you know I have another brand-new novel releasing in December. Yesterday, just a week or two after receiving the advance reader's copies of Take Me With You, my July release, the UPS guy brought me these.

Must. Give. Away.

Now. There's just one catch. I'm going off on a two-week trip in the new camper van (photos to follow). So I won't be around for this giveaway. Which doesn't really matter when you think about it. It just means I won't answer your comments with my own. You just have to trust that when I get home in the first week of July, I'll have them all in one place and draw names.

I'll give away four of these. As always, I ask only that you read the few simple directions below:

All you need to do is leave a comment to be entered. Please DO leave your email address in the comment form. I promise I won't use it for any other purpose but to notify you if you win. Please DON'T leave your email address in the body of your comment unless you want everybody to see it. And remember the "author" in the comment form is the author of the comment, not the book. In other words, you. In each of these giveaways one or more people comment as "Catherine Ryan Hyde" because they see "author" and think it means me. Please use your own name, otherwise I can't enter you, because I have no idea who you are!

After the 4th of July holiday, I'll draw four names.

Good luck!

You Really Can Buy the 365 Book in Paper

I made this change fairly quietly, but a lot of people are asking me about it, so I'm going to make a bit more noise. Yes, 365 Days of Gratitude: Photos from a Beautiful World is available as a big, full-color coffee table book. If I may be allowed to say so, it really turned out well. (This is more praise for the print-on-demand printing process than for myself.) If you look for it on Amazon, you won't find it. You'll only find the $3.99 Kindle. But it's available to buy. You just have to have the link.

I've placed the link on the right-hand sidebar of its book page on this site, where it will live forever. But of course I'll offer it in this blog as well. It's HERE.

As you can imagine, the book is not cheap. Because the production costs on 365 large full-color photos is huge. The book is for sale for $35 on CreateSpace, and believe me, there's not much in the way of profit there. It's basically production cost, plus CreateSpace's cut, plus pennies left over in royalties. It's a rounding-up to a nice round number from the very lowest price I could put on it. It would have been nice to sell it on Amazon. A lot more people would find it. But then I would have had to price it at $45 across the board.

Now for the good news: I honestly believe that when you receive your copy you will not feel overcharged. It really is a $35 book. It's 8 1/2 by 11, huge and heavy. Not hardcover, but still a genuine coffee table book. If I'm wrong, and you disagree, I'll happily buy it back from you.

The other good news is that there are cheaper ways to enjoy the book. The Kindle edition is only $3.99. And I'll be giving away a copy a month on this blog for the foreseeable future. I have a giveaway going right now, in fact.

I think you'll find it's a nice gift idea. I'm having a lot of fun giving them as gifts.

Feedback welcomed. 

Yet Another Giveaway

On Friday I received a carton of these from Lake Union (Amazon Publishing). I was so happy to have them and so eager to give a few away that I posted to Twitter and Facebook that the first three people to say "I want one" would get one. They were gone in about a minute.

That was fun while it lasted, but of course only served to make many more readers feel bad because they didn't see my post in time. So I promised I would do a slower givewaway here on my blog. I am now keeping that promise.

I have three more to give away. All I ask is that you PLEASE read the instructions below:

Simply leave a comment to be entered. Please DO leave your email address in the comment form. I promise I won't use it for any other purpose but to notify you if you win. Please DON'T leave your email address in the body of your comment unless you want everybody to see it. And remember the "author" in the comment form is the author of the comment, not the book. In other words, you. In each of these giveaways one or more people comment as "Catherine Ryan Hyde" because they see "author" and think it means me. Please use your own name, otherwise I can't enter you, because I have no idea who you are!

I'll leave this open until Friday. Comment away!

Let's Keep the Giveaway Going

I just chose (at random) my first four winners of the huge, gorgeous (sorry to be immodest, but I'm really crediting the printing process) coffee-table-size softcover edition of 365 Days of Gratitude: Photos from a Beautiful World. 

They are Kit Cooley, Rose Lamatt, Fran Simmons Schouten, and Claudia Robinson.

Now. I always feel bad for all the people whose names I didn't draw. But I have a lot more of these. So what I'd like to do is extend this to a monthly giveaway.

If you didn't win, but still want one, leave a comment below. At the end of June, I'll draw another winner, and we'll start again for July. That way everybody gets another chance. (And another. And another.)

As always, please do leave your email address in the comment form. I promise I won't use it for any other purpose but to notify you if you win. Don't leave your email address in the body of your comment unless you want everybody to see it. And remember the "author" in the comment form is the author of the comment, not the book. In other words, you.

More winners is better, right?

Better Than Blurbs: Lost in Transplantation by Eldonna Edwards

Because I no longer write blurbs, but still very much want to help other authors, I've launched a blog series called Better Than Blurbs. The authors and I will have in-depth discussions about their books, which I hope will help readers identify whether they'd enjoy reading them. This is the eighth post of the series. The author is Eldonna Edwards, and the book is Lost in Transplantation: Memoir of an Unconventional Organ Donor.

Me: Eldonna, please Tell us about the book in your own words:

Eldonna: Lost in Transplantation isn't just a chronicle of a living donor, it's a book about life and the decisions we make when given difficult choices. The memoir is interwoven with stories about growing up as a Bible-thumping preacher's kid, my work as a massage therapist, raising children—mostly as a single mother—and the seesaw transitions of menopause. There’s a good deal of humor in the book to balance the serious topic. My goal is for others to relate to me as a real person rather than putting me on a pedestal for giving a kidney to a stranger, thereby dismissing me as an anomaly. I believe we are all capable of being someone's hero and you don't have to undergo surgery to achieve that end.

The memoir describes my journey as an organ donor but it also tells Kathy's (my intended recipient) story and hopefully the reader's as well. We all struggle, we all have dreams and hardships, but it's our attitude that alters one’s perception of those challenges.  Lost in Transplantation seeks to connect with that place in each of us that wants to make a difference. My hope is to inspire others to take steps—no matter how small—toward balancing the inequality and unconscionable inhumanity that persists in the world. You never know exactly how far the results of your actions reach— and the life it alters the most just might be your own.

Me: I want to ask a set of questions that will establish my focus on organ donation in the past. So I’ll ask you (and I suppose ask my readers at the same time): Have you read Second Hand Heart, which is about organ donation, but not living donation?

Did you know that one of the UK editions included a real-life living kidney donor story that I also wrote about on my blog? And for those who have no access to that UK edition, I also wrote it up for Positive Impact Magazine. (But I can't seem to establish a direct link, so readers can use the link to their home page and search for Betty Ann and erin or organ donation). 

I’m also wondering if you’ve heard about Garet Hill and the National Kidney Registry. They form donation chains that start with an altruistic donor like yourself, and just keep going. (He was kind enough to be in contact with me, because the Pay It Forward connection is easy to see). They even made it into the New York Times.

Yes, I realize this is a long question. I also realize that no two living donors are alike. So can you tell us how you feel when you read these stories? How much are they like you, and in what ways are they different? How much change do you think we might see in the world if this kind of giving gets a foothold?

Eldonna: I have read Second Hand Heart. What interests me most is the cellular memory aspect of the story. I’ve communicated with many transplant recipients who voice a strong desire to reach out to the families of cadaveric donors. I think that in addition to gratitude, recipients feel a connection beyond what can be explained or expressed. My recipient claims to have lost an appetite for a few things that I don’t care for, like lamb and ice cream. I’m still waiting for my former kidney to switch the recipient’s political parties. ;-)

In answer to the second part of your question, my surgery was the very first at CPMC (California Pacific Medical Center) to occur as a result of a National Kidney Registry match! I was the initial domino in a series of surgeries beginning December 16, 2010. Fortunately transplant chains have since become the norm. I recently had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Alvin Roth, who won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. The algorithm he co-developed increased NKR matches by up to 167% over the previous method.

Me: Of course the best way readers can get this question answered is to read your book. But it’s on everyone’s mind. So please give us a sneak peek at the answer to the big question: Why?

I get this a lot. Here’s how I explain it in the book:

Wealth might make you comfortable but it can’t save you from eventual death. Education might keep you from poverty but it can’t prevent disease. Geography might help protect your civil rights but it can’t protect you from unpredictable tragedy. Where we’re born and most of the opportunities we’re born into all come down to chance. Some disease is generated by bad habits like smoking or diet, some is environmental like chemical exposure or lack of available prenatal care, and some is just wonky DNA.

Perhaps one day science will figure out how to prevent or cure a lot of the diseases that are inherent in our society. I recently heard NASA has invented a 3-D printer that can print “food” for astronauts so it doesn’t take up valuable space. Maybe printing a human kidney isn’t that far off. But for now, beyond one’s belief in a higher power, all we have to sustain our hope is the grace of our fellow human beings to help us through our struggles.

A logical or left-brained person might look at the data, decide the evidence is overwhelming against self-sacrifice to aid others, and leave it to politics or science to determine another's fate. And here is where I invite Captain Obvious into the conversation to state that I am not left-brained. In fact I am so right brained that I sometimes wonder why my head doesn’t rest on my right shoulder. I’m a touchy-feely, tree-hugging, artsy-fartsy human being who truly believes we are all brothers and sisters in this world, and that by helping one person you help the collective. I believe each of our deeds, good or bad, creates a ripple. Birth might be about circumstance but life is about choices within the events that occur year to year, day to day, and most importantly, moment to moment.

The encounter with Lucy might or might not have been chance—I don’t know. Had I not moved to California with my son, had he not attended Cuesta College, had I not chosen one class over another, I never would have met her. What looks random in the immediate moment might seem like fate for those that believe in predestination. For me, it was merely an encounter with another human being who raised my consciousness about a particular form of suffering and I chose to act upon it.

No matter how hard I try to communicate the need for donors, people remain skeptical. No matter how deeply I underscore the extraordinary sense of purpose in helping another human being, I continually bump up against fear. What I’ve gradually come to understand is that it’s naïve to presume anyone’s motivations for donating or not, other than my own.

Me: I know you have a writing background that predates this book. Will you please tell my readers more about how you came to the written word and what else you have done?

Eldonna: I love language and have always taken great delight in the satisfaction of stringing together a tapestry of words that results in a good story or poem.  I used to facilitate journal-writing workshops and later turned the exercises into a couple of journaling workbooks. Loose Ends and Journaling from the Heart were published in 1999/2000 respectively.  I currently have other works-in-progress but I set the novels aside to work on this memoir. Living donation is a timely subject and I'm compelled to get it out there ahead of the fiction.

Me: I have no idea if anyone reading this is considering becoming a living donor. But I know it must be a big decision. And I know that, no matter how sure the donor may be, it’s often a hard subject to broach with family members. Any advice to someone considering this gigantic act of selfless giving?

The best thing a potential donor can do is to become informed. I regularly participate in several living donor and kidney patient forums where people like me offer support, encouragement and advice to potential donors. In terms of sharing plans with loved ones, you have to stay centered in your intention and not let well-meaning family members pull you off course. When challenged, I would usually say, “I hear your concerns and I appreciate you supporting me in my decision.

Me: Can you sum up for us how this act and this book changed your life? Yes, I do know it’s hard to compress it. But if you had to write a paragraph or two about it, what seems like the most important thing to say?

Eldonna: Having witnessed their pain and suffering up close, I am truly humbled by the strength and determination of all the people on dialysis who don’t know if they’ll get a kidney in time. The act itself didn’t change me so much as it reinforced my belief that when you help others it takes you out of yourself and your own struggles. But I definitely came away from the donation with a deeper sense of purpose and believing my life had more meaning. People talk about what an amazing gift I’ve given but I feel equally blessed by the experience.

As a donor, my goal was to inspire people. As a writer, I hoped to inspire readers in an entertaining way. Since writing the book I’ve been overwhelmed by enthusiastic support not only from the standpoint of living donation, but from readers who reported that they were moved to “be a better person” after reading Lost in Transplantation.  I can’t tell you how much it means knowing this story has had such a profound an effect on people. I’m unable to read the reviews without tearing up. It’s one thing to tell a story that touches people, but to be acknowledged for the art of the telling itself is icing on the proverbial cake.

Me: Please write your own question, and answer it.

Eldonna: You were the subject of a documentary titled “Perfect Strangers”. What was that experience like?  What’s next? (You meant two questions, right?)

While researching living donation I couldn’t find a single film on the topic so I contacted Jan Krawitz, the Director of the M.F.A. Documentary Filmmaking Program at Stanford. I told her someone needed to make a film about this so that the tragic need for donors would reach more people. We met in a coffee shop and talked for four hours. By the time the meeting ended she’d decided to make a film and I’d agreed to let her follow my journey. Her crew was amazing and I often forgot they were in the room. (Word of advice to anyone thinking of being in a film: Turn off your wireless mic before using the bathroom!)

Over the course of four years Jan and I became dear friends. I’ve attended several screenings of the film, which has played to enthusiastic audiences all across the country. I think she did a fantastic job of artfully capturing the experience of both donor and kidney patient. We’re hoping to show it locally again soon but I also host public and private screenings. The DVD will be available this summer. You can view the trailer at www.perfectstrangersmovie.com.

As a result of the film and the book, I’ve been invited to book clubs, film Q&A’s, and conferences to speak about my experience. I realize not everyone is a candidate for living donation (but hopefully some of you are!) so I tend to talk about altruism in the grander sense of how one can find happiness through kindness and compassion.

I love my work as an advocate for living donation, but I’m also making time to write. What’s next is a coming-of-age novel set in the sixties about a psychic little girl born into a fundamentalist Christian family who feels threatened by her paranormal gifts. The opening of This I Know recently won the Lillian Dean Award for fiction.  The novel is planned for publication in 2015.

Thank you so much, Catherine, for all that you do to promote kindness through your non-profit and to support other authors through this blog. In hopes of inspiring others to offer hope to desperate patients, I’m asking your readers to spread the word about Lost in Transplantation. You can find me on Facebook and on the web at my website, where I’ve just started a blog. I’m available to answer questions about how to donate as well as inquiries about speaking engagements.

The book is availableon Amazon as an eBook and in paperback, and at Barnes & Noble. It’s also available for Kobo and iTunes.

Cover Reveals: The Backlist Gets a Big Makeover

[image error]My wonderful agency and I took a look back recently. When we first put out our own independent ebook editions of my backlist novels Funerals for Horses, Electric God, and Walter's Purple Heart, we didn't really know what to expect. We didn't know how much interest there would be for these titles. Plus, I was working on a shoestring.

[image error]The titles are doing quite well, I'm happy to say, due to a great number of wonderful new readers (thank you, wonderful new readers!) who are going through the full body of my work.

[image error]We all agreed it was time to give these ebooks a makeover. Help them stand right up there with my newer titles.

So here are the wonderful new covers. If you haven't read the backlist, maybe this is a great time to start. The ebook editions are affordable at only $2.99. And they will give you something to read while you are waiting for my two brand new novels to come out this year.

Hope you like the new look!

The 365 Photo Book is (Almost) Here!

This is actually the proof of the huge, gorgeous coffee-table-size softcover edition of 365 Days of Gratitude: Photos from a Beautiful World. This is the one I promised to give away lots of copies of. (Bad sentence, but good sentiment, right?) And I plan to keep that promise.

I wanted to show it to you so you could get some idea of the size and quality of the book in question.

My next step is to order several cartons of them. And start giving them away on this blog, and maybe also on my Facebook author page.

As always, all you have to do is comment that you want one. Do leave your email address in the comment form. I promise I won't use it for any other purpose but to notify you if you win. Don't leave your email address in the body of your comment unless you want everybody to see it.

I'm not sure when I'll have more copies, but let's start the giveaway now for three. It will end when I have the books in hand. I'll choose three commenters at random.

I'll give away a lot more. Maybe one a month. Maybe I'll get more creative. But I'm excited, now that I've seen how well the paper book turned out. So let's get started!