Catherine Ryan Hyde's Blog, page 3

STEWIE HAS ARRIVED!

For those who might not know, my newest novel, DREAMING OF FLIGHT, was released today (May 3rd, 2022) by Lake Union/Amazon publishing.

I have some hardcovers and audiobooks that I’ll be giving away soon on this blog, so please stay tuned.

Meanwhile, if you preordered this, or are about to pick up a copy now, I hope you enjoy Stewie’s story.

Happy reading!

Another Cover Reveal

If you follow this blog, you probably know that my next release is DREAMING OF FLIGHT in May. But you also probably know that I’m releasing two novels a year.

So here’s what’s next for the second half of ‘22.

It’s called SO LONG, CHESTER WHEELER, and this is the new cover. It will be released on December 6th, and can be preordered anytime. And if you follow this link you can learn a little about the story. I had fun writing this one. I think it’s among my favorites.

Just keeping you posted.

Happy reading!

BOY UNDERGROUND is Here!

Today is a a special day.

As I write this, it’s Monday the 6th. That’s the day any preordered ebook copies of Boy Underground will start dropping onto Kindles and other devices, usually around 9:00 at night. Chances are by the time you receive this email it will be Tuesday the 7th, the release day for BOY UNDERGROUND.

I have to go on record as saying this is one of my favorites of mine. Theoretically authors don’t have favorites, but I more or less do. And Boy Underground either ties with Luis Velez as my favorite, or knocks it just barely out of the top spot.

I also want to briefly mention the audiobook. If you’re at all a fan of audio, I hope you’ll give this one a try. I’ve never done this before, but I got an idea in my head of someone who would be perfect to narrate this one. I asked my publisher, and they reached out and got him. He’s the actor Dan Butler. I had mostly known him as a comedy actor, probably best known for playing Bob “Bulldog” Briscoe on the Frasier series. But when I heard him narrate the James Baldwin classic “Giovanni’s Room,” I knew he was the right voice. I really experienced emotion while listening to this audio in a way I usually don’t when listening to my own books. I hope you’ll give it a try and share any thoughts you might have.

Thank you for being my reader, and for subscribing to this blog. I hope you enjoy the new novel as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you.

As always, happy reading!

Let's Do a Giveaway

Look what the UPS guy brought me this week. I received three cartons of ARCs (advance readers’ copies) of my May 2022 release, DREAMING OF FLIGHT.

Those who know me know what happens next: I do a giveaway for my blog followers.

I always post a few guidelines for entering, and about 10% of readers don’t read them or don’t follow them and don’t end up in the running. What can I say but that I’m trying to give you free stuff and this next paragraph takes less than 20 seconds to read?

Just leave a comment in the thread below to enter. Please be sure to leave your email address in the form (not a good idea to leave it in the body of the comment because it is, after all, the internet) so I can notify you if you win. As always, I promise I will never harvest or save your address, or use it for any other purpose. It may seem as though there’s no place to enter your email, but when you hit post that field should come up. If you have trouble you can go to Contact Me and let me know, and I’ll be happy to enter you manually. And if you’re reading this blog post on Amazon or Goodreads, please click through and leave your comment on the original blog on my website, so I have all my entries in one place. Along those same lines, if you are reading this as an email in your inbox, please click on the title of the post, which will take you to my actual blog page, rather than replying to the email.

And that’s it. I’ll leave this open for about ten days and then choose five winners at random. Good luck, and thanks for being a subscriber!

Cover Reveal for '22

I’m guessing that most of you know my next release is BOY UNDERGROUND in December. But if you’re curious to know what’s in the pipeline, here’s the reveal for my first novel of ‘22.

It’s called DREAMING OF FLIGHT, it’s scheduled for next May 3rd, and it can be preordered anytime. You can read the publisher’s brief synopsis HERE.

Just keeping you in the loop.

Happy reading!

Release Day, and What's Next

Today is the day my latest release, SEVEN PERFECT THINGS, bursts out into the world. Hopefully you know my email address, or where to find it (spoiler alert: look for “Contact Me” above) and you can let me know what you think.

If you ordered it in Kindle, check your ereader, or the Kindle software on your device. The book should have dropped. If you ordered a paper copy, it won’t be long now.

And in case you’re wondering what’s next, this is my December release, BOY UNDERGROUND. It may be my personal favorite of all my books, or it may be a tie with LUIS VELEZ for that honor. These things can be hard to judge. It’s available for preorder in hardcover, paperback, Kindle ebook, and audio CD.

Happy reading!

Hardcover Giveaway, SEVEN PERFECT THINGS

I have been a bad blogger. I’ve been told you never start a blog with that declaration, but I’m breaking the rule.

The last time I posted to this blog was August of 2020. That month I closed escrow on a horse pasture not far from my home. I improved it with enough infrastructure to make horses happy, and moved Soul there from a full-service boarding facility. I also adopted a miniature horse named Opal Moon to be his pasture pal. It was about as hard as it would have been to move myself, but we made the transition. Then, in February, I lost my beloved Ella at age 15, and two weeks later I adopted a special-needs puppy who required hip surgery immediately followed by a careful rehab.

Meanwhile I finished another novel.

I think you get the idea.

But this blog exists, and you were interested enough to subscribe to it. And just yesterday I received the finished author copies of my May release, SEVEN PERFECT THINGS, including a full carton of lovely hardcovers with dust jackets. So for my subscribers only, I’m putting seven of these up for grabs.

Now. I’ve tried everything to get everyone to read the directions (below), but some don’t. All I can say is that if you don’t read the following you might not be successfully entered. And I want you to be entered if you want to be. So, seriously. Twenty seconds:

Just leave a comment in the thread below to enter. Please be sure to leave your email address in the form (not a good idea to leave it in the body of the comment because it is, after all, the internet) so I can notify you if you win. As always, I promise I will never harvest or save your address, or use it for any other purpose. It may seem as though there’s no place to enter your email, but when you hit post that field should come up. If you have trouble you can go to Contact Me and let me know, and I’ll be happy to enter you manually. And if you’re reading this blog post on Amazon or Goodreads, please click through and leave your comment on the original blog on my website, so I have all my entries in one place. Along those same lines, if you are reading this as an email in your inbox, please click on the title of the post, which will take you to my actual blog page, rather than replying to the email.

I’ll leave this open until the weekend and then choose five winners at random on Sunday. Good luck!

Why I Probably Won't Write the Sequel You're Hoping I'll Write

I used to write more blog posts like this one—not a specific announcement, but more my thoughts on some book-related subject or another. I don’t do it much anymore, because people subscribe to this blog now, and I feel a sense of responsibility. It’s important to me not to fill up your inbox with posts that are not the reason you subscribed.

So, this will not happen often.

But sometimes I get a question by email so frequently that I feel I need to address it at greater length, to help people understand.

I’m flattered when people ask for a sequel, because I like knowing that they want to spend more time with the characters. That said, I’m not a fan of sequels. For several reasons.

One: Sequels are famous for not living up to the originals.

Two: Though I realize readers don’t necessarily think of this, to get a good novel out of a set of characters, the author has to put them through hell. After holding these poor characters’ feet to the fire for the length of a novel, I like to picture them having a happy future. Happy futures are wonderful to live, but hopelessly boring to read about. When’s the last time you read a “gripping” novel about a person having a pleasant and relatively uneventful day?

Three: By the time people have read a book and requested a sequel, I’ve gone on to write at least two or three more novels, and I have lots of new fictional people I want you to meet. I realize that readers are faithful by nature, and I like that. I like that you got attached to the characters I presented. That’s a good thing. But I hope you’ll trust me. You might like the new ones, too.

The other reason people state for asking me to write a sequel: They want to know what happens to the characters. They are fictional characters (though I’m glad they seemed like more), so, in a strictly realistic sense, nothing happens to them. In a fictional sense, you have an imagination, too, and whatever you think happens to them is valid. In fact, I wrote a whole blog post about that HERE.

And while we’re on the subject of questions I get a lot, two or three times a week someone writes saying they can’t find book club questions online. If they are not on this website, they are hiding in plain sight in the back of the book.

Please feel free to share thoughts in the comments below. And, again, please be assured that I don’t do this sort of post very often. But sometimes it’s nice to take a minute to talk over the subjects readers clearly have on their minds.

Happy reading.

A Giveaway and a Cover Reveal

Rather than flood your email inbox with any more mail than necessary, I’m going to do this all at once.

Two big pieces of news.

One, I have the cover now for my May 2021 release, SEVEN PERFECT THINGS, which is available now for preorder. And I’m just so completely in love with it. I can’t wait to share it with you. So here goes. Hope you love it as much as I do.

Two, I just received some beautiful big cartons of my December 1st release, MY NAME IS ANTON. And of course you know by now what I do when I get my ARCs of a new book. I give a bunch of them away to my readers.

So here goes.

I’m going to ask you a favor here. Please read below. Please? It only takes a minute. And I spend a lot of time helping people see that they haven’t entered properly when all the directions were right there for them to read.

***INSTRUCTIONS***

Just leave a comment in the thread below to enter. Please be sure to leave your email address in the form (not a good idea to leave it in the body of the comment because it is, after all, the internet) so I can notify you if you win. As always, I promise I will never harvest or save your address, or use it for any other purpose. It may seem as though there’s no place to enter your email, but when you hit post that field should come up. If you have trouble you can go to Contact Me and let me know, and I’ll be happy to enter you manually. And if you’re reading this blog post on Amazon or Goodreads, please click through and leave your comment on the original blog on my website, so I have all my entries in one place. Along those same lines, if you are reading this as an email in your inbox, please click on the title of the post, which will take you to my actual blog page, rather than replying to the email.

I’ll leave this open for about a week and then choose five winners at random next weekend. Good luck!

Hardcovers are here! Want one?

Yesterday afternoon a big shipment of paperback and hardcover author copies of BRAVE GIRL, QUIET GIRL dropped onto my doorstep in advance of the 5/19 release date. Everybody loves a nice hardcover, right?

So let’s give some away.

I have six of these up for grabs for my subscribers only. Later I’ll give away some paperbacks and share the news on social media, but right now I’m saying thank you to you because you follow the blog.

The usual housekeeping:

Just leave a comment in the thread below to enter. Please be sure to leave your email address in the form (not a good idea to leave it in the body of the comment because it is, after all, the internet) so I can notify you if you win. As always, I promise I will never harvest or save your address, or use it for any other purpose. It may seem as though there’s no place to enter your email, but when you hit post that field should come up. If you have trouble you can go to Contact Me and let me know, and I’ll be happy to enter you manually. And if you’re reading this blog post on Amazon or Goodreads, please click through and leave your comment on the original blog on my website, so I have all my entries in one place.

I’ll leave this open for ten to twelve days and then choose six winners at random. Good luck!