Catherine Ryan Hyde's Blog, page 35

Short stories--does anybody still care?

I'm really confused about the increasingly cold reaction to short stories these days. I always thought it was odd that publishers were so loathe to touch them. I thought they were being unreasonable. That people would read them if given a chance.

Now I'm not so sure.

On my new website ( http://www.catherineryanhyde.com ) I am giving away nine (so far) of the short stories from my newer unpublished collection. These are not stories from Earthquake Weather. Unless you subscribe to dozens of literary magazines, it's unlikely you would have read any of them. I offer them both as audio podcasts and as .pdf files. So you can listen online, or download to a handheld device, read on your computer or print out and read.

If comments are a true indicator, I can count on one hand the number of people who have tried them. I'm even trying a Comment Contest. My favorite podcast comment for the month of June gets a free signed hardcover of one of my books, winner's choice.

It's June 15th, and there are no June comments.

Maybe people have had disappointing experiences with short stories. I know in their worst case they can be overly "literary" (to the point of being dry) and appear to have no resolution. I don't think these fall into that category. I think they are stories, like my novels, only shorter.

Anyway, this is a site for serious readers. So...anybody still care about short stories? Or is anybody even willing to give them another try? The contest is still on...

-Catherine

New website

For a few years now, my www.cryanhyde.com website has needed a huge overhaul. Now it has one. There is an entirely new and different site up there now, and I don't just mean the design had a facelift. The concept itself is different, and here's how: No webmaster. No web designer. All me.

I have audio excerpts from the books. Video clips and excerpts. A blog. Interactive photo albums. A video greeting. I even have downloadable podcasts of my newer short stories.

I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think. It's:

http://www.catherineryanhyde.com (but if you go to the old cryanhyde.com address, that'll work just as well).

Thanks,
Catherine

New video

I just finished (and posted) a second video excerpt. This time it's an original film using three very short excerpts from my novel "The Day I Killed James". I shot and edited all this footage myself, and put a lot of myself into creating it (including riding on the back of a Harley on the twisty Big Sur coast while filming with both hands), so of course I'm hoping people will give it a look.

I'd love feedback on it if you have some.

Thanks,
Catherine

What's New

I'll have two new books coming out this year.

The first is Diary of a Witness. It's my brand new YA novel, and it's due out in August from Knopf.

Just briefly, and in my own words, about Diary:

Diary of a Witness is about a boy. Ernie. He's a sweet guy with a good heart and more than a hundred extra pounds. His best friend (hell, his only friend) is Will Manson, a geeky guy with a complex from sharing a name with a famous murderer. Ernie and Will are the two guys the jocks have singled out for torture. Ernie can just about handle it. He has his mom, who loves him, despite being a trifle hysterical. And he has his Uncle Max. But Will has nothing but trouble at home. And he’s getting pretty tightly strung. More so every day. And Ernie does his best to keep him grounded, but he’s beginning to feel he’s fighting a losing battle. Something is going to break. Soon. Somebody could even get hurt.

The second is my new adult novel, When I Found You, due out in the UK in August. I know that’s not ideal for US readers, but it will be released here, just much later. In the meantime, Americans can order from Amazon.co.uk, too.

Now, I like the Jacket text that Transworld made up for When I Found You (not that I don’t like the jacket text for Diary, but it’s not really a synopsis of the story) so I’ll use that:

When a man discovers a new born baby boy half buried in the woods, he assumes he’s found a tiny dead body. But then the baby moves. This will always be the most remarkable moment of Nathan McCann’s life.

 The child is sent to live with his grandmother, and Nathan is compelled to pay her a visit. He asks her to make him one simple promise – that one day she will take the boy to Nathan and tell him, “This is the man who found you in the woods.” 

But years later he finds an angry, troubled boy on his doorstep, complete with suitcase. And so two ordinary people, profoundly affected by a single, extraordinary event, are thrown irrevocably together.

So, that’s what’s new. That and the paperback of Chasing Windmills coming out in March from Vintage. It has a brand new cover, and I like it much better than the original.

There’s a lot happening right now, with a couple of things just on the cusp of being ready to announce. So I’ll keep this current.

Thanks,
Catherine

I'm new

Hi,

I'm new to Goodreads, at least as an author. I've had a shelf out here for a while, but I haven't really gotten the hand of interacting. I like to talk about books in general, not just mine. But I have a particular passion for hearing from, and talking to, people who have read my books. It's not an ego thing. It's that communication that I think all authors are searching for when they put an idea down on paper.

So I'm not a hundred percent clear on how to start connecting, but I'll figure it out. Meanwhile I would love it if people would message me and/or add me as a friend.

And I'll keep this blog up to date with new information. I have two new ones coming out this year (one in the US, one in the UK) so there should be bits of news.

Thanks!
-Catherine