Carrie Ryan's Blog, page 13

In which I feel stupid...

Way back when I signed with my wonderful agent, Jim McCarthy, he sent me a box of some of his other clients' books.  In that box was Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead.  My editor also sent me a box of books and I arranged everything on new shelves and started reading my way through them.  My mother started to read more and more YA and when she realized just how many books I had, she started making visits to haul them away.  (Yes, I've turned my mother into a huge YA reader and it's totally awe...

Absolute Faith

I just read this blog post by Kristin Cashore.  One of the things I love about Kristin (other than her awesome books and that she graduated from Williams two years before I did, go Ephs!) is that she's so open and honest about her feelings about writing, including struggles and hurdles, on her blog.  Sometimes I wish I were more like her in that way -- there's such an honesty and vulnerability in the way she writes about the process of crafting a book and I love seeing how everything comes to...

Red Shoes, a guest post by Saundra Mitchell

Today I have a guest post from Edgar Award nominated author Saundra Mitchell.  I've gushed about her book, Shadowed Summer, many many times and it's out in paperback today (Indiebound, Book Depository, Powell's, Amazon)!  YAY!!  Saundra writes about how we became imprint buddies and honestly, it made me tear up a bit.  Saundra is not only a phenomenal writer (seriously, some of her prose makes me want to weep) but she's been a really fantastic friend and critique partner.  I feel very lucky t...

ConCarolinas this weekend!

Yay! It's time again for Con-Carolinas!!  Which this year is also DeepSouthCon and is being held at the Hilton University Place in Charlotte!  This is my local con that I've had a total blast going to the past few years and I'm super excited that this time I'm going to be on some of the panels!  Wahoo!  Here's my schedule:

Friday at 6:00 pm:  Book Launch!: Writer guests who have published in the past year share their newest creations.

Friday at 8:00 pm: Scary Monsters and Super Freaks: Creating...

What's taking so long? I want your third book now! (updated)

I've mentioned a few times that there's a third book in my series called The Dark and Hollow Places that is already written and should be coming out Spring 2011.  I honestly can't be more thrilled about the emails I've been getting asking about it and wanting it sooner!*  One question I've been asked a few times is why, since the book is already written, is it taking so long for it to come out?

This is an excellent question and a perfect blog topic :)  The short answer: with all the different ...

What's taking so long? I want your third book now!

I've mentioned a few times that there's a third book in my series called The Dark and Hollow Places that is already written and should be coming out Spring 2011.  I honestly can't be more thrilled about the emails I've been getting asking about it and wanting it sooner!*  One question I've been asked a few times is why, since the book is already written, is it taking so long for it to come out?

This is an excellent question and a perfect blog topic :)  The short answer: with all the different ...

Jen Lancaster ate my brain

Sometime this past summer my sister emailed me about a book she was reading that she couldn't put down.  Over the course of the next few days, she kept emailing me little tidbits that had me in hysterics and then finally she wrote "I think I might have to go to the doctor because I just shouldn't be laughing this much" or something like that.  Quite a recommendation and so I immediately picked up the book in question: Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster.

And boy was my sister right!  I DIED rea...

What I learned about creating characters from Reality TV: it's about the motivation

Okay, I confess, I watch Reality TV.  One of the shows I started watching recently is Tough Love on  VH1.  The basic premise is that Steve is a matchmaker and he's brought all these woman to a mansion to set them up on dates.  There's no elimination and each week he works with the women to overcome some of their "issues" such as self-esteem, emotional barriers, etc.

The first season there was a woman named Taylor and she was a bona fide 100% gold-digger.  She proclaimed that money didn't real...

But when are you going to write something happy? Also, what's up with the love triangles?

note: this post has some specifics about my books. I tried to mark them as spoilers, but just be aware.

I was just reading Beth Revis's blog about writing dystopias and I think she does a great job of explaining why dystopian literature isn't always depressing and I thought I might piggy-back off of her discussion here.

This is a question I got asked at almost every tour stop: when are you going to write something happy -- your books are SO DEPRESSING!  And here's my answer: my characters live ...

Anyone have any questions? Time to update my FAQ

I've realized that my FAQ page on my website is woefully out of date.  I decided to toss it out to y'all to see if you have any questions you'd like me to answer -- feel free to ask anything and I'll answer all that I can and upload to my website (you can ask about me, my books, the world in The Forest of Hands and Teeth, writing, etc).  Come on... I know y'all have questions :)  Post away!

Thanks!