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57 ratings | 3 reviews | avg rating:4.09

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Cidney Swanson

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://cidneyswanson.com

Twitter

cidneyswanson

Genre

Children's Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Romance

Influences

J.R.R. Tolkien, Ray Bradbury, Madeleine L'Engle, Audrey Niffenegger, M ...more

Member Since

June 2011

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Cidney Swanson Hi Demigod_whisperer,

I'm glad you're enjoying the books. I am married to a very slow reader and sometimes I think he has more fun reading because he d…moreHi Demigod_whisperer,

I'm glad you're enjoying the books. I am married to a very slow reader and sometimes I think he has more fun reading because he doesn't ever miss *anything*!

Your question is an interesting one because it brings up a couple of different parts of what it means to come up with ideas. In one sense, it is almost impossible to say why any given idea comes up. But it is also true that those of us, like you, who like to write tend to be prone to imagine stuff. At some point, for me, the stuff I have imagined either goes away and I forget about it or it keeps coming back and I can't forget about it. And that is when I get curious.

With Rippler, the story started with a picture in my mind of a girl kneeling by a river near where I grew up. As I "looked" at her, she began to get see through and then vanished entirely. I wondered why she had turned invisible. I also had this absolute certainty that she hadn't noticed she'd vanished. So that brought up a second question: why didn't she notice?

As my brain wrangled those questions, I started to find a story in my head. I like adventure stories, so I knew there had to be some danger associated with what became "rippling." So during the day when I was folding clothes or cooking or walking the dog, my brain would be wondering things like, "What might be dangerous about having an ability to turn invisible?" and "What would dangerous people be willing to do to steal or copy or somehow use your ability?" and "How did the first ripplers get their abilities?"

Well, brains love questions, so my brain began working on the answers. Some of them came quickly. (Bad guys would want to force you to do stuff for them, so you'd be in danger of being kidnapped.) Others took forever. (What motivates my bad guy--Helmann--and why does he think it's okay to do what he does?) Eventually, all those questions and answers became sort of story-shaped.

My stories tend to be really lumpy and ugly when I finish them the first time. (This is called a "first draft.") I set them aside for awhile and then I go back and re-work them so that they are more interesting, more consistent with how people really behave, and so on. It takes me about 5 or 6 complete re-writes before the story is done, but not everyone needs 5 or 6 tries. I needed something like 15 for Rippler, but once I had that story completely figured out, Chameleon and Unfurl and the others were much easier to write because I had figured out the "rules" of rippling and why the people in my stories were behaving the way they were behaving. (This is a part of what's called "world building.")

I hope that helps answer your question.

Read long and prosper,
Cidney

PS Would you ask your parent(s) if it would be okay to post your question and my answer on my Tumblr? No worries if it's a no. Have them email me cidneyswanson at gmail dot com if it's a yes.(less)

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What books are on your summer reading list this year?

Cidney Swanson Gonna re-read Laini Taylor's STRANGE THE DREAMER which I read entirely too fast the first time, read Megan Whalen Turner's THICK AS THIEVES (which mig…moreGonna re-read Laini Taylor's STRANGE THE DREAMER which I read entirely too fast the first time, read Megan Whalen Turner's THICK AS THIEVES (which might lead to re-reading the other THIEF books), and find some time travel books, TBD.(less)

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Cidney Swanson’s books

Average rating: 3.92 · 14,847 ratings · 1,411 reviews · 47 distinct works • Similar authors

	Rippler (Ripple #1) 3.71 avg rating — 4,135 ratings — published 2011 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Chameleon (Ripple, #2) 3.95 avg rating — 1,416 ratings — published 2011 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ripple Trilogy (Ripple #1-3) 3.87 avg rating — 1,436 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Thief in Time (A Thief in Time #1) 3.76 avg rating — 1,217 ratings — published 2016	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Unfurl (Ripple, #3) 3.91 avg rating — 1,109 ratings — published 2011 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Saving Mars (Saving Mars, #1) 3.91 avg rating — 1,107 ratings — published 2012 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Defying Mars (Saving Mars, #2) 4.01 avg rating — 531 ratings — published 2012 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Visible (Ripple, #4) 4.15 avg rating — 451 ratings — published 2014 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Losing Mars (Saving Mars, #3) 4.13 avg rating — 382 ratings — published 2013 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mars Burning (Saving Mars, #4) 4.19 avg rating — 372 ratings — published 2013 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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107 posts
Cidney Swanson's Blog

Speaking Elizabethan, As One Does

I speak Elizabethan. Okay, imperfectly, and not as a regular thing, and probably it would be more accurate to say that I understand Elizabethan English.

So how did this happen? Was it gained through hours and hours of graduate-level work, resulting in an obscure degree?

Nope.

(Although I do have a VERY obscure advanced degree, and some day I can tell you all about it.)

I learned to understand the Engl

Series by Cidney Swanson

Ripple (7 books)
by

Cidney Swanson (Goodreads Author)

3.85 avg rating — 9,208 ratings

Saving Mars (6 books)
by

Cidney Swanson (Goodreads Author)

4.07 avg rating — 3,121 ratings

A Thief in Time (7 books)
by

Cidney Swanson (Goodreads Author)

3.93 avg rating — 1,940 ratings

Payback Society (3 books)
by

Cidney Swanson (Goodreads Author)

3.60 avg rating — 83 ratings

Cidney is Currently Reading

Cidney Swanson is currently reading

That Time in Paris: Out of Time Book #13

by Monique Martin (Goodreads Author)

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Nov 05, 2021 11:13PM

Cidney Swanson is currently reading

A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2)

by Becky Chambers (Goodreads Author)

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Aug 16, 2021 10:58PM

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Pride

by Ibi Zoboi (Goodreads Author)

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Aug 08, 2021 01:56PM

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Cidney’s Recent Updates

Cidney Swanson wrote a new blog post Speaking Elizabethan, As One Does I speak Elizabethan. Okay, imperfectly, and not as a regular thing, and probably it would be more accurate to say that I understand Elizabethan Englis Read more of this blog post »
Nov 16, 2025 12:45AM · like
Cidney Swanson has read The Magnificent Ruins by Nayantara Roy (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Quotes by Cidney Swanson (?)

“For the record, chocolate’s a pretty decent antidote for unrequited love.”
― Cidney Swanson, Rippler

15 likes

“Did the continents, I wondered, feel lonely for each other as they drifted apart eons ago?”
― Cidney Swanson, Unfurl

6 likes

“Then like gravity, or maybe like magnets, our lips met again because they had to. And in that touch it felt like I was buried treasure he’d crossed seven seas to claim. I couldn’t feel the edges of my own body anymore; I was melting into his.”
― Cidney Swanson, Rippler

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Cidney’s Quotes

“In life, finding a voice is speaking and living the truth. Each of you is an original. Each of you has a distinctive voice. When you find it, your story will be told. You will be heard.”
― John Grisham

tags: inspirational-life

2292 likes