Amy Kathleen Ryan's Blog, page 5

A picture of a rainbow.

Now isn't this nicer than reading some mean article on SLATE that will just make you mad anyway?




www.amykathleenryan.com

On Mother's Day

People say, "Parenting is a lot of work." And you get that, but you don't really understand until you have kids of your own. You don't understand how tired a person can be until you have a baby. Your back aches, you can't get a full night's sleep, and you have to carry around a tiny person who needs you to carry her, no matter how bad that kink in your neck is, no matter how much you need to sleep or you really just might fall on your knees and cry.

Having kids is like winning the most wonderf...

On Diversity in Publishing for Children and Teens.

Anyone in the business of publishing for children and teens right now is probably aware that there's a big push for more diversity in books for children. I completely agree that it's high time kids coming from all different heritages in our country get to see people like them represented in books they are asked to read for school, or that they can easily find in our libraries and book stores. This debate has made me ask myself the question: Why are there so few characters of color in my own f...

Here only, a chapter that was cut from FLAME.

Big Man

            Jacob Pauley liked thinking of them sleeping in their beds with no idea of what was going to happen, all those self righteous little people singing their little hymns praising God for what? For bearing the children of their enemies? That’s what they were doing; didn’t they realize? They were raising the brats of the people who had killed all their families before they even existed. They were living a nightmare, but the...

On useless crap.

I love New Year's resolutions. I appreciate the impetus to take a look at my life, and choose something I'd like to do differently, and then acting on that desire instead of letting it nag the back of my mind. That's why I actually take my resolutions very seriously, and I even announce them on Facebook to hold myself accountable.

This year my resolution was not to buy anything for myself for a year. No sweaters, no shoes, no boots, no underwear or socks. No hats, no coats, no tchotchkies, no...

Which Sky Chasers character are you? Take the quiz to find out!

http://amykathleenryan.com/quiz-sky-chasers.phpwww.amykathleenryan.com

On hiding the female form.

Once upon a time, women's bodies were hidden this way:


Waists were cinched with whale bone corsets, full skirts concealed legs and ankles, hats and veils on heads, gloves over white fingers, parasols between skin and sun. To expose a woman's body was to disgrace her. A woman's body was treated with shame.

Now women's bodies are hidden like this:


The fat on this girl's legs has been hidden, her true skin tone obscured, corrected, her waistline digitally cinched ever tighter, her legs narrowed, be...

A brief history of the hoodie.

When I was a kid in the 1970s, a hoodie called up images of heroic athletes working to overcome crushing odds to better themselves and win the day. Rocky Balboa wore his hooded sweatshirt as he ran up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, accompanied by a choir of singers belting out, "Feeling strong now!!" This was back when Sylvester Stalone made great movies.
When people wore a hoodie in the 1970's it meant they were working hard to better themselves, sweating it out, getting stro...

FREE BOOKS!

Hi all,

This week I'm running a goodreads giveaway. See below!

    Goodreads Book Giveaway
 

       
   

          Glow

          by Amy Kathleen Ryan

            Giveaway ends February 14, 2014.

            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
   
      Enter to win



www.amykathleen...

FLAME, THE THIRD AND FINAL SKY CHASERS NOVEL, IS NOW AVAILABLE!

Here is what the e-verse is saying:

From a Kirkus starred review: "...a climax that is tense and viscerally frightening...Detailed and gripping, with a thorough and satisfying resolution."

MajiBookshelf: "Me not being a fan of books set in space, this series totally blew me away! I'm so happy that I was able to read it, and would totally recommend it to all sci-fi readers out there! I will be looking forward to future books by Amy Kathleen Ryan!"


Fresh Fiction: "Fans of Orson Scott Car...