David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite! discussion
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Rysa Walker
Author Q&A
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Rysa Walker (Author of Timebound) Q&A Event Feb 17-20th
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I've been wanting to read this book. Now I have a reason to make it a priority. :)
OMG how exciting, I've been wanting to read this book forever!
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If you could really have a time machine and pop back to any time period (and could return) when and where would you go?
If you had to stay in that time period, now when and where would you go?
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Hi Rysa! *waves enthusiastically* :DThanks for allowing us to ask you personal questions :P
- Since your book is about time travel, are you also a Whovian?
- When you're not busy writing, what would we find you doing when we pop in your house?
- If you can time travel a hundred years to the future, what do you expect to find on that future earth?
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I really, really enjoyed this book, and I especially loved the time-travelling aspects. :) How did you keep track of all the time-travelling components? How did you keep all of the different timelines and what happened in them straight?
Where did the idea for this story come from?
Thanks so much for doing this, Rysa! :)
It's the 17th here, so technically, I'm on time! :D
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Congrats on ABNA!When did you first start writing, and were those first stories anything close to what you're writing about now?
What are some of your favorite time travel books/shows/movies?
Where did you find your inspiration to write the story the way you did?? Where did the idea come from?? At what age did you wanted to become a writer??
Hi~!Unfortunately, I haven't actually read the book - will get to that when I get the chance - but doing a bit of research on it (no spoilers, please! XDD), it sounds really interesting!
I have two questions for you:
(1) In the book session of my book club last Saturday, somebody mentioned the idea (held by a lot of philosophers and Paulo Coelho) that time is not so much a horizontal line as a block, meaning that the past, present and future all occur at the same time. (Did that make sense?) Do you believe the same? How do you look at time, esp. for a book on time travel?
(2) As a growing fan of historical fiction, how do you do your research for the different time periods? How much research do you put into writing each period? :D
Thanks for answering! And congratulations on your book! :D
Queza
Hey Rysa!I know I asked you this over facebook, but is there any update on merchandise? Really looking forward to it if there is
If you were only aloud to read one more book what would it be and why?
Hi Rysa I'm having a wonderful time reading your novel, I'm half way done, I really love the idea of the different glowing colors of the medallion.How did you come up with the medallion's color glow?
If you had to choose...would you rather read or write?
Do your characters name hold any significance to you???
I always like to know if an author uses pen and paper for their story instead straight computer typing.
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I decided I was on Dre time! ;-D
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Do you travel much? What's your favorite place you've traveled to?
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I didn't expect to like this book so much but after I started reading I pretty much devoured it. So thank you for writing such an amazing book!1.Each person sees a different color glow in the medallion. Is the color selection just random or does each color signify something?
2.I heard there are two novellas coming out. One from Kiernan's pov and the other from Prudence's pov. Are those the only two novellas you have planned or do you plan to write more?
3.Finally, team kiernan or team trey?
hello Rysa, welcome! ^^My question for you is: what is your favourite place to write? Do you go to a certain coffee shop, do you prefere to write in the comfort of your own home?
Jenny wrote: "From February 17-20th, bestselling author Rysa Walker will be coming to our group to answer questions about her book, Timebound, her life as an author, and about anything else you all can come up w..."I'm delighted to be here with all of you for the next few days. Before I start answering questions, I want to take a moment to give a huge thank you to David, Jenny (who has been tagged as the Timebound "pusher" for the group ;), Karen and the rest of the DEFYABLU team for organizing this Q&A. Scanning through, I see that there are a lot of excellent questions already, so I'm going to dive straight in and get started!
What was the hardest part about becoming an author?
Karen wrote: "Hi Rysa! *waves madly* If you could really have a time machine and pop back to any time period (and could return) when and where would you go?
If you had to stay in that time period, now when a..."
Good questions, Karen! The answer to the first one will only make sense to total history geeks. If I could go and come back, I'd probably pop in to the last meeting between Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone, before they split to form separate suffrage organizations. The suffrage movement was the topic of my dissertation and I am convinced that there was an undercover strategy to lure more conservative women into supporting the movement--a strategy that took about half a century. I found tons of circumstantial evidence in my research, but never found, as one of my advisors put it, the "smoking gun." And over a decade later, I really want that smoking gun. :)
If I had to stay, I'd either have to simply stay put or jump back a few years so that I could experience my kids growing up a second time. They're still young enough that I couldn't skip off to past (or future) and leave them behind.
Karen wrote: "What's your favorite fan moment?"I've had several people email me to say that Timebound help them get through a bad day. In one case it was the anniversary of the death of a loved one. In another, it was being stuck in bed with a back injury. I've used books to escape unpleasant days on more occasions than I can count, so it's wonderful to be able to pay it forward to others.
And then there's my favorite moment *as* a fan. (I am capable of immense fangirling.) While in New York last October for an advance signing of Timebound at the NYC Comic Con, I was in the lobby with two other Skyscape authors, Susan Ee and Sarah Fine (if you haven't read their books, I highly recommend!!) While we were waiting for our car to arrive, David Duchovny of the X-Files got out of the elevator. The next time it opened, the passenger was his co-star, Gillian Anderson. They got into their limo and pulled away about the time the elevator opened a third time and it was William Shatner (Star Trek, Boston Legal, Twilight Zone)who got out. I'm a *huge* Trek fan, so I gave him a little wave, and he smiled at me and said "Good morning" before getting into the limo that was waiting at the curb. I nearly melted.
And then *our* limo pulled up, and that was the pinnacle of a totally surreal couple of minutes. :)
Dre wrote: "Hi Rysa! *waves enthusiastically* :DThanks for allowing us to ask you personal questions :P
- Since your book is about time travel, are you also a Whovian?
Hi, Dre!
I am most definitely a Whovian, and not just one of the bandwagoners who came onboard when they "rebooted." I used to stay up late at night while in college and grad school, watching the old ones. For awhile, there was a wonderful late night Saturday line up--Mystery Science Theater, Red Dwarf, and then two hours of Doctor Who--and we had a group who would get together to watch each week.
I'm actually drinking my coffee from one of the Vincent Van Gogh-style Tardis mugs as I write, with a matching blanket because this office can be wicked cold in the mornings.
Dre wrote: "When you're not busy writing, what would we find you doing when we pop in your house?Given the time frame that I have to get the sequels completed, the short answer to that is not much. :)
Longer answer:
1)Being mom--carting kids to school, soccer, swim team, etc.
2) Reading YA books while I ride the exercise bike.
3) Yoga
4)Binge watching favorite shows with my husband: Sherlock, House of Cards, Dr. Who, Sleepy Hollow. Still mourning the end of Lost, Eureka, and Deep Space Nine.
Dre wrote: "If you can time travel a hundred years to the future, what do you expect to find on that future earth?"I think we'll have some pretty amazing medical breakthroughs in the next century, due largely to the ongoing genetic research. That same research will open us up to some major moral dilemmas on the issue of genetic alterations, something that I'll address in the final book of the CHRONOS Files series.
Some trends will continue--I think we'll have more democratically-elected governments and we'll continue to have fewer wars as a result. Violent crime will continue to decrease. (And yes, both of those are much lower than they were 100 years ago, despite what we often see in the media.) Property crimes may be higher if we don't curb the widening gap between the rich and poor.
I don't think people will have 9-5 jobs the way most of us do today. A lot of the work normally done by individuals will be handled by machines. That trend is already beginning, and it's going to be a huge and possibly painful economic change, so we may still be feeling it 100 years from now.
And cars will definitely drive themselves, but I doubt they'll be hovercars. Maybe in 200 years...
Is there any author that insipred you to become a writer? if there is, then who? any particular book?
"Holly wrote: How did you keep track of all the time-travelling components? How did you keep all of the different timelines and what happened in them straight?I'm so glad that you enjoyed Timebound, Holly! And yes, keeping track of the timelines has been a bit tricky. At first, I kept it in my head, but as I got deeper into book 2, I ended up putting together flow charts. And now that I'm starting to map out Book 3, it's even more important, especially for Prudence, who jumps around like a flea. Her life isn't even close to linear--she'll be interacting with her own grandkids when they're older than she is, so I also had to put together a pretty strange Cyrist family tree to keep that crew straight.
And it still makes my head hurt sometimes. Kate and I are very different in many ways, but time-travel induced headaches are one thing we have in common, even if I'm only doing it virtually! Every now and then, I have to take a deep breath and go do a yoga break or something else to help me untangle the brain threads. ;)
"Holly wrote: Where did the idea for this story come from?"I taught history at the college level and I've been a scifi geek since I was a kid, so I think it was almost inevitable that I'd write time-travel fiction. Timebound evolved over the better part of a decade. I started writing it back in 2004 when I was bored with my day job and needed a creative outlet.
The book was a slightly different creature at the beginning, however. It would have been more of a middle grade novel if I'd stayed on the original path, but as I got into it, I realized I couldn't write the story I wanted to write and discuss the history I find interesting unless Kate grew up a bit.
And I'm a sucker for romance in the books I read--whether they're scifi, fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, or even horror, I'm never quite satisfied unless there's at least one romantic relationship that I can latch onto. It's really hard to have that element at the middle grades level. It's difficult enough to do it at the YA level, since you'll get one set of people who say it's too clean to be a realistic depiction of modern teens and another that freaks out because Kate *kissed* two different guys in the book and someone said "damn." ;)
Hi Rysa! You're a Whovian, too! Awesome :D I'm envious of your mug. I asked a cousin in London to get me the Tardis one!I also watch Sherlock. I think they should at least have 6 episodes per season. Now, we have to wait again for the next!
Hover cars would be awesome!
Now, new questions :
- Do you have pets? What are they and their names?
- What is the most amazing thing that happened to you in 2013?
Kritika wrote: Congrats on ABNA! When did you first start writing, and were those first stories anything close to what you're writing about now? Thanks, Kritika! So very glad I entered the contest--if any of you in this Q&A are authors with a finished manuscript, I highly recommend entering. Even if you don't make it all the way, you'll meet a great community of writers in the forums and you can get some excellent feedback along the way.
How long have I been writing? In one fashion or another, I've been writing stories since I was a small kid. I learned to use my grandmother's old manual typewriter when I was maybe six or seven, and I spent a lot of time living inside the stories in my head, even when they didn't make it to paper.
I think the first time I really thought about writing as career was when my ex-father-in-law, a wonderful man named Harold, gave me a Writer's Market for Christmas one year. This was before all of the information about editors and publishers was online, so the way that you found out where to submit short-stories, novels, etc. was through that book. It wasn't just a matter of having that tool at my disposal, but also knowing that someone whose opinion I really valued thought I could actually do it--could actually be a writer. I thought a lot about that during college and graduate school, and I wrote a lot of *non* fiction, some of which was actually published. But after I finished college and grad school, I kept coming back around to the original dreams of writing fiction. And Harold's death, around the same time that I started writing Timebound, made me reflect on the reality that life is too short not to follow your dreams.
Kritika wrote: What are some of your favorite time travel books/shows/movies?Can I just say all of them? :)
Okay, I didn't think so. Just be aware that this is a very partial listing.
Books: The Time Traveler's Wife; Time and Again; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; A Wrinkle in Time; Time Walkers 3 Book Bundle; Outlander, Somewhere In Time. Note: a few of these aren't YA, especially the Time Walkers books, which have some steamy scenes.
Movies: Groundhog Day, Back to the Future (I, II, & III), Star Trek IV, Star Trek: First Contact. I still need to carve out time to see The Butterfly Effect, which everyone keeps recommending.
TV: Most of my favorite scifi series have had at least one time-travel episode that I loved. Two special favorites would be Star Trek: The Next Generation's final episode, "All Good Things" and a wonderful episode of Deep Space Nine called "The Visitor," which can still manage to make me cry, even though I've seen it half a dozen times. (Edit: Can't believe I forgot to mention City on the Edge of Forever...)
And I know I'm missing some of my favorites, so this list may be edited. ;)
With the ability to time travel in the future how do you think that knowledge may have affected people who lived in that time?
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If you could really have a time machine and pop back to any time period (and could return) when and where would you go?
If you had to stay in that time peri..."
Great choice! That would be a really cool meeting to drop in on!
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I've had several people email me to say that Timebound help them get through a bad day. In one case it was the anniversary of the death of a loved ..."
WOW, that would be so cool!!
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Given the time frame that I have to get the sequels completed, the short answer to that is not muc..."
Not much...lol...just being a mom, which is a full time job in itself! :)
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I've had several people email me to say that Timebound help them get through a bad day. In one case it was the anniversary of the death of a loved ..."
Squeee!! Being both a HUGE trekkie AND an X-Files fan, I would have fallen over! I've "seen" Deanna Troi, and Riker both speak at a convention, and Wil Wheaton passed by me on the way to speak at Comicon in Phoenix last year. We were standing in line to hear him (but didn't get in). My grandkids could not figure out why their "grandma" was getting sooooooo excited over a geeky looking guy! :-P Oh, and John Barrowman from Dr. Who/Torchwood was speaking and we DID go see him!
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Hello, Rysa! I can't wait to read your book, and I am going to find a copy next chance I get.Question: What challenges did you encounter in the process of writing and publishing this books? What was the most valuable lesson you've learned from the experience of writing and publishing?
Thank you so much!
Karen wrote: "Oh, and John Barrowman from Dr. Who/Torchwood was speaking and we DID go see him! "I saw Barrowman at the convention, as well, and also Felicia Day from The Guild and Eureka. (She was staying at our hotel, too--a chauffeur came up and asked me and two other women if any of us were Felicia Day. And we all said, yeah, right-- I *wish*!) I had to stand in line to get her autograph, and also one from Zachary Levi (from Chuck) because my 10 year old pretty much said he wouldn't let me back into the house without them. ;)
David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite!
Books mentioned in this topic
Time Burned (other topics)Time's Edge (other topics)
Time's Edge (other topics)
Time's Echo (other topics)
Clockwork Angel (other topics)
More...
Rysa if giving out three fabulous prizes for this Q&A Event: 1 signed copy of her book, and 2 $10 Amazon giftcards! And the prizes are international! All you have to do to win is to ask Rysa a question!
Please check the list of questions before asking yours, so Rysa doesn't have to answer the same question multiple times! Thanks!
And if you haven't checked out her book yet, I encourage you to try it! Its a wonderful time travel story!
Questions:
1.Karen--If you could really have a time machine and pop back to any time period (and could return) when and where would you go?
2. Karen--If you had to stay in that time period, now when and where would you go?
3. Karen--What's your favorite fan moment?
4. Dre--Since your book is about time travel, are you also a Whovian?
5. Dre-- When you're not busy writing, what would we find you doing when we pop in your house?
6. Dre-- If you can time travel a hundred years to the future, what do you expect to find on that future earth?
7. Holly--How did you keep track of all the time-travelling components? How did you keep all of the different timelines and what happened in them straight?
8. Holly--Where did the idea for this story come from?
9. Kritika--When did you first start writing, and were those first stories anything close to what you're writing about now?
10. Kritika--What are some of your favorite time travel books/shows/movies?
11. Tatis--Where did you find your inspiration to write the story the way you did?? Where did the idea come from??
12. Tatis--At what age did you wanted to become a writer??
13. Dominique-- In the book session of my book club last Saturday, somebody mentioned the idea (held by a lot of philosophers and Paulo Coelho) that time is not so much a horizontal line as a block, meaning that the past, present and future all occur at the same time. (Did that make sense?) Do you believe the same? How do you look at time, esp. for a book on time travel?
14. Dominique-- As a growing fan of historical fiction, how do you do your research for the different time periods? How much research do you put into writing each period? :D
15. Dan--I know I asked you this over facebook, but is there any update on merchandise? Really looking forward to it if there is!
16. Alexandra--If you were only aloud to read one more book what would it be and why?
17. Jesse--How did you come up with the medallion's color glow?
18. Justine--If you had to choose...would you rather read or write?
19. Natalie--Do your characters name hold any significance to you???
20. Sally--I always like to know if an author uses pen and paper for their story instead straight computer typing.
21. David--Do you travel much? What's your favorite place you've traveled to?
22. Layla--What character(s) do you most identify with?
23. Layla--What tips would you give to an aspiring author?
24. Lynn--.Each person sees a different color glow in the medallion. Is the color selection just random or does each color signify something?
25. Lynn--I heard there are two novellas coming out. One from Kiernan's pov and the other from Prudence's pov. Are those the only two novellas you have planned or do you plan to write more?
26. Lynn--Finally, team kiernan or team trey?
27. Kathryn--Describe your book in as few words/sentences as you can?
28. Kathryn--Who would you recommend your book to?
29. Kathryn--Do you have any favourite authors/books?
30. Taja-- what is your favourite place to write? Do you go to a certain coffee shop, do you prefere to write in the comfort of your own home?
31. Cindy--What was the hardest part about becoming an author?
32. Sean--Do you have any other series planned?
33. Dalu--Is there any author that insipred you to become a writer? if there is, then who? any particular book?
34. Dre--Do you have pets? What are they and their names?
35. Dre-- What is the most amazing thing that happened to you in 2013?
36. Monica--With the ability to time travel in the future how do you think that knowledge may have affected people who lived in that time?
37. Sandra--What challenges did you encounter in the process of writing and publishing this books? What was the most valuable lesson you've learned from the experience of writing and publishing?
38. Lauren--How did you go about creating the system of time travel used in Timebound? What were your inspirations - Doctor Who, Bill and Ted, Back to the Future, The Time Machine, The Time Traveler's Wife, etc?
39. Lauren--As you've already said you're a Whovian, which actor plays your favorite incarnation of the Doctor? How do you feel about Peter Capaldi's casting? I'm really looking forward to his take on the character!
40. Karen--You wouldn't happen to be coming to 2014's Phoenix Comic Con, would you?? ;-D
41. Karah--What is this book about?
42. Karah--As its author, do you have a particular way you want this book presented?
43. Jen--does time travel usually need to be the backdrop for a story about something else, i.e., a problem in history or a relationship between people or something else - or can it just be about itself with a different backdrop?
44. Jen--Are you also mourning the loss of Firefly with the rest of us?
45. Dominique--If you were going to "sell" history (as a subject/topic) to people, what would be your tagline?
46. Karen--When is book 2 going to be released?? Can't wait!!
47. Barbara--What your thoughts are about other literary works which prominently feature time travel. Which among those books have had the biggest influence on you?
48. Barbara--What do you think of current trends in YA fantasy books which revolve around the paranormal? Do you think that some current books present too dark and depressing a tone to their books, given that they are geared for younger readers? What are your thoughts on this slightly controversial topic. And what kind of inspiration do you like to provide readers through your books?
49. Jen--. What are your thoughts on the whole publishing subject in general?
50. Karen--If not Phoenix Comic Con, what about the Nashville UtopYA in June? ;)
51. Dre--If there's a certain food that you could take with you, post-apocalyptic, what would it be? Keep in mind, you're to eat it every single day.
52. Sherrie--If you could travel to any time period which one would you choose and why?
53. Sherrie--What are your top five favorite songs?
54. Rachel--I was also thrilled to find that your book passed the Bechdel test, which is somewhat rare even in books with female main characters, so I wanted to ask you if it was important to you to write a story with not just one strong female character, but with many of them?
55. Jenny--I love the A Wrinkle in Time quintet! Have you read them all, Rysa?
56. Donna--I know this might be a crazy question but, what do you do when you get bogged down and just don't want to write or read or think about your project? How do you jump-start again?