tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217900352024-03-14T03:22:32.439-04:00Carrie's Procrastinatory Outletblog of Carrie Ryan, New York Times bestselling author of the Forest of Hands and Teeth seriesCarrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.comBlogger506125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-85455591654588805012014-11-06T15:23:00.003-05:002014-11-06T15:23:50.129-05:00Behind the Scenes of The Map to Everywhere: origins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4CVEJh0V2cBGtj4mDstOc16KiGmzPRNWv_mT4QFr3nQbvKtXicATcLl9yfwkTbjxbBfXSU3jO3v750H0WbDE4LrLBgnO2AScYOmH_ASgAScpYpQT_XWgWZVaxs424BKy9PJ4/s1600/The-Map-To-Everywhere-cover_web1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4CVEJh0V2cBGtj4mDstOc16KiGmzPRNWv_mT4QFr3nQbvKtXicATcLl9yfwkTbjxbBfXSU3jO3v750H0WbDE4LrLBgnO2AScYOmH_ASgAScpYpQT_XWgWZVaxs424BKy9PJ4/s1600/The-Map-To-Everywhere-cover_web1.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
I’m so excited that it’s finally release week for <a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">The Map to Everywhere</a>, the first in a four book middle grade fantasy adventure series I’m co-writing with my husband, <a href="http://www.johnparkedavis.com/">John Parke Davis</a>! YAY! In honor of the release, I wanted to share a bit about the origins behind the series because this entire journey really has felt like a dream come true.<br />
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From an early age I knew I wanted to be an author even though I wasn’t really sure how one became such a thing. During my final semester in college I realized that if I wanted to write for a living, I’d better get started actually writing something I could sell. So I picked up a romance novel I’d begun drafting years before. I finished that book in 2000 and shopped it to agents, and while I got a few positive responses, nothing much came of it. I then wrote a second romance but by that time had come to the realization that perhaps I needed to look into a more stable career.<br />
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So I went to law school. Classes had only just begun when I found myself sitting at the apartment complex pool one day reading my torts textbook. A fellow first year law student named JP said hello and we got to talking. It didn’t take long for us to realize we had a lot in common — we’d both been born and raised in South Carolina, we both enjoyed the outdoors, and we both loved to write.<br />
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A year later, JP and I began dating. Upon graduation we moved to Charlotte together to start careers in law. It didn’t take long for me to realize, however, that while I’d loved the study of law, the practice wasn’t as exciting. And so I asked myself: if I could do anything with my life, what would it be?<br />
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The answer: I’d be an author. But I hadn’t been doing much in the way of fiction writing over the previous years. At the same time, JP also realized that he wasn’t writing as much as he wanted. So together we decided to change that.<br />
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I committed to writing a book a year for ten years in the hope that by the end of a decade I’d have sold one and started a career as an author. JP committed to a project with his brother called The Story Game. The premise was simple: every week one of them would throw out a pitch and they’d have a week to write a two page story centered around that pitch.<br />
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This project spawned some amazing stories — some of which JP later sold, one of which inspired my first published novel, <a href="http://carrieryan.com/forest-hands-teeth.php">The Forest of Hands and Teeth</a>, and several that I thought would make amazing novels.<br />
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But one story had always stood out to me. It was about a wizard and a ship’s captain sailing a river of pure magic called the Pirate Stream. It was the kind of story that reminded me of what made me fall in love with reading as a kid, and my first thought was that it would make an amazing middle grade book.<br />
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I really, really wanted this book to exist and I really, really wanted to be a part of it. It had so completely taken hold of my imagination that I proposed we co-write it. And for years, all we did was talk about it. During long walks we’d discuss character or plot, we’d share bits of stories we’d loved growing up, and we’d talk about how one day we’d really have to sit down and start writing.<br />
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I’m not sure that I ever expected that day to come, but in early 2012 I was looking for a new project to focus on and I said, “Let’s do it. Let’s write the Pirate Stream book.” JP readily agreed but even so, it still felt like a bit of a lark. Besides, who knew if we’d even be able to write together — sure we’d been integral parts of each other’s writing process as first readers and editors, but it’s another thing altogether to be co-writers *and* spouses.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEc-1KUo05E1VnAK-TVnqiY37Xt-d9L8XjFibHFsdOkjIZbr4PPfxcfApqwGZ56jhVj7N8-V2Gn-lqApVi5cGgLFZ71e09BgUWOMQkKu-2CaU-LDJprbtx56hOxLddF294ZPxg/s1600/JP-and-Carrie-laughing-headshot_web2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEc-1KUo05E1VnAK-TVnqiY37Xt-d9L8XjFibHFsdOkjIZbr4PPfxcfApqwGZ56jhVj7N8-V2Gn-lqApVi5cGgLFZ71e09BgUWOMQkKu-2CaU-LDJprbtx56hOxLddF294ZPxg/s1600/JP-and-Carrie-laughing-headshot_web2.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a>And then we started writing and it worked. Like, it *really* worked. We built off each other and the story grew in really amazing and unexpected ways. We were able to assert our ideas without overwhelming one another and compromising came much easier than expected. Plus, it was fun!<br />
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By the end of the year, we’d sold it in a four book deal and this week, that first book — <a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">The Map to Everywhere</a> — hit shelves. Often I think back to that moment in 2006 when we both sat down with the goal of being able to make a living writing in ten years. I’m not sure either of us would have expected our paths to lead us here, and certainly not as co-authors of a middle grade series.<br />
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Truly it has been a collaborative effort in every sense of the word. When one of us felt that our goal may not be within reach, the other was there to keep the faith. And at the heart of it all is our mutual love of story and of each other.<br />
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This post originally appeared on <a href="http://www.magicalwords.net/carrie-ryan/on-goals-and-collaboration/">Magical Words</a>.Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-60530810284801494832014-09-25T13:40:00.001-04:002014-09-25T13:40:06.259-04:00Daughter of Deep SilenceSo let me take a break from all the middle grade, <a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">The Map to Everywhere</a> news for some other exciting news: I have a new young adult novel coming out this summer! And I finally get to share more information about it!<br />
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First, the title: <b>Daughter of Deep Silence</b><br />
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Next, the pitch: <b>A delicious tale of revenge and identity from Carrie Ryan, the bestselling author of <i>The Forest of Hands and Teeth</i></b><br />
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The release date: <b>June 2, 2015</b><br />
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And finally, the description:<br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">In the wake of the deadly devastation of luxury yacht <i>Persephone</i>, just three souls remain to tell its story—and two of them are lying. Only Frances Mace, rescued from the ocean after torturous days adrift with her dying friend Libby, knows that the <i>Persephone</i> wasn’t sunk by a rogue wave as survivors Senator Wells and his son are claiming—it was attacked.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">To ensure her safety from the obviously dangerous and very powerful Wells family, Libby’s father helps newly orphaned Frances assume Libby’s identity. Frances has spent years in hiding, transforming herself into Libby, and she can no longer allow the people who murdered her entire family and Libby to get away with it. After years of careful plotting, she’s ready to set her revenge plans into motion—even if it means taking down the boy she’d once been in love with: the senator’s son.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;">The game has just begun, and Frances is not only playing dirty, she’s playing to win.
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I feel like I want to add in an ominous, "dun dun dun!" (if you'd like an actual sound effect, try <a href="http://www.dramabutton.com/">this</a>).</div>
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As of right now, there aren't any pre-order links available, but they should be live shortly (and I'll update this post when they are). But since the announcement was going live today, I wanted to scoop the info here first :) In the meantime, you can find more information on the Penguin website <a href="http://www.penguin.com/book/daughter-of-deep-silence-by-carrie-ryan/9780525426509">here</a>.</div>
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Some additional answers to questions you may or may not be asking:</div>
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- This is one of the books I sold to Julie Strauss-Gabel at Dutton last year -- back then it was titled Turnabout (the original announcement is <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/57181-rights-report-week-of-may-6-2013.html">here</a>).</div>
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- It's a young adult romantic thriller -- nary a zombie or paranormal creature in sight!</div>
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- It's also a stand-alone. </div>
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- I've seen the cover mock-up and it's gorgeous!</div>
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- Erm... am I forgetting anything? If so, let me know if the comments!</div>
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Yay for being able to share such fun news!! I'm excited!! </div>
Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-14027456670364695692014-09-23T18:11:00.001-04:002014-09-23T18:11:21.572-04:00Banning Books = FearGrowing up, I went to a religious school. At graduation, the priest giving the commencement address said that we should always question our faith. Because if we do so and it causes us to lose our faith, then our faith wasn’t strong enough to begin with. And if we do so and we do not lose our faith, then it only makes our faith that much stronger.<br />
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At the time, this idea blew my mind. It’s not that I’d always been told to blindly accept various things in life, but it’s the first time I remember someone in such an official capacity not just telling us that it’s okay to question and doubt, but that it’s a good thing.<br />
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Since then, this fundamental idea has formed a core part of my identity. You do not convince people to your position on a matter by withholding the possibility of other options. You do so by facing challenges against your position head on. You need to lay out all the arguments — both the good and the bad — and explain why the bad shouldn’t matter.<br />
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Knowledge is power. Information is power. And the easiest way to control a population is to limit its access to information. To take away their ability to form any opinion other than the one you want them to. Which is why book banning is so problematic.<br />
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Books are how we create communities. They are how we step outside of our own identities and into those of others — they’re how we learn empathy. The only reason to ban a book is fear. Fear that once a book opens someone’s eyes, you will not be able to force them closed again.Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-7110981336459028172014-09-22T18:15:00.000-04:002014-09-23T18:16:02.958-04:00Three Starred Reviews for The Map to EverywhereSo I wrote this blog post but it got really long so decided to break it into two. Here's part one, which is really the crux of it: <a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">The Map to Everywhere</a> has received three starred reviews!! I'm completely awed and excited and overwhelmed and excited again!! Here's what they had to say:<br />
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"Vividly cast.... Multifaceted characters, high stakes, imaginative magic, and hints of hidden twists and complexities to come."—<i><b>Kirkus Reviews</b></i>, starred review</blockquote>
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"Wholly original.... This is an ambitious undertaking, and strong readers who enjoy adventure fiction and fantasy will inhale the first book in what has the potential to be an extraordinary series."—<i><b>School Library Journal</b></i>, starred review</blockquote>
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"The unique details, expert plotting, charming characters, and comic interludes combine in a tantalizing read that’s made even more appealing by the promise that the story will continue in future volumes." —<i><b>Booklist</b></i>, starred review</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbG-2Le-cBCuNWzqDetHI85keQ5wjNLn7baVD3Rf29XHsc9OtH4QuApuqqC2YOKM1rlm5e6JQtj72RNXcMsyHXE-APjddUc00v2jHezZEIQbc3IGJG5P-mzIqdPyZafxxb4RZx1Q/s1600/StarMap.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbG-2Le-cBCuNWzqDetHI85keQ5wjNLn7baVD3Rf29XHsc9OtH4QuApuqqC2YOKM1rlm5e6JQtj72RNXcMsyHXE-APjddUc00v2jHezZEIQbc3IGJG5P-mzIqdPyZafxxb4RZx1Q/s1600/StarMap.gif" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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What makes this even more special and wonderful has been to share this entire experience with my co-author, JP. Apparently, I made a good choice to write with him since he is currently three for three on starred reviews!!<br />
<br />Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-56433614574154146022014-09-18T12:36:00.001-04:002014-09-18T12:36:23.806-04:00Signing in Raleigh with Kami Garcia on October 3!<a href="http://www.kamigarcia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/book-unmarked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.kamigarcia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/book-unmarked.jpg" /></a>Hey y'all! I'm super excited to announce that I'll be joining Kami Garcia at Quail Ridge Books on October 3 to celebrate the release of the second book in her Legion Series: <a href="http://www.kamigarcia.com/books/the-legion/unmarked/">Unmarked</a>! I've never done a signing at Qual Ridge and am so excited to finally get the opportunity! Plus, it's Kami Garcia! She's awesome!<br />
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For more info, click <a href="http://www.quailridgebooks.com/event/kami-garcia-unmarked-0">here</a>. Hope to see y'all there!<br />
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Details:<br />
When: Friday, October 3, 2014 at 7:00PM<br />
Where: Qual Ridge Books: 3522 Wade Ave., Raleigh, NC 27607<br />
What: I'll be interviewing Kami Garcia about her latest release, answering questions, and signing!Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-52949147289140071612014-08-25T12:00:00.003-04:002014-08-25T12:00:59.868-04:00Upcoming to-dos!Hello all! There are a few odds and ends, events and whatnots, I wanted to give shout outs to!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Signing in CLT 9/3!!</td></tr>
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First, the fabulous and wonderful <a href="http://www.margaret-stohl.com/">Margaret Stohl</a>, author of the Icons series and co-author of Beautiful Creatures & Dangerous Creatures, will be signing with <a href="http://brendanreichs.com/">Brendan Reichs</a>, co-author of the Virals series, at <b>Park Road Books in Charlotte</b> next week! <b>The signing is at 4:30 on Wednesday, September 3d</b> -- I can't wait to see y'all there! For more details, click <a href="http://www.parkroadbooks.com/event/author-event-margaret-stohl-idols-icons-2">here</a>.<br />
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Second, another fabulous and wonderful author, <a href="http://bethrevis.com/">Beth Revis</a>, just announced that she has a new book coming out and happily, the release is only a couple of month away! <a href="http://bethrevis.com/books/the-body-electric/">The Body Electric</a> is a sci-fi <i>Blade Runner</i> meets <i>Total Recall</i> -- I read a draft and couldn't put it down! While you can pre-order the book everywhere, she's doing a special, signed, limited edition through her local indie, Malaprops, which you can order through her website, <a href="http://bethrevis.com/books/the-body-electric/">here</a>. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pre-order now!</td></tr>
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Third, speaking of pre-orders and local indies, don't forget that you can pre-order my next book, <a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">The Map to Everywhere</a>, through my local indie, Park Road books! Not only will your book be signed (and personalized if you like!), it will be shipped out to you with special goodies such as a poster of the cover, stickers, and a special letter. To order you can call (704-525-9239) email (orders@parkroadbooks.com) or buy through their website <a href="http://www.parkroadbooks.com/book/9780316240772">here</a> (some folks have encountered an error page while checking out but Park Road says it's just a glitch and to click through it). If you want Map personalized, don't forget to leave a comment with the name you want the book made out to!
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<br />Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-29738258916218764432014-06-26T11:18:00.000-04:002014-06-26T11:18:21.331-04:00ALA Bound!<b><i>Preamble</i>: at ALA this year JP and I will be signing galleys of <a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">THE MAP TO EVERYWHERE</a> in the Little, Brown Books for Young Readers booth (#422) on Sunday from 3-4! Come grab an ARC and say hi! More details <a href="http://ala14.ala.org/node/22104">here</a>.</b><br />
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A few years ago I was able to attend ALA (the American Library Association's annual conference) in New Orleans and it was amazing! Imagine a massive convention center filled with books and book lovers -- pretty much heaven, right? There's really nothing quite like strolling the aisles, gazing at all the booths, and hearing all the excitement. Plus! Friends! One of the things I love about a conference like this is that everyone has a shared passion so it's super easy to strike up a conversation pretty much anywhere -- standing in line for a signing, hanging out in a booth, randomly wandering around the hotel with a massive tote bag filled with ARCs :)<div>
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So I'm super excited that, thanks to the wonderful folks at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, I get to return to ALA this year to promote <a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">THE MAP TO EVERYWHERE</a>, the first book in the middle grade fantasy adventure series that my husband, JP, and I are writing. There are a few things that make this ALA feel even more special than usual. First, that JP will be there. He's been hearing me rave about library conventions for years and now he gets to see it all first hand. Not only that, but he gets to experience it as a debut author (squee!!). </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me & Laini Taylor at the ALA 2011 LBYR party - hijinks!<br />(photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.lainitaylor.com/2011/06/skulls-and-dancing-or-my-first-ala.html">Laini's blog</a>)</td></tr>
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Second, the conference is in Vegas -- which just in its own right means there are likely to be high-jinks and shenanigans. But the other connection is that in November 2012 my agent submitted The Map to Everywhere just before the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) convention... which also happened to be in Vegas. I was lucky enough to be there promoting <a href="http://carrieryan.com/divide-conquer.php">Infinity Ring: Divide and Conquer</a>. What I didn't know at the time was that my future editor was also there, reading Map along with her co-workers and preparing an offer. So returning to Vegas to promote Map feels a bit like coming full circle! </div>
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But more than anything, what has me excited (and, lets be honest, really really nervous) is that I get to get out there and talk to people about MAP for the first time. I know I haven't said much about this book on the blog (I've become a bit superstitious about talking about books before they're well and done), but I truly, truly love it. Of course I love all the books I've written in different ways, but I had the same kind of feeling writing MAP as I did writing <a href="http://carrieryan.com/forest-hands-teeth.php">The Forest of Hands and Teeth</a> -- that this book is special to my heart.</div>
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Perhaps part of that feeling came from the fact that I wrote MAP with my husband. This is a book that we'd talked about for years, planning out worlds and story lines while taking long rambling walks with our dog. We didn't yet have concrete plans to actually write it, but that didn't matter because the joy was in the imagining of it. At the heart of MAP is our love of stories -- our desire to write the kind of book we fell in love with as kids. Those are the books that sparked our imaginations -- that taught us to daydream and think big.</div>
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Those books are the reason we are where we are today: packing to head off to a convention with 20,000 other book lovers.</div>
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Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-68716239798952209892014-06-07T12:17:00.002-04:002014-06-07T12:17:32.391-04:00Cover Reveal: The Map to Everywhere<div class="tr_bq">
I seriously have been dying to share this cover with the world for so long! And finally I can! Behold, the cover for <a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">The Map to Everywhere</a>, the first book in the new fantasy adventure middle grade series I'm co-writing with my husband, <a href="http://www.johnparkedavis.com/">John Parke Davis</a>!</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-n9zeqieUsr9Aos3h6WdkQf0qDSz2uEITJP-viDcdYTdTdVlFdPfH55DQzvp2wJZdkmhlWwsUXz6SR1Fb8nnT22q70E0EeuA-5tWnI2lB_SF_hMB2YAE8l2RvjRvWcct_RmrQ/s1600/The+Map+To+Everywhere+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-n9zeqieUsr9Aos3h6WdkQf0qDSz2uEITJP-viDcdYTdTdVlFdPfH55DQzvp2wJZdkmhlWwsUXz6SR1Fb8nnT22q70E0EeuA-5tWnI2lB_SF_hMB2YAE8l2RvjRvWcct_RmrQ/s1600/The+Map+To+Everywhere+cover.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coming November 4, 2014!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There's so much I love about this cover! On the left is Fin, a forgettable orphan from the magical Khaznot Quay and on the right is Marrill, a not-quite ordinary girl from Arizona. The orange, one-eyed cat getting ready to pounce is Marrill's rescue cat, Karnelius, and those are two pirats (one has a sextant!!) in the lower right. I love how the map Fin is holding open morphs into the Pirate Stream itself with the ship (that would be the Enterprising Kraken, with an actual kraken preparing to attack!) sailing toward the Khaznot Quay.<br />
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<a href="http://hog-heaven.blogspot.com/">Todd Harris</a> is the artist for this cover (you might recognize his work from <a href="http://www.officialherosguide.com/">The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom</a>) and there are so many details he managed to capture -- little things that we hope the reader will flip back to as they're reading and go "Oh! I see that now!" Todd has truly done an amazing job at conveying the spirit of this book and the entire series. When JP and I first saw the cover, we were both just completely blown away.<br />
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With <a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">The Map to Everywhere</a>, we set out to write the kind of book we'd have loved to read as kids, and this cover captures that in every way. We owe a huge thanks to Todd Harris and to the art department and our editors at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers who worked together to create such a perfect cover! Thank you!<br />
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<a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">The Map to Everywhere</a> will be out November 4, 2014 and you can click <a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">here</a> to pre-order it from various places or <a href="http://carrie-me.blogspot.com/2014/05/pre-order-gifts.html">here</a> to find out how to pre-order an autographed copy (which will come with a free gift from JP and I).<br />
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Here's more info about the book itself:<br />
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<blockquote>
Anything you need--The Map to Everywhere can take you there.<br />
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To Master Thief Fin, an orphan from the murky pirate world of the Khaznot Quay, the Map is the key to finding his mother. To suburban schoolgirl Marrill, it's her only way home after getting stranded on the Pirate Stream, the magical waterway which connects every world in creation (Apparently she shouldn't have climbed aboard the mysterious pirate ship that sailed out of nowhere and into a dry Arizona parking lot. How was she to know?).<br />
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With the help of a bumbling wizard and his crew, they must scour the many worlds of the Pirate Stream to gather the pieces of the Map to Everywhere, but they aren't the only ones looking. A dark and sinister figure is hot on their tail, and if they can't beat his ghostly ship to find the Map, it could mean the destruction of everything they hold dear-not least of all themselves!<br />
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In Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis' first installment of a fantastical new series, adventure, magic, and hilarity collide in the treacherous skies and dangerous waters of the Pirate Stream. Heart-pounding escapades and a colorful cast of characters will have readers setting sail through this wholly original and unforgettable tale.</blockquote>
Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-6510098689741240902014-05-23T16:26:00.000-04:002014-05-23T16:29:57.127-04:00Pre-order Map and Get a Free Gift!We found out today that as a negotiating tactic, Amazon has removed the pre-order buttons for all Hachette books (including <a href="http://www.parkroadbooks.com/book/9780316240772">The Map to Everywhere</a> which will be coming out from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on November 4). While this is indeed unfortunate and, frankly, upsetting, I figure why not find the bright side to this situation?<br />
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Because you know who you can still pre-order <a href="http://www.parkroadbooks.com/book/9780316240772">The Map to Everywhere</a> from? Our incredibly supportive and wonderful local independent bookstore, <a href="http://www.parkroadbooks.com/">Park Road Books</a>. So JP and I have decided that if you pre-order a copy of Map from Park Road Books, we'll not only sign and personalize it, we'll throw in a free gift with purchase.<br />
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What that gift is... we don't know yet. We just decided to do this today - lol. But you can expect it to be book themed. And something that can fit in a priority shipping envelope so it won't change the shipping price. Trust me, it will be cool :) <br />
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To order from <a href="http://www.parkroadbooks.com/">Park Road Books</a> just give them a call, <b>704-525-9239</b>, or shoot them an email <a href="mailto:orders@parkroadbooks.com">orders@parkroadbooks.com!</a> If you'd like your book personalized, don't forget to tell them what name to use (and how to spell it if it has a unique spelling).<br />
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Thanks for helping us support a store that's supported us for so long!<br />
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<br />Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-40280479783128189012014-04-24T15:23:00.001-04:002014-04-24T15:23:11.491-04:00Other Carrie Ryans, crazy-coincidences, and booksAs it turns out, there are several Carrie Ryans out there and unsurprisingly I'll sometimes get an email intended for one of them. Sometimes it's spam in which case I just delete it, sometimes I'll have been accidentally signed up for something (Dear Carrie Ryan who joined Match.com -- I have your matches... email me and I'll move the account over to you :), but more often than not, the email is something important. In those cases, I'll respond to the person to let them know that I'm not the Carrie Ryan they're looking for.<br />
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(and whenever I do that, I always say to myself, "These aren't the droids you're looking for")<br />
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So yesterday I get an email for a different Carrie Ryan and I let them know they have the wrong one. They apologize and thank me -- standard stuff. I didn't really think much about the fact that my signature on my emails lists my books. <br />
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But then I got another email from them. Turns out, the sender's niece just happened to know who I was because she'd recently read my book. How crazy is that?! Of course I'm thinking it was <a href="http://carrieryan.com/forest-hands-teeth.php">The Forest of Hands and Teeth</a> since that's the one most people are familiar with. <br />
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Nope! Turns out she'd recently read <a href="http://www.themaptoeverywhere.com/">The Map to Everywhere</a>, the middle grade fantasy adventure that I wrote with my husband that doesn't come out until November. As far as I know, ARCs have just started going out and so far we haven't really heard back from anyone who has read it. And I have to admit, knowing that ARCs are out there, that people are going to start reading this book that I love so much... it's terrifying! Like, nail-bitingly stressful waiting for that first response.<br />
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Thankfully, she loved it! I can't even begin to tell you how much that made my (and JP's) day! Our week!! But what really blows my mind and what I love so much about all of this, is that the first "in the wild" feedback we've gotten for Map came from the niece of a person who just happened to email the wrong Carrie Ryan about something important.<br />
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It's the kind of thing that if you put it in a book, no one would believe you! It actually reminded me of the time my mom lent her ARC of Forest to her friend who took it on a flight and ended up sitting next to <a href="http://www.vlcphoto.net/">Vania Stoyanova</a> -- a friend of mine from the book world. This was months before Forest came out and when my mom's friend pulled it out, Vania was like, "Hey! I know that book! I've been wanting to read it!" <br />
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Here are these two random strangers sitting next to each other on a plane and they both have something in common: me. Which they'd never have figured out if one of them hadn't happened to have one of the few advanced copies of Forest that existed at the time. <br />
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It makes me wonder, how often does stuff like that happen and we miss it? How often are we surrounded by all these tiny, co-incidental connections that we have no idea about? If anything, it makes you realize just how small this world really is.<br />
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And it makes me so crazy thankful that someone emailed the wrong Carrie Ryan yesterday and that I responded to let them know :)<br />
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<br />Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-52923290063041676902013-12-06T11:10:00.000-05:002013-12-06T11:10:02.697-05:00Winning NaNo (+ free story!)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYFauc8D1quaf0lyd72Ifm_vcisS38dqjPmhAGRDMothyphenhyphenpOqsmcdSg4g_2yng-vV7S-SF6-yUwLOqRNd8wvkI5RjfdyWML8eQDDErP_bl2bb0bB2nXyh30_2sNKsZhZ7fhe0jA/s1600/DEP+flat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYFauc8D1quaf0lyd72Ifm_vcisS38dqjPmhAGRDMothyphenhyphenpOqsmcdSg4g_2yng-vV7S-SF6-yUwLOqRNd8wvkI5RjfdyWML8eQDDErP_bl2bb0bB2nXyh30_2sNKsZhZ7fhe0jA/s200/DEP+flat.jpg" width="135" /></a>It feels a bit bizarre to be blogging about NaNoWriMo on December 6th, but such is life. I've <a href="http://carrie-me.blogspot.com/2012/11/on-nanowrimo_2.html">blogged about NaNo</a> <a href="http://carrie-me.blogspot.com/2010/11/on-nanowrimo.html">many times before</a> -- I'm a big fan of it because it's how I ended up writing <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-forest-of-hands-and-teeth-1">The Forest of Hands and Teeth</a>. Did I "win" NaNo that year? Nope. I think I reached about 20,000 words, so I wasn't even close (conversely, I hit 30k words this year and (a) I wasn't even participating in NaNo and (b) I stopped drafting mid-month). <br />
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For me it's not just about "winning" NaNo -- it's about indulging your inner writer. Allowing yourself to focus on writing, to daydream about story, to put off the chores and find extra time to write. To me, if you end NaNo energized, head spinning with ideas -- that's a win.<br />
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HOWEVER, if you did happen to hit that 50k word goal and "win" this year, there are some perks :)<br />
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<a href="http://cfiles.nanowrimo.org/nano-2013/files/2013/10/koboplain1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cfiles.nanowrimo.org/nano-2013/files/2013/10/koboplain1.jpg" /></a> One of them is that <a href="http://www.kobowritinglife.com/">Kobo Writing Life</a> is giving away 10 Free ebooks to winners and my zombie collection, <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-dead-and-empty-world">The Dead and Empty World</a>, happens to be one of them :) Here are the details: <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/winner-goodies">http://nanowrimo.org/winner-goodies</a>. I'm a big fan of <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/">Kobo</a> because they've partnered with the <a href="http://www.bookweb.org/about-aba">American Booksellers Association</a> (indie bookstores), so to be chosen as one of the books they're giving away is a huge honor!<br />
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<a href="http://www.literatureandlatte.com/share_scrivener/WriteHere.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.literatureandlatte.com/share_scrivener/WriteHere.png" /></a>Another prize this year is <a href="http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php">Scrivener</a> and I can't tell you how much I LOVE Scrivener! Seriously, this is a tool that changed the way I write. I keep meaning to write a post about it, but I've never really figured out how without lots of spoilerific screenshots. Before Scrivener, I'd have about five Word windows open at any given time: one with an outline, one with notes, one tracking word count, one with cut words, and one with the actual WIP. If I wanted to double check a fact, I had to scroll scroll scroll until I found the scene. Even numbering chapters was arduous (I can't tell you how many times I skipped a number because I lost track!).<br />
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With Scrivener, all that's now in one place. It's just like each Scrivener file is a big box holding EVERYTHING having to do with that book: all the notes, all the drafts, all the words, all the thoughts, all the images. Plus, it's incredibly stable -- it autosaves every few seconds and to date I've never lost anything I've written (knock on wood!).<br />
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I know that for a lot of people, their first look at Scrivener can be overwhelming because there are SO many tools and options. But really, the only thing you need to learn how to do is create a doc, and start typing. All that other stuff is just there if you want to use it. For example, it has a great notecard system -- I don't use it. I'm not a notecarder, so I ignore it. I have friends, however, who LOVE the notecards but hate the snapshot function (I'm not sure how JP and I could have co-written our MG without the snapshot function!).<br />
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Anyway, all of that is to say that if you "won" NaNo (or even if you didn't!), you should check out Scrivener. I'm pretty sure they still offer a free trial if you want to test drive it. And you don't actually have to start out with a new project. I began using Scrivener in the middle of <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-dead-tossed-waves-1">The Dead-Tossed Waves</a> and I just imported that manuscript and separated it out by hand (took about 30 min). Good thing, too, that program seriously saved my sanity when it came to editing that book - lol!<br />
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So, to all of you out there who drafted 50k words in November and "won" NaNo: Congrats! Go claim your prizes! To everyone else who participated in NaNo but didn't hit that 50k goal, I still consider you a winner because you spent a month writing :) So here's a prize for you: a <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/flotsam-jetsam-1">free copy of my zombie short story Flotsam & Jetsam</a>.<br />
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Now, just because November's over doesn't mean it's time to stop writing :) Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-72038277208211820882013-10-30T16:02:00.001-04:002013-10-30T16:02:12.981-04:00Zombies on Sale! (free gift with purchase for Halloween!)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYT6bMpetDA4O7NQQ8f4pH8p4B_qH1zUtR9OU9F9nALhKuNUJTTq71ARpeOZ_lrYVABfDlyA8hqTOSvnzedPAKItAHrIZsrjbNFL3LRbtmtFgWkQrhpfcuohUs8c9c2WIjXQG1/s1600/DEP+flat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYT6bMpetDA4O7NQQ8f4pH8p4B_qH1zUtR9OU9F9nALhKuNUJTTq71ARpeOZ_lrYVABfDlyA8hqTOSvnzedPAKItAHrIZsrjbNFL3LRbtmtFgWkQrhpfcuohUs8c9c2WIjXQG1/s320/DEP+flat.jpg" width="216" /></a>Unsurprisingly, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and this year I have a special treat! Earlier this month I released<b> The Dead and Empty World</b>, [<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FKX6QLO/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00FKX6QLO&linkCode=as2&tag=frecklemama-20">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-dead-and-empty-world-carrie-ryan/1117053744?ean=2940148822189">Barnes & Noble</a> | <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=uy97VF8fe10&subid=&offerid=290193.1&type=10&tmpid=9310&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.kobobooks.com%2Fen-US%2Febook%2Fthe-dead-and-empty-world">kobo</a>] a collection of reprinted short stories set in the Forest of Hands and Teeth world. To celebrate the release (and because who doesn’t want to read about zombies on Halloween?), I’ve put the collection on sale!
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For the next few days, you can get the entire collection for $0.99 — the same price as just one short story. That’s five stories for the price of one!
If discount zombies aren't enough of an incentive, I’m also offering a free gift with purchase :)<br />
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For the first 100 people to email me with proof of purchase (details below), I’ll drop a gift in the mail to you.
Everyone will receive a signed bookplate with a note plus one of the following:
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<ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2VHXuyZrJx01EW9GTB_zg7eWYtPeQZZ6s092z-U-psh3vEJvTr9XPPJaHuDF3qlG69ffa2jyWEap_VstpAP5W_L4gnlCDbT9ZpFt0NR8mfreBdEuIswMWvjgFu-c3HADoWCN/s1600/Halloween+gifties.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2VHXuyZrJx01EW9GTB_zg7eWYtPeQZZ6s092z-U-psh3vEJvTr9XPPJaHuDF3qlG69ffa2jyWEap_VstpAP5W_L4gnlCDbT9ZpFt0NR8mfreBdEuIswMWvjgFu-c3HADoWCN/s200/Halloween+gifties.JPG" width="200" /></a>
<li>50 people will receive either a miniature glow in the dark zombie or zombie dog; </li>
<li>10 people will receive a Forest of Hands and Teeth button; </li>
<li>10 people will receive a line of magnetic poetry; </li>
<li>The rest will receive bookmarks until they run out. </li>
</ul>
The collection is available at Amazon (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FKX6QLO/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00FKX6QLO&linkCode=as2&tag=frecklemama-20">here</a>), Barnes & Noble (<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-dead-and-empty-world-carrie-ryan/1117053744?ean=2940148822189">here</a>), and Kobo (<a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=uy97VF8fe10&subid=&offerid=290193.1&type=10&tmpid=9310&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.kobobooks.com%2Fen-US%2Febook%2Fthe-dead-and-empty-world">here</a>), and this sale is for a limited time! So Happy Halloween, and a HUGE thanks to all of my readers for letting me write what I love: zombies :)<br />
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<b>**Important Details**</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Email <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=21790035">carrie@carrieryan.com</a> to redeem the gift;</li>
<li>Please put “Happy Halloween!” in the subject line; </li>
<li>Proof of purchase can include forwarding an order confirmation or receipt (making sure to delete any personal information); a screen shot of the purchase confirmation; or anything else you can think of to show you’ve bought it;</li>
<li>If you would like me to personalize the signed bookplate, please be sure to let me know who I should make it out to;</li>
<li>Make sure to put your mailing address in the email and if you have a preference for the extra gifts (first come first served!);</li>
<li>If you’re under 18, please make sure you have your parent or guardian’s permission to email me;</li>
<li>I’ll delete all emails once the gifts have been mailed next week so that I don’t retain the addresses; </li>
<li>Open to international readers;</li>
<li>Any questions related to the rules, please ask on my Facebook page here <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/carrie-ryan/zombies-on-sale-free-gift-with-purchase-for-halloween/632740780111850">here</a> where I’ll try to answer them.</li>
</ul>
Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-64711617064476557092013-10-07T21:34:00.000-04:002013-10-07T21:37:52.979-04:00The Dead and Empty WorldSo I've been keeping this under wraps because it's a project I've been working on for a while and I wasn't sure when it would be finished... but now it's done and I'm absolutely thrilled to announce the release of my new short story collection, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FKX6QLO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00FKX6QLO&linkCode=as2&tag=frecklemama-20">The Dead and Empty World!</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=frecklemama-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00FKX6QLO" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> [to buy: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FKX6QLO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00FKX6QLO&linkCode=as2&tag=frecklemama-20">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1117053744?ean=2940148822189">B&N</a> | Kobo]<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbaTrNawEADGxmLHK3SApiLQ9I7sKkdnG-3ggLSr5m-9_5hZ6SeuPTYsWKq9dBV_LPRyQkGIlvmPQR0sa2kaMP4IyUIfUSIV4uYbNw-ubIXbiDhbQVK7isEZRlzUT9EYz7JI-M/s1600/DEP+flat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbaTrNawEADGxmLHK3SApiLQ9I7sKkdnG-3ggLSr5m-9_5hZ6SeuPTYsWKq9dBV_LPRyQkGIlvmPQR0sa2kaMP4IyUIfUSIV4uYbNw-ubIXbiDhbQVK7isEZRlzUT9EYz7JI-M/s320/DEP+flat.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FKX6QLO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00FKX6QLO&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=frecklemama-20%22%3EThe%20Dead%20and%20Empty%20World%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=frecklemama-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B00FKX6QLO%22%20width=%221%22%20height=%221%22%20border=%220%22%20alt=%22%22%20style=%22border:none%20!important;%20margin:0px%20!important;%22%20/%3E!">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1117053744?ean=2940148822189">B&N</a> | Kobo</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Here's the official description:<br />
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“Queen of the Undead, Carrie Ryan, takes readers once again to the world of The Forest of Hands and Teeth." -- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL on "Bougainvillea." </blockquote>
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From a life raft cast adrift in the middle of the ocean to the attic of a suburban garage; from the heart-pounding moments just after the dead begin to rise, to the ravaged world generations later, the five stories in The Dead and Empty World present a chilling portrait of what it takes to survive – or not – the zombie apocalypse. </blockquote>
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This 39,000 word collection contains five previously published stories and never before published bonus materials, including background information on each story, easter eggs, and an essay detailing the inspiration for the Forest of Hands and Teeth.</blockquote>
So why this collection and why now? First of all, it's almost Halloween, so what better time to debut a collection of zombie stories? But also, I've been planning on putting this collection together for quite a while, and finally, with the help of <a href="http://www.jeremywestdesign.com/">Jeremy West</a> and everyone else at <a href="http://www.redcreativedesign.com/">Red Creative Design</a>, I've been able to make it happen (thanks Jeremy!!).<br />
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Even though I’d always dreamed about becoming an author when I grew up, if you’d told me that I’d end up writing about zombies I’d have laughed. Not just because I was the kind of kid who refused to watch scary movies, but also because I’d always assumed I’d write romance novels. But when my husband took me to go see the Dawn of the Dead remake, I became obsessed with zombies (and trust me, no one was more surprised than I was!).<br />
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I wrote <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NLL27K/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001NLL27K&linkCode=as2&tag=frecklemama-20">The Forest of Hands and Teeth</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=frecklemama-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001NLL27K" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />because I was fascinated with the idea of a world generations after the zombie apocalypse – where zombies were a part of every day life to such an extent that you couldn’t imagine a world without them. But more than that, I’m fascinated with how people survive when everything around them changes – when the world they’ve known becomes unrecognizable.<br />
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To that end, I began writing short stories set in the same world as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NLL27K/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001NLL27K&linkCode=as2&tag=frecklemama-20">The Forest of Hands and Teeth.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=frecklemama-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001NLL27K" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> Some of them I used to explore characters from the books (Sister Tabitha in the story “Hare Moon”) and some of them I used to play out my worst nightmares (being stuck in a life raft with someone who’d been bitten as in “Flotsam & Jetsam”). In many I tested out escape plans to determine whether they’d be successful (“A Game of Firsts” and “Bougainvillea”) and in some I just wanted to know how to build a life in a terrible world (“Scenic Route”). <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FKX6QLO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00FKX6QLO&linkCode=as2&tag=frecklemama-20">The Dead and Empty World</a> represents my own struggle to determine what it means to do more that simply survive – but to actually live life despite the obstacles – dead or alive – that stand in the way.<br />
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I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-64494771529376277642013-10-07T20:31:00.000-04:002013-10-14T16:46:32.696-04:00Author T.A. Barron coming to Charlotte on October 14th!<br />
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I love when authors come through Charlotte, especially when those authors write Middle Grade novels. And next week, T.A. Barron, author of the Merlin Saga and the forthcoming Atlantis Rising, will be speaking at Park Road Books on October 14th at 5pm. You can find out more by visiting his website <a href="http://tabarron.com/events/">here</a>, or the Park Road website <a href="http://www.parkroadbooks.com/">here</a>. I hope to see you there!!!</div>
Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-85738913372694624512013-10-03T15:00:00.000-04:002013-10-07T20:15:41.867-04:00Fall 2013 YA Scavenger Hunt!! (now closed)<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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The Fall 2013 YA Scavenger Hunt is now over, but stay tuned to the <a href="http://yascavengerhunt.blogspot.com/">YASH website</a> for updates on future hunts! But even though this hunt may be over, I'm going to leave up the post about Beth because I'm such a huge fan of hers :) Enjoy!!
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<b>PRESENTING BETH REVIS!</b>
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I'm quite the lucky author because today I get to host Beth Revis on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! I'm a <b>huge</b> fan of Beth as a person, friend, and author. I can still remember reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00475ARSO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00475ARSO&linkCode=as2&tag=frecklemama-20">Across the Universe,</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=frecklemama-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00475ARSO" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />her debut novel. I was fortunate to receive an early copy of the book, but I'd made a deal with myself that I was only allowed to read it if I was working out at the gym. Of course, I couldn't put it down which meant I spent *a lot* of time at the gym!
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And she just keeps getting better and better -- trust me, I've read what's next :) It's amazing!
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<b>HERE'S A BIT MORE ABOUT BETH:</b>
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<i>Beth Revis is the New York Times and IndieBound bestselling author of the Across the Universe trilogy, as well as several in-world short stories published in various anthologies. She lives in rural North Carolina with her husband and dogs. </i>
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<i>Currently, she is working on a new science fiction trilogy forthcoming from Razorbill/Penguin. </i><br />
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And you can find out more about her (and <b>BUY HER BOOKS</b>!) by clicking <a href="http://www.bethrevis.com/books">here!</a>
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<b>CHECK OUT BETH'S EXCLUSIVE CONTENT:</b>
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Thanks for hosting me, Carrie! Today I wanted to talk about inspiration, and how you never really know where it comes from. Or at least, I don't. When I started writing <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0081KYYAS/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0081KYYAS&linkCode=as2&tag=frecklemama-20">SHADES OF EARTH</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=frecklemama-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0081KYYAS" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />(<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shades-Earth-Across-Universe-Novel/dp/1595146156/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1380739809&sr=8-3&keywords=shades+of+earth">available in paperback next month!</a>), I went into it with a basic philosophy. In my favorite television show, Joss Whedon's FIREFLY, there's a scene where a character says, basically, the only way to really know someone is to see him at his worst.<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x22m0l" width="480"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x22m0l_the-teachings-of-shan-yu-firefly-se_shortfilms" target="_blank">The Teachings of Shan Yu (Firefly/Serenity...</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/mnemosyne23" target="_blank">mnemosyne23</a></i> Let's ignore the fact that the character that most embraces that philosophy is one of the worst villains of the entire show. But that's the basic philosophy that inspired <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0081KYYAS/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0081KYYAS&linkCode=as2&tag=frecklemama-20">SHADES OF EARTH.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=frecklemama-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0081KYYAS" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />I had these characters who I loved--Amy and Elder--and, well, I had to put them to the volcano's edge. So everything I did to them was touched, at least in part, from that philosophy. But, of course, there were other things that influenced my book. Can you spot them all? Each thing in the picture below had a direct influence on something in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0081KYYAS/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0081KYYAS&linkCode=as2&tag=frecklemama-20">SHADES OF EARTH.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=frecklemama-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0081KYYAS" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<a href="http://www.bethrevis.com/extras/">To test your knowledge and learn more about how each thing influenced the writing of SHADES OF EARTH, just click here!</a><br />
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<b>And to buy SHADES OF EARTH, click <a href="http://www.bethrevis.com/books/">here!</a></b>
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</html>Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16198867176033112742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-82617445403044168682013-07-29T09:50:00.002-04:002013-07-29T09:50:31.342-04:00Friday August 2! Come see me, Beth Revis, and Aprilynne Pike in Huntersville!!<a href="http://images.barnesandnoble.com//images/203230000/203236869.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com//images/203230000/203236869.JPG" /></a>I'm so excited to have a local event this week! I'm even more excited that I get to share it with two amazing New York Times Bestselling authors, <a href="http://www.bethrevis.com/">Beth Revis</a> and <a href="http://www.aprilynnepike.com/">Aprilynne Pike</a>. Aprilynne is celebrating the release of her latest book, Earthbound! I'll be sharing more about my upcoming projects (maybe even reading a bit from them?). <br />
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<b>When</b>: Friday, August 2 at 7:00 pm<br />
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<b>Where</b>: <a href="http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/4490493">Birkdale Barnes & Noble in Huntersville</a> (outside of Charlotte)<br />
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<b>What</b>: <a href="http://www.aprilynnepike.com/">Aprilynne Pike</a>, <a href="http://www.bethrevis.com/">Beth Revis</a>, and I will be chatting about whatever interests you! Writing, reading, YA, MG -- anything you can think to ask, we'll be there to answer! Plus we'll be signing books. Come hang out!! I promise you won't want to miss these two authors -- they're so much fun!Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-72488766180929791072013-04-29T12:59:00.000-04:002013-04-29T12:59:28.594-04:00New Cover and New Story!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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Hi all! I have two super exciting bits of news to share! The first is that <a href="http://carrieryan.com/forest-hands-teeth.php">The Forest of Hands and Teeth</a> is getting a new cover! I have to admit that one of the really fun (though sometimes terrifying) parts of being an author is seeing a cover for the first time. It's just always so fascinating to see your book through someone else's eyes. And I've been really lucky to have had really amazing covers so far! I love the direction they've taken with this latest one -- it feels a little darker than the other two, a bit more like a zombie story :)<br />
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My understanding is that this new cover will be available on May 14, 2013 but unfortunately I don't know what that means in terms of availability (i.e. when stores will start carrying it rather than the older cover). As I find out more, I'll make sure to post any updates on my <a href="http://www.twitter.com/carrieryan">twitter feed</a>!<br />
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The second exciting bits of news is that to celebrate the new cover, I've written a new original short story set in the Forest of Hands and Teeth world! Similar to <a href="http://carrieryan.com/hare-moon.php">Hare Moon</a>, this short story, What Once We Feared, will only be available in digital formats and you can get it anywhere ebooks are sold: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B3GMP6C/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=08K4VRKXDCQT5J786NT6&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470939031&pf_rd_i=507846">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-once-we-feared-carrie-ryan/1114256426?ean=9780385375078">Barnes & Noble</a> | <a href="http://www.booksamillion.com/p/What-Once-We-Feared-Original/Ryan-Carrie/Q390617242?id=5672543525165">Books a Million</a> | <a href="https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Carrie_Ryan_What_Once_We_Feared_An_Original_Forest?id=hI3cWJjbEfwC&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImJvb2staEkzY1dKamJFZndDIl0.">Google</a> [I'll add more links as they become available - some sites don't have a way to pre-order digital works].<br />
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What Once We Feared is a story set right at the moment the Return (aka zombie apocalypse) hits and follows a group of teens trying to survive. Here's the flap copy:<br />
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When the zombie apocalypse hits and the dead begin to rise, Jonah and his friends are on a class field trip downtown. Panicked, they make a split-second decision to seek shelter in the Overlook, an apartment complex built like a fortress on the edge of town. But as they begin to face the realities of what it will take to survive, they realize that while making the decision of where to run was easy, living out the consequences of that decision may be impossible. From Carrie Ryan, the New York Times bestselling author of the Forest of Hands and Teeth books, What Once We Feared is an original digital short story about facing a world that is forever changed and in which survival means more than merely escaping the undead.</blockquote>
This is a story several years in the making! I've mentioned it before, but I spent most of my life avoiding scary movies and it wasn't until I was a second year law student and had just started dating my now-husband, JP, that I saw my first zombie movie (I still have no idea how he talked me into it!). The movie was the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363547/?ref_=sr_1">Dawn of the Dead remake</a> and it pretty much sparked my obsession with zombies.<br />
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But even then, that obsession was more of a joke between JP and me. More than anything, it was a really fun thought experiment in world-building: how would you survive? Where would you go? What would happen to the world? The release of Max Brooks's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zombie_Survival_Guide">Zombie Survival Guide</a> only helped to feed my interest, which was also sustained by a diet of any zombie book, movie, or graphic novel I could find.<br />
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One of my favorite things to do is to make up stories when I'm on the edge of sleep -- for as long as I can remember, this is how I've put myself to bed at night. Often, after Dawn of the Dead, the stories I'd make up would be about surviving the zombie apocalypse. When I lived in Durham, NC, I thought about how I'd fortify the apartment and so naturally, when I moved to Charlotte after law school I had similar thoughts about the new apartment.<br />
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And that's the inspiration for What Once We Feared: trying to survive the zombie apocalypse in that apartment. How to fortify it, how to stock up provisions, how to keep safe, etc. <br />
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I loved writing the Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy because I enjoyed figuring out what our world would look like hundreds of years after the zombie apocalypse. What happens when the zombies become an every day part of life? But at the same time, I've always loved reading about survival during and after a disaster itself -- how characters cope when every aspect of their normal lives is shattered.<br />
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So I wanted to write a story that took place during that time -- from the first signs of the zombie outbreak. One of the aspects of the Dawn of the Dead remake I love so much is the immediacy of survival that leads to the relief of safety that then turns into the realization of what it will take to survive long term. What makes something like a zombie apocalypse so terrifying is that you're forced to make quick decisions and then you have to live with those decisions. For example, you can live a long time in a mall with a horde of zombies outside, but you can't live there forever. What looks like a brilliant decision at the time may end up being a terrible decision long term.<br />
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That's what I wanted to write about in What Once We Feared: the decisions we make -- that we're forced to make -- under extreme pressure and the fallout of those decisions. But also, I just really love zombies and I wanted to write about running away from them, fighting them off, and getting to safety. Those are always some of my favorite parts of any zombie story :)<br />
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So yeah -- What Once We Feared: the zombie apocalypse, a group of friends, and an apartment complex. Who will survive? The story is 7500 words and will be available May 14, 2013!Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-36757410477211340492013-04-19T15:51:00.001-04:002013-04-19T15:51:52.311-04:00New Middle Grade Deal Announcement!<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have super exciting news!! My husband and I sold a four book Middle Grade series to Kate Sullivan at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. HUGE SQUEE!!! Though it may change, right now the series is called THE PIRATE STREAM and the first book, which should come out fall 2014, is titled THE MAP TO EVERYWHERE. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Insert many many more SQUEEs!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's the <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/55072-deals-week-of-december-10-2012.html">official announcement from Publishers Weekly</a>:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>LBYR Wins Ryan & Davis’s ‘Map’</b><br />
Winning a four-way auction, <b>Kate Sullivan</b> at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers bought North American rights to the new series by <b>Carrie Ryan</b> <b>and</b> <b>JP Davis</b>, the Pirate Stream. Ryan is an established author (who’s written, among other things, the series the Forest of Hands and Teeth), and Davis, her husband, is a published short story writer who works as a public defender. The series is a quartet, and LBYR acquired all four titles. It follows two children who wind up on a boat, as stowaways, traveling between two worlds. The pair is hunting for a map that can lead them away from their predicament. <b>Merrilee Heifetz</b> at Writers House represented the authors; the first book in the series, <i>The Map to Everywhere</i>, is planned for fall 2014.</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And here's the official announcement from <a href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/">Publishers Marketplace</a>:</span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Carrie Ryan and husband John Parke Davis's middle grade series, about a girl from our world who must join forces with a boy from a magical seaside world to save their families by navigating among pirates, sorcerers and children who can fly, to <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=5077" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Kate Sullivan</a> at <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=9296" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Little, Brown Children's</a>, at auction, by <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=987" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Merrilee Heifetz</a> at <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=452" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Writers House</a>. </span>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rights also to <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=3137" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Orion</a> in the UK, in a pre-empt; <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=10937" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Fischer</a> in Germany, at auction; <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=10416" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Mondadori</a> in Italy, in a pre-empt; <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=10791" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Modan</a> at Israel, in a pre-empt; <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=10635" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Bayard</a> in France, at auction; <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=10513" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">AST</a> at Russia; <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=13467" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">21st Century</a> in China; and <a class="dealmaker" href="http://publishersmarketplace.com/dealmakers/detail.cgi?id=10416" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #6666cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Mondadori</a> at Spain.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And <a href="http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/Articles/News/Orion%20Childrens%20Acquires%20The%20Pirate%20Stream%20from%20Carrie%20Ryan%20John%20Park%20Davis.page">here's a link to the press release</a> our UK publisher, Orion Children's Books, put out about the deal saying,</span></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ORION CHILDREN'S BOOKS ACQUIRES THE PIRATE STREAM: THE MAP TO EVERYWHERE From Acclaimed Author, Carrie Ryan, and John Parke Davis: </span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In a deal for UK and Commonwealth rights, Amber Caravéo, Editorial Director, Orion Children’s Books has acquired THE PIRATE STREAM, an exciting new adventure series for readers aged 9-12 years from the acclaimed author Carrie Ryan (THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH) and John Parke Davis, from Angharad Kowal at Writers House UK on behalf of Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House US.</span></blockquote>
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<div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi3vngT4GRneM1b8skgETHz43cX9MBCNNMA4iWyjKkSQ0d75utKfKywEd6wOdhGvImbvItl1-rwf5qH55wlTUs22IaDEU2_Rla4pMF-gqkUZqTh4C-5xloHySg8YCdZT82PrVZow/s1600/France+3!+069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi3vngT4GRneM1b8skgETHz43cX9MBCNNMA4iWyjKkSQ0d75utKfKywEd6wOdhGvImbvItl1-rwf5qH55wlTUs22IaDEU2_Rla4pMF-gqkUZqTh4C-5xloHySg8YCdZT82PrVZow/s320/France+3!+069.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The authors brainstorming</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">JP and I are *beyond* thrilled with all of this! It's been a complete dream come true and we both owe our agent, Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House, a massively huge thanks. She's been amazing to work with, as has Angharad Kowal (who handled the UK subrights) and Cecilia de la Campa (who has been handling the our translation subrights). They're such a fantastic team!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Whenever anyone hears that my husband and I are co-writing a book, they usually give us that "are you sure that's a good idea?" look. Which I totally understand - lol! I've always been a huge admirer of JP's writing and he's always been involved in my books from brainstorming to reading draft after draft. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But even so, when we made the transition from "this middle grade is a fun idea to talk about on long walks" to "hey, maybe we should actually try to write this" I think we both still felt a bit of trepidation. Would we be able to work together?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The answer has been a resounding yes. I've *loved* working with JP! It's always so much fun to read his pages to see where he's taken an idea or a character or a voice. We've spent hours playing in this world, asking each other "what if?" and feeding off each other's ideas. The whole process has just been *fun* and I can't wait until the book is out in the world! MORE SQUEEE!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Unfortunately, that will still be a while - lol. Until then, I'll leave you with the first line from our synopsis:</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This is what the old books say about the Pirate Stream: Nothing.</blockquote>
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Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-47787728476651608302013-02-28T16:04:00.004-05:002013-02-28T16:04:49.601-05:00Other venuesHey y'all! I just wanted to drop by to say sorry I've been quiet around here, but these days I've been spending more time over on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/carrieryan">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://carrieryan.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>. So if you want to know what I've been up to... head over there to find out!Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-78547537361565490592012-11-28T09:56:00.002-05:002012-11-28T09:56:55.665-05:00Signed books for the holidays!Hey y'all! With the holidays fast approaching I wanted to remind you that I've partnered with my wonderful local indie, <a href="http://parkroadbooks.com/">Park Road Books</a>, to make signed books available! They have all of my books, including the anthologies I've participated in, and I can sign, personalize, etc. They even gift wrap! Just give them a call at 704-525-9239 and let them know what you'd like to order (and make sure to tell them who you want the book made out to, how to spell the name, and if you want a specific message included). I'll be stopping by once a week to sign everything before they ship it out to you! Super easy!<br />
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To make sure the books arrive on time they'll be shipping everything Priority Mail so be aware that might add a bit to the cost (the cost will depend on how many books you order). I'll be signing my last batch of books on Monday, December 17th so make sure to get your order in before then!<br />
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There are a lot of authors who partner with their local bookstores to provide signed books so check out your favorite authors' websites if you're interested! <br />
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Another small note: I've finally received my bookplates (they'd been backordered and then backordered again) and I'll be sending those out ASAP. I'm so very very sorry for the delay and I thank you sincerely for your patience!<br />
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Happy holidays!<br />
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<br />Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-82208291308393237052012-11-11T21:51:00.002-05:002012-11-28T09:58:13.642-05:00Charlotte signing November 19th!So I know I usually list all my appearances on a separate page, but since this is the very first time I'll be signing at a bookstore in Charlotte, I wanted to make sure to get the news out!!! Seriously, I can't believe I haven't ever had a signing in my own city! Here are the details:<br />
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<b>When</b>: Monday, November 19th at 7:00 PM<br />
<b>Where</b>: Park Road Books, Charlotte NC (4139 Park Road, Charlotte, NC 28209 Tel: 704-525-9239)<br />
<b>What</b>: The signing is officially in honor of the release of <a href="http://www.parkroadbooks.com/book/%5Bmodel%5D-16">My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop</a> but I'll also be signing anything else I've written (<a href="http://carrieryan.com/books.php">books</a>, <a href="http://carrieryan.com/books.php#stories">short stories</a>, etc). I typically like to chat for a bit and then take Q&A so if the store is amenable, I'll be starting that at 7:00 and signing directly after (I'll make a note here if that plan changes). If you can't make it but would still like signed and/or personalized books, you can also contact the store and pre-order one and I'll sign it that night. Actually, you can always order signed and/or personalized books of mine from Park Road Books at any time (info <a href="http://carrie-me.blogspot.com/2010/02/autographed-copies-of-my-books.html">here</a>) -- they've always been incredibly supportive and gracious in facilitating that!<br />
<b>More Details</b> <a href="http://www.parkroadbooks.com/event/2012/11/19/day">here</a>!<br />
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A note: I don't know what Park Road Books' policy is on bringing outside books or limits and as soon as I find out I'll update this post. If you have questions before I can update, you can contact them directly. However, I would really love it if you would purchase a book (or more!) from Park Road while you're there (even if it's not one of mine). Park Road Books is a really fantastic indie bookstore and they put their heart and soul into what they do -- we as a community need to support them! <br />
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On a more personal note, Park Road Books has supported me from day one and I feel incredibly lucky to live so close to such a wonderful store and honored that they chose me to represent them in the book My Bookstore. I'm awed to be in the company of so many other amazing authors and am thrilled we could all come together to celebrate Independent Bookstores!<br />
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Oh... and a final note that signed books make for excellent holiday gifts... :)<br />
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I'll hopefully see you soon!Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-81189971856592662092012-11-06T10:28:00.000-05:002012-11-06T10:28:37.194-05:00Infinity Ring: Divide and Conquer out today!<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi826fGhx1b2gCPCMsIMRT9adX-rLFkiZO08n5YKYO5fqs8Yv1YbxN2JEWmBHGnLM56HBjywKowXuXfj_e3mIik4We5WjUKGlVu7E4I8gkB73an7Hk2ROTtWgg9PvRAn0Vrq_CU1Q/s1600/Infinity+Ring2+cover+flat+FINAL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi826fGhx1b2gCPCMsIMRT9adX-rLFkiZO08n5YKYO5fqs8Yv1YbxN2JEWmBHGnLM56HBjywKowXuXfj_e3mIik4We5WjUKGlVu7E4I8gkB73an7Hk2ROTtWgg9PvRAn0Vrq_CU1Q/s320/Infinity+Ring2+cover+flat+FINAL.jpg" width="220" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On Sale November 6th!</td></tr>
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<div class="p1">
I have a book out today!! Divide and Conquer is a middle grade novel and is the second in Scholastic’s new multi-author, multi-platform series, Infinity Ring (series website and game portal <a href="http://www.infinityring.com/">here</a>). What does that mean? Well, if you’re familiar with 39 Clues, you get the drift. Infinity Ring is a series of books interspersed with video games and it follows the story of three kids: history obsessed Dak, science geek Sera, and language prodigy Rik as they travel through time trying to fix history. </div>
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The first book, <a href="http://store.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay_Infinity+Ring+%231%3A+A+Mutiny+in+Time_67079_-1_10052_10051">A Mutiny in Time</a> written by James Dashner, finds Dak, Sera, and Rik going back in time to the Santa Maria to stop a mutiny against Christopher Columbus. The video game that follows takes place in Paris during the Revolutionary War and leads right into my book, Divide and Conquer which is about the Viking siege of Paris. In fact, here’s the flap copy for my book:</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Dak, Sera, and Riq might be in over their heads when they attempt to stop a Viking invasion!<br />Hundreds of ships carrying thousands of warriors are laying siege to medieval Paris. The Parisians are holding their own, but the stalemate can only last so long. And that's bad news -- especially since Dak has been captured, forced to work alongside the Vikings while Sera and Riq defend Paris from within. No matter which side wins, the kids lose!</blockquote>
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And if you're interested in learning more or buying a copy, here are the links: <a href="http://store.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay_Infinity+Ring+%232%3A+Divide+and+Conquer_71012_-1_10052_10051?source=igodigital">Scholastic</a> | <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/divide-and-conquer-carrie-ryan/1111364087">Barnes and Noble</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Ring-Book-Divide-Conquer/dp/0545386977/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780545386975">IndieBound</a> | <a href="http://www.target.com/p/infinity-ring-book-2-divide-and-conquer-by-carrie-ryan-hardcover/-/A-14114125">Target</a> | <a href="http://www.walmart.com/ip/Infinity-Ring-Book-2-Divide-and-Conquer/19695986">Walmart</a> | <a href="http://carrie-me.blogspot.com/2010/02/autographed-copies-of-my-books.html">Autographed Copy</a>. There are seven books total in the series -- the next is <a href="http://store.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay_Infinity+Ring+%233%3A+The+Trap+Door_74438_-1_10052_10051?source=igodigital">The Trap Door</a> by <a href="http://www.lisamcmann.com/">Lisa McMann</a> out February 5, 2013 to be followed by books written by <a href="http://www.mattdelapena.com/">Matt de la Pena</a>, <a href="http://www.jennielsen.com/index.php">Jennifer Nielsen</a>, and <a href="http://matthewjkirby.com/kirbside/">Matthew Kirby</a>.</div>
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<b>Why did I choose the Viking siege of Paris?</b> Back when I started pondering ideas for this book I asked my nephews, who are the target age for this series, what they’d most like to read about. They said knights and Vikings. It just so happens that a few days later my husband emailed me an article about some of the craziest sieges in history and one of them was the Viking siege of Paris. </div>
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And this was indeed a crazy siege — an eye witness reported that 30,000 Vikings traveled up the Seine River in over 700 ships to attack Paris which was defended by a few hundred people and which at that time was mostly concentrated on the Isle de la Cite — the island in the middle of the Seine that now holds Notre Dame. And get this — the Parisians won! Mostly.</div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">(It feels strange to put in a spoiler alert here when the book itself is based in history which means all this information is out there... but if you don't want to know anything about the underlying background of my book, don't read what comes next until after you've read Divide and Conquer!)</span></div>
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Basically, the Vikings had some pretty advanced boat technology that enabled them to travel up rivers so that they could attack pretty far inland. Because of this, cities along the Seine were required to build low, fortified bridges that would block the ships. So when the Vikings reached the bridges at Paris, they were stuck. They attacked the city walls hard the first day and that night not only did Paris not surrender, they actually built an extra story on one of the defensive towers to show their strength.</div>
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The Vikings tried to fill in the shallows around the towers with debris to gain a better strategic advantage — that didn’t work. They set fire to their own ships and sent them down the Seine hoping they’d strike the bridges and catch them on fire. That didn’t work. They tried to tunnel under the fortifications. That didn’t work. And eventually they settled in for a very long siege. At the end of the day, massive rains came and all the debris and burned ships the Vikings had thrown in the Seine clogged against the bridges, eventually weakening one of them and taking it out. Even then, the Vikings were basically paid to leave Paris alone and they ended up dragging their ships overland to bypass Paris as they went on their way to Burgundy. </div>
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So on its own, I think that’s a pretty cool story with a lot of action and craziness. Plus, it’s part of a time period I don’t think we spend a lot of time studying so I was excited to dig into the research and find a way to make learning more about the Vikings fun and entertaining. </div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Rollo_statue_in_falaise.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Rollo_statue_in_falaise.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from Wikipedia: Rollo on the Six Dukes statue <br />in Falaise town square.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And in that research I found one other detail that pretty much locked in my fascination with this whole event. It has to do with a Viking named Rollo who was one of the chieftains at the siege of Paris. There really aren’t a lot of records from the Vikings (most everything we know comes from the people they defeated which, as you can imagine, is why Vikings get a pretty bad rap in history) and the records about Rollo vary a bit. But the basic story is this:</div>
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Later in life, Rollo tried to siege Paris again and failed. He ended up sieging Chartes instead and he was eventually defeated. By this time, France had been pretty much continually under attack by the Vikings and the main access point for them was the River Seine. So the King of France (King Charles the Simple) made a deal with Rollo: he would grant Rollo the land around the mouth of the Seine if, in return, Rollo would defend it against the Vikings and he would pledge feudal alliance to the king. Rollo agreed.</div>
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That land he was given was therefore called Normandy — the land settled by the Norman or North Men, i.e. the Norse. This alone fascinated me… but there’s more! Rollo is the great-great-great grandfather of William the Conqueror and thus Rollo is the ancestor of every current European monarch.</div>
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So you have this one guy — this one Viking — who has had an enormous impact on history (think of the role Normandy has played in history! Think of the role of William the Conqueror!!) and yet I’d never heard of him before. Once I learned all of this, I knew I had to write about it!</div>
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There are two other details that made writing about Rollo and the Viking siege of Paris really fun. The first is that when Rollo pledged fealty to the King, he refused to bend his knee and kiss the king’s foot as required and for a moment it looked as though the treaty would fall through. Eventually Rollo ordered someone else do it in his place but that Viking also refused to bend his knee so he simply raised the King’s foot all the way up to his mouth, topping the King over. I have to admit, I found this pretty hilarious.</div>
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The final detail that made me fall in love with Rollo’s story… my husband is also one of his descendants. It’s a small world after all! </div>
Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-34079297529864053592012-11-02T16:21:00.001-04:002012-11-02T16:21:50.983-04:00On NaNoWriMo
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I'm not sure I'd have ever written <a href="http://carrieryan.com/forest-hands-teeth.php">The Forest of Hands and Teeth</a> if it weren't for <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a>. For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and it takes place during November every year. Essentially, it's a time where individuals pledge to write a novel (defined as 50k words) in a month. There's a huge community built up around it full of support and encouragement and there are many authors who credit NaNoWriMo as a jumping off point for their novels (<a href="http://erinmorgenstern.com/">Erin Morganstern</a>, <a href="http://www.dianapeterfreund.com/">Diana Peterfreund</a>, <a href="http://www.marissameyer.com/">Marissa Meyer</a>, ) and many many others — there’s a whole list <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/publishedwrimos">here</a>.</div>
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Back at the start of 2006 I decided that I wanted more than anything else to be an author and I gave myself 10 years to achieve that goal. Essentially I figured that if could write/revise/submit a book a year, then if after 10 books I hadn't made it I could re-evaluate. But until then, it was "head down, keep writing, don't let rejections turn you from your course."</div>
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So throughout 2006 I wrote. I started a contemporary romance, a teen vampire chick-lit, a teen paranormal, and a teen contemporary. On all of these projects I wrote a fair amount of words, but I’d finished nothing. I took a class on writing YA in the fall and started a book that I was enjoying, but the teacher was a bit delayed in getting pages back to us and so I was a bit stuck — not wanting to write more until I’d gotten feedback on what I’d already written.</div>
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Then, in October, I learned about NaNoWriMo. This sounded like a great idea to me — a way to really motivate and get pages done — and so I decided to sign up. The only problem? One of the rules is that you have to start word 1 on day 1 — you can’t start in the middle of an already written project. I’m a stickler for rules and so I decided I needed a new idea.</div>
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I couldn’t come up with one. I asked my husband, “What should I write?” He said, “Write what you love.” I said, “That would be the zombie apocalypse but NO ONE wants to read about that.” He gave me that “you know I’m right” look.</div>
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He was right. On Thursday, November 2, 2006 I was walking home from work and a line popped into my head that I liked. So I emailed it to myself myself. The email is time stamped 6:38PM and has the subject “meh” and says: “My mother used to tell me about the ocean. She said there was a place where there was nothing but water”</div>
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If you’ve read The Forest of Hands and Teeth, you’ll recognize that as the first line and start of the second. I got home from work that night and I started writing. I wrote throughout November. I didn’t “win” NaNo (meaning I didn’t reach 50k words). But that was okay. </div>
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Here’s why NaNo matters so much to me: First, I never expected The Forest of Hands and Teeth to sell. I was convinced no one would ever be interested. I’d spent so much of 2006 trying to write a book that might sell and I don’t know if I ever would have “wasted” time on a project I didn’t think would go anywhere. Except that NaNo had given me this freedom to just take a month and write. On a project that probably wouldn’t sell. And using a brand new voice. </div>
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If I lost one month out of the year on a project that would never sell — so what? I *loved* writing Forest and in November I got to indulge in that. I got to experiment on a new voice and story without feeling like I was diverting from the course I’d set for myself.</div>
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Second, NaNo is about community as well as words. There’s a website with forums and message boards and they’re full of people who are indulging in the same passion you are. It can be difficult in our daily lives to find someone who understands when you talk about trying to figure out how to get to the inciting incident, how to balance writing with life, etc. NaNo is an easier way to meet those people and make friends. In fact, I became friends with Diana Peterfreund — now one of my critique partners and closest friends — during NaNo in 2006 (other than my husband, she was the first person to read pages on Forest and her enthusiasm was HUGELY instrumental in me continuing with the project past November). </div>
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Third, while “winning” NaNo means writing 50k, to me the real “win” is that for a month you put writing first. That November, I came home every day after work and I wrote (well, almost every day). Because I expected it of myself, because I enjoyed watching my word meter tick up, and because I had other people watching that word meter tick up too. Like I said, I loved writing Forest and NaNo gave me a reason to indulge in that love.</div>
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I get asked all the time what advice I have for writers and it is this: write. It’s so easy to talk about writing, think about writing, plan to write, and so easy to somehow just not end up writing. It’s easy to find other things to fill that time: work, cleaning, reading, the internet, balancing the checkbook, friends, family. I’m not saying these things aren’t important — they very much are. But I know so many writers who put writing at the bottom of the “to-do list” and never at the top.</div>
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NaNoWriMo is an excuse to put writing at the top. It’s a month where your goal is to indulge in writing. You can allow your house to get a little messier, you’re allowed to microwave dinner, you’re allowed to turn off the TV and tell friends that maybe you’ll take a raincheck on that movie. </div>
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You’re allowed to put writing first. </div>
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I’ve learned that I’m not good at word count challenges. I’m too competitive and I’ll sacrifice quality for quantity. And while there’s a balance to be had, I know myself well enough to know that sometimes I have to slow down my writing to make sure the story is still on track. Too many times I’ve barreled headlong in the wrong direction in the name of more words. Clearly NaNo isn’t for everyone and I’ve actually talked authors down from NaNo — letting them know that it’s okay to not hit that 50k word goal in a month. Because it *is* okay. </div>
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There are those who are anti-NaNo because it inevitably leads to people sending off shoddy, unrevised drafts to agents come December first and that’s a legitimate concern and it’s not the way to get published. I didn’t finish writing Forest until April and then I revised it over and over and over and over before querying agents in August 2007. Erin Morgenstern got the idea for The Night Circus during NaNo 2005 and drafted it during NaNo 2006 and 2007 (link <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/peptalks/erinmorgenstern/">here</a>). Marissa Meyer wrote Cinder during NaNo 2008 but revised it before querying agents in 2010 (Link <a href="http://www.marissameyer.com/faq/)">here</a>). Diana Peterfreund began Rampant during NaNo 2006 and worked on it through the rest of the year. </div>
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The point is — what you write in NaNo is a draft and often a very very rough draft at that. Some people will put that draft in a trunk, brush their hands and be happy with the bragging rights that they wrote a novel (and they did! Good for them!) and some will trash what they’ve written because it’s not what they want it to be and they want to head in a different direction (which is fine!) and some will start the long process of revising the draft into something they can move forward with (also great!).</div>
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For me, NaNo isn’t about writing a perfect draft you can turn around and sell. It’s about putting writing first, giving yourself permission to experiment, and, if you’re interested and it won’t detract from your writing time, participating in a supportive and vibrant community of like-minded folk. </div>
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In November 2006 I wrote 20,000 words of The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I didn’t win NaNo, but I did achieve much larger goals. I finished that book, revised it, and sold it. Maybe I would have done it anyway, but I’m not really sure I would have given myself the time to experiment with an “unsellable” idea and an experimental new voice. It turns out, what I really needed was permission to indulge in what I really wanted to write in the way I really wanted to write it. I used NaNo to give myself that permission.</div>
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Good luck to all the NaNo participants out there: write boldly, write with passion, put your writing first but be kind and gentle with yourself if you don’t hit that 50k word mark by the end of the month. Sometimes, something like NaNo is a tool to help you reach that bigger win.</div>
Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-77199928185514457182012-08-27T12:09:00.000-04:002012-08-27T12:09:00.305-04:00FORETOLD out tomorrow!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXVtf5ZJBlMoiDXNhWj6K9gsQsQSY39jxnZGtJDw_43dgsWmJY6YQpQfTllVWVcASXPWqjUmnZNX_tgDFQxpToIfZ7cfmsMNpkvw-GwbznZ3i_mkw7GTW2FMJH1N_F_IBQyXuBFw/s1600/Foretold+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXVtf5ZJBlMoiDXNhWj6K9gsQsQSY39jxnZGtJDw_43dgsWmJY6YQpQfTllVWVcASXPWqjUmnZNX_tgDFQxpToIfZ7cfmsMNpkvw-GwbznZ3i_mkw7GTW2FMJH1N_F_IBQyXuBFw/s320/Foretold+cover.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
It's hard to believe that tomorrow is the release day for <a href="http://carrieryan.com/foretold.php">FORETOLD: 14 Tales of Prophecy and Prediction</a>! It seems that this entire year has sort of snuck past me! So in celebration of release week, I thought I'd post the first line from each of the stories to hopefully whet your appetite for more! I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to work with such fabulous authors and to include their really amazing stories in this anthology! <br />
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If you're interested in reading more, here are links to purchase FORETOLD: 14 Tales of Prophecy and Prediction: <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780385741293">IndieBound</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Foretold-14-Tales-Prophecy-Prediction/dp/0385741294/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338237270&sr=8-1">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/foretold-carrie-ryan/1110980841?ean=9780385741293">Barnes & Noble</a> | <a href="http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Foretold/Carrie-Ryan/9780385741293?id=5460834667577">Books a Million</a> | <a href="http://www.walmart.com/ip/20530221">Walmart</a>.<br />
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Also, just a note to say that if you're interested in ordering a copy of FORETOLD signed by me, you can do so through my local indie, Park Road Books (info <a href="http://carrie-me.blogspot.com/2010/02/autographed-copies-of-my-books.html">here</a>).<br />
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I hope y'all enjoy reading these stories as much as I did!<br />
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<b>Gentlemen Send Phantoms</b></div>
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by Laini Taylor</div>
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"Once, when the moon was younger than it is tonight and not as plump, three girls gathered by a hearth to bake a dreamcake."</div>
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<b>Burned Bright</b></div>
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by Diana Peterfreund</div>
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"Tonight, the lodge will be shaken off its foundation by the power of our prayers."</div>
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<b>The Angriest Man</b></div>
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by Lisa McMann</div>
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"On the day the angriest man died, his bones cursed the bed they lay in. Inside the box, the bones seethed and growled."</div>
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<b>Out of the Blue</b></div>
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by Meg Cabot</div>
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"Interview of Dr. John R. Hall; RESTRICTED ACESS: <i>EYES ONLY</i>; 'Well, I can't say I wasn't expecting you.'"</div>
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<b>One True Love</b></div>
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by Malinda Lo</div>
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"It is never lucky for a child to kill her mother in the course of her own birth."</div>
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<b>This Is a Mortal Wound</b></div>
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by Michael Grant</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">"Here is what I said to Ms. Gill: 'All you care about is being in charge and pushing us around.'"</span></div>
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<b>Misery</b></div>
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by Heather Brewer</div>
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"Misery was a strange name for a town, and Alek wasn't at all certain that it was fitting."</div>
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<b>The Mind is a Powerful Thing</b></div>
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by Matt de la Pena</div>
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"Joanna's sixteenth birthday celebration kicked off at a small apartment in West L.A. where her and her girls always went to pre-party."</div>
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<b>The Chosen One</b></div>
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by Saundra Mitchell</div>
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"I suppose there's nothing to distinguish Vernal, except that it's my home and it has a prophecy."</div>
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<b>Improbable Futures</b></div>
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by Kami Garcia</div>
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"When I was six years old, my mom sent me to school for a month. It was the first and last time I ever set foot in a real school."</div>
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<b>Death for the Deathless</b></div>
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by Margaret Stohl</div>
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"It's not possible. It can't be. The end of the world should come at the end. Not now."</div>
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<b>Fate</b></div>
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by Simone Elkeles</div>
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"As I step off the bus with my duffel, I stare at the sign across the street welcoming me to my new home. Seaside Campground and RV Park. I never thought I'd be homeless at the age of eighteen."</div>
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<b>The Killing Garden</b></div>
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by Carrie Ryan</div>
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"They say my father wept at my birth. Not from joy, but from agony that I was born a daughter rather than a son."</div>
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<b>Homecoming</b></div>
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by Richelle Mead</div>
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"I hadn't expected to be back in Russia so soon. I certainly didn't want to be."</div>
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Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21790035.post-58082970855108572542012-08-01T15:00:00.000-04:002012-08-05T23:31:09.774-04:00YA Scavenger Hunt!!<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_WYXSQxecaGWibef6PpLBC1SLlW1zKc6A2K2yIB_ouwYkypsoNA2iI0DrjbshQYtx3ZrXo2VvZ83IdtQQ6CMwvo3Tq0ffxFGJ8t-81Bf18jN7EavVzJOdzIfzOafzoUR8_Vh-/s320/scavenger+hunt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_WYXSQxecaGWibef6PpLBC1SLlW1zKc6A2K2yIB_ouwYkypsoNA2iI0DrjbshQYtx3ZrXo2VvZ83IdtQQ6CMwvo3Tq0ffxFGJ8t-81Bf18jN7EavVzJOdzIfzOafzoUR8_Vh-/s320/scavenger+hunt.jpg" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">This tri-annual event was first organized by author <a href="http://www.tigerscursebook.com/">Colleen Houck</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive </span><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team</b><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">!</span><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </b><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online until noon PST on Sunday, August 5th!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3uDcKi8wDS2f8eVRAwgoaGNjZ8-mevJI8ru_acJM5_kM_ltrV00MDBVE_1pKH8nklJtHoQVnblw8KZzYauKW6SwfE1YYRtWb2xF6HIl02pFKM6d4tQeBYhHCENbJqHJZnqXPhqw/s320/team+blue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3uDcKi8wDS2f8eVRAwgoaGNjZ8-mevJI8ru_acJM5_kM_ltrV00MDBVE_1pKH8nklJtHoQVnblw8KZzYauKW6SwfE1YYRtWb2xF6HIl02pFKM6d4tQeBYhHCENbJqHJZnqXPhqw/s320/team+blue.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">You can start right here or you can </span><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">go to the <a href="http://yascavengerhunt.blogspot.com/">YA Scavenger Hunt Page</a><a href="http://yascavengerhunt.blogspot.com/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;"> </a>page to find out all about the hunt.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">There are TWO contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">BLUE TEAM</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">--but there is also a red team for a chance to win a whole different set of twenty-five signed books!</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the <a href="http://yascavengerhunt.blogspot.com/p/stuck.html">YA Scavenger Hunt homepage.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE</b></span></div>
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<b>Directions:</b> Below, you'll notice that I've listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="color: blue;">blue team</span>, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!). Hint: the secret number is highlighted in <span style="color: red;">red</span>.</div>
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<b>Entry Form:</b> Once you've added up all the numbers, <a href="http://yascavengerhunt.blogspot.com/p/enter-here.html">make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize</a>. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.</div>
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<b>Rules:</b> Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by August 5, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.</div>
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Now that all the technical stuff is out of the way, I'll introduce the author I'm hosting on this hunt. I'm super excited to be hosting.....<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Suzanne Lazear</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnuLP0KvGNOw9p2hTI3lR5PH5gqYNP1lnXxCl3JjByO3G7WXBzh1il0mSeY9ugOvH9DloovIrxdNlvcTd1EwE5t8F-BdqfjSUy3XOY6aS0S-i72elXGS8E5rtASV3pytCUOrMa/s400/standing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnuLP0KvGNOw9p2hTI3lR5PH5gqYNP1lnXxCl3JjByO3G7WXBzh1il0mSeY9ugOvH9DloovIrxdNlvcTd1EwE5t8F-BdqfjSUy3XOY6aS0S-i72elXGS8E5rtASV3pytCUOrMa/s320/standing.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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Suzanne Lazear's young adult steampunk dark fairytale, INNOCENT DARKNESS, book 1 of the Aether Chronicles, will be released from Flux in August of 2012. Suzanne lives in Southern California with her daughter, hubby, and a hermit crab, where she's currently attempting to make a raygun to match her ballgown. She's also part of the Steampunk group blog <a href="http://wwww.ageofsteam.wordpress.com/">Steamed</a>.</div>
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Check out this cover! Isn't it awesome? </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUAoRLz-0uV9p1nYKYAcvq4G-xpDAahyphenhyphenc8nlni5ycXnMeCNMqW_8jvkKtpVusn6dMGlB8QbNUL_rXgIsJ_J04MS3hLi-en4FN3pGm4ERLf6TV5-nFvwTdUhv6eL-R6RTGTAbjp/s320/Innocent_Darkness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUAoRLz-0uV9p1nYKYAcvq4G-xpDAahyphenhyphenc8nlni5ycXnMeCNMqW_8jvkKtpVusn6dMGlB8QbNUL_rXgIsJ_J04MS3hLi-en4FN3pGm4ERLf6TV5-nFvwTdUhv6eL-R6RTGTAbjp/s320/Innocent_Darkness.jpg" /></a> <i>Be careful what you wish for...</i><br />
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In an alternate version of 1901 Los Angeles sixteen-year-old Noli Braddock's hoyden ways land her in an abusive reform school far from home. On mid-summer's eve she wishes to be anyplace but that dreadful school. A mysterious man from the Realm of Faerie brings her to the Otherworld, only to reveal that she must be sacrificed to restore his dying world. Her best friend, V, who has secrets of his own, appears to help Noli escape and return to the mortal realm. If they are successful, Noli will live, but if she does the entire Otherworld civilization will perish.</div>
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Suzanne has a <b>fantastic</b> website for her Aether Chronicles full of a ton of great information -- check it out <a href="http://www.aetherchronicles.com/">here</a>! You can also buy her book (and support an awesome indie) <a href="http://www.changinghands.com/book/9780738732480">here</a>! </div>
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[[EDIT: The YA Scavenger Hunt is now closed! So I've taken down the exclusive content. If you want to know more about INNOCENT DARKNESS, head over to the series website: <a href="http://www.aetherchronicles.com/">INNOCENT DARKNESS: Book 1 of the Aether Chronicles</a>]]</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>WIN PRIZES</b></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Thanks so much for stopping by!! Don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, <a href="http://suzannewrites.blogspot.com/">Suzanne Lazear</a>,</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> and more! To enter, find my favorite number in this post (hint: it's in red).</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">blue team</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize (enter <a href="http://yascavengerhunt.blogspot.com/p/enter-here.html">here</a>)!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">I'm also hosting TWO giveaways! The first is for one of three ARCs of FORETOLD: 14 Tales of Prophecy and Prediction, the anthology I edited with stories from Richelle Mead (set in her Vampire Academy world!), Laini Taylor, Michael Grant, Heather Brewer and many more! You can enter that giveaway on Goodreads here:</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/" target="_new">Goodreads</a> Book Giveaway
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13533758"><img alt="Foretold edited by Carrie Ryan" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1331745124l/13533758.jpg" title="Foretold edited by Carrie Ryan" width="100" /></a>
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13533758">Foretold</a>
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edited by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1443712.Carrie_Ryan" style="text-decoration: none;">Carrie Ryan</a>
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Giveaway ends August 17, 2012.
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See the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/30129" style="text-decoration: none;">giveaway details</a>
at Goodreads.
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<a class="goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/enter_choose_address/30129">Enter to win</a>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Verdana,sans-serif;">I'm also giving away three autographed paperback sets of my <a href="http://carrieryan.com/books.php#teens">FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH</a> trilogy! Enter the giveaway on the Rafflecopter form below (this is my first time using Rafflecopter... fingers crossed! It's set up so you get an extra entry for following me on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/carrieryan">twitter</a>, <a href="http://carrieryan.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a>, liking me on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/AuthorCarrieRyan">Facebook</a> and by <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?hashtags=YASH%2C&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fyash-authorsonly.blogspot.com%2Fp%2Ftemplate.html&related=bethrevis&source=tweetbutton&text=Check%20it%20out%20RIGHT%20NOW%21%20The%20YA%20Scavenger%20Hunt%2C%20with%20over%20fifty%20signed%20books%20as%20a%20grand%20prize%21&url=http%3A%2F%2FYAScavengerHunt.blogspot.com">tweeting about the hunt</a>!)</span></span><br />
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<a class="rafl" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/38f72f0/" id="rc-38f72f0" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>CONTINUE THE HUNT</b></span></div>
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To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> I'm super excited to be sending you to <a href="http://www.tigerscursebook.com/blog/post-150/">COLLEEN HOUC<span id="goog_260857204"></span><span id="goog_260857205"></span>K</a>! Not only is she a total sweet-heart and fab author, she's the one who first organized the hunt -- how awesome is that?! She's put a ton of work into organizing this behind the scenes so don't forget to give her a huge thanks!!</span></div>
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</div>Carrie Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13751498516235657725noreply@blogger.com5