Interview with Carrie Ryan

I am thrilled that Carrie Ryan agreed to be interviewed on my blog. It’s no secret that I love her books–so much that I am giving away a signed copy!

A little about Carrie:

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Carrie Ryan is a graduate of Williams College and Duke University School of Law. A former litigator, she now writes full time. She lives with her writer/lawyer fiancé husband, two fat cats and one large puppy in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are not at all prepared for the zombie apocalypse.

Also, she got married last week! Yay Carrie. Join me in congratulating her and JP  on her blog or her Twitter.

And now…on to the good stuff!

You didn’t always write YA. What made you decide to try your hand at the genre?

Honestly, I think I hadn’t considered writing YA earlier because it hadn’t occurred to me that I could.  I’d decided to write romance novels when I was in high school and I guess I was fairly narrow-minded with my goal.  I never thought twice about writing romance novels until I saw so many amazing YA books hitting the market and I remembered how much I loved reading them when I was a teen and the idea I could be a part of that thrilled me.

What is your favorite thing about writing for young adults?

There are so many things I love about writing for young adults.  First, I love that all our books are shelved together so you don’t have to worry about being put on the romance or horror or thriller or fantasy shelf — you don’t have to follow any traditional rules of those genres but instead can meld them all together.  Second, sometimes teens aren’t as jaded to tropes — your book might be the first time they encounter something that an adult might think was overdone or common.  It’s pretty cool to think that your book might be the first time a teen realizes that not all stories have happy endings or that a narrator can be unreliable.  Finally I feel like there’s not a ton of difference between the way a teen experiences the world and the way an adult does — we all have fears and have to deal with things like rejection, first kisses, uncertainty, etc.  The only difference is that for a teen this might be the first time they experience such things and so it takes on a bigger role in their lives — they might not have figured out how to deal with it from experience the same way an adult might have.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth opens with the narrator talking about the ocean, and the ocean is a glimmer of hope for Mary throughout the book. So, which do you prefer: the forest or the ocean?

Haha, good question!  I think it all depends on my mood.  I love the tranquility of the forest — how you can just be enveloped by nature.  The ocean feels more expansive to me.  Both make me dream.

Quick! You have four words to describe The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Go:

Post apocalypse zombie romance.

Your next book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, is more of a companion novel than a direct sequel. Why did you decide to go this route instead of following The Forest of Hands and Teeth more closely?

I’d never really planned on writing a sequel but when my editor started mentioning it I was thrilled because I loved the world and the narrator.  However, when I sat down to write it I realized that Mary’s story was pretty much done.  I spent a long time trying to decide whether to re-open her story and start something new for her or to leave her as she was and move on.  In the end I chose to move on because I wanted to experience the world from someone else’s point of view — show how different people can approach the same world in different ways.

HELP! The unconsecrated are coming! What is your best advice to help me survive the zombie apocalypse?

You’re toast  I actually think survival ultimately is based on a lot of luck.  I’d get out of a city as fast as possible and try to find a place with enough room to farm and build a new world but also has natural barriers to keep the zombies at bay.  Then, of course, you have to start worrying about people trying to take your safe haven from you.

(Yes! I am safe. Bubba’s parents live on a farm in a very small community in the mountains. I just have to make sure I always have enough fuel in the car to get there in the event of zombies. And, um, hope Star Valley hasn’t been hit yet.)

You have a short story coming out in the new anthology Zombies Vs. Unicorns.  Obviously, you are team zombie. What makes zombies so much better than unicorns?

Zombies don’t poop rainbows.  Nuff said.

We all know how important it is to have others read our work and give us honest feedback. Who are your first readers and how did you find them?

My ultimate first reader is my fiance, JP (husband now…yay!).  He’s a fantastic editor and I always trust everything he says implicitly.  I’m really amazingly lucky to have him.  Other readers include a group of friends I met through the 2009 Debutantes (a group of authors with middle grade and YA books debuting in 2009).

When you are struggling with your writing, how to you motivate yourself to keep going?

For me it’s just not an option to not keep going.  For some reason I’ve just been able to convince myself that there’s no other choice but to struggle through.  Often it can be really tough, especially since I don’t write with an outline and can feel really lost.  Now when I’m going through that I just remind myself that I’ve made it through all of this before so I need to have confidence in myself that I can do it again.

When you know you should be writing, but just aren’t, what is your favorite procrastinatory outlet?

I have way too many!  Twitter, Skype, iChat, email.  I think of those things as my water cooler — my way of hanging with other authors during the day.

What is the best bit of advice you have for aspiring authors?

To write.  I know that seems pretty basic but there are so many distractions out there that it’s easy to forget about the basics — writing.  I’ve also benefited tremendously from meeting other authors online — I’ve found the community to be so supportive which is really wonderful.

Aside from your own, what are a couple books you love and would recommend we all read?

I love so many books and being away from home and my bookshelves it’s hard to pick out only a few!  Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell, Dull Boy by Sarah Cross, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, anything by Sarah MacLean, Liar by Justine Larbalestier, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.  Seriously I could go on and on and on.

It is no secret that I ADORE the South. In fact, I might be making a list of reasons why the husband and I need to move to warmer climates. What is your favorite thing about living in the South?

Spring!  Short winters!  I love a good winter — but I like it to be a short winter.  I find that when March/April comes around I’m itching to spend as much time outside as I can.

Finally, it’s time for the Fast Five! What are five random things we might not know about Carrie Ryan?

• I worked in the coroner’s office one summer in college.
• I also worked on a Mayan archeological dig in Guatemala.
• I once busted my knee open to the bone hiking in the Wind River Wilderness mountains in Wyoming and had to hike out five miles on snowshoes with a hip to ankle splint made out of sticks and a 50lb pack on.
• I’m an optimist.
• I can make my tongue into the shape of a clover.

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Thanks so much for stopping by, Carrie! I feel better knowing a safe plan for the Zombie Apocalypse.

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Be sure to follow the blog for your chance to win a signed copy of The Forest of Hands and Teeth (or The Dead-Tossed Waves if you already have the first). April 27th is fast approaching!

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