We’re spending 5 more minutes with Carrie Ryan- and stay tuned after the interview for the giveaway!

Last year this time, you were getting ready for the launch of your debut novel, THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. Today, the companion novel, THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES comes out. What do you wish Now Carrie could tell Then Carrie about book launches?

Oooh, good question! I always thought I’d tell myself not to stress out so much about the book launch and publicity. I spent so much time putting together gift baskets and making sure I had red napkins and little things like that when perhaps I could have been writing more. But at the same time, I think everyone goes through that and I’m glad I really indulged in having a fun launch — your first book only comes out once! This time around whenever I get stressed out over the little things I try to remind myself to step back and just enjoy the whole process! It’s been such an amazing ride!

Will THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES be the only time we can spend in your Zombie Apocalypse universe this year?

This year I have three short stories coming out set in the same world as The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves. The first, Hare Moon, will be coming out in July in the Kiss Me Deadly anthology edited by Trisha Telep. It’s basically Sister Tabitha’s story from when she’s a teen. The second, Flotsam & Jetsam, is coming out this fall in The Living Dead 2 edited by John Joseph Adams and is about two boys trapped on a life boat after escaping from their cruise ship when it becomes infected. This September I also have a story, Bougainvillea, coming out in the Zombies vs. Unicorns anthology edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (this one is set about 15 years after the apocalypse on the island of Curacao). I’ve really loved exploring this world more and can’t wait to return to it for the third book in the series :)

I’m incredibly excited that THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH has been optioned by a production company. Can you tell us more about that?

I’m so excited about that too!! I still remember standing in my living room when I got the call about the option and just being so stunned! I’m not sure how much I can share about everything — I’ve read the script and had the chance to talk to the script writer/producer/director which was thrilling. She very much has the same vision of the book that I do which is awesome. But I kind of take the opinion that I know so little about movies and that’s their expertise so I leave it all in their hands :) Just getting this far has been super amazing.

Has your approach to writing changed since you’ve started writing full-time?

I think the old adage that writing a book teaches you to write THAT book is true — I definitely learn something new with each book. I’ve learned with the last two books that I tend to write really REALLY rough drafts that are more explorations of the world and it’s not until I start revising that the plot really pulls together. I try to remember this every time I stress out that the book isn’t coming together on the first go-around but I always have this fear that THIS book won’t be like the others. I’ve also learned that when I have a task, it’s hard to think about anything else which means it’s hard for me to work on more than one book at a time.

I had all these great plans and ideas for what life would be like writing full time: I’d awake fully rested and dash out a few hundred words before going to the gym and returning home to an immaculate house. Before I put dinner on I’d write a thousand or so words, blog, answer all emails before leisurely reading the early evening away waiting for my fiance to come home. HAHA! Let me just say that reality is nothing like that :) I still wouldn’t trade it, though!

If The Return happened today, where would you go and what would you take with you?

JP and I would be pretty screwed if we couldn’t get out of town before the roads clogged up :) I’d probably grab my dog (who would be terrible at guarding us but at least would provide comic relief) and the cats (we’ve been fattening them up for the food shortage*) and my gardening books and high-tail it up to the mountains. Hopefully the zombies would be lazy and wouldn’t feel like climbing.

*no, we wouldn’t really eat our cats – they’d be all gristly.

***~~~***

I’m so excited that THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES is finally available to the world. It’s an amazing follow-up to THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH.

It’s no secret that I’m a fangirl, and I want you to be a fan, too. That’s why I’m giving away a copy of THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH *and* THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES. (And FHT is signed, my friends!)

Just leave a comment, telling me about a book that disturbed your dreams or made you cry (Carrie’s books do both to me!) to be entered. The winner will be chosen randomly from the entries- and I will ship internationally.

Congratulations on your new book debut, Carrie!

Kimberly Derting’s debut novel THE BODY FINDER, about a girl named Violet, whose ability to sense the bodies of murder victims thrusts her into the center of a serial killer’s path, debuts March 2010. To celebrate her launch, I’m asking her 9 essential questions we need to know about every author.

9. Legs or pudding?
Definitely pudding.  Has anyone ever had a good food fight with legs?

8. Jean jacket or leather jacket?
Leather.  Mostly because jean jackets make me feel so 80’s, like blue eyeliner.  And big hair.  There’s retro, and then there’s flashback.  And flashback is never a good thing.

7. Blind faith or cold logic?
Cold logic.  I was a Biology major.  I like science and math, and numbers and facts.  So, obviously, I became a writer.

6. Pen or keyboard?
Keyboard.  Enough said.

5. Zombies or unicorns?
Zombies!  And I say that as the girl who spent hours upon hours drawing unicorns as a child.  But, hellooo…zombies are pretty freakin’ awesome!!!

4. Hardback or paperback?
Hardback.  There’s something about the solid feel of them that I love. Of course, I haven’t tried the Kindle yet…

3. Bookmark or fold the page?
Bookmark.  And bookmarks are constituted by anything I can get my hands on, from sticky notes to candy wrappers to receipts.  I find it sacrilegious to fold the page!

2. Hoard or share?
Share.  Always share.  Do I sound like a mom?  Yes, I’m talking to you…share!

1. Happy ending or total devastation?
Ooh, this is a tough one!  If I’m reading it, happy ending.  Always.  If I’m writing it, total devastation is okay.  I love to kill off a good guy just for the shock value.

Thanks, Kimberly! To find out more about Kimberly, check out her blog at www.kimberlyderting.blogspot.com, or to find out more about THE BODY FINDER, check out www.kimberlyderting.com!

WilowRaven at Red House Books interviewed me (her first interview, and I really enjoyed it!!) for her blog today. Find out what scares me unreasonably, what Elijah Landry and Jack Rhame got up to when they were teens, how quickly I wrote THE VESPERTINE, and what books I can’t wait to read. And more! And stuff! Check it out!

In Amy Brecount White’s debut novel FORGET-HER-NOTS fourteen-year-old Laurel discovers she is part of a secret society dedicated to the magical language of flowers. To celebrate her launch, I’m asking her 9 essential questions we need to know about every author.

9. Legs or pudding?
Ummm, legs?

8. Jean jacket or leather jacket?
Jean!

7. Blind faith or cold logic?
Blind faith.

6. Pen or keyboard?
Both!

5. Zombies or unicorns?
Unicorns!

4. Hardback or paperback?
Both!

3. Bookmark or fold the page?
Fold, because I can never find bookmarks.

2. Hoard or share?
Share!

1. Happy ending or total devastation?
Happy, happy!

Thanks, Amy! To find out more about Amy, check out her site at www.amybrecountwhite.com! Happy debut, Amy!

I’m so excited to spend five minutes with Kristin Walker. Her debut novel, A MATCH MADE IN HIGH SCHOOL came out in February and she’s one of the wryest, funniest people I know. To be honest, five minutes isn’t nearly enough to appreciate all of her talents- her wit, her humor, her AMAZING butter tarts, but it will definitely give you a taste!

What’s it like being the author of a funny, contemporary novel awash in a sea of dark paranormal?

Hey, it works out great for me, because my book’s pretty, hot-pink and purple cover stands out on the shelf. But there also happens to be a sea of funny, contemporary novels out there. Well, maybe not a sea, but definitely an inlet. Or a lake. A large pond at the very least. So I have some good company with awesome authors like Kristina Springer, Rhonda Stapleton, Mandy Hubbard, and Suzanne Young, to name a few.

Razorbill worked some of your friends and family’s faces onto your cover. How did that come about?

They offered! They asked if I had any teens in the family who’d like to be on the cover, and I was all, Uh YEAH. How’s that for total coolness?

When you got married, you had a Man of Honor- and then when HE got married, you were his Groomswoman. Did your friendship inspire the friendship in MATCH MADE IN HIGH SCHOOL? Did you sneak any real life situations into your novel?

How do you find these things out? Are you stalking me? Yes, my dear friend Chris was what I believe to be The Original Man of Honor way back in ‘97. Five years later, almost to the day, I was a groomswoman in his wedding to Ally, his beautiful and accomplished wife. I don’t recall any of that having an influence on MATCH, but Chris does have an insanely hilarious sense of humor which I’ve tried to emulate for years. I will admit that a few real-life situations and characters appear in my book, but I’m not idiot enough to say what they are. I’m almost idiot enough, but not quite.

Do you have any hockey-inspired advice for aspiring writers?

Cover up your five-hole, for crying out loud! Just kidding. Of course, the best hockey-inspired advice — for writing and for life in general — comes from The Great One, Wayne Gretzky. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Which is harder- writing a novel or getting the 4 year old to eat tuna salad?

Oh, the novel, by far. Although, my success with the 4 year-old was short lived, it was deceptively simple. I just tricked him by pretending it was some kind of tuna-treat. He’s smarter now that he’s 5. Dammit.

This is some hardcore racing. It’s terrifying how close the spectators are to the car, and wow, those flashbulbs are bright!

On Muses

Which Is Not So Much a Rebuttal of Jackson Pearce, as a Contrary but Complementary Reply

So, the world starts with animistic gods. Concept gods. The sea IS a god. The storm IS a god. Time IS a god. But there’s not much you can do with an animistic god. It’s ineffable, the god does what the god does without reason or understanding. It simply is.

Which is pretty unsatisfying when you’re being buffeted by the tide and the storm and the endless march of hours. There’s no point in asking the sea to hold back its waves, time to hold its seconds, the sky to keep its lightning.

But if the sea is NOT a god, but the domain of one, perhaps that guy will intervene. If you name him Poseidon, and give sacrifices and pray- perhaps you can reason with him, and he will intervene and save your house from the tidal wave. If he is a god in your own image, maybe he is like you- you can win him to your side. He can be your ally.

So I could say, a muse is just an anthropomorphic god that describes an animistic concept- inspiration. I could, each time I talk about writing, explain that there are moments when everything is functioning well beyond established parameters, the words come more easily due to a longtime pattern of hard work, practice, concentration and discipline, and I feel quite content with these moments as they are the fruits of a carefully cultivated career.

But you know what? That’s not what it feels like.

I don’t usually have times where, lo, the muse comes down and visits on me an idea. Ideas are workmanlike things. I cobble them together from all kinds of sources, until I have something that resembles a plot. Even my characters- though they tend to spring into my head fully-formed- don’t arrive with fanfare. They’re just there, waiting for the idea-cobbling to get started.

This is all work, and it’s why I write 1000 words a day, no matter what. No god- animistic or anthropomorphic- shows up at my elbow during the exposition. It’s hard work; it’s laying foundation, and putting up a frame and there’s nothing special in that. It’s sweat and blood and self-doubt and sheer force of will.

But with every book I write, there comes a possession. When the exposition is planted, and the story blooms, and it all becomes real. My hands burn to write; my characters wake me up at night. I go from suffering 1000 words a day to spilling out 5000 in a morning. There’s madness to it, and obsession in it.

I live in that world of my own making, and I resent being pulled from it. I don’t finish for the day, I surface. It’s a fundamental, essential magic that aches in my marrow and commands my blood. It’s the hit that makes me cry when the book is over. That makes me jitter if I go too long between one story and the next.

And I don’t care if other people believe in them, or hate them, or commune with them or what- I’m calling that a muse. Whatever animistic force that is- whether it originates in my branemeats or from harmonic resonance with the universe or from gamma radiation from the earth’s yellow sun- it’s not just my daily discipline and structure.

It’s not the 1000 words I put in every single day, whether I want to write or not. It’s not the careful, logical construction of a world and the people in it, though it never, ever comes until I’ve done those things.

If by scheduling words, reading to learn more, revising, editing and all, I’ve sent up sacrifices and prayers to create an anthropomorphic god, then so be it. Use whatever words you like to describe it, but for me- it’s ineffable. It does what it does without reason or understanding. It simply is. And that’s my muse.

Jane Fonda got work done. Now she looks like Carol Burnett. No seriously, she does. Look:

The Guardian presents 10 rules for writing fiction from a diverse crowd of writers including Phillip Pullman, Sarah Waters, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood and more. What I love about this particular article is how personal and contradictory the lists are. Which proves the original adage, “Nobody knows anything.”