Carrie Ryan is the New York Times bestselling author of the Forest of Hands and Teeth series, the Map to Everywhere series (written with her husband, John Parke Davis), Daughter of Deep Silence, Infinity Ring: Divide and Conquer, and Dead Air (written with Gwenda Bond and Rachel Caine), as well as the editor of Foretold: 14 Tales of Prophecy and Prediction.
Her books have sold in over 22 territories, and her first book is in development as a major motion picture. A former litigator, Carrie now lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and various pets. You can find her online at www.CarrieRyan.com or on Instagram at @CarrieRyanWrites.
Interviews
Interview with Carrie Ryan, Author of the Forest of Hands and Teeth Series
By Griffin, Catherine W.
Carrie Ryan is the New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Forest of Hands and Teeth series, which has been translated into over eighteen languages and is in development as a major motion picture. She is also the editor of the anthology Foretold: 1 4 Tales of Prophecy and Prediction, as well as author of Infinity Ring: Divide and Conquer, the second book in Scholastic's new multi-author/multi-platform series for middle grade readers. Carrie is a graduate of Williams College and Duke University School of Law. A former litigator, she now writes full time.
Griffin: When did you first start writing stories? What made you want to write full-time?
Ryan: The first short story I ever wrote was for a high school class in Southern fiction, and I pretty much never stopped writing after that. I've always been a huge reader and growing up authors were like rock stars to me, but it never occurred to me that I could be an author because I was an average kid from South Carolina. It wasn't until I read an interview with one of my favorite authors where she said that she wrote her first book when she finished reading a novel and thought "I could do that" that I realized being a writer was a possibility - I just had to decide to do it. From that moment on, becoming an author was my absolute dream and I'm still so amazed that this is what I get to do full-time.
Griffin: On your blog, you mention that if it weren't for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), you may never have written The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Why do you think this particular movement helped give you the push you needed to write?
Ryan: There are several reasons NaNo helped me. First, because it was only a month it gave me the freedom to experiment with voice, style, content, etc. Up until then I'd been too focused on the market and on trying to figure out what to write that might sell. With NaNo I decided to just focus on the writing and take a risk - I never really expected anything would come out of it! Also, I can be a competitive person and NaNo really challenged me to find that free time and write more. I learned that even if I wrote during the ten minutes that pasta was boiling for dinner, those words could add up. Finally, I think the NaNo community is really great - you get to meet other people who love writing as much as you do and it's wonderful to make those connections (that can often turn into lasting friendships!).
Griffin: What sort of advice would you give aspiring authors - especially those that decide to participate in NaNoWriMo?
Ryan: My advice to writers is always to write. Which I know sounds a bit obvious, but it's so easy to think about writing and talk about writing and blog about writing and to not actually write. That's one of the benefits to NaNo - it forces you to write. But also, I think it's important to take risks. I would have never written The Forest of Hands and Teeth if I hadn't allowed myself to forget about trying to sell a book and just take a risk on writing something I loved.
Griffin: Before you started writing full-time, you worked as a paralegal and went to law school. What made you decide to pursue writing in the end?
Ryan: Writing was my dream job for a long time but the practical streak in me knew how important it was to have a back-up plan. I actually loved law school but once I started practicing law I realized that I didn't want to be a lawyer for the rest of my life. I asked myself if I could do anything in the world, what would it be? The answer was writing but at the time I wasn't doing anything to chase after that dream. I realized that I didn't want to wake up in five or ten years and still be in the same place: a lawyer whose dream was to write but who wasn't actually writing. So I started writing!
Griffin: Were you ever discouraged when you first tried to make it as an author?
Ryan: There were definitely times when I was discouraged. I actually have a blog entry where I posted an email I sent to my husband saying that I'd always been so confident about my goal to be an author but what if I can't or don't actually do it? …
