Last night I attended a book signing by a favorite author of mine, Carrie Ryan. Carrie is the author of New York Times best seller (as of last week!) The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I received The Forest of Hands and Teeth from a blog contest by YA author, Suzanne Young. I brought it on vacation last summer to read. I knew it was about zombies, and that's it. In fact, I wasn't sure I would like the book, because it was about zombies and I had never read a book about zombies before. Well, I liked it. I liked it a lot. I read that book in a day and a half. We were at my dad's cabin and even though I am usually an overprotective mother, I was not the day I was reading that book. I couldn't put it down. My kids played outside, caught frogs, went fishing while I sat on the porch and read and read and read.So, I was pretty excited about Carrie's companion book, The Dead Tossed Waves coming out this month. I was even more excited that she was signing at a book store about an hour away from me and my children amazingly had no evening activities last night.
I had a front row seat as Carrie discussed how her writing career came to be or "How does one who loves pink knee socks write zombies?".
It goes back to when Carrie was five and watched the movie Poltergeist with a babysitter. She was terrified. Her parents came home with fifteen minutes left of the movie and took the babysitter home with no pay for the night. Carrie swore off horror movies until her boyfriend at law school took her to see the remake of Dawn of the Dead. She was frightened again, but really wondered how the movie ended. She kept wondering what happened and what would she do if she were in that situation. Her boyfriend then bought her a Zombie Survival Guide as a joke, and her interest in zombies continued.
Carrie actually started writing chick lit, but her boyfriend told her to write what you love when she couldn't think of something to write for Nanowrimo. And that was zombies. Her now fiance also thought of her unique title names for her books as well. What a guy!
Carrie was eloquent, funny, and friendly to all of us at the bookstore. She has already written the next book titled The Dark and Hollow Places, but it is still in the final revision process. The movie rights have been purchased for A Forest of Hands and Teeth, so I hope to see that in a theater in the next few years! But today I start reading The Dead-Tossed Waves.
Listen to Carrie read an excerpt from The Dead-Tossed Waves.
Here's my signed book!
In other book news, check out your Cheerios box for Lori Degman's debut picture book, 1 Zany Zoo! I bought mine yesterday! Lori is last years Spoonful of winner and also a member of my local SCBWI chapter. The picture book is in Spanish and English! This is the back of the Cheerios box. Congrats, Lori! The hardcover version of the book will be available at book stores in July!
I also want to thank the ladies at Eco Women. I won a Mrs. Myers gift card and wool dryer balls at their site. My husband and I have been using planet friendlier cleaners so the gift card will go towards more natural and less chemicals! Check out their site to find out great tips for going green!
