Catherine Ryan Hyde Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of more than 25 published and forthcoming books, including the bestselling When I found You, Pay It Forward, Don't Let Me Go, and Take Me With You.
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I’m guessing that most of you know my next release is BOY UNDERGROUND in December. But if you’re curious to know what’s in the pipeline, here’s the reveal for my first novel of ‘22.
It’s called DREAMING OF FLIGHT, it’s scheduled for next May 3rd, and it can be preordered anytime. You can read the publisher’s brief synopsis HERE.
Just keeping you in the loop.
Happy reading!
Today is the day my latest release, SEVEN PERFECT THINGS, bursts out into the world. Hopefully you know my email address, or where to find it (spoiler alert: look for “Contact Me” above) and you can let me know what you think.
If you ordered it in Kindle, check your ereader, or the Kindle software on your device. The book should have dropped. If you ordered a paper copy, it won’t be long now.
And in case you’re wondering what’s next, this is my December release, BOY UNDERGROUND. It may be my personal favorite of all my books, or it may be a tie with LUIS VELEZ for that honor. These things can be hard to judge. It’s available for preorder in hardcover, paperback, Kindle ebook, and audio CD.
Happy reading!
I have been a bad blogger. I’ve been told you never start a blog with that declaration, but I’m breaking the rule.
The last time I posted to this blog was August of 2020. That month I closed escrow on a horse pasture not far from my home. I improved it with enough infrastructure to make horses happy, and moved Soul there from a full-service boarding facility. I also adopted a miniature horse named Opal Moon to be his pasture pal. It was about as hard as it would have been to move myself, but we made the transition. Then, in February, I lost my beloved Ella at age 15, and two weeks later I adopted a special-needs puppy who required hip surgery immediately followed by a careful rehab.
Meanwhile I finished another novel.
I think you get the idea.
But this blog exists, and you were interested enough to subscribe to it. And just yesterday I received the finished author copies of my May release, SEVEN PERFECT THINGS, including a full carton of lovely hardcovers with dust jackets. So for my subscribers only, I’m putting seven of these up for grabs.
Now. I’ve tried everything to get everyone to read the directions (below), but some don’t. All I can say is that if you don’t read the following you might not be successfully entered. And I want you to be entered if you want to be. So, seriously. Twenty seconds:
Just leave a comment in the thread below to enter. Please be sure to leave your email address in the form (not a good idea to leave it in the body of the comment because it is, after all, the internet) so I can notify you if you win. As always, I promise I will never harvest or save your address, or use it for any other purpose. It may seem as though there’s no place to enter your email, but when you hit post that field should come up. If you have trouble you can go to Contact Me and let me know, and I’ll be happy to enter you manually. And if you’re reading this blog post on Amazon or Goodreads, please click through and leave your comment on the original blog on my website, so I have all my entries in one place. Along those same lines, if you are reading this as an email in your inbox, please click on the title of the post, which will take you to my actual blog page, rather than replying to the email.
I’ll leave this open until the weekend and then choose seven winners at random on Sunday. Good luck!
I used to write more blog posts like this one—not a specific announcement, but more my thoughts on some book-related subject or another. I don’t do it much anymore, because people subscribe to this blog now, and I feel a sense of responsibility. It’s important to me not to fill up your inbox with posts that are not the reason you subscribed.
So, this will not happen often.
But sometimes I get a question by email so frequently that I feel I need to address it at greater length, to help people understand.
I’m flattered when people ask for a sequel, because I like knowing that they want to spend more time with the characters. That said, I’m not a fan of sequels. For several reasons.
One: Sequels are famous for not living up to the originals.
Two: Though I realize readers don’t necessarily think of this, to get a good novel out of a set of characters, the author has to put them through hell. After holding these poor characters’ feet to the fire for the length of a novel, I like to picture them having a happy future. Happy futures are wonderful to live, but hopelessly boring to read about. When’s the last time you read a “gripping” novel about a person having a pleasant and relatively uneventful day?
Three: By the time people have read a book and requested a sequel, I’ve gone on to write at least two or three more novels, and I have lots of new fictional people I want you to meet. I realize that readers are faithful by nature, and I like that. I like that you got attached to the characters I presented. That’s a good thing. But I hope you’ll trust me. You might like the new ones, too.
The other reason people state for asking me to write a sequel: They want to know what happens to the characters. They are fictional characters (though I’m glad they seemed like more), so, in a strictly realistic sense, nothing happens to them. In a fictional sense, you have an imagination, too, and whatever you think happens to them is valid. In fact, I wrote a whole blog post about that HERE.
And while we’re on the subject of questions I get a lot, two or three times a week someone writes saying they can’t find book club questions online. If they are not on this website, they are hiding in plain sight in the back of the book.
Please feel free to share thoughts in the comments below. And, again, please be assured that I don’t do this sort of post very often. But sometimes it’s nice to take a minute to talk over the subjects readers clearly have on their minds.
Happy reading.
Rather than flood your email inbox with any more mail than necessary, I’m going to do this all at once.
Two big pieces of news.
One, I have the cover now for my May 2021 release, SEVEN PERFECT THINGS, which is available now for preorder. And I’m just so completely in love with it. I can’t wait to share it with you. So here goes. Hope you love it as much as I do.
Two, I just received some beautiful big cartons of my December 1st release, MY NAME IS ANTON. And of course you know by now what I do when I get my ARCs of a new book. I give a bunch of them away to my readers.
So here goes.
I’m going to ask you a favor here. Please read below. Please? It only takes a minute. And I spend a lot of time helping people see that they haven’t entered properly when all the directions were right there for them to read.
***INSTRUCTIONS***
Just leave a comment in the thread below to enter. Please be sure to leave your email address in the form (not a good idea to leave it in the body of the comment because it is, after all, the internet) so I can notify you if you win. As always, I promise I will never harvest or save your address, or use it for any other purpose. It may seem as though there’s no place to enter your email, but when you hit post that field should come up. If you have trouble you can go to Contact Me and let me know, and I’ll be happy to enter you manually. And if you’re reading this blog post on Amazon or Goodreads, please click through and leave your comment on the original blog on my website, so I have all my entries in one place. Along those same lines, if you are reading this as an email in your inbox, please click on the title of the post, which will take you to my actual blog page, rather than replying to the email.
I’ll leave this open for about a week and then choose five winners at random next weekend. Good luck!
Yesterday afternoon a big shipment of paperback and hardcover author copies of BRAVE GIRL, QUIET GIRL dropped onto my doorstep in advance of the 5/19 release date. Everybody loves a nice hardcover, right?
So let’s give some away.
I have six of these up for grabs for my subscribers only. Later I’ll give away some paperbacks and share the news on social media, but right now I’m saying thank you to you because you follow the blog.
The usual housekeeping:
Just leave a comment in the thread below to enter. Please be sure to leave your email address in the form (not a good idea to leave it in the body of the comment because it is, after all, the internet) so I can notify you if you win. As always, I promise I will never harvest or save your address, or use it for any other purpose. It may seem as though there’s no place to enter your email, but when you hit post that field should come up. If you have trouble you can go to Contact Me and let me know, and I’ll be happy to enter you manually. And if you’re reading this blog post on Amazon or Goodreads, please click through and leave your comment on the original blog on my website, so I have all my entries in one place.
I’ll leave this open for ten to twelve days and then choose six winners at random. Good luck!
I think most of you know that my next release is BRAVE GIRL, QUIET GIRL on May 19th.
But in case you're wondering what comes next after that...
THIS LINK will take you out to the Amazon detail page for MY NAME IS ANTON, which is set for a December 1st release.
Just keeping you posted. Remember you heard it here first.
Happy reading!
This is a giveaway for my blog subscribers only.
I did this once before, but unless you’ve been following this blog for a long time, you likely won’t remember. There’s a very nice company called USB Memory Direct who have twice sent me personalized custom USB drives to give away to my readers and fans. Here are some photos of what they gave me this time. Really above and beyond in design.
Now, this is a giveaway most useful to those who use computers rather than phones only. If that’s you, here’s what I’m giving away.
I’ve loaded ten of these with the .pdf version of my coffee table photo book 365 Days of Gratitude. A computer monitor is a great way to view the photos in color and full size. Then as a bonus I’ve loaded a folder of 60 of my astrophotography images. I’m not sure how many of you have noticed that I have a page on this site called My Astrophotography, but if you’re at all interested in astronomy (even if you know nothing about it but just enjoy seeing galaxies and nebulae) you might go take a look.
If you’d like to have one of the ten of these drives, just leave a comment in the thread below. Please be sure to leave your email address in the form (not a good idea to leave it in the body of the comment because it is, after all, the internet) so I can notify you if you win. As always, I promise I will never harvest or save your address, or use it for any other purpose. It may seem as though there’s no place to enter your email, but when you hit post that field should come up. If you have trouble you can go to Contact Me and let me know, and I’ll be happy to enter you manually.
I’ll leave this open for a week to ten days and then choose ten winners at random. Good luck!
Those of you who know me know this: When the UPS guy brings me a carton from my publisher, a giveaway is not far behind. If you saw how little storage space I have and how many books are crammed into it, you’d understand. Besides, I firmly believe that a book doesn’t belong in a dark box in the garage. It is meant to be in the hands of readers.
My last delivery was a carton of Large Print editions of HAVE YOU SEEN LUIS VELEZ? These are beautiful, big, shiny hardcovers. And I know a lot of my readers appreciate large print (though I have to stress that Kindle font can be adjusted to any size that suits you). Anyway, I’m putting three of these up for grabs.
I need to try to heal a disconnect around what it means to leave a comment on this original blog. Apparently that has caused some confusion. You should be able to look up at the address bar and see catherineryanhyde.com/blog. Lots of you see my blog on Goodreads, in which case you need to click where it says: “View more on Catherine Ryan Hyde's website.” Others of you subscribe and will read this in an email, in which case you need to click: “Read in browser .” Clicking on the post’s title should do it as well.
I need your email address in the comment form (people are putting them in the body of the comment, but that’s a lot less private—really think if you want to do that on the internet) so I can contact you if you win. I promise I will never save it or use it for any other purpose. It may seem there is no place to enter it, but when you hit post that field should come up. Feel free to contact me if it gives you any trouble.
And that’s it! I’ll choose three winners next weekend. Good luck!
PS: If you ever want to know who won previous giveaways, just go back to the post for that giveaway. I announce the winners as (usually) the last comment, then turn off commenting the following morning.
I don’t want the concept of giving away free books to get old. And yet I can’t help but assume that if I’m going to be doing too much of anything, you’d want it to be giveaways.
Anyway, the timing was decided for me because just days after the release of STAY I received two big boxes of ARCs for my May 2020 release, BRAVE GIRL, QUIET GIRL. When I get ARCs, I give them away. It’s just what I do.
So, okay. The “housekeeping.” I‘m sensing that the breakdown in communication regarding “leave a comment on this original blog” is happening because people don’t always know which one is original. It’s on my blog on my website. So you should look up at the address bar and see catherineryanhyde.com/blog. Lots of you see my blog on Goodreads, in which case you need to click where it says: “View more on Catherine Ryan Hyde's website.” Others of you subscribe and will read this in an email, in which case you need to click: “Read in browser .” Clicking on the post’s title should do it as well.
I need your email address in the comment form (people are putting them in the body of the comment, but that’s a lot less private—really think if you want to do that on the internet) so I can contact you if you win. I promise I will never save it or use it for any other purpose. It may seem there is no place to enter it, but when you hit post that field should come up. Feel free to contact me if it gives you any trouble.
And that’s it! I’ll choose three winners next weekend. Good luck!
PS: If you ever want to know who won previous giveaways, just go back to the post for that giveaway. I announce the winners as (usually) the last comment, then turn off commenting the following morning.
As promised, here is my second STAY giveaway, this time for audiobooks. Believe it or not, STAY releases on Tuesday. This Tuesday. Don’t ask me where the time goes. I don’t know.
This is an ongoing issue for me in giveaways—when people don’t read the post no matter how much I beg them to. Then they “enter” in a way that doesn’t really enter them, and I have to individually let them know. So I’m going to make a bold statement here: This is a giveaway for people who care enough to read the following short paragraph.
Your entry is simply a comment ***ON THS ORIGINAL BLOG.*** In other words, if you are on the blog page of my website, perfect. If you are receiving this blog post via email, please click through to the original post on my site and leave a comment to enter. If you’re reading it on Goodreads, same. I need all entries together so nobody gets left out. And I need your email address in the comment form so I can contact you if you win. I promise I will never save it or use it for any other purpose. It may seem there is no place to enter it, but when you hit post that field should come up. Feel free to contact me if it gives you any trouble.
And that’s it! I’ll choose three winners next weekend and you’ll have your choice of MP3 disc or CD-set audio. Good luck!
This is where I hope I add some value for those of you who follow my blog.
It’s only a little more than two weeks until the December 3rd release of STAY, and I have my author’s copies. And there are hardcovers. And everybody loves hardcovers. Right?
So I’m going to give away three of these to my blog followers, and when this giveaway is over I’ll do another giveaway for three audiobooks.
That should help keep us busy until the release.
If you are receiving this blog post via email, please click through to the original post on my site and leave a comment to enter. If you’re reading it on Goodreads, same. I need all entries together so nobody gets left out. And I need your email address in the comment form so I can contact you if you win. I promise I will never save it or use it for any other purpose. It may seem there is no place to enter it, but when you hit post that field should come up. Feel free to contact me if it gives you any trouble.
I’ll choose a winner next Sunday. Eight days to enter. Good luck!
I think you all know by now that my next release, STAY, is due out on December 3rd.
But now you might want to know what comes after that.
This is the cover for my May 19th, 2020 release, BRAVE GIRL, QUIET GIRL. You can go to its Amazon Detail page HERE.
It’s already available for preorder in Kindle, hardcover, paperback and audio CD. And you can read what it’s about.
I love this cover! I mean, more than most of my covers, I just love this cover.
More news as it becomes available.
It’s been a long time since I’ve written a deals post, but this September is a great month for price promotions, including even my latest release.
Before you read the following list, please be aware that this is all Kindle and all in the US marketplace.
I have seven books included in the Kindle Monthly Deals promotion, each for only $1.99. They are: HAVE YOU SEEN LUIS VELEZ?, JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT, THE WAKE UP, HEAVEN ADJACENT, SAY GOODBYE FOR NOW, TAKE ME WITH YOU, and ALLIE AND BEA.
I also have four books included in the Literature and Fiction Kindle Book Deals for September. ASK HIM WHY and WHEN I FOUND YOU are on sale for $1.99 and WALK ME HOME and THE LANGUAGE OF HOOFBEATS are on sale for only 99 cents.
If you’re missing any of these titles, now is the time to grab them. But you don’t need to be in too much of a hurry. You have all month. Plenty of time to recommend titles to friends. :-)
Happy reading!
This is where giveaways, in my opinion, really get good.
My next book comes out on the 3rd of December. Most of you have read HAVE YOU SEEN LUIS VELEZ? by now, and you want to know what comes next. Then the UPS guy drops a nice big carton of advance readers’ copies of the new book, STAY, on my porch. And I can not only show you what you’re waiting for, I can give you a crack at an early copy.
I have three of these to give away on my blog.
Once again I BEG YOU to read the paragraph below. A percentage of people won’t, which usually results in my not being able to enter them, for reasons such as not being able to contact them if they win. So, please, for your own sake. It takes seconds.
***PLEASE READ BELOW!***
Leave a comment below to be entered. Please DO leave your email address in the comment form (even though it will say it's optional). I promise I won't use it for any other purpose but to notify you if you win. Please DON'T leave your email address in the body of your comment unless you want everybody to see it. (It will seem there is no place for your name and email. But when you hit "Post Comment," you'll see those fields come up.)
And if you're reading this on Goodreads, or if you’re a subscriber reading an emailed version of this post, please click through and leave your comment on my original blog. Otherwise I worry I'll forget you when the time comes to draw names.
I’ll leave this open for entries for about ten days or so. Then I’ll choose three winners at random.
Good luck!
My pick is in here somewhere, losing.
For those of you who say you’re all caught up with my novels and can’t wait for something new, here’s some free reading.
Fellow author Brian Farrey invented The Bet. In case you’re wondering who’s to blame. He linked to this Atlantic article about a Stephen King short story, “Herman Wouk is Still Alive.”
“Every year my son Owen and I have a bet on the NCAA March Madness Tournament,” King said, “and last year the stakes were that the loser would have to write a story [with a title] the winner gave to him. And I lost. Except I really won, because I got this story that I really like.”
Along with the link, Brian tweeted, “Anybody wanna make a bet with similar stakes w/me?”
He got two takers. Foolish me and fellow YA author Kimberly Pauley.
Here are the rules. We each pick a horse in the Kentucky Derby. Maybe none of our horses win, but they have to finish in some kind of order. The one with the best showing of the four gets to dictate a story title to the person whose horse had the second best showing of the four. That person not only writes a story, but dictates a title to the person whose horse had the third best showing of the four. And that person not only writes a story, but gives a title to the person whose horse had the worst day.
Andrew Smith came in for a time, but dropped out again. David Lubar came in, then out. This year we were joined by Gail Doggett.
In case you’re wondering why you haven’t heard about this, for the last two (possibly three) years, my horse has not only won the bet, but the actual Kentucky Derby. This year my luck ran out in a big way. My horse was fourth of the four.
Gail Doggett assigned me my title: A CATHEDRAL OF BEES.
All of my Bet stories are about the lives of the same characters, a young gay couple named Brian and Tim. About Brian’s crazy family and unsteady career as an artist, and Tim’s ability to stand like a rock through all of these changes. Nobody said I had to use the same characters in each story, but I grew to love these guys.
They do tend to work best in a progression, so I’ll link to the earlier stories here:
GOOD ENOUGH TO PLAY AT STEVIE’S
And this year’s offering: A CATHEDRAL OF BEES
A lot of you are telling me you have read HAVE YOU SEEN LUIS VELEZ? and want to know what to look forward to next.
Here’s your answer.
This is my December 3rd release, STAY.
The title and cover are links that will take you out to its Amazon page, where you can read a brief description and preorder if you feel so inclined.
The five+ months will go by before you know it!
This week I got an unexpected shipment. It was a carton of large print editions of my novel JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT. My first thought was that I needed to give some away, because I know a lot of my readers enjoy large print.
These are lovely, shiny, big hardcover editions. I have three to give away to my blog folks. All I ask is that you take 30 seconds to read the instructions:
***PLEASE READ BELOW!***
Leave a comment below to be entered. Please DO leave your email address in the comment form (even though it will say it's optional). I promise I won't use it for any other purpose but to notify you if you win. Please DON'T leave your email address in the body of your comment unless you want everybody to see it. (It will seem there is no place for your name and email. But when you hit "Post Comment," you'll see those fields come up.)
And if you're reading this on Goodreads, or if you’re a subscriber reading an emailed version of this post, please click through and leave your comment on my original blog. Otherwise I worry I'll forget you when the time comes to draw names.
I’ll leave this open for entries for about a week. Then I’ll choose three winners at random.
Good luck!
Okay, so I dropped the ball. My latest novel, HAVE YOU SEEN LUIS VELEZ?, was released on May 21st. I was incredibly excited about it (even more so than for most of my releases), and have been watching it closely since. But I forgot my release-day ritual, which is to, 1) update my website to show it as available, not forthcoming and, 2) write a blog post letting my subscribers know it’s here.
Since I’m late, let me take the opportunity to share what’s been happening since release day.
LUIS VELEZ “charted” on Amazon. The Amazon Charts represent the bestselling and most-read books on any given week, and HAVE YOU SEEN LUIS VELEZ? debuted at #20. It also debuted at #6 on the Wall Street Journal Ebook Bestseller chart. And it already has over 220 Amazon readers reviews, with a star average of 4.9, which is the highest rating any of my books has ever achieved.
Whew. Maybe I should be late announcing a new book more often.
This one is especially close to my heart, so please remember that my real, direct email address is available on the Contact Me page, and that I really do like to hear your feedback.
Happy reading!
Hey, reader-friends. Guess what? HAVE YOU SEEN LUIS VELEZ? is here! I got my author paperbacks from the UPS guy yesterday. And if you know me at all—that is, if this is not your first Catherine’s Blog Rodeo—you know what that means: Giveaway time!
These three are up for grabs, and you need to do two things to get into the running to win one. They are quick and easy things, but essential. One, READ THE PARAGRAPH BELOW. Please, please, please read the paragraph below. Please? About 15% of the people who enter my giveaways clearly don’t, no matter how hard I beg. I can only do what I can do, folks. I want to give you free books, but you have to work with me. It’s like a 20-second read, if that. Two: After you’ve read the instructions, leave a comment.
Easy, right?
***PLEASE READ BELOW!***
Leave a comment below to be entered. Please DO leave your email address in the comment form (even though it will say it's optional). I promise I won't use it for any other purpose but to notify you if you win. Please DON'T leave your email address in the body of your comment unless you want everybody to see it. (It will seem there is no place for your name and email. But when you hit "Post Comment," you'll see those fields come up.)
And if you're reading this on Goodreads, please click through and leave your comment on my original blog. Otherwise I worry I'll forget you when the time comes to draw names.
I’ll leave this open for entries for at least a week but not more than ten days. Then I’ll choose three winners at random.
Good luck!
