MEET CATHERINE RYAN HYDE
by Bonnie O'Brian

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

People think I'm joking, but my first really influential author was Dr. Suess. There was a message behind his words. He was always stressing equanimity, dignity. Individual worth. Plus he was entertaining. I still enjoy Dr. Suess to this very day. Later, as a young adult, I read BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN. FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. OF MICE AND MEN. The plays TWELVE ANGRY MEN and A RAISIN IN THE SUN. I think this is when I began to know that my own writing would be in defense of the social underdog.

When you were a child did you ever have moments when you decided that you were going to be a writer when you grew up?

One big one, in my sophomore year of high school. My favorite English and Creative Writing teacher, Lenny Horowitz, told the whole class I could write. I had written an essay that was intended to be funny. Always a risk. He read it out loud to the class. Everybody laughed. He laughed. He said it was clever. Later I learned that he had gone into the staff lounge and told all my other teachers that I could write. Up to that moment, most of my experiences had involved being told what I could not do. This was my first experience with being told I had talent--any talent, for anything--and it had a profound effect on me.

Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?

I experienced a number of rejections. I couldn't get an agent for several years, so I marketed my own short fiction to literary and small circulation magazines. I weathered 122 rejections before placing three in the span of two weeks. I have since published over 50 stories, including many prize-winning stories, but in the process have garnered more than 1,000 short story rejections. My first novel to be marketed by an agent was WALTER'S PURPLE HEART. It was rejected about 22-24 times. Later it was sold, in the exact same form, to Simon & Schuster for six figures. PAY IT FORWARD, my best-selling book to date, was rejected by the agent I was working with at the time. If it had been just a little earlier in my career, I might have put it away in a drawer in dismay. I'm rather glad I didn't.

Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?

No to both questions. I know "they" always say you must do both. But I don't. After years of writing I can usually tell the difference between the days I'm going to write something worth keeping and the days it's just not happening. If it's not happening, I'll do something else. Walk the dog, balance my checkbook. Get the car serviced. All the things I know I won't do when the work catches fire again. I find it's not only a waste of time to force myself, it's also bad for my morale to turn out pages that are destined for the recycle bin. So I'm very much at the mercy of my own creative process. But there's nothing I'd rather do than write. So if I can be in front of the computer productively, I will be.

When is your next book going to be in book stores?

I’m pleased to say I have two books coming out next year. In March of ’08, Doubleday (who published LOVE IN THE PRESENT TENSE) will publish my next novel for the adult market. It’s called CHASING WINDMILLS, and it’s about two young people who meet while riding the subways under Manhattan late at night. Then in May, Knopf (who published BECOMING CHLOE and THE YEAR OF MY MIRACULOUS REAPPEARANCE) will publish my third young adult novel, THE DAY I KILLED JAMES. It’s a mature YA novel about a girl who holds herself responsible for the suicide of a young man who loved her.

Has anyone ever written you a fan letter that you’d like to share?

Yes. A young man named Riley Blackwell in Birmingham, Alabama. It was shortly after the release of the book PAY IT FORWARD. He was only in the second grade at the time, but his teacher had read his class an article about the book. He wrote and said he wanted to go talk to people in nursing homes because he thought they were lonely. For years when much older people would write and say, “I want to Pay It Forward, but I can’t think of anything,” I would wonder why some things are so easy for a second-grader and so hard for grown-ups.

Is there anything about yourself that you’d like to share - hobbies, where you were born, special talents other than writing/illustrating?

I’d like to share a little about my hobbies. I love the outdoors, and I am an avid hiker. I’ve day-hiked the Grand Canyon (South Rim to river and back in one day) twice. I’ve climbed Mt. Katahdin in Maine by way of the infamous Knife Edge trail. I’ve hiked from Yosemite Valley to the summit of Cloud’s Rest (which is a couple of miles farther and 1,100 feet higher than Half Dome) and back in one day. I’ve backpacked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in three days, two nights. I also love to kayak and fish (both in fresh and saltwater), and to camp. I live fairly near Yosemite, Sequoia, King’s Canyon, the Ventana Wilderness and other great open spaces and I try to get out as much as I can. I also make home-made candles, which seems not to fit with the other hobbies. But I enjoy it, and it makes gift-giving very easy, because people like to get presents that you made yourself.

What other jobs you had before you became a writer/illustrator?

For years I worked as a dog trainer. I had my own little business, working in the clients’ homes. I was a tour guide at the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. I also worked as an auto mechanic, a baker and a pastry chef. I think I have that classic hard-scrabble writer’s resume. It reflects how many years I tried to be happy in a more stable career than writing. But in the long run I had to follow my heart.