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About Catherine Ryan Hyde
An avid hiker, traveler, equestrian, and amateur photographer and astrophotographer, she has a published book of photos, 365 DAYS OF GRATITUDE: PHOTOS FROM A BEAUTIFUL WORLD.
She is co-author, with fellow author and publishing industry blogger Anne R. Allen, of HOW TO BE A WRITER IN THE E-AGE: A SELF-HELP GUIDE.
Her novel PAY IT FORWARD was adapted into a major motion picture, chosen by the American Library Association for its Best Books for Young Adults list, and translated into more than 23 languages for distribution in over 30 countries. The paperback was released in October 2000 by Pocket Books and quickly became a national bestseller. Simon & Schuster released PAY IT FORWARD: YOUNG READERS' EDITION in August of '14. It is suitable for kids as young as eight. A special Fifteenth Anniversary Edition of the original PAY IT FORWARD was released in December of '14
LOVE IN THE PRESENT TENSE enjoyed bestseller status in the UK, where it broke the top ten, spent five weeks on the bestseller lists, was reviewed on a major TV book club, and shortlisted for a Best Read of the Year award at the British Book Awards. Both BECOMING CHLOE and JUMPSTART THE WORLD were included on the ALA's Rainbow List, and JUMPSTART THE WORLD was a finalist for two Lambda Literary Awards. WHERE WE BELONG won two Rainbow Awards in 2013 and THE LANGUAGE OF HOOFBEATS won a Rainbow Award in 2015.
New Kindle editions of her backlist titles FUNERALS FOR HORSES, EARTHQUAKE WEATHER AND OTHER STORIES, ELECTRIC GOD, and WALTER'S PURPLE HEART are now available. Also available is THE LONG, STEEP PATH: EVERYDAY INSPIRATION FROM THE AUTHOR OF PAY IT FORWARD, her first book-length creative nonfiction.
More than 50 of her short stories have been published in The Antioch Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train and many other journals, and in the anthologies Santa Barbara Stories and California Shorts and the bestselling anthology Dog is my Co-Pilot. Her stories have been honored in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest and the Tobias Wolff Award and nominated for Best American Short Stories, the O'Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Three have been cited in Best American Short Stories.
She is founder and former president (2000-2009) of the Pay It Forward Foundation, and still serves on its board of directors. As a professional public speaker she has addressed the National Conference on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, met with Americorps members at the White House and shared a dais with Bill Clinton.
For more information and book club questions for most backlist titles, please visit the author at catherineryanhyde.com (Note: The newer titles have book club questions included at the back of the book.)
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Blog postI 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 re
4 months ago Read more -
Blog postRather 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
5 months ago Read more -
Blog postYesterday 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 subsc
8 months ago Read more -
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Blog postI 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
9 months ago Read more -
Blog postThis 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
9 months ago Read more -
Blog postThose 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 i
1 year ago Read more -
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Blog postI 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
1 year ago Read more -
Blog postAs 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 do
1 year ago Read more -
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Blog postThis 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 th
1 year ago Read more -
Blog postI 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
1 year ago Read more -
Blog postIt’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, eac
1 year ago Read more -
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Blog postThis 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 sho
1 year ago Read more -
Blog postMy 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 Atlanti
2 years ago Read more -
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Blog postA 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.
Th
2 years ago Read more -
Blog postThis 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 as
2 years ago Read more -
Blog postOkay, 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 forth
2 years ago Read more -
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Blog postHey, 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
2 years ago Read more -
Blog postSo. This is another one of those months. Those lovely months when just about everything is on sale. All my Lake Union titles, which are my most recent books. Here’s what we have in the way of February deals, and you can run down the list and see if anything catches your eye.
Four of my titles will be included in “Amazon’s
2 years ago Read more -
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Blog postThis is very exciting to me.
Just a matter of two weeks or so following the release of JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT, I received these from the UPS guy. A carton of beautiful (in my opinion) ARCs of my May 2019 release, HAVE YOU SEEN LUIS VELEZ?
I’m very excited to share LUIS VELEZ with you. I adore the cover, and the story just feel
2 years ago Read more -
Blog postIt’s all I can do not to sing “Happy Book Birthday to Me” to myself this morning. Just After Midnight is here. This is its release day—December 4th.
It’s available in Kindle, paperback, audio CD, and Audible download. And the audiobook is quite wonderful. It’s narrated by Kate Rudd, who read the female part in The Fault i
2 years ago Read more -
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New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde returns with a hopeful novel of sacrifice, two lost souls, and enduring love.
It’s 1965, and life has taken a turn for eighteen-year-old Anton Addison-Rice. Nearly a year after his brother died in a tragic accident, Anton is still wounded—physically and emotionally. Alone for the holidays, he catches a glimpse of his neighbor Edith across the street one evening and realizes that she’s in danger.
Anton is determined to help Edith leave her abusive marriage. Frightened and fifteen years Anton’s senior, Edith is slow to trust. But when she needs a safe place to stay, she lets down her guard, and over the course of ten days an unlikely friendship grows. As Anton falls hopelessly and selflessly in love, Edith fears both her husband finding her and Anton getting hurt. She must disappear without telling anyone where she’s going—even Anton.
If keeping Edith safe means letting her go, Anton will say goodbye forever. Or so he believes. What would happen, though, if one day their paths should cross again?
New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde tells the emotional story of an alcoholic reeling from the loss of his son on the journey to finally facing his pain—and forging a path to redemption.
August Shroeder, a burned-out teacher, has been sober since his nineteen-year-old son died. Every year he’s spent the summer on the road, but making it to Yellowstone this year means everything. The plan had been to travel there with his son, but now August is making the trip with Philip’s ashes instead. An unexpected twist of fate lands August with two extra passengers for his journey, two half-orphans with nowhere else to go.
What none of them could have known was how transformative both the trip—and the bonds that develop between them—would prove, driving each to create a new destiny together.
An Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestseller.
From New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde comes a gripping and emotional novel about friendship, motherhood, and the journey toward finding a place to call home.
Brooke is a divorced single mom, financially strapped, living with her mother, and holding tight to the one thing that matters most: her two-year-old daughter, Etta. Then, in a matter of seconds, Brooke’s life is shattered when she’s carjacked. Helpless and terrified, all Brooke can do is watch as Etta, still strapped in her seat, disappears into the Los Angeles night.
Miles away, Etta is found by Molly, a homeless teen who is all too used to darkness. Thrown away by her parents, and with a future as stable as the wooden crate she calls home, Molly survives day to day by her wits. As unpredictable as her life is, she’s stunned to find Etta, abandoned and alone. Shielding the little girl from more than the elements, Molly must put herself in harm’s way to protect a child as lost as she is.
Out of one terrible moment, Brooke’s and Molly’s desperate paths converge and an unlikely friendship across generations and circumstances is formed. With it, Brooke and Molly will come to discover that what’s lost—and what’s found—can change in a heartbeat.
An unforgettable novel about the power of friendship and kindness by the New York Times bestselling author of Pay It Forward.
In the summer of 1969, fourteen-year-old Lucas Painter carries a huge weight on his shoulders. His brother is fighting in Vietnam. His embattled parents are locked in a never-ending war. And his best friend, Connor, is struggling with his own family issues. To find relief from the chaos, Lucas takes long, meandering walks, and one day he veers into the woods.
There he discovers an isolated cabin and two huge dogs. Frightened, he runs. And the dogs run with him. Lucas finds unusual peace in running with the dogs, and eventually he meets their owner, Zoe Dinsmore. Closed off and haunted by a tragic past, Zoe has given up. She doesn’t want to be saved. She wants out. But Lucas doesn’t want her to go, and he sees an opportunity to bring more than one friend back into the light. It’s either the best or worst idea he’s ever had, but Lucas isn’t giving up on Zoe or Connor.
Their unexpected connection might be the saving grace that Zoe thought she’d lost, that Connor needs, and that Lucas has been running toward.
An Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestseller.
New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde brings heartwarming authenticity to the story of two strangers who find that kindness is a powerful antidote to fear.
Raymond Jaffe feels like he doesn’t belong. Not with his mother’s new family. Not as a weekend guest with his father and his father’s wife. Not at school, where he’s an outcast. After his best friend moves away, Raymond has only two real connections: to the feral cat he’s tamed and to a blind ninety-two-year-old woman in his building who’s introduced herself with a curious question: Have you seen Luis Velez?
Mildred Gutermann, a German Jew who narrowly escaped the Holocaust, has been alone since her caretaker disappeared. She turns to Raymond for help, and as he tries to track Luis down, a deep and unexpected friendship blossoms between the two.
Despondent at the loss of Luis, Mildred isolates herself further from a neighborhood devolving into bigotry and fear. Determined not to let her give up, Raymond helps her see that for every terrible act the world delivers, there is a mirror image of deep kindness, and Mildred helps Raymond see that there’s hope if you have someone to hold on to.
A heart-stirring novel about the joy that comes from finding love in unexpected places by the New York Times and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author.
Thirteen-year-old Abby Hubble lives in an unhappy home in the Sierra Nevada foothills where her father makes life miserable for her and her mother, Mary. One day Abby witnesses a man dump a litter of puppies into the nearby river. Diving in to rescue all seven, she knows she won’t be able to bring them home. Afraid for their fate at the pound, she takes them to an abandoned cabin, where all she can offer is a promise that she’ll be back the next day.
To grieving widower Elliot Colvin, life has lost meaning. Looking for solace, he retreats to the hunting cabin he last visited years ago, before his wife’s illness. What he discovers is not at all what he expected: seven puppies and one determined girl with an indomitable heart.
As Abby and Elliot’s friendship deepens, Abby imagines how much better her life—and the puppies’ lives—would be if her mother were married to Elliot instead of her father. But when Abby’s father moves the family hundreds of miles away, Abby and her mother must decide how long they’re willing to defer happiness.
Seven Perfect Things is a story about joy, where to find it, how to know it when you see it, and the courage it takes to hang on to it once you have it.
The New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde is heartfelt and perceptive in this bittersweet story about slowing down and discovering what can be gained when leaving everything behind.
Roseanna Chaldecott spent her life as a high-powered lawyer in Manhattan. But when her best friend and law partner dies suddenly, something snaps. Unsure of her future, Roseanna heads upstate on one tank of gas and with no plans to return.
In the foothills of the Adirondacks, Roseanna discovers the perfect hideout in a ramshackle farm. Its seventy-six acres are rich with possibilities and full of surprises, including a mother and daughter squatting on the property. Although company is the last thing Roseanna wants, she reluctantly lets them stay.
Roseanna and the young girl begin sculpting junk found around the farm into zoo animals, drawing more newcomers—including her estranged son, Lance. He pleads with Roseanna to return to the city, but she’s finally discovered where she belongs. It may not provide the solitude she originally sought, but her heart has found room for much more.
An Amazon Charts bestseller.
Humor and heart move the fast-paced journey of an unlikely pair coming together to form a family of their own in this touching story from New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde.
Bea has barely been scraping by since her husband died. After falling for a telephone scam, she loses everything and is forced to abandon her trailer. With only two-thirds of a tank in her old van, she heads toward the Pacific Ocean with her cat—on a mission to reclaim what’s rightfully hers, even if it means making others pay for what she lost.
When fifteen-year-old Allie’s parents are jailed for tax fraud, she’s sent to a group home. But when her life is threatened by another resident, she knows she has to get out. She escapes only to find she has nowhere to go—until fate throws Allie in Bea’s path.
Reluctant to trust each other, much less become friends, the two warily make their way up the Pacific Coast. Yet as their hearts open to friendship and love from the strangers they meet on their journey, they find the courage to forge their own unique family—and begin to see an imperfect world with new eyes.
From New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde comes an uplifting and poignant novel about friendship, trust, and facing your fears.
No longer tolerating her husband’s borderline abuse, Faith escapes to her parents’ California beach house to plan her next move. She never dreamed her new chapter would involve befriending Sarah, a fourteen-year-old on the run from her father and reeling from her mother’s sudden and suspicious death.
While Sarah’s grandmother scrambles to get custody, Faith is charged with spiriting the girl away on a journey that will restore her hope: Sarah implores Faith to take her to Falkner’s Midnight Sun, the prized black mare that her father sold out from under her. Sarah shares an unbreakable bond with Midnight and can’t bear to be apart from her. Throughout the sweltering summer, as they follow Midnight from show to show, Sarah comes to terms with what she witnessed on the terrible night her mother died.
But the journey is far from over. Faith must learn the value of trusting her instincts—and realize that the key to her future, and Sarah’s, is in her hands.
The story of how a boy who believed in the goodness of human nature set out to change the world.
Pay It Forward is a wondrous and moving novel about Trevor McKinney, a twelve-year-old boy in a small California town who accepts the challenge that his teacher gives his class, a chance to earn extra credit by coming up with a plan to change the world for the better -- and to put that plan into action.
The idea that Trevor comes up with is so simple and so naïve that when others learn of it they are dismissive. Even Trevor himself begins to doubt when his "pay it forward" plan seems to founder on a combination of bad luck and the worst of human nature.
What is his idea? Trevor chooses three people for whom he will do a favor, and then when those people thank him and ask how they might pay him back, he will tell them that instead of paying him back, they should each "pay it forward" by choosing three people for whom they can do favors, and in turn telling those people to pay it forward. It's nothing less than a human chain letter of kindness and good will.
Does his plan work? No. And yes -- it works wonderfully, but only after it has seemed to Trevor that maybe all his efforts have been for naught. The first person he chooses to help -- a homeless man to whom he gives his paper-route money so he can make himself presentable enough to find a job -- disappoints him by returning to a life of dissolution and eventually ending up in jail. The second is a lady on his paper route, old and alone and infirm, and with a garden that needs tending. No sooner has Trevor begun to help her, however, than she goes and dies on him.
The third person Trevor hopes to help is his teacher, Reuben St. Clair, a scarred, bitter, untrusting man who seems to come truly alive only when in front of his class. Trevor's goal is to match him with his mother, Arlene, a pretty, hardworking woman who has raised Trevor more or less alone, but who Trevor feels has a lot to offer the right man. It proves not to be a match made in heaven, though, and Trevor's dismay only deepens as he watches these two people come so close to achieving the connection he wants for them, only to turn away at the last moment.
Failure seems inevitable, and Trevor is resigned. What he doesn't realize, however, is that there really is a good side to human nature, and that the tiny seed of kindness and caring he planted has taken root. In neighborhoods in other California towns, and as far away as Los Angeles, there are others following the rules of "paying it forward." Soon fame comes knocking, bringing with it excitement and an unforeseen tragedy.
In the end, Pay It Forward is the story of seemingly ordinary people made extraordinary by the simple faith of a child. In the tradition of the successful and inspirational television show Touched by an Angel, and the phenomenally successful novel and film Forrest Gump, Pay It Forward is a work of charm, wit, and remarkable inspiration, a story of hope for today and for many tomorrows to come.
From New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde comes an emotional novel of how one man’s life changes forever when he rediscovers his ability to feel the pain of others.
Something has been asleep in forty-year-old cattle rancher Aiden Delacorte for a long time. It all comes back in a rush during a hunting trip, when he’s suddenly attuned to the animals around him, feeling their pain and fear as if it were his own. But the newfound sensitivity of Aiden’s “wake up” has its price. He can no longer sleepwalk through life, holding everyone at arm’s length. As he struggles to cope with a trait he’s buried since childhood, Aiden falls in love with Gwen, a single mother whose young son bears a burden of his own.
Sullen and broken from his experiences with an abusive father, Milo has turned to acting out in violent and rebellious ways. Aiden can feel the boy’s pain, as well as that of his victims. Now he and Milo must sift through their pasts to find empathy with the innocent as well as the guilty, to come to terms with their deepest fears, and to finally discover the compassionate heart of a family.
-Library Journal
Fourteen-year-old Angie and her mom are poised at the edge of homelessness… again. The problem is her little sister, Sophie. Sophie has an autism-like disorder, and a tendency to shriek. No matter where they live, home never seems to last long.
Until they move in with Aunt Vi, across the fence from a huge black Great Dane who changes everything. Sophie falls in love immediately, and begins to imitate the “inside of the dog,” which, fortunately, is a calm place. The shrieking stops. Everybody begins to breathe again. Until Paul Inverness, the dog’s grumpy, socially isolated owner, moves to the mountains, and it all begins again.
Much to Angie’s humiliation, when they’re thrown out of Aunt Vi’s house, Angie’s mom moves the family to the mountains after Paul and his dog. There, despite a fifty-year difference in their ages, Angie and Paul form a deep friendship, the only close friendship either has known. Angie is able to talk to him about growing up gay, and Paul trusts Angie with his greatest secret, his one dream. When the opportunity arrives, Angie decides to risk everything to help Paul’s dream come true, even their friendship and her one chance at a real home—the only thing she’s dreamed of since her father was killed. A place she can never be thrown out. A place she can feel she belongs.
By the bestselling author of DON’T LET ME GO, WHEN I FOUND YOU, and WALK ME HOME, WHERE WE BELONG is a poignant, heartfelt, and uplifting story about finding your place in the world, no matter how impossible it seems.
“Hyde has a sure touch with affairs of the heart.”
-Publishers Weekly
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