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| Author Catherine Ryan Hyde |
"When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? What did your family
think about that choice?"
Still, I need to put the emphasis on the word
“wanted.” This is when I began wanting to be a writer. Who knew there was such
a big chasm between wanting to be something and actually being it? I think that
chasm is much wider (and the view much more disturbing should you be foolish
enough to look down) for writers. Not exclusively for writers, but we are right
up there with rock musicians and stand-up comedians in terms of the terror of
the task ahead. Had I chosen to be, say, a plumber or a teacher, I think the
gap might have been easier to bridge. You train hard to do it, and then you go
to work doing it. And paychecks are issued. Writers have a hard time navigating
what I jovially call “the paycheck gap,” that eight or ten years when you have
to live on air. It requires courage, something I did not have overflowing at
the time. So “wanting to be” turned into “being” when I finally got brave
enough. I had no illusions. I knew I would starve. I didn’t care.
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| Her mother Vance Hyde |
As to what my family thought of it, it was more
or less expected. My mother was a writer, as were ultimately all three of her
kids. They’d have been more surprised if I’d chosen a different path.
By the way, something my mom said to me when I
was a teenager finally broke through and got me where I needed to go (though
not until decades later). She said, “The trouble with a fallback position is
that you tend to fall back.” So that’s the secret of my success as a writer. No
Plan B.
"You had 122 rejections before being published. If ebooks and self
publishing were around at the start of your career, how different do you think
it would have been?"
Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful for the
self-publishing trend. But like any innovation, it cuts both ways. A lot of
books go out into the world before they’re ready. Some go out that would never
have been ready. But I’d still rather see a hundred terrible, lazy, error-filled
books for sale on Amazon than see one good writer locked out of the process by
the old way of doing things. People point to problems self-pub creates, and I
note that you can drown in water, and fire can burn down your house, but
they’re both still generally good things to have around.
But I’m not exactly lasering in on your question,
am I?
I think the process of struggling mightily to get
a few short stories published, to get an agent, was a real trial by fire for
me. I’m glad I was forced to have that experience. I think I would still have
worked very hard to hone craft and mechanics, because it’s just how I am. (“Driven”
is a nice word, and sounds so much gentler and happier than
obsessive-compulsive.) But, as I said initially, a lot more of the honing would
have taken place in public view. So, much as I embrace the digital publishing
revolution, I’m happy with the way it worked out.
"Adult fiction and YA fiction, you’ve written both, which do you prefer
writing? Reading?"
Initially, when I began writing YA, I think I
liked it better. I had this idea that it was more emotionally honest, more
immediate. It had what a woman I met in a bookstore called “the freedom to be
sincere.” But now I write books with teenage—or child, or just young—characters
(not every time but often) for adults. But it crosses over to teens to some
degree. It all gets very muddled.
I like to write from the heart, and worry later
about who will want to read it. And often you don’t know. I had my YA editor
tell me a book (Chasing Windmills) was
not YA, so I got it published as adult, and it crossed over. The lines are
often drawn in the wrong places. So I think I’m letting go of the labels while
holding on to what I love about YA.
As far as reading goes, I have a slight preference
for YA, but I’m a fairly eclectic reader, other than the fact that I’m not much
into genre fiction. I like realistic contemporary stories.
"I read somewhere that 'Electric God' is being adapted for a
movie. True or False?"
By the way, this is a fairly typical experience
between Hollywood and an author. Pay It Forward was an anomaly.
"Could you ever have imagined that “Pay it Forward” would be a
cultural phenomenon?"
When I was writing that book, I had a hard enough
time imagining it in a bookstore. When I started it, I had no book-length
fiction published. When I finished it, I had just a novel and a story
collection with a tiny start-up press who promptly went belly up the following
season. To call me an under-published author would have been a generous
assessment. So my lofty goal was to get it out where anybody could read it,
ever. Changing the world, however slightly, was well beyond the scope of my
imagination at the time. (Here is the story behind the inspiration for Pay It Forward)
"I know all of your books are special to you, but is there one that means
more to you than the others? If so, which one?"
Becoming Chloe was my favorite for many
years. I’ve written quite a few since, and I honestly think When I Found You, Don't Let Me Go, When You Were Older—and maybe even a couple of the other newer ones—are at least as
good, if not better. It’s all very subjective in this business. Still, after
all this time, the prize for the greatest heart connection between me and a
book goes to Becoming Chloe.
Sometimes I wonder if it always will. I guess the only way I’ll ever find out
is to write a bunch more books. Conveniently, that was my plan anyway.
Hmm. Hard to narrow it down to one. I think my
favorite of all time is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. But I think the one everybody should read is probably The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. The world would be more
peaceful. So I guess it’s a tie.
"On your Pinterest board “People I Admire”, among others, you have
the Dalai Lama and Jon Stewart. Why?"
The Dalai Lama because he lives the way I aspire
to live, in equanimity and peace. One of my favorite quotes about kindness is
from the Dalai Lama. “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” Anyone
who is a leader in kindness is a person of great value to this world, in my
opinion.
Jon Stewart because he does so much more than
just comedy. His comedic timing is brilliant, and I love watching him lampoon
politics. But there’s a serious side to what he does. He brings light to
injustices that might otherwise have skated under the wire. Like the time he
had the 9/11 first responders on his show, because they couldn’t get the help
they needed from our government. Anybody who has that kind of power and uses it
for social good is tops in my book.
"Of all the people you have met, famous or not, who stands out the
most?"
I really had to think about this. I had to answer
all the others and sleep on this one.
The first name that came to mind was Bill
Clinton, even though you were clear that fame need not be a factor. The fact
that he came up first may show that we prioritize fame without realizing it. I
don’t know. It may also just be that I found meeting him interesting.
The thing that struck me most about him is his
focus on people. When you are introduced to him, you’ll think no one in the
world exists for him except you. You say one sentence to him and then he holds
the floor on a number of different topics, and you listen intently, not because
he’s Bill Clinton, but because he’s interesting. He doesn’t seem to tire of
these exchanges. (I met him several times, including three days of shared
speaking engagements in Las Vegas. Every day I had to wait 20 or 30 minutes for
the Secret Service to lock down the hotel entrance, and when I finally could
get in, he’d still be holding forth in the lobby with some family from the
Midwest. His love of human interaction seemed genuine.)
Two others came to mind, both somewhat famous—but
that’s not why I chose them.
The first is Ram Dass. I went to hear him speak
in San Luis Obispo. During an intermission, I asked if I could give him a hug.
He just lit up, and we held each other, and he breathed with me. There was
nothing perfunctory about it, as there normally would be between strangers. He
opened himself up and let his energy mix with mine, and gave what he had to
give in that moment. Afterwards, a line formed practically out to the door of
others who wanted a similar hug. It was an interesting lesson in human nature.
The last was His Holiness Swami Chidananda Saraswati, of the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, India. He was (he is since deceased) a big fan of Pay It
Forward. I was invited to India to stay at the ashram and meet him. We only met
once, as he was in his 90s and in poor health. He was in bed, and I sat at his
bedside, and we talked. At the end of the talk, when he needed to rest, he led
a short meditation. The energy in the room transformed. You could almost feel a
crackle of energy rising, but it was calm. You have to respect someone who can
muster enough serenity to fill up a room.
I know you have the Pay It Forward Foundation, are there any other charities or causes that you support?
Quite a few. My passions are environmental and
economic justice and animal welfare. Just about anybody who defends the Earth
has my support, though I can’t afford to support them all financially. I’ve
been involved in some environmental activism in the little town where I live.
My late mother had much the same priorities, and
she used to have money deducted from her account every month for Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. I continue to donate the same amount to them yearly in
her memory. We also stopped there once on a motor home trip through Utah, and
took the tour. So I guess I would put them second in charities after the Pay It
Forward Foundation.
I’m a supporter of Occupy Wall Street, and once
every month we have an Occupy Cambria march here in town. Just a peaceful march
with signs. Raising awareness.
"And finally, Ella and Jordan, what made you decide to adopt rescue animals?"
If anything, I usually take it a step further and
adopt the one I know no one else will want. My last dog before Ella had the
mange when I got her, and was malnourished. The pound was only going to give
her two days.
I felt a little guilty with both Ella and Jordan,
because they were so adoptable. Ella was only four months, and quite adorable.
But I couldn’t help it. It was love at first site. Jordan was five months, and
sweet and healthy. But black cats have trouble getting out of shelters, so I
guess there was a small note of service in there.
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