Debora Ryan

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Debora Ryan spends her days teaching ELA to middle school students and her nights hanging out with her family. When she was a tween, she discovered a love for making up stories.  With support and encouragement from her family, friends, and some random strangers, she eventually made it happen.

Q: If you could meet any author, who would you like to meet?

A: As a bona-fide pessimist, I have to say nobody. I put my favorite authors (Rice, Dickens, Twain, Mead) on such a high pedestal that they can’t possibly live up to my expectations. I prefer to live with the fantasy.

Q: Where do you find your inspiration to write?

A: I get a lot of my ideas from music. Lucien’s character is almost entirely fabricated from the songs on Blue October’s Consent to Treatment album. The title, Tomorrow Cries, is a line from the Offspring song Can’t Repeat. As I drive along and listen to the music on the radio, characters take shape in my head. They become real to me and dictate the stories I write.

Q: Why did you choose to write about vampires?

A: This story did not start out with vampires in it. Before I knew what happened, all the characters were vampires. It worked better, so I kept it that way.

Q: You wrote a prequel to Tomorrow Cries. Why not publish it first?

A: It’snot as exciting and action-packed. After struggling with the prequel through too many incarnations, I shoved it aside and focused on the meat of the story. I have no patience for slow-moving stories, so I mined the prequel for a couple of scenes to set the background and I put them into Tomorrow Cries as flashbacks. The prequel ended up being a way for me to develop the characters in my own head.

Q: What do you think is the most important part of writing?

A: The most important part of writing is the sense of accomplishment I feel when I finish a piece and I know it’s good. So much goes into the writing process that it’s difficult to pick it apart. For one piece, the critical element might be the inspiration for a certain character who drives the action. For another piece, figuring out that you’re using a gerund phrase incorrectly might be the thing that makes a huge difference in the product. Each writing experience is so unique. That sense of pride and accomplishment is the only thing that is steady.

Q: How do you find time to write?

A: Like anything else that is important to me, I make the time. I might choose to not watch a new TV show or I might not spend so much time on Facebook. When things are important to us, we make the time for them. This is no different.

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