I'm thrilled to present today's guest, the multi-talented, award winning Hank Phillippi Ryan. - Morgan Mandel
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN is the on-air
investigative reporter for Boston’s NBC affiliate. She’s won 30
EMMYs, 12 Edward R. Murrow awards and dozens of other honors for her ground-breaking
journalism. A bestselling author of six mystery novels, Ryan has won multiple
prestigious awards for her crime fiction: the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, and most
recently, for THE OTHER WOMAN, the
coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. National reviews
call her a "master at crafting suspenseful mysteries" and "a
superb and gifted storyteller."
Her newest
thriller, THE WRONG GIRL, is a
Boston Globe bestseller and was dubbed
"Another winner" in a Booklist starred review. She’s on the national board
of Mystery Writers of America and 2013 president of national Sisters in
Crime.
And now, some words of advice from Hank:
ASK
THE UNIVERSE By
Hank Phillippi Ryan
Ask
the universe. My darling and tough agent told me that, a few years ago, when I
was having some kind of a wishing/hoping/yearning conversation with her. She
stopped me, polite but firm, and said listen: there are many elements of the
writing world we cannot control. All we can do, she said, is do the very best
we can, put ourselves out there, and be ready. Ask the universe. And trust the
universe.
I
wrote that-- “Ask the Universe” “Trust the Universe”-- on a piece of paper, and
posted it on my bulletin board, exactly where I would see it every morning and
be reminded.
Now
if there is any eye-rolling going on out there among you writers, hang on a
minute. Here’s an example.
The
fabulous best-selling Meg Gardiner tells the story about her first US
publishing contract. She was a big deal
in Europe (still is, of course) but could not crack the US Market. She could
not get anything but rejected.
Her
UK publisher also handled Stephen King. And that publisher sent King every book
they published. One day, King needed a book to read on a trans-Atlantic flight.
As the story goes, King stuck his hand into a box of those books, pulled out Meg’s
paperback, and checked—the font size. Yes, he told her later, the words were large
enough that it’d be comfortable reading on the plane. A random choice, one of
many books he might have touched...but it was Meg’s, by the chance of the
universe, that went into his hand.
Stephen
King loved her book. Loved it so much he wrote a blog about it, and mentioned
it in an article. Within days, Meg said, she had offers from 14 us publishers.
That
was the universe, tapping Meg on the shoulder and saying, “Kiddo, it’s your turn.”
Now.
Meg had a terrific book—if King hadn’t loved it, we wouldn’t be having this
conversation, right? So your job as an author is to be ready for the universe.
Ready for that moment when
the
universe taps you.
And
it will. At the moment you never expect.
My
husband and I don’t celebrate the anniversary of the day we met. We celebrate
the anniversary of the day before we met. And we call it “You Never Know Day.” Because you never know
what wonderful thing is around the next corner.
Right?
So
yes, we all worry about promotion and number and sales. We whine and
wonder—what can we do?
What
we can do is write a terrific book. And be ready. Trust the universe. It will all work if YOU work—and most likely
in a way you cannot predict.
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THE WRONG GIRL
Does a respected adoption agency have a
frightening secret? Tipped off by a determined ex-colleague on a desperate
quest to find her birth mother, Boston newspaper reporter Jane Ryland begins to
suspect that the agency is engaging in the ultimate betrayal—reuniting birth
parents with the wrong children.
It's
a trail of twists and turns that takes them deep into the heart of a foster
care system in crisis and threatens to blow the lid off an adoption agency
scandal. With a killer at large and an infant missing, time is running out...
"...a
crisp, fast-moving police procedural featuring reverberating illegalities,
increasing danger and suspense and crackling sexual tension...Another winner
from Ryan."
—Booklist, STARRED
REVIEW
Purchase at:
http://www.HankPhillippiRyan.com
Please leave a comment to welcome Hank Phillippi Ryan to Book Beat Babes, then stop by her Facebook Page at HankPhillippiRyanAuthorPage to learn more about her and her great books.
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