Welcome to my Contact Me Page
But First—Some Frequently Asked Questions
I’ve decided to combine my contact page with a list of frequently asked questions. I’d appreciate it greatly if you’d scan down the list and see if your question is answered here. If so, read up, or follow the link. Then go ahead and contact me anyway. I really do love to hear from readers.
Or maybe you don’t want to ask a question. Maybe you just want to share your thoughts. Please do. That never fails to make my day.
No one else will read your email. I don’t have a secretary or an assistant. All the mail comes straight to me, and I always answer.
Meanwhile, here are the most common questions:
How did I come up with the Pay It Forward idea?
Right. Number one on the list. It’s a long story, somewhat involved, and, after telling it, oh, say…a thousand times, it’s become my adjunct life’s work to assure that I never have to tell it again.
So here’s what I did. I found a clip of myself telling the story. And no matter how many times people play it, I don’t have to tell the story again. This video does it for me. It’s like a little slice of author heaven. (That same video is also on the bottom of my home page.)
Will I come to your town/school to speak about Pay It Forward?
I’m sorry to say I can’t. I stopped accepting such engagements at the beginning of 2009. I traveled for years, much to the detriment of my own finances, health, creativity and joy. Finally I had to move on.
I know people love Pay It Forward, and I’m thrilled about that, and always will be. What people may not know about me is that I have 24 published and forthcoming novels, and I love them all equally. Think of me as the parent of 24 children. You don’t starve 23 kids of the attention they need to thrive and give it all away to only one. Not even the best-known one.
That said, the Pay It Forward Foundation has several dynamic and heartfelt speakers who would love the opportunity to come to your town and/or school. If you're interested, contact our Pay It Forward Foundation president Charley Johnson through his Pay It Forward Experience website. I know he'll be happy to help.
Will I help you with your project for school?
I’d love to. But I absolutely refuse to do it for you. With you, yes. For you, no. I’ve put a huge amount of information about myself on this site, as well as on Facebook, YouTube, Red Room, etc. So do a little reading, and then if there’s something special you need and you can’t find it, do feel free to drop me a line. I’d be happy to help.
May I send you my book, and if you like it you can write a blurb for the jacket?
Quite some time ago (September 2012, to be exact) I very publicly announced that I was stepping out of the blurb game, for what I think were very sound reasons. I like to help new authors, and I sometimes help with my occasional blog feature Better Than Blurbs. These are in-depth interviews about the authors' books, in the hope that my readers can decide for themselves if they think they would enjoy them.
I hope you'll read my post on why I don't offer blurbs, and I thank you for understanding.
Okay! We got that out of the way. Now...
I once had one of those contact form pages. Then I found out it wasn't working, and people weren't getting through. And that this might have been going on as long as a month, and I'd had no idea.
So...sometimes low tech is best.
Please email me at my full name (first, middle, last--all one word) at me dot com (By the way, I actually mean "me" just the way I typed it: m-e. I don't mean me as in my name again). catherineryanhyde at me dot com
You know the drill on that, right? You just replace the words with the symbols. And I'll get your mail. And I'll write back.
If I don't write back, I never got it. I promise you that. I really mean it when I say I always write back. So if you wrote to me and heard nothing, maybe it was email trouble (I've had some), or maybe it got accidentally swept up in a sea of spam. So please try again.
You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook if you think your emails might not be going through.
And...speaking of geting swept up in a sea of spam, please call me Catherine. I notice a lot of readers start with "hello" or no salutation, and I get why. You're not sure if you should call me Catherine. Let me settle this for you: you should. And if your email begins with "Dear Catherine" or "Hi Catherine," it's unlikely that I will accidentally sweep it away with the mountain of junk mail. (I guess that's a mixed metaphor. First it was a sea, now it's a mountain. It's big. I'll leave it at that.)
I look forward to hearing from you!
Thanks,
Catherine
