Rysa Walker Interview - Now, Then, and Everywhen ~ JeanBookNerd

Photo Content from Rysa Walker

RYSA WALKER is the author of the bestselling CHRONOS Files series. Timebound, the first book in the series, was the Young Adult and Grand Prize winner in the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. The CHRONOS Files has sold nearly half a million copies since 2013 and has been translated into fourteen languages.

In addition to speculative fiction, she occasionally writes mysteries as C. Rysa Walker.

Rysa currently resides in North Carolina with her husband, two youngest sons, and a hyperactive golden retriever. When not working on the next installment in her CHRONOS Files universe, she watches shows where travelers boldly go to galaxies far away, or reads about magical creatures and superheroes from alternate timelines. She has neither the time nor the patience for reality TV.

If you see her on social media, please tell her to get back into the writing cave.

Print Length: 503 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1612189199
Publisher: 47North (April 1, 2020)
Publication Date: April 1, 2020
Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
Language: English

Praise for NOW, THEN AND EVERYWHEN

“Walker (the CHRONOS Files series) opens the CHRONOS Origins series with this ambitious time-travel adventure…a twisty narrative that expertly blends the past and the future. Fans of intelligent time-travel stories will be rewarded.” —Publishers Weekly

“Fans of Walker’s (Courier to the Stars, 2019, etc.) CHRONOS Files series will enjoy seeing the pieces of that mythology falling into place here, but new readers can easily jump in to this origin story with no prior knowledge. An enjoyable, mind-bending time-travel adventure.” —Kirkus Reviews

What inspired you to pen your first novel?
I'm a former history and government professor and I've been a science fiction fan since I was a kid. Time travel was a natural for me, since it combines the two. One inspiration for Timebound, the first book in my CHRONOS Files series, was the fact that so many of my college students started out with a strong dislike for history, only to discover an interest in the subject once they connected with some of the quirkier, real-life stories from past eras. I thought that if younger readers could be introduced to that type of history in a fictional setting, they might be less inclined to shun the subject as a whole.

Tell us your latest news.
Now, Then, and Everywhen debuts April 1st! And I just sent Book 2 (RED, WHITE, & THE BLUES) off to the editor. It’s due out in November.

Who or what has influenced your writing, and in what way?
That’s a tough one. There are far too many people and too many things to pinpoint. Writers, and people in general, are the sum total of their experiences, good and bad. Change a few small things, and you’d get a different writer, different stories. In terms of literary influences, however, I’d say Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, to name just a few.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Having readers tell me that my books helped them get through a difficult time in their lives.

What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
The news. I’m a news junkie, partly due to my previous career, and everything has been in such chaos for the past few years. Luckily, my kids are teens now and self-sufficient enough that I can write in the middle of the night, after the news cycle ends. I’m more creative in the wee hours of the morning, anyway.

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel?
I hope that it gives them a fun, mind-twisting break from their lives, and maybe they’ll learn a bit of history along the way.

Your new book is NOW, THEN, AND EVERYWHEN. Can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about it?
NOW, THEN, AND EVERYWHEN, the first installment of my new CHRONOS Origins series, is set against the turbulent background of the American Civil Rights movement. In the year 2136, Madison Grace begins to explore the mysterious ties between her family and the time travel organization , CHRONOS. A century and a half later, in 2304, CHRONOS historian Tyson Reyes heads to the United States of 1965 to observe as African Americans fight for equality and freedom. When their paths cross in the wake of a timeline shift, they both suspect the other of causing the rupture--until they realize there’s a more sinister force at work.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?
I would introduce Maria from my Delphi trilogy to Saul. Reading his mind wouldn’t be a very pleasant experience for her, but she could hopefully get a message to people in the future that he should never, ever be given a CHRONOS key.

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your readers. What would it be?
Get a dog. It’s cheaper than therapy.

What part of Madi and Tyson did you enjoy writing the most?
The sections where they interacted. This book is told from two perspectives, and they merge after the halfway point. The action scenes at the Beatles concert were also a lot of fun to write.

TEN FACTS FROM NOW, THEN AND EVERYWHEN

Now, Then, and Everywhen is the first book in a prequel series to the CHRONOS Files. Or...maybe it’s a sequel series? With time-travel and multiple timelines at play, it’s a bit hard to pin down, so let’s call it a presequel.

Before I began writing full-time, I was a professor of American government and history. So I try to maintain as much actual history as possible in my time travel series. Each of my novels includes a section at the back to help readers sort out fact from fiction.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968 in our timeline, but hate groups had been planning an attack on his life for years. An Ohio branch of the Klan had scheduled for snipers to be at his speech at the Antioch College graduation in June of 1965 but canceled at the last minute.

The Stars for Freedom concert was an actual event held at the City of St. Jude Church in Montgomery. Performers from around the country gathered on the church grounds to entertain the marchers on the last night of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march, with many of them participating in the final day as the procession continued to the Alabama Capitol.

The Beatles’ 1966 US tour was marked by death threats and boycotts, many of them organized by the Klan. The Klan claimed that it organized the protests, including bonfires where records, posters, and other memorabilia were burned to protest remarks by John Lennon that were deemed sacrilegious.

Klan leaders had other reasons to dislike the Beatles, however. During the band’s previous tour in 1964, they insisted that all venues at which they were scheduled to play be racially integrated. Many facilities in the South continued to segregate or deny admission to black patrons.

Paul McCartney claimed that the song “Blackbird” was written in response to seeing a young black fan removed from one of their shows.

The 1966 concert in Memphis was nearly cancelled due to the protests. Someone threw a cherry bomb onto the stage and the band feared at first that one of them had been shot.

As a result of the protests, death threats, and attack, the Beatles decided to cease touring. The 1966 US tour was their last.

The Peabody Hotel, one of the settings for the final half of the book, really does have ducks in residence on its roof. They waddle out of the elevator each morning and proceed down the red carpet to the fountain where they spend the day, then take the elevator back up to their penthouse at the end of the day.

Best date you've ever had?
The first date with my husband. We saw a meh movie, shared a drink, and rang in the New Year together. As with most really good dates, it was far less about what we did and more about the company.

What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives?
Lie down on the grass and be attacked by a bunch of happy, wriggling puppies.

What’s the most ridiculous fact you know?
I can recite most of the prologue to the Canterbury Tales in Middle English.

What’s the most memorable job you’ve had?
Aside from my current job as a writer, my work with the Office of Democracy and Governance at USAID. I met a lot of incredible people who were committed to helping other nations create fair and equitable governments.

Where is the best place in the world you’ve been?
A small piece of my soul remains on a quiet beach on the windward shore of Oahu. I don’t get to visit it in person as often as I’d like, but when I need a moment of tranquility, that’s where I let my mind wander.

What was a time in your life when you were really scared?
When my two youngest kids were small, I took them to the mall near Dulles Airport so that we could go to the bookstore and they could play on their favorite “airplane slides.” After about an hour, I gave my two-year-old our standard five- minute warning and began strapping his ten-month old brother back into the stroller and collecting their shoes from the little storage shelf in the play area. Once I had him strapped in, I called for the oldest, but there was no answer.

I made a quick survey of the tunnels and cubby holes and other hiding spots, since he was fond of hide-and-seek. Nothing. I began to panic, searching around the perimeter, and getting several other parents to help me search. Someone called security. I was terrified that he’d wandered over to the escalator, or worse yet, that he’d been snatched.

Five horrific minutes later, a security guard showed up holding my sock-clad son, who was clutching an Elmo ABC book. A clerk at the bookstore at the other end of the mall said he waltzed in on his own, heading straight for the Sesame Street section. I’d told him we were going there next, and unbeknownst to me, he knew the way and apparently decided there was no point waiting for Mom and baby brother. We left the mall that day with books...and a toddler leash.

From the bestselling author of the Chronos series comes a page-turning novel of time travel, fast-paced action, and history-changing events.

When two time-traveling historians cross paths during one of the most tumultuous decades of the twentieth century, history goes helter-skelter. But which one broke the timeline?

In 2136 Madison Grace uncovers a key to the origins of CHRONOS, a time-travel agency with ties to her family’s mysterious past. Just as she is starting to jump through history, she returns to her timeline to find millions of lives erased—and only the people inside her house realize anything has changed.

In 2304 CHRONOS historian Tyson Reyes is assigned to observe the crucial events that played out in America’s civil rights movement. But a massive time shift occurs while he’s in 1965, and suddenly the history he sees isn’t the history he knows.

As Madi’s and Tyson’s journeys collide, they must prevent the past from being erased forever. But strange forces are at work. Are Madi and Tyson in control or merely pawns in someone else’s game?

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