'Dead-Tossed Waves' Author Carrie Ryan Makes Us Face Our Zombie Fears

Carrie Ryan had just found out that the paperback edition of her first book, "The Forest of Hands and Teeth," made the New York Times Best-Seller List when she was whisked off to do her promotional tour for the YA post-apocalyptic zombie novel's sequel, "The Dead-Tossed Waves." And then she found herself almost as trapped as one of her characters as New York City was temporarily crippled by a freak storm.

"It was funny, having written post-apocalyptic books and going to schools where they say, 'Things couldn't fall apart that fast,' I'm like, 'We had a little bit of wind and we couldn't leave New York by train, by plane, by car,' " Ryan recalled from the safety of a Detroit hotel. At least she didn't have to face any other dangers to talk to us while on her virtual "blog tour." We don't usually bite.
 
MTV: We're dying to know, have you heard anything new about the movie adaptation of "Forest"?
Carrie Ryan: Not a thing yet. ... It's fun for me, though, because I know who they want to play Mary. And so I sort of follow her career a little bit, and it's funny to see the timing of things. Suddenly, I find myself very curious about certain movies that I'd never even know about, because if she stars in them, that affects what could happen with ours. [Ed. note: This actress is rumored to be Kristen Stewart.]
MTV: Not knowing would drive me crazy!
Ryan: There's a saying someone told me: May your book always be optioned but never be turned into a movie. If they keep re-upping your option, you get a check every time.

MTV: So, why did you decide to make the sequel about Mary's daughter, Gabrielle?
Ryan: When I thought about it, I realized that the first thing that Mary is going to do [after "Forest"] is ask a lot of questions. I didn't want to skip over that part, because I knew readers would want those answers. But I thought it would be the most boring book ever. You want action. But I didn't want to start with [Mary's] action, because the poor girl needed a break.
MTV: Did reader reaction to "Forest" affect what you wrote in "Dead-Tossed Waves," or the upcoming third book, "The Dark and Hollow Places"?
Ryan: I explained a little bit more in the second book because there were questions I didn't anticipate that people had. A little bit about how the village was created. And there are three short stories coming out. That's a chance to delve into [the zombie backstory]. One of the stories is ["Forest" antihero] Sister Tabitha when she's Mary's age. You find out how she became who she is. It's strange to say as an author, but I'm like, "Oh, it turns out that she was quite the passionate teen."
MTV: What do you like about writing teen heroines?
Ryan: I remember it. I feel like as an adult, I go through so much of the same stuff. You move to a new town, you have to make new friends, whether you're a teenager or an adult. Your only hope is that as an adult, you've done it before, so you know you can do it again. As a teen a lot of times the decisions you have to make and the things that happen to you become so monumental because you haven't figured out how to handle them, because you've never had to face them before.
MTV: Do you think your books have a lot in common with the other supernatural YA novels that are so popular now?
Ryan: One of the big trends right now is paranormal romance. Most of the time, it's romance with a paranormal creature. In that respect, I don't think that mine fits in. It's not a "Shiver" or a "Fallen" or a "Hush, Hush," in that respect. But it does fit into the paranormal world, like "The Hunger Games" is in a paranormal world. All of us benefit from the paranormal romance [trend]. I think my Twitter description is, "I write about zombies and love, but not zombie love." My zombies are not sentient, and they are not sexy.
MTV: Is part of the attraction to writing in this genre that you can discuss heavy topics without being too heavy?
Ryan: With zombies especially, it is a way to deal with real fears without getting too close to that fear. You can talk about global climate change or swine flu or the economic collapse or all of these things that would really shake the foundation of society, but you're using the word zombie, so you get to distance yourself from that fear.
MTV: How do you get in the mindset to write such scary stories?
Ryan: I never intended the books to be scary. I just wanted to be truthful to the world. And this world happens to be scary. What I find fascinating is that to the characters, this is just the way the world is. I would imagine it's sort of what it's like to grow up in a country where there's a lot of warring factions. ... You become so used to it, you don't even think about it.