Ryan, Darlene 1958-

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Ryan, Darlene 1958-

PERSONAL: Born 1958, in Fredricton, New Brunswick, Canada; daughter of John W. Arsenault and Elsie Dorothy Stairs; married J. Patrick Ryan; children: one daughter. Education: University of New Brunswick, B.Sc., 1980; St. Thomas University, B.Ed., 1982.

ADDRESSES: Home— New Brunswick, Canada. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Has worked as a lab instructor, chambermaid, fitness teacher, lifeguard, and disk jockey.

MEMBER: Sisters in Crime (Guppy chapter).

AWARDS, HONORS: New Brunswick Arts Board creation grant, 2000; University of New Brunswick Childhood Centre Writing-for-Babies Contest winner, 2003, for Kisses, Kisses, Kisses; YALSA Teen Top-Ten List nomination, 2005, American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults list nomination, Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice listee, 2005, and Stellar Book Award nomination, 2006-07, all for Rules for Life.

WRITINGS

FOR CHILDREN

Kisses, Kisses, Kisses, illustrated by Peter Manchester, University of New Brunswick Early Childhood Centre (Fredricton, New Brunswick, Canada), 2003.

Rules for Life (young-adult novel), Orca Book Publishers (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), 2004.

Saving Grace (young-adult novel), Orca Book Publishers (Custer, WA), 2006.

OTHER

A Mother’s Adoption Journey, Second Story Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Darlene Ryan once commented: “One of my favorite movies is the Billy Crystal/Danny De-Vito comedy, Throw Momma from the Train. In it, Crystal’s character, a creative writing teacher, gives what I still consider is the best piece of writing advice: ‘A writer writes.’ I know it seems sort of obvious, but think about it. Writes. Not watches Friends re-runs. Not plays solitaire on the computer. Not sleeps late on Saturday morning.

“A writer writes.

“Not talks about writing. Not spends three months fixing up an office to write in.

“A writer writes.

“I spent a lot of years working in radio, something I loved. I’ve been a late-night disk jockey, a producer, an entertainment columnist, a consumer reporter, a news reader, and a copywriter. One way or another, I was always writing. I actually learned a lot from writing commercial, which some people say isn’t very different from writing fiction. I learned how to write when I was bored, when I was tired, and when I had nothing to say. I learned how to write fast. My spelling got a little better. My handwriting got worse. I learned that criticism didn’t always mean something I’d written was awful. And praise didn’t always mean it was good.

“And then one day I went to China to adopt a baby girl and everything in my life changed. I kept a journal during the adoption process—twenty-two long months. I thought that maybe our baby would want to know how she ended up as ours and I wanted her to know what I was thinking and feeling when it was all happening.

“In November of 2001 my first book, A Mother’s Adoption Journey, was published. That happened because for months and months before, I was writing. I didn’t really have any time to write. I was a first-time mother to a beautiful thirteen-month-old daughter. And after my husband’s short parental leave expired, I was a single mom five days out of every nine.

“The book was the story of the journey—literally and figuratively—that had brought me to my child. I wanted someday to be able to hand my daughter her story. I wanted to write that book more than anything. More than I wanted to soak in a tub steaming with the scent of eucalyptus. More than I wanted to talk to someone with a vocabulary beyond ‘bye’ and ‘up.’ More than I wanted to sleep.

“A writer writes.

“My second book, Kisses, Kisses, Kisses, happened because of a contest. I hadn’t planned to write a children’s picture book although I’d always made up stories for my daughter. As part of the “Born to Read” program, Kisses, Kisses, Kisses is now in the home of close to 12,000 babies. (Wow.)

“I wrote the first chapter of Rules for Life as a writing sample for a workshop with Kevin Major at the Maritime Writers’ Workshop. It began from a very simple premise: What if you had an evil stepmother, except she was nice? In our one-on-one meeting, Kevin said, ‘This is good.’ When Kevin later asked if there were any more pages, I lied and said there were—and then raced home to write them.

“A writer writes.

“When Rules for Life was published, I realized that I seemed to have a career as a writer going. My second book, Saving Grace, begins with another what if. What if you had a baby and put it up for adoption... and then stole it back?

Now I have four books published, two more I’m working on, and a file full of ideas. And I still don’t have enough time to write. But I do.

“A writer writes.”