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#5 Rysa Walker

I clearly remember sitting on the floor in front of the TV as a kid, watching as the very first human touched his foot to the surface of the moon. Growing up in a small southern town, I would never have imagined that I’d one day be able to send books I had written to the moon, or that my books and hundreds of others could fit into such a tiny container.

Rysa Walker's Timebound wins 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
When I learned I’d been selected for Writers on the Moon, I knew Timebound would be my main submission. It’s the book that started my publishing journey and those characters spent almost a decade trapped in my head, trying to escape onto the written page during the rare breaks I had between teaching and tending to small children.

Since winning the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, Timebound has been translated into fifteen languages, leading to five additional novels in the CHRONOS universe, along with many novellas and short stories. As CHRONOS agents, Kate and company have already broken the boundaries of time, so there was never any doubt that they’d make this journey into space. 

Caleb AmselI write fat books, so there was only room for one other novel. As much as I would have loved to send Anna and the others in my Delphi Trilogy, I really wanted to pull another author along for the ride.

Caleb Amsel, my partner-in-crime on our Enter Haddonwood series, also grew up in a small town in the South. While he’s far too young to remember the first moon landing, he has a truly out-of-this-world imagination. As the Crow Flies, the first Haddonwood book, is the story of an entire town that’s far more than just a town.

I’m really proud of the work that Caleb and I have put into these books and happy that I could squeeze it into my suitcase for the journey. 

The Cold Light of Stars coming May 2023
As an odd bit of coincidence, I learned of the Writers on the Moon project just as I was beginning research on my very first thriller set in space, The Cold Light of Stars. As this goes live, I’m writing the final chapter. It’s wrapping up much too late make the trip, but WOTM has made a nice bookend for my first major step into space.

In closing, I want to send a shout out to Susan Kaye Quinn for this truly stellar idea. Thanks so much for saving us a seat on this journey!

Find Rysa Walker’s stories here.