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Rysa Walker

Rysa Walker an American author of science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries. Her first novel, Timebound, was the 2013 Grand Prize winner of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

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Rysa Walker
Walker in 2013
Walker in 2013
Born
Pensacola, Florida
Pen nameRysa Walker
C. Rysa Walker
OccupationAuthor
Alma materSt. Andrews University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Period2012–present
GenreScience fiction, time travel fiction, mystery
Notable awardsAmazon Breakthrough Novel Award (2013)
Website
www.rysa.com

Rysa Walker an American author of science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries. Her first novel, Timebound, was the 2013 Grand Prize winner of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.1

Early life and education

Walker was born and raised in Northwest Florida. After graduating from St. Andrews University in North Carolina, she earned a PhD in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.2

Career

Walker taught political science and history at several universities before beginning to write fiction full time in 2014.3 After her family relocated to Cary, North Carolina in 2006 for her husband's job, she shifted to teaching her college courses online so she could work from home.4

Walker's first novel, Timebound (The CHRONOS Files Book One), was originally self-published as Time's Twisted Arrow in 2012.5 In January 2013, she entered the book into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, competing against 10,000 self-published and unpublished novels.6 The Publishers Weekly review of the book during the competition called the book's heroine, Kate Pierce-Keller, the "Katniss Everdeen of time travel," adding that the story reads like a mash-up of Jack Finney's Time and Again and Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, and works as a contemporary tribute to Robert Heinlein's juvenile novels of the 1950s.7

On June 15, 2013, Timebound won the contest's grand prize, leading to a $50,000 advance and a contract with Skyscape, an Amazon Publishing imprint.8 Walker has said the prize allowed her to take a year off from teaching to write full-time.4

Timebound has been translated into fourteen languages, and the CHRONOS Files series has sold nearly half a million copies since 2013.9 Five additional CHRONOS novels were published through the Skyscape and 47North imprints beginning in 2016. A separate science fiction series, The Delphi Trilogy, was published by Skyscape beginning in 2017.9

In addition to science fiction, Walker writes mysteries as C. Rysa Walker, sometimes in collaboration with author Caleb Amsel.10

Reception

Time's Edge, the second book in The CHRONOS Files, appeared at number ten on the Wall Street Journal's bestselling fiction e-books list for October 30, 2014.11

The Delphi Effect was a finalist for the 2018 International Thriller Writers Awards,12 a 2017 Amazon Editors' Pick for Best Science Fiction,13 and a 2017 Junior Library Guild selection.14

The Publishers Weekly review of Now, Then, and Everywhen praised what it described as a twisty narrative blending the past and the future, predicting that fans of intelligent time-travel stories would be rewarded.15

Bibliography

Bibliography

The CHRONOS Files

Novels

Novellas

  • Time's Echo (April 1, 2014) ISBN 978-0988351134
  • Time's Mirror (June 30, 2015)
  • Simon Says (December 18, 2015)

Short stories

  • Whack Job (June 17, 2016)
  • 2092 (June 18, 2016)
  • The Gambit (June 18, 2016)

CHRONOS Origins

Novels

Short stories

  • The Circle That Whines (February 4, 2020)
  • Full Circle (February 5, 2020)

Anthology

The Delphi Trilogy

Novels

Novella

  • The Abandoned (June 21, 2018)

The Icarus Code

Enter Haddonwood (with Caleb Amsel)

  • As the Crow Flies (October 15, 2019)
  • When the Cat's Away (August 14, 2020)
  • Where Wolves Fear to Prey (August 24, 2022)

Thistlewood Star Mysteries (as C. Rysa Walker; previously published as Jessa Archer)

Coastal Playhouse Murder Mysteries (as C. Rysa Walker; previously published as Jessa Archer)

Serial

  • Improbable: The Outlandish Adventures of Miriam Cole: Seasons 1–11 (September 11, 2023) ISBN 9798385582631

Personal life

Walker lived in Washington, D.C., before moving to Cary, North Carolina, in 2006 after her husband took a job in the area.4 She resides there with her husband, sons, and a golden retriever.16

References

References

  1. "Rysa Walker Wins Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award". Publishers Weekly.
  2. "AUTHORNOMICS Interview with YA fiction author Rysa Walker". andreahurst.com. Andrea Hurst & Associates. Archived from the original on March 16, 2016.
  3. Walker, Rysa (June 26, 2013). "ABNA Author Interview – Rysa Walker". I Read to Relax!. Interviewed by Jessica Miller.
  4. Raxlin, Amanda (September 6, 2013). "Chick Lit". Cary Magazine. Retrieved May 17, 2026.
  5. Walniuk, C.; Walker, Rysa (October 2012). Time's Twisted Arrow: Book One of the CHRONOS Files. Rysa Enterprises, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-9883511-0-3.
  6. "Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Finalists Announced". Publishers Weekly.
  7. Walker, Rysa (January 1, 2014). Timebound. Alice Duke. Skyscape.
  8. "Rysa Walker Named Grand Prize Winner of the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award". AboutAmazon.com (Press release). Amazon. June 17, 2013. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  9. "Rysa Walker: books, biography, latest update". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  10. "Rysa Walker: books, biography, latest update". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  11. "Wall Street Journal Best Sellers". WTOP.com. October 30, 2014. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  12. "Past Nominees and Winners". thrillerwriters.org. International Thriller Writers. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  13. "Best Books of the Month: Science Fiction & Fantasy". Amazon.com. November 2, 2017. Archived from the original on November 2, 2017. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  14. "The Delphi Effect". TeachingBooks. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  15. "Now, Then, and Everywhen by Rysa Walker". Publishers Weekly. November 13, 2019. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  16. Schaeffer, Cindy (October 23, 2016). "More than Just Campfire Stories". The News and Observer. p. 5D. Retrieved February 3, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.