Ryan’s debut, thriller The Forest of Hands And Teeth, has NaNo to thank for its existence. She never would have written it otherwise. Way back in 2006, struggling to figure out her next project, “I asked my husband, ‘What should I write?’ He said, ‘Write what you love.’ I said, ‘That would be the zombie apocalypse but NO ONE wants to read about that.’ He gave me that ‘you know I’m right’ look. He was right.”