Letter to Readers from Sara Ryan!

Q. “What do you write about?”

A. “Relationships and performance.”

I imprinted on theater. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been since I worked on a show; the intense bonds, ridiculous hours, and inevitable backstage intrigue are forever seared into my memory.

And I’m endlessly interested in the ways we connect, and fail to connect, with family, friends, lovers, mentors. The Rules for Hearts is about all those things.

The story takes place in what I think of as a between-time for my protagonist, Battle Hall Davies: between high school and college, between first love and whatever comes next, between late adolescence and early adulthood.

It’s a point in your life when you’re figuring out where to live, what to study, what job will keep the roof over your head, who you can trust. And at any time, your answers may change. Battle’s answers do.

After I wrote my first book, Empress of the World, I knew that Battle needed her own voice. In Empress, we only see her through her girlfriend’s eyes – beautiful, compelling, ultimately inexplicable. But of course, that’s not how Battle sees herself.

I also knew that Battle’s brother meant a lot to her. I wanted to see how he compared to the vision of him she built up in his absence from her life.

I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and I was always fascinated by college students. I’d go to old movies on campus sponsored by the Student Film Society, and watch the audience as much as the screen. I eavesdropped on their conversations, I read their buttons and T-shirt slogans, and I tried to project myself forward in time.

At fourteen, I got my wish. I started hanging out with college students, and with people who were even older. Working for a summer theater festival gave me a multigenerational peer group. When I started writing The Rules for Hearts, I remembered how I felt then, like what I was really auditioning for was the role of myself, grown up.

Sara