Catherine Ryan Hyde is a critically acclaimed novelist and award-winning short story writer. She is the author of more than thirty published stories, the novel "Funerals for Horses," and the story collection "Earthquake Weather." Her novel "Pay it Forward" will be released in February 2000 by Simon & Schuster, and is in development as a Warner Brothers feature film. Also forthcoming from Simon & Schuster are her novels "Electric God" and "Walter's Purple Heart" and a second collection, "Subway Dancer and Other Stories."