The Hair Princess and the Hog Temple Incident by Kristan Ryan
Trade Paperback	5 ½ x 8 ½	Fiction
Release date: February 2007	235 pages	ISBN:1-933016-07-8
	$14.95	Your order will be processed by Blu Sky Media Group

What if you discovered that you were about to relive your life—but in reverse—and could finally right your wrongs? What if you were only allowed to correct one mistake, no matter how big or small?

After the mysterious and unexpected death of a female friend, eighty-something Henry Calhoun and his best friend Lee Donahue need a breather. The two nursing-home residents make a break for the Mexican border for one last fling but the ensuing chaos lands them in a reverse world where residents arrive old and wise and advance backward toward youth with the chance to right wrongs and leave behind the legacy they thought they deserved. But is this really what Henry and Lee want? And, if not, will they be able to put things back the way they were, leave eternal youth behind, and return to Hog Temple? Or will they have the option of beginning their old lives again in light of correcting the one mistake they’ve chosen to make right? If the boys begin their lives again as young adults, what secrets will they uncover? Henry worries it’s all a crapshoot and Lee worries…well, Lee has plenty to worry about that he can’t tell Henry.

It's up to the Hair Princess, disguised as a hairstylist, and her sidekick Hodges, angels better known for their screw-ups than their ability to right wrongs, to make things right. They have the biggest assignment of all time-they must save their Hog Temple nursing-home charges and in the process save themselves from an eternity of.well, only God knows. There are, however, a few glitches on the horizon that throws the universe into a twisting and frightening direction. Only the Hair Princess and Hodges know what needs to be done.

Told from three points of view—Katherine’s, Henry’s, and Lilly’s—The Hair Princess and the Hog Temple Incident takes you on a twisty ride through the past, the present, old age, youth, the mystical and the magical for a story guaranteed to charm you, poke you, and tug at your heart.

Reviews and Accolades

One part drama, one part humor, one part metaphysics, every page an exercise in compassion and faith, Ryan has knitted up a royal romp through the most profound of human emotions. You will never look at your "bad hair days" in the same way.
- Karen Novak, Innocence

Ryan has a gift for dialogue and vivid characterization, and readers will find poignancy in the decisions that have been made beyond the scope of the characters' power. The constant tension between spiritual and earthly needs resonates with current TV fare, Saving Grace and John from Cincinnati, which feature characters who are either supernatural or are in touch with someone from "the other side," as they struggle to define their values, or just try to survive.

Ryan likes to blend social issues like ageism with spiritualism and mysticism, and there are many interesting thematic and imagistic threads in this story.
~Carol Wierzbicki of The Brooklyn Rail

About the Author

KRISTAN RYAN is a southern writer living and working in New York City. She is a nationally and internationally published and produced playwright as well as published novelist. Ms. Ryan is assistant vice president of academic affairs at the Interboro Institute in New York City. She is a graduate of New York University and of the Goddard College MFA in Creative Writing Program. She is currently working on her doctorate.

View Ms. Ryan's website here