This episode I spoke with Shelley Buck and Kathy Curtis, Co-authors of "Leave Your Light On".
An incredible journey of love, courage and spirit is chronicled in âLeave Your Light On,â a new book by Shelley Buck about the life and death of her son Ryder, who co-authored the book posthumously through his writings.
Ryder Buck is the son of Disney director Chris Buck (âFrozen,â âFrozen 2â) and artist Shelley Buck. Ryder, a singer-songwriter, was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 at the age of 22. After undergoing surgery and extensive treatments he was cancer-free within eight months of his diagnosis. Six months after defeating cancer, at the age of 23, Ryder tragically died after getting hit by a car on a freeway after his car broke down.
Chris Buck dedicated his 2014 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for âFrozenâ to Ryderâs memory. Ryder was an inspiration for the song âThe Next Right Thingâ from âFrozen 2â and the filmâs character, Ryder Nattura, was named after him. The Disney+ series âInto the Unknown: The Making of Frozen 2â features a segment about Ryder.
âShelley has done an extraordinary job capturing the impact Ryder had on us and the world during his short life,â said Chris Buck. âRyder was the type of person who inspired others to be and do their best and he was such a gift to us in so many ways.â
âLeave Your Light Onâ is the story of how Ryder adapted to life after learning he had cancer and how that inspired him and changed his relationship with his parents and the world around him. Told through first person accounts, recollections from friends and family and Ryderâs own words from his journals and social media posts, the book shows a parent-child relationship challenged by an unrelenting illness and a young manâs determination to live life on his own terms. The book was co-written with writer Kathy Curtis, with the title coming from a song written by Ryder about maintaining a positive attitude.
âHis legacy lives on through this story, which I hope will inspire many people who are faced with the difficulty of hearing and processing bad news,â said Shelley Buck. âWe canât always change what happens to us, but we can choose how we respond to it.â
Ryder was a young man with an unstoppable dream to lift people up through his music. While cancer should have beaten him, Ryder rose above it all to live from a place of passion. In this uplifting and powerful story, readers will meet an unforgettable person determined to accept his own quirks and flaws with humor and see a parent-child relationship tested by an unrelenting disease followed by the grief of an entire family.
Copy of book available on Amazon:
https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B087QQ32Y3&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_KEdAFbP2W24FVOr
by contacting
press@honigllc.comTitle: Leave Your Light On: The Musical Mantra Left Behind by an Illuminating Spirit
Publisher: Eagleâs Quest Publishing
https://www.kathycurtisink.com/