Ally Condie's Blog, page 11

tomorrow (sept. 20): come chat on twitter!

Many thanks to Anna for creating this icon!

To celebrate the publication of the MATCHED paperback tomorrow, September 20 (woohoo!), we're going to have a chat on Twitter. I'll be taking questions about MATCHED and CROSSED and answering other questions you might have (about writing, reading, pretty much anything!). Here's everything you need to know:

*The chat will take place on Twitter on Tuesday, September 20th at 7 PM Eastern/5 PM Mountain/4 PM Pacific and last an hour (ending at 8 PM Eastern/6 PM Mountain/5 PM Pacific).

*People who want to participate in the chat and follow it should use the tag #allychat .

*Penguin will be randomly choosing people (US only) to win copies of the new MATCHED paperback and some CROSSED galleys!. They will be choosing winners who have participated in the chat using the #allychat hashtag, so don't forget to use the hashtag!

*It would be awesome if you could spread the word over the next couple of days on your blogs and/or any social networks where you participate.

Hope to see you tomorrow over on twitter!

want to read the first two chapters of crossed?

Well…you can! The first two chapters will be posted on ew.com exclusively tomorrow: Tuesday, September 13th. I'll make sure to link to the chapters here on the blog when they go up. I hope you enjoy! I can't wait for this next part of the story to be out in the world. I care about these characters and worked really hard to make sure this part of their story was the best it could be. I hope you enjoy the chapters! (The first two chapters are also included in the MATCHED paperback, out September 20th, but you can read them a whole week early online.)

And, as we get closer and closer to the release of CROSSED, Penguin has put together an awesome tumblr site here where they're posting one MATCHED fact per day to get everyone all ready for CROSSED. So if you want to make sure everything is fresh in your mind for when you read the second book, this is for you! It's so much fun. The first fact went up today and there are many more on the way as we countdown the release to CROSSED.

November 1 is coming up!!

event this saturday! podcast! apologies!

image courtesy Utah Festival of Books

I'm presenting at the Utah Festival of Books this Saturday, September 10th, in Salt Lake City! I'll be speaking on the Children's & Teen Stage at 10:50 and then signing for an hour beginning at 11:20. Click here for more info. I'd love to see you there! I'll have free MATCHED bookmarks and some awesome ENTHRALLED cards to hand out (also free). And you'll be able to bring/buy books and have them signed.

Also, I was very honored to be a guest over on the Wordplay Podcast, hosted by authors Nathan Bransford, Jeff Savage, and James Dashner. You can listen to the podcast here. James sings at one point. I do not sing at any point. You're welcome.

And, finally, I have mentioned this before, but my carpal tunnel issues are always at their height when I'm writing a new novel. So I am very, very behind on e-mail and also responding to blog comments and I'm very, very sorry. But I do read them and truly appreciate your taking the time to write/comment. THANK YOU.

september 20 is a very big day because

it is the release date for the paperback of MATCHED…

….and it is also the release date for ENTHRALLED, the short story collection edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong. I contributed the story Leaving.

I have been so excited about these books and have blogged about them both before, but it took me until today to realize that their release dates are the same. Good heavens, I am out to lunch.

And, September also marks the beginning of my traveling again–I'll have had four months off and it was wonderful–but I'm very thrilled to be going to Portland on the 29th as part of the Smart Chicks tour. For full tour info, click here.

My blogging will be a bit sporadic over the next few weeks because of the perfect storm of a) deadlines b) the beginning of school, which means LOTS of transitions for our family this year and c) a raging case of carpal tunnel, which always happens when a) is taking place. So I'm backing off on the writing that isn't actual book writing to save myself some pain. But I'll keep updating with fun news as we get closer and closer to the release date of CROSSED…which is now exactly two months away.

I hope you are all having a wonderful first of September!

libraries, school

The Salt Lake City Public Library event last Wednesday was such a delight. Many thanks to all who came, and HUGE thanks to Jordan Triptow and her team of librarians, who put on a fantastic event. They had set up stations where you could do things like go on a scavenger hunt through the library, make MATCHED buttons, put together a tablet container with three tablets inside, and eat pie (just like Grandfather!). I am really honored that they invited me to come to the library and speak to their patrons. It was especially fun for me because I got to give out those ARCs of CROSSED and also talk about CROSSED for the first time…and also see some family I haven't seen in a while!



left to right: husband, sister (Hope), brother (Nic), cousin-in-law (Kylie), cute Brooke who won CROSSED but who is not a member of my family, I swear!, me, cousin (Michelle), and cousin (Stephanie)

My New Mexico cousins were in town and my brother and sister came down from Logan too. What a nice family I have! It was so fun to get to talk with them. I wish they lived closer!

And then it was back to work (me) and back to school (kids) and I have been pretty much running around ever since. To be honest, this summer has been so wild that I think once we get into the school groove things will feel more relaxed than they have over the past few months. Then again, maybe not. I always think that and then things get progressively crazier. I think that's just what life is like, and I know it's like that for most of us.

Which is why I want to say, to all those who take the time to read the books, the blog, come to events, etc…THANK YOU. I know you are busy. I know you have many other things you could be doing, reading, seeing.

Happy New School Year to all!

P.S. I responded to all the comments on the last post. Thanks so much for your thoughts!

yalsa teens top ten list, & some blogs you should read

I'm so excited that MATCHED is nominated for the YALSA Teens' Top Ten List! It's a huge honor to be nominated and there are so many great books up for the honor this year.

You can vote here–but only if you're a teen!

And since I am linking to things in today's blog post, I thought I'd send you in the direction of three of my favorite blogs to read.

Brodi Ashton, author of the upcoming EVERNEATH, blogs here. You guys. She writes the funniest blog in the world. I laugh out loud while reading every single one of her posts. Often I laugh more than once. This is big for me. Because I think I am quick to laugh in real life, and there is NOTHING I love more than laughing, but sometimes I feel like it takes a lot to crack me up when I'm reading something. I smile a lot when I'm reading funny things, but guffawing? Doesn't happen much. Unless I'm reading Brodi's blog.

Becca Wilhite, author of BRIGHT BLUE MIRACLE and MY RIDICULOUS ROMANTIC OBSESSIONS, has what I think is the best slice of life blog, where she talks about writing, but also things she likes to cook and fun experiences substitute teaching and her cute kids and happiness and all the little good things in life. I love her blog because Becca is a writer–but she is also many other things (mom, teacher, chef) and she is completely unapologetic about it and glories in it (in a fun, non-gloating, you-want-to-be-her-friend-way). You can find Becca here.

Chelsea Parsons is a photographer in Tasmania and our paths crossed when we both lived in Ithaca for several years. Chelsea is one of those people who is incorrigibly creative in every aspect of life and she has the most beautiful blog. I like to go there when I want to see unique, pretty, different things. Click here for Chelsea.

Enjoy! And now I am going to go freak out about the first day of school, which is today, and which I am not entirely sure we are prepared for. Although I did make the traditional baked oatmeal for breakfast, so at least there's that…

reading: hugo and flavia

This week my son and I are finishing up this book before he goes back to school:

It is awesome. I read it when it first came out and it is a lot of fun to share with him.

And, on my own, I'm reading this:

I'm in love with this series. It's engaging and the main character (Flavia) is strong and it feels like a vacation to read it because I enjoy it so much…but I feel smart reading it just because the writing is so fantastic and clever. Alan Bradley=genius.

What are you reading these last summer days?

writing: your questions part 2

So this is the last week of summer for my kids, therefore it is also the last week of summer for me, therefore this week will mark the last week of the summer Reading/Writing posts on this blog and we will return to me posting on random topics on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I hope you are all enjoying these last days of summer…I feel like this year it just all flew by.

So, to finish off, here are the last of your questions from the Q & A post earlier…and if I didn't answer something you asked, it's likely I've posted about it before (check the categories in the sidebar and the FAQ). Hopefully I've covered everything!

And before I get into the questions, here are a few quick announcements:

* Salt Lake City Public Library event tomorrow, August 17th, from 6-9 p.m. Hope to see you there.

*Jenni Elyse mentioned that she can't seem to leave comments. Is anyone else having this problem (maybe you could e-mail me if so and we could see if there's a common thread in what's happening)? As you can tell, my husband and I aren't always fluent in all the nuances of wordpress. We're just flying by the seats of our pants.

Okay! On to the questions! And answers!

Shawn and Carrie Jo asked: What is the editing process like? Not the editing you do before you send a book into your agent/publisher, but the editing you do afterward. How different were Matched/Crossed from when you sent them in, thinking you were "done"? (As done as you were going to be on your own, or with "non-professional" readers/editors). Were there big changes to plot? Do you have veto power, or do you have to adhere to your agent and editor's desired changes?

The answer to this is kind of complicated. Because I'd been through the editing process with five books prior to MATCHED, I knew when I sent it in that it wasn't "done," and I knew that we would work together quite a bit. I'm very fortunate in that both editors I've worked with, Julie Strauss-Gabel and Lisa Mangum, have been fantastic and I've trusted them absolutely. And with Lisa, I revised my first manuscript three times before she accepted it for publication! So I've always been prepared to do a lot of editing and take a lot of suggestions. There have often been significant changes, and my motto is "I'll try anything the editor suggests." Because–why not? They are smart, smart people, they have an eye for things you cannot see, and you can always just save your old version in a document in case you like it better. Which, incidentally, has never happened. I've always been glad I made the changes. It's always resulted in a better book, even if it seemed hard/difficult to do initially.

This is a really great question and one I should probably devote an entire post to at some point, because I don't know that this answer really covered everything.

SaraBee asks: Writing about time…. not the actual time on the clock, but the time that passes in a story. Do you just pick up wherever you want your character to be next? Do you use any sort of transition? I ask because while I write, I find that I don't want to show every single day or week (nothing really happens to my character during this time), but find myself wanting to skip ahead a few weeks/month. I really have no idea if that makes sense, but in my head, everything makes sense. :0)

I do skip ahead in time, and I do use transitions. I think you can tell when you read my books how I tend to do this–if I skip ahead, I usually flag the transition somehow, or, if I feel it will be clear in the text, I don't flag it so explicitly. But yes, I like to skip ahead. Or sometimes back. I like playing with time. I DEFINITELY do not like to show every single day, etc., in a story. Just the interesting ones.

Juli asks: What is the biggest, most important advice you can give to an aspiring writer? And do you ever go through a phase where you feel like your book isn't good enough, and if so, how do you handle it?

I always advise aspiring writers to put in the time and to give yourself time. It might take you years of writing every day to get good enough to get published, and THAT IS OKAY. The other advice I give is that, if this is truly important to you, DO NOT GIVE UP. I know these sound basic but, for me, writing every day and not giving up were essential. And yes, I have also felt like my book isn't good enough. Usually if I give myself a break from the book and work on something else, and then come back to it, I can tell if it has promise or if my new project is more exciting. And then I work on that instead.

Jenny says: Hi Ally! I'm in the middle of writing a dystopian novel, do you have any advice on how to make a dystopian society seem more believable? And how long (word count) is the average YA novel? Thanks!

I'm afraid I don't know the word count of the average YA novel. I can tell you mine are around 90,000 words, usually. But Google might know more about other novels! And about making a dystopian novel more believable–I think it needs to feel enough like our world that we can relate to it, so that the differences/strange things freak us out even more. I hope that helps!

Thanks again for the great questions, all. We'll have to do this again in a couple of months!!

upcoming events: salt lake city public library

photo (c) Timothy Hursley and taken from the Salt Lake City Public Library's site

I just wanted to draw your attention to the Events page and remind you about next Wednesday's event at the Salt Lake City Public Library. It's on August 17th (so just a week away!) and will run from 6-9 p.m. They have lots of fun Matched-based activities beginning at 6:00 and then I'll speak at 7:00 and sign books afterwards. This event is going to be AWESOME, you guys. They have a scavenger hunt planned, Grandfather's last meal, etc., etc. all in store for you. And the library is gorgeous. And…

…thanks to the lovely Marie at Penguin, I have two ARCs of CROSSED to give away at the end of the evening! We'll likely have some kind of drawing and you must be present to win. So I very much hope to see you there!

writing: your questions part 1

The questions were great! More than I expected! I thought I'd do some of the ones that required shorter answers first and then the longer ones next week/the week after/until they're done. Just FYI, if you don't see your question answered here or in a future post, it's because I've already addressed it either in the FAQ or in one of the posts about writing I've done previously (you can find those listed in the categories under "writing" or "a conversation on" or " q & a" in the sidebar). Or it might be because you posted your question too far after the deadline listed. But don't worry, we'll do this again someday!

And here we go…

Leigh said: I was just wondering if you wrote any books before MATCHED that were not published.

The answer to that is no, kind of. I have lots of partial manuscripts that have never been published, but at the time that I wrote MATCHED I had never written a full novel that hadn't been published. However, after I wrote MATCHED I wrote a book that has never been published. For more info on that, see the next question…

Jenna asked: I have a question–after you finished with Matched and you were looking for your agent, what did you do in terms of your writing schedule? As in, did you start writing the sequel to Matched, or work on a different project, or just focus on the query process?

After I finished writing MATCHED I started right into writing a book for my first publisher. My writing schedule was exactly the same–several hours a day during the week and a full day on Saturdays. I was fairly aggressive with querying (I'd send out about 10 queries per week) but I knew that I wanted to get the next book for my first publisher written. Back then, I had no idea what–if anything–would happen with MATCHED so I wanted to keep going on the other project.

That book has never been published. When everything happened with MATCHED, my first publisher and I talked. I knew I couldn't write for both (not enough time to do it all well) and they were lovely about wishing me the best and telling me I could come back if I ever wanted to do so. It was hard leaving after all those years together–but it honestly could not have gone better. That book still sits in a file, unfinished. It's drafted but very messy. I wonder sometimes if I'll pull it out and look at it again someday.

Both Reading_Life and Ashley R. asked: Can you tell us the title to Book 3?

I'm afraid that I can't, because we are still talking about it right now. But this blog/twitter will be the first place I post it when the time comes.

Blue asked: Is there a setting in your blog that would enable you to show the dates of your posts?

Probably. But I don't know how to find it. This makes me crazy too. So if anyone fluent in wordpress can let me know, that would be awesome.

HD asks: What is your favorite part about Cassia's world in the Society?

The organization. I would love for things in my life to be more organized. Also, not having to cook would be pretty great.

Jenny asks: When you imagined Cassia's world, what factors of our modern society helped you imagine hers?

Lots of factors–but one of my faves that I mention a lot when I talk about the book is the way that our society is losing the ability to write by hand.

Shannon Hale asked: Why are you so cool?

And I am not cool, but that question pretty much made my day.