Ally Condie's Blog, page 9

blog tour day nine: roadtripping with robison wells

Tomorrow, Saturday November 12th, I'll be presenting the keynote address at the Provo Teen Book Fest at the Provo Library. More info on the Events Page and at Provo Library's website (this is a ticketed event).

Elana Johnson, Kristen Landon, and Robison Wells will also be at the Teen Book Fest presenting. And guess what. Today's guest blog is about a road trip through the country of CROSSED over at Rob's blog. This was such a fun interview. Many thanks to Rob for coming up with the idea and for letting me visit!

blog tour day eight: crossed and painting, part 2

I'm in Atlanta! For the last stop on the CROSSED tour! Can't wait to visit Little Shop of Stories tonight (Thursday, November 10th) at 7 p.m.

And, today's blog tour stop/CROSSED giveaway is over at Novel Novice. It's the second part of the post about the importance of painting/the visual arts in the story of CROSSED. Many thanks to Novel Novice for letting me stop by!

THANK YOU!!! We debuted at #2!!!

CROSSED just debuted at #2 on the New York Times Bestseller List for Children's Chapter Books.

!!!!!

And MATCHED is over on the paperback list at #6.

!!!!!! again!

Many, many thanks to you the readers who care about this story and series and who have made this possible. I am so very grateful and thrilled. THANK YOU!!!

blog tour day seven: new characters in crossed

Today I'm over at Mundie Moms with a post about one of the new characters in CROSSED–Vick, who is very dear to my heart. Thank you, Mundie Moms, for your support of the series (they wrote a great, spoiler-free review of CROSSED that you can find here).

And just another reminder–tonight (November 9th) I'm signing at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, Illinois at 7 p.m.

blog tour day six: crossed and painting, part 1

Whew! Today was a great day of school visits and interviews in St. Louis…and then a flight to Chicago with weather delays, which is why I'm so late linking to this guest post and giveaway over at the lovely Page Turners Blog.

Hope you are all having a wonderful Tuesday! And that I get to see some of you tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Anderson's in Naperville!

blog tour day five: how ky and xander got their names

Today's post is about how Ky and Xander got their names…over at the awesome Matched Trilogy LJ (where they also have another post going discussing CROSSED if you've read it–but there are of course spoilers so I wouldn't go to that post in particular just yet if you haven't read the novel). Whew. That was a long sentence. You can also enter to win a signed hardcover copy of Crossed over at their site.

I'm in St. Louis today–hope to see some of you tonight!!

blog tour day four: my journey to publication, part 2…

…can be found over at The Compulsive Reader. Many thanks to The Compulsive Reader for letting me visit her blog, and for spreading the word about MATCHED and CROSSED!

I'm in Seattle today, having an absolutely wonderful time doing school visits (and a signing tonight)! And tomorrow, home for the weekend to see all my boys. I can't wait!

blog tour day three: my journey to publication, part I

Some of the questions I get asked most often are about my journey to publication–how I found an agent, how I got started writing, etc. I'm answering those in a two-part post during the blog tour. You can find Part 1 today over at Frenetic Reader (and many thanks to Frenetic Reader for letting me stop by your blog!). She's also holding a giveaway so be sure to enter.

blog tour day two and nanowrimo

First of all, to those who came to the launch party last night at The King's English, thank you so much! It was such a lovely night and I am still floating. Readers and booksellers are awesome. Being able to see all of you and talk with you has made my year. And thank you also for all your kind comments on the post yesterday! I am very grateful for your support of CROSSED.



I have a few links for you today! The first is to a post I wrote for NaNoWriMo's Young Writers Program. I hope all of you doing NaNoWriMo are having a wonderful second day. It's such an exciting month!

Also, I posted about working with an editor here at the Story Siren's blog. This is one of the questions I get asked most frequently so it was great to sit down and really write it all out. The Story Siren is having a giveaway (thanks to Penguin for providing the copy of CROSSED and other goodies)! There are quite a few entries on her blog, but guess what? If you head over here to yesterday's blog post at the Matched Department, there are many less entries for the same prizes (only 4 entries right now, instead of 200+). Just want to help you increase your odds…

I'm currently in San Francisco and can't wait for the events this afternoon and evening! Will I see some of you there?

november 1, 2011

photo credit Brook Andreoli

Today, to mark the release date of CROSSED, I thought I would write a little bit about all the people who helped me get this story down on paper in its earliest form, before I could even send it off to my agent and editor: my family.

Without my family, I could never have written any of my books, but this one in particular required the help and love of every last one of them and I am deeply grateful.

CROSSED belongs to my parents, who took me to the canyons every weekend of my childhood, who said, "Here is a beautiful place; we will walk with you through it." They have walked with me through many canyons, and they are the ones who take care of my kids whenever I am out of town so my husband doesn't have to miss work. My father is the one who first challenged me to write a book, and my mother is a professional artist who showed me that discipline and inspiration are both required to create.

CROSSED belongs to my brother, Nic, who read so many drafts I lost count and who tirelessly answered questions about fish, streams, and the outdoors. He also inserted scathing comments throughout the text, which I can't repeat in a public forum (WHERE did my baby brother learn such profanity?!?), but they always made me laugh and made me think. More than any other reader, Nic challenges me to get over myself and get into the story.

CROSSED belongs to my sister, Hope, who also read multiple drafts with cheerful good humor, even when she was the midst of her freshman year of college and all of the parties/studying/late nights that entails. One of the qualities Hope has is her essential kindness, and she brings that to everything she does and makes you feel better about your book, your self, and any kind of world that could produce someone like her.

This book belongs to my sister, Elaine, who once again went through several drafts (but, thankfully for her sake, not as many as MATCHED). Like Nic, she tells it like it is, and that kind of honesty is what a book often needs. She's always willing to talk me through the low points and rejoice with me during the good moments, even when it requires driving across the entire state to a launch party (can't wait to see you tonight!).

This book belongs to my cousin, Caitlin, who came every Tuesday and Thursday morning from the fall of 2010 to the fall of 2011. Without those hours I never would have finished this book. She cheered me on and took such good care of my kids. Her gentleness, grace, and absolute good humor made us all feel like, "Yes, we can do this!" even when there seemed to be mounting evidence to the contrary.

This book belongs to my sons, who make me feel everything in life so much more deeply. Without them, I would be an entirely different person and writer. They are, of course, the reason for everything.

And, of course, this book belongs to my husband. I knew, the first day I met him and saw that smile, those kind eyes, that he was someone extraordinary. Someone truly good. All that has happened in those years since–grad school, three kids, seven books, many shared joys and sorrows–has only affirmed everything I thought in that first meeting.

And I couldn't have written CROSSED without you, my reading family–all of you.

I posted last year on the release of MATCHED, and in that post I said that the book now belongs to you, the readers. That is, of course, also true of CROSSED. The book always belongs to each reader individually. When you read it, you make it yours and you make it come alive in a way that it never has before. Each reader brings something special and different to a book and enriches the story. I am so grateful to all of you readers.