TWO!
Two. We're already at number two! That's a really, really, really low number countdown-wise. (In case you guys hadn't figured that out yet.)
1....TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Will this book ever have an equal? I don't think so. At least not for me. It's one of the rare books that I read as a teenager that, when I re-read it now, I love it even more. It speaks to you in very different ways at different points of your life. It is a classic for a reason.
2...PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. I have to admit that I discovered this one relatively late in life. I read it for the first time after the BBC miniseries brought it back into the limelight. And oh am I glad it did. There's just something so utterly perfect about every character in that book. The squealing Mrs. Bennett, Mr. Bingley's snobby sister, the mumbling, pretentious Mr. Collins... Even though those characters were set a few hundred years ago in a completely different country I still felt like I know them. Oh heck, I DO know them--or people just like them--and that's why P&P; will always be at the top of my list.
So what about you guys? What are your favorite books ever?
-Ally
The countdown...gimme a three!
1...Shoebuy.com. I know. This is a strange one for me, right? After all, I am so not a shoe girl that they almost kicked me out of the Chick Lit Writers of America. But while I'm not a shoe girl in the truest sense, I do however have feet. And therefore a need for shoes. And while I don't looooove shoes. There's something I do love: OPTIONS!
That's right. Why go to a store and try on dozens of pairs of shoes and have a salesperson stand there, staring at you, silently wishing you'd make a decision or drop dead and distinguishing between the two less every second when there's a website that offers free to and from shipping and a 60 day return window?
Even as I write this I'm wearing a size 7 black mary jane on my right foot and a 7 1/2 on my right. In a few minutes I intend to switch. Because I'm crazy like that.
2...HGTV...I know this is not really a new obsession, but the lackluster summer TV season has made me more devoted than ever to shows like SELL THIS HOUSE (why people, in this day and age, don't already know to take their commemorative dolls/plates/thimbles/etc. off the walls before they try to sell their houses I will never know!)
Also, I simply can't get enough of MY HOUSE IS WORTH WHAT? Which, personally, the wording of that title disturbs me for some reason, but that doesn't mean I don't shout price estimates at the TV as loudly as I can. Really, it's like real estate "the Price is Right" that way. So what's not to obsess about?
3...Laptops. I lied. So this is probably a little bit writing-related. But not entirely. I simply have to find and purchase a new laptop, but...see #1 above. Somehow I don't think they'll let me bring a few home and try them on before I buy one.
have a great Saturday, everyone. I'll be back tomorrow for day two. That's right: DAY TWO. That's one day away from DAY ONE. And that's one day away from...
Day four!
FOUR REASONS THIS POST IS KINDA LAME
1...Driving...sooo long...so much driving.
2...TV...soooo good...so many good shows starting.
3...Laptop...soooooooo dead...must find new laptop.
4...Nerves...sooooooooooo multiplying...must beg readers to buy books.
nighty night everyone!
-Ally
Countdown continues...day five
1...How old do you have to be to have your book published?
I get this question almost weekly from all of you young writers who are worried that no one in the publishing industry will take you seriously. Well, I have one name for you: S.E. Hinton.
Yep. The author of THE OUTSIDERS wrote that book when she was a teenager. Did that stop her? No.
The only thing people in the publishing business care about is the quality of your book--they won't treat you any better or worse if you're a teenager. What does that mean? Your book has to be good! Do that, and you'll be far ahead of the pack.
2...Where do you get your ideas?
Ideas are everywhere--all the time. I've chronicled the complete "stories behind the stories" on the pages of this website dedicated to my books. CHEATING AT SOLITAIRE came to me while I was cooking spaghetti. I got the idea of the Gallagher Girls while watching TV.
The key, I think, is always being open to ideas and then learning how to think constructively about them to figure out which ones you should use and which should be tossed back.
3...How long does it take to write a book?
To my knowledge, there's no specific answer to that question. Personally, I've done it as quickly as a few months and I've also had books that have taken more than a year.
No two writers are the same, so the best thing is to just commit to a project and stick it out however long it takes to finish.
4...How do you get a book published and how much does it cost?
Okay. Listen up, folks and listen well. If you're paying to have your book published you're doing what's called "self publishing." There are a few reasons why some people choose to do this, but it's not really the avenue that most of you are really wanting, I'm willing to bet.
My publisher pays me to publish my book--not the other way around. And that's the way it is for almost every author that you've ever heard of.
Now for the larger question of how do you get a book published.
First things first, you have to write a really great book. Not just a "finished" book. Not an okay book. Not a "my mom says it's good" book. Nope. It's got to be a truly amazing book in every way and people who don't already know and love you have to agree.
Next step: you should start researching literary agents. These are the people who take your book to publishing houses and negotiate deals on your behalf.
You can find out about agents in many ways.
--research your favorite authors and find out who their agents are then visit those agents' websites.
--sign up for pulisher's lunch and lunch weekly--two industry e-newsletters that you can find at www.publishersmarketplace.com. Lunch Weekly lists publishing deals and the agents who are making them happen.
--While you're at publishersmarketplace.com, you might sign up for their service that allows you to research a database of publishing deals.
--And finally you can go to agentquery.com and research there as well.
Then you should research the agents that you're interested in and follow their submission guidelines to the letter.
A lot of people think there's a trick to getting a literary agent. And that's true. The trick is writing a really, spectacularly good book. If you can do that you'll have agents fighting over you. I swear.
5...what's the best part about being a writer?
That's an easy one. You guys. You're the best part.
Day five, people!
--Ally
A special, mini-post
This isn't a real post. It's a mini-post because I'm dying to know if any of you have actually seen CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY for sale anywhere yet?
Usually bookstores receive their new books before their official "lay-down date" (by the way: I really, truly felt like a publishing insider the first time I ever used the phrase "lay-down date!"
Anyway...a lot of the time they'll go ahead and put new releases on shelves early, but I haven't heard of any Cross My Heart sightings so far...which is unusual. But good. Since that makes next week even better!
So if you guys see copies for sale you'll let me know, right?
Thanks bunches,
Ally
Day 6...and counting
A few weeks ago my friend Jennifer Lynn Barnes did a really cool thing to count down to the launch of her newest book, Platinum.
It was a sort of 12-days-of-Christmas thing.
And I am now going to steal it.
So without further ado:
1. thanks to all of your very well-thought out and beautifully articulated arguments in regard to yesterday's post, I called my favorite bakery in Tulsa this morning and ordered two dozen white cupcakes, one dozen chocolate cupcakes, and three dozen cookies in assorted flavors.
2. Just because it bears repeating: THREE DOZEN CUPCAKES and THREE DOZEN COOKIES, people!
3. Tonight is the debut of LIFE on NBC. Life stars Damian Lewis who played Major Winters on the BAND OF BROTHERS miniseries. Have I mentioned lately how much I loooooved the BAND OF BROTHERS miniseries?
4. Dancing with the Stars is perhaps the best show ever for walking on the treadmill.
5. So far I've heard from a lot of friends and relatives who are planning on attending the launch party at the Barnes and Noble on 41st in Tulsa, OK next Tuesday (Oct. 2) night at 7:00. And, by the way, you guys know that you're invited, right? I mean, could I conceivably have a party without you? Uh? Don't think so.
6. Oh yeah...it's just SIX days until CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY comes out!!!!!!!!!
So that's day 6.
What about you guys? What's making YOU giddy these days?
-Ally
A truly important question
Okay guys, I need your advice on a very serious issue...
What is better for a book launch party--cake, cupcakes, or cookies?
All this time I've been thinking cake since a cake with the CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY bookjacket made entirely out of icing would probably be the most awesome thing in the universe.
However, (as my very wise sister pointed out) do you really want to mess with cutting and serving cake at the launch party? I mean, seriously. I have personally been the official "cake server" at about two dozen weddings and it's a pretty icky job. And then you have to make sure there are plates...and forks... And it's really hard to party-hardy when you're worried about stocking the fork supply!
So that brings us to my good friend, the cupcake. All the delicious icy-ness of cake, but in a convenient paper wrapper. Of course it's probably not possible to have a Gallagher Girl on every single cupcake, but it's also not necessary to be on fork patrol either.
However, with cake, if there's a much larger-than-anticipated crowd you can cut the pieces smaller. With cupcakes, you're locked in to a number. Even if you've got people (and yes, Mom, I'm talking to you) who will only eat a half bite of a cupcake and then "be so full" (note to self: be more like your mother), so cupcakes can, on occasion, be sort of wasteful.
Which brings us to, perhaps, my favorite combo ever: the cupcake AND cookie tray option. You get cupcakes and their advantages and also cookies which can come in a variety of sizes and flavors. And, let's face it, most people will always pick up and enjoy a cookie.
But I can't decide!
Help!
Ally
ps....it's ONE WEEK AND COUNTING, by the way. That's seven days, people.
pps...I'm STILL freaking out!!!!
Hard drives and harsh realities
Not that anyone cares...but it appears the laptop may be dead. Officially. Our tech guy has assured me I did nothing wrong, but I don't believe him. Surely I'm to blame in some way. I'm ALWAYS to blame!
But no.
In good news, last week I purchased an external hard drive and BACKED UP the laptop! Oh yeah, who's looking like a genius now? (answer: me. I'm a genius.) So while this whole crash thing is highly disturbing I'm not crying on the floor in the fetal position like I would have been if not for the geniusly-timed laptop backup.
In other new, tomorrow kicks off the one-week countdown to the release of CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my gosh, I got nervous just typing that.
You guys want to know a secret? This one freaks me out. Not in a bad way--in a good way. And it's all your fault! That's right. Every time one of you writes or comments about how you're going to buy the book and all of your friends are going to buy the book my expectations creep up a little bit higher.
But do you know what happens every I have high expectations about anything (the Buffy series finale, the overall funness of every party I've ever tried to host, every pair of "perfect for curvy figures" jeans I've ever tried on)? My expectations inevitably get hammered into nothingness.
So really...expectations--not my friends.
And if you guys really want to help me out you'll tell me how much you're not looking forward to the book. I mean not at all. Honestly, people, that would help bunches (because whenever I go into something with low expectations I'm always pleasantly surprised.)
You could say things like "Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy? Might as well be Cross My Heart and Hope Not to Die of boredom!" You could tell me that the only reason you would buy it would be because it's the perfect height to fix a wobbly table you've got--that would help me feel better. Cause seriously, all this "I can't wait!" business is keeping me up nights and let's just say Ally needs her beauty sleep.
later gators
-Ally
In the meantime...
PLATINUM, the sequel to the uber-cool GOLDEN by my good buddy Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
And last but certainly not least, VIOLET ON THE RUNWAY by Melissa Walker.
The countdown continues!!!
Yesterday morning I woke up, got dressed, came to the office, sat down, and thought...
WHY AM I SO NERVOUS?
I mean seriously, people, I was really freaking nervous and I couldn't imagine why. And then...I remembered.
IT'S ALMOST TIME FOR CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY TO COME OUT!!!!!
I was kinda nervous when my very first book, CHEATING AT SOLITAIRE (may it rest in peace) came out. And then I was a lot more nervous when LOVE YOU, KILL YOU came out.
But Cross My Heart is my fourth book! The nerves are supposed to be gone by now, but let me tell you, if anything, they've multiplied!
What if people hate it?
What if no one buys it?
What if the Oct. 2nd launch party at the Barnes and Noble on 41st Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma is reminiscent of the opening scene in Looking For Alaska and nobody comes?
What if some evil supervillain takes over the printing company and injects a rare but toxic chemical into the ink that makes every Gallagher Girl-fan in the world actually become the anti-Gallagher Girl?
Those things would all be bad.
I mean, you guys ARE going to buy it, aren't you? Because if you're lying to me about that...well...that's just mean.
And to tempt you even further into buying it, I'm going to go ahead and give you the rest of chapter one.
Enjoy!
Ally
Chapter One
Part 3
(May I suggest you begin by reading
Part 1 here and Part 2 here)
“My name is Cammie.”
“No, what’s your full name?” asked the man in front of the Polygraph machine as if I wasn’t wearing the aforementioned (and supposedly non-explosive) name badge.
I thought about my mother’s words of wisdom, took a deep breath and said, “Cameron Ann Morgan,” and hoped that would be good enough.
The room around me was bare, empty, with a stainless steel table and mirror made of one-way glass. I probably wasn’t the first Gallagher Girl to sit in that sterile room--after all, de-briefs are a part of the covert operations package. Still, I couldn’t help squirming in the hard metal chair—maybe because it was cold in there, maybe because I was nervous, maybe because I was experiencing a slight underwear situation. (Note to self: research the wedgie theory of interrogation—there could totally be something to it!) But the efficient looking man in the wire rim glasses was too busy twisting knobs and punching keys, trying to figure out what the truth sounded like coming from me, to care.
“The Gallagher Academy doesn’t teach interrogation procedures until we’re juniors, you know?” I said, but the man just muttered, “Uh huh.”
“And I’m just a sophomore, so you shouldn’t worry about the results coming out all screwy or anything. I’m not immune to your powers of interrogation.” Yet.
“Good to know,” he mumbled but his eyes never left the three screens that surrounded him.
“I know it’s just standard protocol, so just…ask away,” I said, knowing I was babbling but I couldn’t stop myself. “Really,” I said. “Just whatever you need to know, just--”
But then he looked at me and blurted, “Do you attend the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women?” and for reasons I will never understand I said, “Uh…yes?” as if it might be a trick question.
“Have you ever studied the subject of Covert Operations?”
“Yes,” I said again, feeling my confidence, or maybe just my training, coming back to me.
“Did your Covert Operations coursework ever take you to the town of Roseville, Virginia?”
Even in that hollow, sterile room beneath Washington, D.C. I could almost feel the hot humid night last September. I could almost hear the band and smell the corndogs.
My stomach growled as I said, “Yes.”
Polygraph Guy made precise notes and stared at the bank of monitors and didn’t even blink when he asked, “And that is when you first noticed The Subject?”
Here’s the thing about being a spy in love: your boyfriend never has a name. People like Polygraph Guy were never going to call him Josh. He would always The Subject, a person of interest. Taking away his name was their way of taking away what was left of him. So I said, “Yes,” and tried not to let my voice crack.
“And you utilized your training to develop a relationship with The Subject?”
“Gee, when you say it like that—"
“Yes or no, Ms.--"
“Yes!”
Which I would like to point out is not nearly as bad as it sounds since, for example, you don’t need a search warrant to go through someone’s trash. Seriously. Once it hits the curb it is totally fair game—you can look it up.
But somehow I knew that the Office of Operative Development and Human Intelligence was probably far less concerned about the trash thing than they were about what came after the trash thing. So I was fully prepared when Polygraph Guy said, “Did The Subject follow you to your Covert Operations Final Examination?”
I thought about Josh appearing in the abandoned warehouse during finals week, bursting through walls and commandeering forklifts to “save” me,
so I swallowed hard as I said, “Yes.”
“And was The Subject given memory-modification tea to erase the events of that night?”
It sounded so easy coming from him, so black and white. Sure, my mom gave Josh some tea that’s supposed to wipe a person’s memory blank, erase a few hours of their life and give everyone a second chance at a clean slate. But clean slates are a rare thing in any life—especially a spy’s life—so I didn’t let myself wonder for the millionth time if what Josh remembered about that night, about me. I didn’t torture myself with any of the questions that might never have answers as I sat there, knowing there is no such thing as black and white—remembering that my whole life is, by definition, a little bit gray.
I nodded, then muttered, “Yes,” because like it or not, I knew I had to say the word out loud.
He made some more notes, punched some keys, and said, “Are you currently involved with The Subject in any way?”
“No,” I blurted because I knew that much was true. I hadn’t seen Josh, hadn’t spoken to him, hadn’t even hacked into his email account over winter break which, given present circumstances, seemed like a pretty good idea. (Plus, I had spent the last two weeks in Nebraska with Grandma and Grandpa Morgan, and they have dial-up which takes forever!)
The man in the wire-rimmed glasses looked away from the screen then. He stared at me. “And do you intend to reinitiate contact with The Subject despite strict rules prohibiting such a relationship?”
There it was: the question I’d carried for weeks.
There I was: Cammie the Chameleon—the Gallagher Girl who had risked the most sacred sisterhood in the history of espionage. For a boy.
“Ms. Morgan,” Polygraph Guy said, growing impatient. “Are you going to reinitiate contact with The Subject?”
“No,” I said softly.
Then I glanced back at the screen to see if I was lying.