Thank you guys SO MUCH for making last week--the "Week of Giving"--a huge success!

We literally had thousands of entries throughout the week. Which is 1. awesome! and 2. a reason that it might take me a little while to go through them all. And, rest assured, I am personally going through every single one.

That's the bad news. The good news is that I have gone through all of the Monday entries for the FAQ contest and we have winners!

These weren't the questions that were actually asked most frequently (those will be used later). Rather, these were the questions that made ME think the hardest...the ones I'd never really considered or had always wondered myself.

So...let's answer a few, shall we?

Michella Domenici asked:

If you hadn't seen Alias that fateful night GG was born, do you think the idea would have ever come to you? Maybe in a different form?

This is a question that I've thought about at least a dozen times but it's one I've never, ever been asked, so congratulations, Michella!

Since I've had so long to think about the answer you'd think I'd be more prepared to answer it than I am (but isn't that the way with truly great questions!?)

The short answer is no, I don't think I ever would have come up with the idea for a spy school for girls if I had not been thinking about teen novels and watching a spy show and thought I was seeing a boarding school all at the same time. (Read the full story here.) It was a miraculous crossroads of thought and it changed my life.

However, the phrase "I'd tell you I love you but then I'd have to kill you" was one that had been in my mind for a very long time, so you never know.

The most common question I get is some combination of "where do you get your ideas"/"how did you get your idea for the Gallagher Academy".

I can't speak for all writers, but for me book ideas aren't things you "get". Getting implies going to the store and picking an idea up--like milk.

For me, it's more like ideas "come". You can make yourself open to them and keep your eyes and ears tuned for their approach, but they come to me and not the other way around.

The idea for Love You Kill You and the Gallagher Academy was like that. Three thoughts (spies, schools, YA novels) collided and the book was born.

(And just fyi, Heist Society came when I was thinking about novels and the term "cat burglar" and just like that I knew I had to write about a girl named Kat who was a burglar.)

The question I really ask is if I hadn't been watching Alias and had the idea for LYKY and the Gallagher Academy would I be writing today? Would I be successful? Would I be living where I'm living and doing the kind of work I'm doing and a million other off-shoots.

The answer is that I do think I would be writing something. I would have had other ideas because that's what writers do--we have ideas. And one of them might have been as good as the idea for a top secret boarding school for girl spies. One of them might have even been better.

But the only thing I know for certain is that my life would be different.

Allison Voss asked:
How big of a difference would it be to be brought into the spy world later verses being born into it?

This is a question that I actually thought A LOT about when writing the first book and establishing who the "core four" would really be and why.

I knew that Cammie came from a spying family. I knew that at least one of her friends would have that in common with her but, unlike Cammie, she would be a girl who never lost her parents, so she has all of the strength and background of a life of espionage but without Cammie's terrible loss and subsequent vulnerability.

I also knew it was equally important to have at least one girl who was a total outsider in the covert world. There was one practical reason behind this (being able to explain things to an outsider is a way to also explain things to a reader without breaking the narrative flow.)

But more than the practical, I knew that people who were raised in the spy world and out of the spy world would absolutely see things differently. And different opinions/thoughts/experiences are an author's best friends. They're a person's best friend.

As my father always says, if two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary. So that's why it was important for me to have girls who grew up with such different backgrounds.

As for your specific question--how big of a difference would it make--it would make all the difference in the world. Liz and Macey can never be exactly like Bex and Cammie because they never were told trade secrets over dinner or swept for bugs in every hotel room they ever checked in on vacation. They never watched their parents walk out the door on a mission when they were a little kid. And Bex can never be exactly like Cammie because she never had to hear that her father would never be walking back.

Everything we see and do shape who we are. And the life you're born into--the life the girls led before they came to school--that shaped the fundamental fabric of every aspect of their personalities and lives.

It always does.

Ooh, fabulous question!

As you know, Cammie is very average in her appearance. She's average height, average weight. Her hair could be described as anything from dark blond to light brown. Her eyes change color depending on what she's wearing. (And in case any of you out there are curious, mine do too--they can be anything from blue to green to hazel in the course of a day.)

But Cammie IS pretty. She's just the kind of pretty that you have to look at to see whereas Bex and Macey are the kind of pretty that stands out--striking, unusual. They look more like models. Cammie looks like the girl next door.

Rachel and Abby are frequently described as beautiful, too, but I think their beauty is less about their features (which are very lovely, don't get me wrong) and more about their confidence and strength. Remember, we see and hear EVERYTHING from Cammie's point of view. She thinks her mom and aunt are two of the most beautiful women to ever walk the earth because...well...to her they are.

Beauty can certainly be an advantage in some situations in life--especially when your life involves getting people to trust you/like you/ want you around and allow you access to places and people and things you may never see otherwise.

Being average looking can also be advantages in those situations.

I would say that, in most of my research, it seems that real covert operatives tend to be people more like Cammie--people who blend in, people others wouldn't suspect, people who are unassuming and unthreatening in appearance.

But all of this is really beside the point--we look how we look. And I truly believe that a person can be truly excep
tional no matter what they see in the mirror.

Cupcake77 asked:
If you have a chance to go to the Gallagher Academy and had to leave behind your friends and family for adventure, would you?

This is another question that I REALLY had to think a lot about--and have wondered off and on for years.

The chance to go to a school like the Gallagher Academy would be something that would change every girl's life. Let me say that again--it would change your life!

You would have a different life!

You'd probably get a different job, live in a different city, have different relationships, and almost everything else.

If I had gone to a school like the Gallagher Academy I'd have a very different life now, but I'm not sure whether or not I'd be a different person.

But I digress...

Would I go away from my home and family to go to the Gallagher Academy? Probably not. But if I did make that decision, I don't think it's one I'd regret because I wouldn't know to miss this life. Just like--right now--I don't know to miss that one.

Each of these fabulous readers will be receiving an Advanced Reading Copy of Heist Society! Congratulations! And thanks to everyone who entered.

-Ally