Ally Carter

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Magnificent Monday

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Hey Everyone!

Ally did a Live Chat last week on Twitter and she answered a TON of questions.

I thought I would post  some of the Q&A’s here for all of you who missed it!

 

Did you make all of the men in your books hot on purpose? Uh…Yes

What is your favorite quote from your books? Crazy. I went crazy.

If one of your characters come to life, what would you say to him/her? I’d tell Grace “it’s gonna be okay”

Will we see more of Grace’s brother in ER2? YESSSSSSS!!!!!

Which one of your characters is the best role model? Macey. She turned her life around

Out of all of your book series which one would you most like to be made into a movie? Any and all!

Is there anything we don’t know yet about Grace? Sooooo much

Did Megan’s mom attend Gallagher? you never know..

Did you get Alexei’s name from Alexei Romanov? No. I just liked calling him Sexy Alexei.

Any celebs that you’d like to see play Zach, Hale, and Alexei? Alexei is the Russian teenage Matt Bomer

Do you have a favorite moment or quote from Embassy Row? I love the end. (no spoilers!)

Who’s your favorite adult character in your books? Btwn Ms. Chancellor & Uncle Eddie

Any plans for anymore Heist Society books? Hopefully!

What is your favorite part about Alexei? Alexei wants to be the good guy and Isn’t sure how

Fav quote from Embassy Row? When Noah says Lila could have eaten him in the womb

If you. could have a sleepover with grace or kat, who would you pick? Grace. She needs a friend

What is the biggest thing you want your readers to take away? I want them to be happier

If you could learn one thing or skill from Cammie, Kat, or Grace, what would it be? I’d be more athletic

Can you give us any teasers about Alexei and Noah? There is A LOT of testosterone in this one

Can you describe your newest book in a word? Crazy!

When is gonna be out? Early 2016. I turned it in last night!

 

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Have a good week!

xoxo,

Shellie

Magnificent Monday & Ally is on Tour!

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Hi All!

First things first, Ally has added one more stop on her tour this week!!!

January 29
Winnetka, IL
4:30 pm
Event at The Book Stall
811 Elm Street
**Joint event with Elizabeth Eulberg (Lonely Hearts Club & We Can Work It Out)

If you are anywhere near this venue please go and see her and get those books signed! For all of Ally’s tour dates check HERE!

 

The other big news was Ally did a question and answer session on her Tumblr this past weekend.

There were some great questions! For all of you that missed it here are the Questions and Answers!

Question: Just finished All Fall Down and now I want more! But I do have a question is this going to be a trilogy or a series?

Answer:

Right now there are three books under contract, so I think it will be a three book series (trilogy, though I have recently come to hate the term for a variety of reasons I won’t go into.)

However, I always let the books decide these things in the end. So if I need more books to properly tell the story, then I will absolutely go to my publisher and beg for them to let me do more.

But if I had to bet right now, I’d put my money on three books. (With book 2 coming out in about a year.)

Question:Hi ally is the release date for all fall down all over the world the same? Like for example *cough* Ireland?

Answer:

No. With the exception of a few MEGA releases (ex: Harry Potter), there is no such thing as a universal release date. And even then, I highly doubt the seventh Harry Potter came out all over the world on the same day.

Why? Because all publishing is local. I don’t have “A Publisher”. I literally have twenty or thirty. Each country—or “territory”—has different publishers that operate there. And, as authors, we often sell to each of those publishers independently. So they all set their own schedules, do their own translations, make their own covers, organize their own distribution and marketing, etc. etc.

I believe that Ireland will be distributed by my UK publisher, Orchard Books UK. I know that release date is online somewhere but I don’t know it off the top of my head (it is in a week or so).

Question: Hi! I was one of the lucky fans who got an advance copy of Embassy Row (for being the first Ally Ambassadors signed up). Are there any differences between this copy and the one released this week? I also want to say that I LOVED IT. Thank you!

Answer:

Good question. And the answer is no, but probably yes.

You see, ARCs are printed very early. Which means that the author is probably going to make at least one more proofreading pass after the ARCs go to press. In fact, we use the file the ARCs are printed from (the “galley” file) for our last read.

So, in some cases, the ARCs and the finals books are virtually identical except for, perhaps, a few typos we hopefully caught before the final printing. In other cases, however—especially if the production process was really rushed for some reason—the author might make more significant changes at the galley stage. That is NEVER ideal. But it does happen sometimes.

In the case of ALL FALL DOWN I imagine that unless you sat the ARC and the finished book side-by-side you wouldn’t notice any difference.

Question: Hi Ally, I ordered AFD signed, but the one I received wasn’t signed, and the store wont send me a new one. Is there any way I can send you the book to get it signed?

Answer:

First, I’m sorry you are going through this!

I have heard that this has been a problem with a lot of the preorders from one retailer. My publisher has been made aware of the situation, and we’re working to get it resolved.

Step one should probably be contacting the store/retailer in question and asking to exchange your book for a signed one. If (as in the case with this post) that doesn’t resolve the issue, stay tuned. Again, my publisher is trying to get this straightened out.

And, again, I’m sincerely sorry.

Question: 7 years is a long time to have an idea in your head. When you were actually writing the story, did you ever come to a point when you felt like you were just over thinking things?? And if so, how did you get past it??

Answer:

You’re right. It was a VERY long time!

Over the course of those seven years the idea shifted and changed—first a little; and then a lot.

Initially, I saw it as being sort of a YA 24 (the spy show that was popular at the time.) I thought it would take place almost in real time. Because my least favorite part of writing is often the transitions between scenes, I thought it would be a fun/interesting challenge to write a book that was almost one big scene!

But over time that idea became less and less appealing to me. I started to focus more and more on the world.

One of the really important days in the development of this idea came back in 2012. I was on tour for (I think) Gallagher Girls 5, OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF TIME. I had the pleasure of touring with Rachel Hawkins (HEX HALL), and we were spending the day in Washington, D.C.

At one point, we needed to kill a little time, so I asked the woman who was escorting us for the day if DC had an “embassy row”.

Technically, they don’t—there are embassies spread out all over the area. But there is one street that has more embassies than usual, so she offered to take us there.

It was incredible—a long, half-moon-shaped street lined with massive old houses and buildings. Very cool. Very lovely. But at the end of the street sat an old, vacant building. It was in disrepair, and it was obvious that it had been abandoned for a long time. It was nothing like the other buildings on the street

Then our escort pointed to that building and said, “That’s the country of Iran.”

Literally. The. Country. Of. Iran.

Since the US hasn’t had diplomatic relations with Iran since the 70s the building has been abandoned all that time. But it is still, technically, Iranian soil.

I told Rachel all about the idea of Embassy Row, and she loved it and was incredibly supportive. That’s probably the day that ER went from being “an idea for a book” to “a book I will write someday.”

Question: How do you pronounce Adria? Is it AY-dria or AH-dria? It’s just a small debate my sister and I got in. Thank you. I had the opportunity to read an ARC ( absolutely loved it) and am now waiting for the finished book 😀

Answer:

I say it with a long A. Like Amy.

Question: I absolutely love your GG and Heist books! I can’t wait to read your latest editions, as I am sure that it will be just was wonderful as the others. So for my question: How different was it to write for Embassy Row, than it was to write for GG or even Heist. Also, will you ever write more Heist Society books in the future?

Answer:

The biggest difference for Embassy Row was that it had been a really long time since I”d had to create a new world. For the past several years I hadn’t had to answer questions like “What is this character’s name?” and “Who are her best friends?”

But while that was one of the biggest challenges, it was also one of the more fun aspects as well. It was a totally clean slate. And that was very liberating in a way.

Now … Heist Society. I would dearly love to write more Heist books. In fact, I’ve always thought I might write twenty or thirty heist books! It has that wonderful episodic structure that allows for a truly open-ended series. So, yes. I’d love to do more, and sincerely plan to do so at some point in the future.

Question: Hi. I loved AFD as much as I loved all your books.We know GG and HS are in the same universe because of the crossover (which I need more of) but does All Fall Down take place in the same world? May we get another, 3 way, cross over? 

Answer:

Yes. I think Embassy Row probably exists in the same world as Gallagher and Heist Society. In fact, you may notice a little throw-away-line/Easter egg about how Grace’s grandfather’s claim to fame was that he negotiated the Treaty of Caspia which is, of course, pivotal to the plot of GG6, United We Spy!

As to the question of crossovers, I suppose it is possible, but probably unlikely at this point. (My film attorney is already about to strangle me for having one crossover property. He’s surely kill me if I had three because it makes contracts much, much more difficult.)

Question:Hi! When are you next doing a tour in the UK?

Answer:

I’d dearly love to come to the UK! I was able to do a tour there several years ago, and it was amazing. Hopefully, I’ll have the opportunity to come back in the near future!

Question: So, I may be jumping the gun here. Just a little bit. But considering that it is January 21st, and that was plenty of time for me to eagerly devour the first book of the series…I have to ask. When can we see more of Grace? This novel had me on the edge of my seat for hours. I loved every bit of it! Do you know yet how many books will be in the series, and when we can expect to read part two? I’m going through some serious Adria withdrawal right now. 🙂 

Answer:

Thank you! I, personally, really love and feel for Grace. It makes me happy to hear that there are people out there who are rooting for her as hard as I am.

As for future books… There are currently THREE Embassy Row books under contract. I’m gonna try to get all the answers in there, but if that’s not possible I’m not above begging Scholastic to let me do a fourth.

I believe the plan is for book 2 to be in stores about this time next year!

That’s it for today! Have a great week! And go see Ally if you can!

xoxo,

Shellie

Heist Society optioned by Pitch Perfect producers

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Hi everyone,

Secret #2 has broken, and boy is it Aca-Awesome…

Heist Society has been optioned by Lionsgate (yes, the studio that brought us Hunger Games) and Max Handelman & Elizabeth Banks (yes, Effie Trinket herself)!

Read the full story here.

As most of you probably know, Pitch Perfect was my favorite movie of last year.

There are too few movies that feature women–much less movies that feature bright, capable YOUNG women.  Pitch Perfect has been one of very few exceptions to that in recent history, and so I am ecstatic to entrust Heist Society to the people who made that movie possible.

It is all still VERY new, but I have spoken with Max and Elizabeth on the phone, and let me tell you, they are so smart and have such a great grasp of the material that I am absolutely thrilled with the possibilities.

And now…because I know you guys have questions:

Will a movie happen? We cannot say for sure. An option is just that–an option to someday make the material into a movie. It is absolutely not a guarantee. But I am optimistic.

Who will be in the movie? We are still a world away from knowing that.

Will this version of Heist Society age up the characters like last version was going to? Possibly. I don’t think anybody knows for sure yet, but I would certainly be fine with that.

Can I try out for the movie? Again, that is still ages away.

Who is your dream Kat? Hale? I’m pretty sure that the producers and the studio are going to focus on getting the right script first, so I’m going to focus on that as well.

Will you be involved in the movie?  Not officially, but I have a good feeling that 1. Max and Elizabeth have a great respect for the material and 2. They will be open to ideas and suggestions.

Does this mean you will write more Heist books (after Perfect Scoundrels)?  That has always been my hope. I love these characters and this series, and I have no intention of saying goodbye to them any time soon.

And that’s it, folks. Secret number 2.

I hope you’re as excited about it as I am.

 

-Ally

Ally’s Answers

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Hi All!

Here are the questions and answers from last week!

How did you come up with Blackthorne? The name and the story/place behind it?

I wanted Blackthorne to be the anti-Gallagher—some place with lots of secrets and shadows and a very unsavory past. To be a Gallagher Girl is kind of golden. Revered. But I wanted Zach to come from a place that is exactly the opposite. That is why the Gallagher Girls live in a mansion and Blackthorne is basically a prison.

I had a really hard time thinking up a name for the school. In fact, there is another name that even went out with the sales material for Cross My Heart way back when (a name I did not create and did not approve and, therefore, didn’t stick around long.)

Finally, one day I took a nap, because—seriously—I get my best ideas while napping. I’d always known I wanted it to start with a “B” (so that I could have the B-Boy alliteration like I have with Gallagher Girl). And as I was drifting off to sleep Blackthorne came to me.

The setting was inspired by my time at Cornell. Ithaca, New York is surrounded by lots of parks and areas with waterfalls. They were beautiful. And, of course, natural barriers and borders like that are in sharp contrast to the man-made borders they have at the Gallagher Academy. So, again, when in doubt, I just made everything at Blackthorne OPPOSITE of what you might have at Gallagher.

 

Do your characters ever do something that you didn’t expect them to do? (Can you control them all the time or do they live their own lives?)

Absolutely! All the time. There are a lot of things I know going into a book, but there are always even more surprises.

I didn’t know Liz was renovating an old Dodge minivan. I never dreamed Bex and Zach were going to get super close when Cammie went away. I didn’t even know Mr. Stein (in Heist Society) existed until Kat was knocking on his door.

Sometimes the writing just sort of takes over, and that is when you know the writing is going well.

 

What is Zach’s code name?

I don’t know. I don’t guess I ever had an occasion to give him one.

 

Have you ever thought you met a spy?

I highly doubt it. But that probably just means I met a GOOD ONE!
What do you think about when your alone in your car?

I listen to the radio or audiobooks, and I think. Seriously, thinking is IMPORTANT. And I’m greatly concerned by how little time people spend just thinking anymore. Really. Truly. Put the cell phone down and THINK.

You will thank me for it.

 

Do you ever re-read your own books?

Not if I can help it. That sounds like my definition of torture—reading something I can’t fix if and when I find mistakes or things I just want to change. And, believe me, I would want to change things. All the things!

 

If you could spend a whole day with one character from any of your books, who would you choose and why?

Ooh, good question! And a very hard one…  I think I’d love to run around with Kat and Hale from Heist Society. As much as I love Cam and the Gallagher Girls, Kat and Hale just have a more (safely) exciting life. More chances to fly in a private jet with a hot boy…fewer opportunities to maybe be killed.

 

Who would make a better Gallagher Girl: Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Veronica Mars?

Probably Veronica. Buffy is tough and loyal and street-smart, but I think Veronica is probably a little more strategic, and that is probably more important in the life of a spy.

 

Are there GG uniforms for sale?

Not that I’m aware of. My awesome publisher does the covers for all of the books, and I don’t even know that they have different uniforms (or if it is just the same uniform that they change the color of via Photoshop).  It would be fun to have the uniforms for sale!  But I think your best bet would be just to buy regular uniforms at uniform shops and sew on the badge. (Find a downloadable copy right here: http://s1134.photobucket.com/user/AllyCarter1/media/GAPatch.jpg.html)

 

What character from one of your books is Shellie most like?

Shellie is a Liz. Totally a Liz. She is sweet and kind and a little bit evil when she has to be (but only in the really good ways.)

 

What’s your favorite quote that you have ever written?

I like the line from GG5 where Zach says, “Crazy. I went crazy.”

I also like a line from Heist Society that goes something like “it is an occupational hazard that anyone who has spent their life learning how to lie will eventually become bad at telling the truth.”

 

When will tour dates be announced?

I’m not exactly sure.  My publicist (Lizzie) is working on it. I know they have started their initial conversations with some of the bookstores who will be hosting events, but we are still probably many, many weeks from having those events set in stone. Rest assured, as soon as I know the dates and can talk about them, I will!

 

That is all for now but we will do this again some day!

If your question didn’t get chosen odds are Ally has answered it before. Please look at these previous web postings for more answers:

https://allycarter.com/faq/

https://allycarter.com/category/frequently-asked-questions/

https://allycarter.com/2013/02/my-favorite-interviews/

 

Have a great day!

xoxo,

Shellie

Movie try outs

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What follows is an honest, genuine, and hopefully helpful post about having “try outs” for movies.

I get this question a lot. As in every day. As in multiple times a day.

In fact, I’ve already answered it several times, but such is the way of the world. I will answer it here and…you know…tomorrow someone will ask it again. And yet I feel myself compelled to answer it tonight because tonight is the night I snap.

Okay. Here goes.

Again, I don’t want to be flippant or condescending. I’m trying to HONESTLY answer your question.

So the 100% truth is that there are not—nor will there ever be—open auditions for movies based on books. At least not my books.

I think they did it for Harry Potter but, dude, that was Harry Freaking Potter. The normal rules DO NOT APPLY.

If there is a movie (which right now there are no movies in the works), then the studio and production company will likely hire someone do to the casting. The casting person will work with TALENT AGENCIES who will say “hey, I have this super talented actress” and so on.

Also, the producers and studio will likely have someone in mind. Will they get that person? Maybe. Maybe not. Will that be the case for every role? Probably not. Does this mean “Ally is opposed to casting an unknown as Cammie! Ally sucks!!!!”

No. It really doesn’t mean that.

It just means that basically, (and, again, I don’t mean to sound flippant, but it’s true), a $30 million dollar movie doesn’t happen in the same way a school play happens.

It just doesn’t.

It can’t.

So…you want to be an actress.  Great! Awesome! Then I’d suggest you get to work building your resume with local theater and maybe commercials. I’d recommend you start preparing TO BE AN ACTRESS. That may mean moving to Los Angeles. It may mean classes. It may mean head shots and a huge investment of both time and resources.

It does not mean finding out when “try outs” are because, again, 1: there is no movie in the works at this time. and 2: if and when there is a movie, there will likely be no try outs. There will be auditions and those auditions will likely go to people who are pursing acting professionally and have professional representation.

I genuinely hope this helps,

Ally

PS: and please remember, I’m not involved in the movie industry. I write books. I don’t have any real advice on becoming a working, agented actress beyond what anyone can find on Google. But Google is a pretty darn good place to start.

Magnificent Monday Questions!

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Hi Everyone!

I hope everyone has had a chance to read Ally’s post with some really cool fun facts about how she came up with character names and other fun stuff!! This got me thinking about what fun questions YOU guys could come up with for Ally.

So, Today’s mission is to send in a fun/interesting question for Ally!

I will choose about 20 questions from those submitted and make Ally answer them!

I will post all questions and answers next Monday.

xoxo,

Shellie

P.S. You guys are the best fans EVER!!!!

P.S.S. Thanks for all the fan art. Keep it coming to [email protected] !

 

SINCE THE TIME HAS EXPIRED,

COMMENTS HAVE NOW BEEN DISABLED FOR THIS POST

 

 

Commentary

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Hi everyone!

And a happy weekend to you.

I just turned in a first draft of a secret project (kept secret because it is highly unlikely that anything will ever come of it, and I don’t want to confuse anyone or open myself up to endless questions about it.)

But…short version…this means I’m taking it easy this weekend. And for me “taking it easy” = “watching lots of movies”.

One of my favorite things about movies? The special commentaries!  I just love listening to how the filmmakers…ya know…made the film. I’ve often wished there were a way to do that for novels–to add my personal notes and stories as you read along.

Well, I haven’t figured out a way to do that for a whole novel, but there are a few tidbits I thought I’d go ahead and share. Like…

TITLES
I’ve come up with all the titles of my books except two:

–Perfect Scoundrels was the brainchild of Lisa Yoskowitz, an editor at Disney-Hyperion
–United We Spy was a suggestion from fab YA goddess, E. Lockhart

DEDICATIONS
Many of the dedications of my books have been pretty clear. For my family, for my friend, etc. But a couple bear some explanation:

–Perfect Scoundrels is dedicated to “The Hale Girls”. A lot of you have taken that to mean “all the girls who are in love with Hale.” As nice as that would be, it is actually intended an a tribute to my great aunts “The Hale Girls”, one of whom (Hazel) passed away when I was writing this book.

–Love You Kill You is dedicated to one of my sister’s best friends who also, sadly, passed away when I was working on the novel.

NAMES
Sometimes the names of the characters come to me easily. Sometimes not.

–Cammie was named Cammie because I wanted a first name that could be a last name that started with the letter C (so there would be alliteration with “chameleon”)

–Bex was a cool nickname I heard once for Rebecca

–Liz and Macey were just always Liz and Macey

–I’d always just liked the names Josh and Zach

–Joe Solomon was because King Solomon was the “wise” king and that seemed appropriate

–Rachel is maybe my favorite name ever (and originally there was a fifth roommate named Rachel, but I decided four was a better number).

–Kat was the name that came with the idea–“a book about a girl named Kat, who is a burglar”. But I did debate for a long time if she should be Cat or Kat, Katherine, Katarina, Katrina…etc.

–Hale came while I was in a museum in Salt Lake City. I saw the name on a plaque, and I realized it would be perfect (I had already decided to have the hero of that series go by his last name only.)

–Gabrielle is named after the actress who plays Fiona on BURN NOTICE, Gabrielle Anwar.

–Bishop was the last name of the hero in one of my favorite heist movies (SNEAKERS). So I gave Kat that last name as an homage.

–Townsend: in the first several drafts of GG4 I simply referred to his character as “Teacherdude”. Finally, my friend Jennifer Lynn Barnes (who had read an early draft) told me that she was tired of calling him Teacherdude, and I should just call him Townsend. So I did.

–Preston: ditto the above. For a long time, I called him PrezSon until Jen told me to stop it and just call him Preston. So…again…I did.

–I probably spent more time deciding on the name Visily Romani than I have ever spent on any name. Ever.

RESEARCH
I wish I had the time to visit all the places that I write about. In actuality I’m not quite that organized. I have however made the following research trips:

–Ireland
–Italy–New York
–England

My favorite place that I’ve visited for research was the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. They were amazing, and I knew I had to put them in a book (which I did. GG5.)

 

And that’s all I can think of for now. If and when I think of some more fun facts I will do this again. (if you guys enjoy it!)

-Ally

 

 

 

FAQ–the post-Gallagher Girls edition!

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Hi everybody!

I’m so sorry I’ve been so quiet lately.  You see, I’ve been super busy…

FINISHING GALLAGHER GIRLS 6!

Yes, you read that correctly. About a week ago I turned in the final draft of the final Gallagher Girls book.

It still has to go through copyedits and galley edits and get bound and shipped and all that stuff, so it isn’t FINISHED-finished.  I’m not holding a real book in my hands right now.  But the main writing part is over.  I’ve written “The End”, and it took a while for me to really come to grips with that.  It’s a pretty big deal…

But now I have come to grips, and I’m going to address some of the questions that are circulating:

WHAT WILL THE TITLE OF GALLAGHER GIRLS 6 BE?Honestly, I’m not sure yet. I’m working closely with my editor and agent and the Disney-Hyperion sales team to get the absolute perfect title.

WHAT ABOUT THE COVER?The cover is ready and just waiting on a title. (And I love it!)

WHEN WILL YOU TELL US THE TITLE AND LET US SEE THE COVER?
Soon. I promise. There will hopefully be a big reveal sometime in the next couple of months.

WHEN WILL THE BOOK BE OUT?
That varies by country (as always), but I do know that it will be released in the U.S. and Canada in September of this year! I highly suspect some countries (like the U.K. and Australia) will publish about the same time. Please keep in mind that authors very rarely get international release information. Your best best is always to contact a local bookseller.

WILL YOU DO ANY MORE CROSSOVER STORIES LIKE DOUBLE-CROSSED?
Maybe! I had a blast writing it, and am totally open to the possibility of doing more.

WHY ARE YOU STOPPING THE GALLAGHER GIRLS? WHY DON’T YOU DO MORE?
There are many reasons, the biggest of which is that the story just kind of came to its conclusion. I’m very satisfied with the way things ended, and I hope you will be as well.

WILL YOU DO ANY MORE SERIES OR BOOKS?
Absolutely!  I’m a writer.  I gotta write. (to keep from going crazy and…ya know…buy food and stuff.)

WHAT WILL THE NEW SERIES/BOOK BE?
I have many ideas, but I can’t talk about any of them yet.  I expect that this summer will have a lot of exciting news!

 

 

Now I’ve got to go do those copyedits. And sleep. (Basically, my entire post-GG life has consisted of sleeping…)

 

-Ally