Salt Lake City, please don’t have inversion while the other authors are here so they can see how ridiculously beautiful you are!

So, did you hear about the Breathless Reads tour? I am SO excited about this! I’ll be going on a five-city tour in February with four other authors: Andrea Cremer, Kirsten Miller, Beth Revis, and Brenna Yovanoff. Click here on the Events page for more tour info! And here to visit Andrea’s blog for an awesome tour-related contest that runs until February 1st.

As Beth mentioned on her site, we are getting a lot of lovely people wanting to meet up before or after the tour events, and we would LOVE to do that–but Penguin has us scheduled very tightly with promotional events, etc. So if it doesn’t work out, please know that it is out of our control and we are very sorry–but we would LOVE to see you at the event!

And, Salt Lake City and environs, let’s have a great turnout and show these ladies how awesome the YA community in Utah is! Go team. (I did a little cheer and it was about as terrible as you would expect. Ally=not a cheerleader.)

Also, I’ve been getting a lot of requests for school or library visits and it makes my day. I LOVE being in a classroom and I love teaching and presenting. The bad news is that my time is really limited right now. With taking care of my cute kids still at home, traveling for the tour, revising CROSSED, writing Book 3…I’m not doing a ton of school visits. But I am doing some. Please click on the FAQ for more info on visits.

Also, thank you all for your wonderful comments on that last post. It meant a lot to me (and my dad).

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

UPDATED: I’ve e-mailed the new winners of SAPPHIQUE–Katie and Sarah! Thanks to all of you who commented. What a great response!

The winners of SAPPHIQUE never claimed their prizes–so here we go again! You have until Monday January 17th at noon MST to comment here WITH YOUR E-MAIL address so that I can contact you! I will choose two winners.

The winners of Sapphique are________ and _________

Congrats! Please e-mail me your mailing address and Penguin will send you the books ASAP.

If the books aren’t claimed by Tuesday the 4th, I’ll pick new winners.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!

edited to add: books were not claimed! New winners TBA.

Catherine, welcome, and thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.

1. What are the top five things you’d like readers to know about you/your writing?

The five top things I’d like people to know about my writing? Tricky.
How about

1. I often write with opera playing loudly.
2. I like to write poetry even more than prose.
3. I often read passages aloud ( to myself) to see if they work.
4. I never show anything to anyone until I’m sure it’s finished.
5. i never know much about the end of the story till I get there.

2. For me, some of the most intriguing parts of INCARCERON were the little snippets of the songs, legends, and laws at the beginning of each chapter. Does this multi-genre approach come naturally to you? Is it something you do often in novels?

Thanks. Yes I like the idea of having lots of different things-diaries, poems, songs, etc, rather like some of those Victorian novels all told in different letters and voices. (Dangerous Liasons is a great example.) It breaks up the writing process and gives me a bit of fun. It’s also a really useful way to get the back-story across to the reader in interesting snippets rather than long boring chunks.

3. Claudia is a fantastic heroine—flawed, feisty, and nuanced. Can you tell us a bit about how it was to write her character?

I’m very glad you liked Claudia. She was one of those characters who just walk right in and take over! She was very natural to write- her problem (the marriage) was clear to me and I knew she would be very determined about getting out of it. Her relationship with her father was more intense and tricky than I’d anticipated though.

4. Can you share with us one of your favorite passages from SAPPHIQUE?

Perhaps my favourite part is where Jared has an interview with the queen. He’s very wary of her, but he’s stunned by her cold cruelty. I really liked writing both sides here. And I enjoyed writing the duel scene, and the trial of Finn, where he is interrogated. I like dramatic scenes!

5. And finally, what are you reading right now?

As usual I’m reading a few things. I’ve nearly finished Pompeii, by Mary Beard, a Cambridge academic. It’s a really readable account of life in the ruined Roman city. I’m halfway through a new book of poems by Seamus Heaney, And I’m rereading an old favourite, The Third Man by Grahame Greene. I’ve also got Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel ready to start- a historical novel that was shortlisted for the Booker prize here.

Thanks for the questions Ally and I really enjoyed reading MATCHED!

Thank YOU for the answers, Catherine! It’s been lovely to have you on the blog.

To win one of two hardcover copies of SAPPHIQUE, please leave a comment on this post by midnight New Year’s Eve (MST). I’ll announce the winner on Monday, January 2. Sorry, this contest is open to US only. Many thanks to Penguin for providing the books!

The Key, the Glove and the Stars.

I like symbols. Metaphors are the heart of poetry, and of stories too. Often when I write a book I have a magic object at its centre, an object that can not only do amazing things, but which holds a secret symbolism just because of what it is. The major symbol in my novel INCARCERON was pretty clear to me from the start. The one object you would never find in a prison is a key. So when Finn comes across the crystal ‘artifact’ he is the only one who knows what it is. A key is the ultimate symbol of escape. Of unlocking, opening up. Getting out.

In the sequel, SAPPHIQUE, I needed a new object, something that could be worn. I settled on a glove, because I’ve always found gloves rather sinister. Collapsible hands that you put your own hand into. I once wrote a short story about a pair of red opera gloves with a murderous mind of their own.So the Glove that was once the Prison’s, and then Sapphique’s, becomes the way of joining them both again. The other image that glitters through both books is that of the stars. For the inmates of the prison, the stars mean everything good, remote, unreachable. They’ve forgotten what the stars look like, only knowing they are Outside, and they shine. When Finn sees them he is overwhelmed with joy.

I borrowed this symbol from Dante’s stunning poem The Divine Comedy. For him the stars are the ultimate symbol of love and good. He ends each of his three parts – Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso with the word ‘stellae’- stars. Which is why I ended Sapphique (almost!) with that word. And why I quote Dante’s final line at the front of SAPPHIQUE.

After all, even writers should pay their debts.

Thanks for the wonderful post, Catherine! To win one of two hardcover copies of SAPPHIQUE, leave a comment on this post by midnight New Year’s Eve (MST). I’ll announce the winner on Monday, January 2. Sorry, this contest is open to US only. Many thanks to Penguin for providing the books!

I’m still on break until after the holidays, but this week I’ve pre-scheduled some posts featuring Catherine Fisher’s newly released novel SAPPHIQUE, the sequel to INCARCERON. To find out more about SAPPHIQUE, read on…and be sure to come back Wednesday and Thursday for a guest post by Catherine, an interview with her, and two chances to win hardcover copies of the book!

Finn has escaped from the terrible living Prison of Incarceron, but its memory torments him, because his brother Keiro is still inside. Outside, Claudia insists he must be king, but Finn doubts even his own identity. Is he the lost prince Giles? Or are his memories no more than another construct of his imprisonment? And can you be free if your friends are still captive? Can you be free if your world is frozen in time? Can you be free if you don’t even know who you are?

Inside Incarceron, has the crazy sorcerer Rix really found the Glove of Sapphique, the only man the Prison ever loved? Sapphique, whose image fires Incarceron with the desire to escape its own nature. If Keiro steals the glove, will he bring destruction to the world? Inside. Outside. All seeking freedom. Like Sapphique.

AWESOME NEWS. MATCHED was named one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Children’s Books of 2010! Click here to read more. I’m so thrilled and honored to be on the list!

I’m traveling this week, so I’m going to include this week’s official blog tour dates all together in this post, just in case my internet access is shaky. As always, thank you to the awesome bloggers for their support and to Penguin for putting it all together!

Matched Official Blog Tour Dates:
Monday, November 22: The Frenetic Reader
Tuesday, November 23: Eve’s Fan Garden
Wednesday, November 24: Bloody Bookaholic
Friday, November 26: Real Teen Reviews

And. YOU GUYS. There are only eight days left until the release of MATCHED. Single digits!

I’m trying to do better at responding to comments to let you know how much I appreciate them. Thank you for reading the blog and for all your support. I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving.

The winners of the two hardcover copies of NIGHTSHADE are:

Julie@myfivemonkeys

and

Karen St. Louis!

Congratulations!

Will you e-mail me your mailing addresses (my e-mail is over in the FAQ) and I’ll get these books out to you ASAP? And, if either of you ladies already have a copy, could you let me know and we’ll try again? You have until midnight Wed. night (MST) to claim the prize. Congrats again!

And now for a Q & A with Andrea Cremer to finish off the week of NIGHTSHADE. This is also your chance to win the second of two hardcover copies…so make sure to comment by midnight tomorrow (Saturday) night, MST. (Contest open to US only.)

1. Andrea, welcome! Can you tell us the top five things you think we should know about you?

5) I have two dogs: a pug and a border collie.
4) My middle name is Darrelle, after my father, Darrel.
3) I’m a history professor.
2) I don’t like the Beatles.
1) Calla and I have the same favorite book: Watership Down.

2. You’ve mentioned on your blog that you draft at an intense pace and that your manuscript really consumes you until you finish that initial draft. The pacing in Nightshade is INCREDIBLY well-done. How did you accomplish this? Do you think it is partially because of that wonderful/terrible consuming rush of the initial draft? Or is it something that comes out later in revision?

Thank you so much, Ally. Pacing is really important to me. I think the result is a combination of how absolutely lost I become in the first draft (I don’t mean lost in a wandering sense, but lost as in I forget about the real world for awhile) and refining that passion during the revision process.

3. Andrea, sometimes you and I joke about sharing a muse (we both love similar poems, etc.). How do you get your muse to come visit while you’re writing? What do you do to invite creativity into your life and writing?

My muse doesn’t visit, she holds me hostage. When I’m writing I have a hard time doing anything else. I get in the shower and get out again, forgetting to wash my hair. I pour orange juice on my cereal. I throw clothes in the garbage instead of the hamper. My muse is fueled by music and coffee and I would say the music does jumpstart my creative process. I create playlists for each of my novels.

4. Can you share with us one of your favorite paragraphs/passages from Nightshade?

Sure! This is one of my favorite lines from Calla: “Don’t ever, ever try to pet a wolf. It’s just insulting.”

5. And, finally, what are you reading right now?

I just finished Beth Revis’s debut, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (January 2011). It’s amazing. Now I’m reading Diana Gabaldon’s OUTLANDER.

Thank you, Andrea! And congratulations again on the release of NIGHTSHADE!

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the lovely Andrea Cremer, author of NIGHTSHADE and today’s guest post. (Isn’t her author photo cute?) If you want a chance to win the first of two signed copies of NIGHTSHADE, please leave a comment!

Triangulation

Thank you so much for having me, Ally. (Your book rocked my socks off!) Since you and I joke about sharing a muse I thought I’d spend today’s post examining something our books have in common: the love triangle.

I’m frequently asked whether I’m Team Ren or Team Shay. Amongst readers it’s an even split, which makes me very happy. My answer is always, and will always be, the same: I’m Team Calla, because it’s her choice not mine, and therein lies the most important part of the love triangle equation.

Great post, right? Let Andrea know how much you enjoyed hearing from her by leaving a comment (and you will also automatically be entered to win a hardcover copy of NIGHTSHADE). You have until Friday night MST to enter–and the contest is open to US only. Sorry about that!