Today is the first time I’ve ever had a guest post on my blog, and I’m delighted to welcome Kirsten Miller, the author of The Eternal Ones, which was released yesterday. Congratulations again, Kirsten, and I’m so glad to have you on the blog!

Hi Everyone,

Wow, it is such an honor to be asked to post on Ally’s blog. I’m a great admirer of her work, and I think Matched may be one of the best YA books I’ve read in years. I’d elaborate, but I should probably save most of my praise for the review of Ally’s book that I’ll be posting on my own blog later this year. For now, I’ve been asked to tell you a little bit about my latest novel, The Eternal Ones.

I’ll be the first to admit that The Eternal Ones is somewhat strange—which shouldn’t surprise anyone who grew up with me. When I was a kid, I used to force my friends and siblings to play a game I called, “What If?” There weren’t any rules and it could get quite silly at times. All it required was an unexpected (though often desired) scenario. What if a UFO landed on your front yard while you were in the middle of a shower? What if your parents informed you they were spies for the Russian government? What if Jacob B. showed up at your front door with a bouquet of flowers and asked you to run away with him? (His name wasn’t Jacob, and he never showed up at my house with flowers. Too bad, ‘cause I had everything planned!)

The Eternal Ones began as my own private game of “What If?” (My friends and siblings won’t play anymore!) What if you discovered you had lived other lives? What if you began to suspect that there might be someone out there you were destined to find? What if soul mates really do exist?

Once those questions were answered, I knew there I had a tale I needed to tell. But The Eternal Ones isn’t the quaint little love story you might be expecting (although there’s certainly plenty of love involved). It’s a thriller, a mystery, and the chronicle of a romance that spanned countless centuries. And I couldn’t help working in plenty of weirdness for good measure.

If you’ve ever experienced déjà vu or love at first sight, there’s a good chance you’ll find The Eternal Ones entertaining. And if you’ve ever wondered if you’ve lived before, pop on over to my blog for a past-life reading! (No, I don’t have the credentials to offer a service of this sort, but it’s been a whole lot of fun so far!)

Thanks again, Ally! I’ll see you on my blog soon!

Kirsten

And, to celebrate this awesome guest post, I’m going to give away one of the signed copies of The Eternal Ones. Please comment on this post, and leave your e-mail address before midnight Friday (MST), and I’ll choose one winner. Sorry, this is open to US/Canada only.

First of all, today is the publication date for Kirsten Miller’s The Eternal Ones! CONGRATULATIONS, KIRSTEN! So exciting!!

Second of all, today is the day my husband returns from Hogwarts. Oops! I mean Kings College, Cambridge. He has been gone for eight days and I miss him. I like it when he’s here. Not just because he is so helpful but because it just feels weird when he’s gone. We’ve been married for ten years (since we were 21) and known each other since we were 18 and I just find him awesome.

Third of all, have you registered for Writing For Charity yet? It’s only $60 for the workshop, and you get your manuscript critiqued by a professional author. Click here for more info. I’m going to be part of the evening event ($10 per ticket) and I’m very excited.

Fourth of all, I’m going to try to do something new on the blog. Called A Conversation On…. I will post a question and then answer it (kind of) in a post and then we will all talk about it in the comments. Usually I respond to comments about once a week but on these posts I’ll try to be really engaged and responsive in the comments.

So what should be the first topic for A Conversation On…? Something writerly. I was thinking about Writing with Small Children because that’s the question I get asked most frequently. But is there something else you’d like to talk about (that has to do with writing)? Do tell. Also if you have a better title than A Conversation On…, tell me that too. I feel like it’s lame but unfortunately I am not very creative right now. Let’s blame it on the fact that I didn’t get to go to Hogwarts.

Last week, I mentioned that I’d be part of promoting the other four books in the Penguin Five (five young adult titles being released this Fall/Winter). The title for August is Kirsten Miller’s The Eternal Ones. So, this week I’ll be posting an intro about the book, a guest post from Kirsten, (who is absolutely lovely and who is also the author of the Kiki Strike series), and, finally, as the grand finale: an interview with Kirsten and a chance for you to win one of two signed hardcover copies of The Eternal Ones. Wahoo!

So, without further adieu, here is an intro/summary of The Eternal Ones:

Haven Moore can’t control her visions of a past with a boy called Ethan, and a life in New York that ended in fiery tragedy. In our present, she designs beautiful dresses for her classmates with her best friend Beau. Dressmaking keeps her sane, since she lives with her widowed and heartbroken mother in her tyrannical grandmother’s house in Snope City, a tiny town in Tennessee. Then an impossible group of coincidences conspire to force her to flee to New York, to discover who she is, and who she was.

In New York, Haven meets Iain Morrow and is swept into an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Iain is suspected of murdering a rock star and Haven wonders, could he have murdered her in a past life? She visits the Ouroboros Society and discovers a murky world of reincarnation that stretches across millennia. Haven must discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves¸ before all is lost and the cycle begins again.

I’ll be posting every day this week, so please come on back for Kirsten’s guest post, interview, and for a chance to win one of the two signed copies. See you tomorrow!

It has come to my attention that you can purchase MATCHED for $10.79 at Amazon and FRESHMAN FOR PRESIDENT for $3.99 at Deseret Book.

What can I say. I’m cheap.

Currently Reading: Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, not Bombs in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson

My grandmother has this wonderful saying: “If one man’s meat is another man’s poison, one man’s book is another man’s boredom.”

I love this quote (I don’t know where she originally heard it). It’s so true. Reading is a very individual, personal thing–what one person might love, another might not like at all.

So my personal policy, on this blog and elsewhere, is that I don’t review books. I might recommend books, but no concrete reviews. And here is another reason why: I am not a critic. I am a reader and a writer. What I might love, another might hate. And I like to feel safe when I give my opinions. Because I have them. I really do.

But I do try to spread the word about books. I link to other authors in my sidebar. I like to put books that I am reading at the top of my posts. And, beginning next Monday and continuing periodically throughout the next few months, I will be promoting (but not reviewing!) other books in the Penguin Five (five books coming out this summer/fall from Penguin Young Readers). We are taking turns spotlighting one another’s books on our blogs. It should be fun. And Penguin is providing copies of books for giveaways, so be sure to check back. Because free books? Always five stars.

P.S. Remember last week when I said someday I would like to be part of the Writing For Charity event when I grew up? Well, apparently I am now grown up. Because I get to be on the evening panel with Brandon Mull, Bree Despain, James Dashner, and Jessica Day George. I’m so excited. This is a really wonderful event in which you get your work critiqued and the proceeds to go charity.

Currently reading: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Wrestling the whale is my term for revision.

Because that is what it is.

It is so big. You can’t get your arms around it. But you jump in the pool anyway and try to dodge the slaps from its flippy flippers.

I think the inspiration from this phrase likely came from a time years ago when we were eighteen and graduated from high school and all went on a long, overnight bus trip to Disneyland/Sea World and my friend Krista bought a big inflatable Shamu and when we were tired on the drive home she put it in the bus aisle as a mattress and then tried to sleep. It didn’t work so whale. HA!

So all this week I am wrestling the whale. This is the longest book I’ve ever written (400 pages! What is up with that?). Good times.

Other news:

Have you heard of this writing conference? Great price, great presenters. I hope to be a part of it someday when I grow up. Or maybe next year, when MATCHED is actually out! They’re having a great auction for charity that night and Penguin was kind enough to donate an ARC of MATCHED, so that will be just one of many items available.

I’m doing a book signing in August (click the Events page for more details). There won’t be any copies of MATCHED there, but my other books should be available, and I always like going to the BYU Bookstore. I worked there for several years in college for the best boss ever, George Satteson. And everyone there is so nice.

And, finally, the biggest news of all. The potty-training was a success. I am living in a land of rainbows and gumdrops and shiny things and now have only one child in diapers.

Books read on vacation recently:
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins (ARC)
Paranormalcy, by Kiersten White (ARC)
Firelight, by Sophie Jordan (ARC)

The past two weeks have been some of those weeks where I haven’t done a lot of writing but I did do a lot of living. Cleaned out some messy closets, hosted two Fourth of July barbeques, had two sets of family come to stay, went running with my sister, shuttled Boys to swimming lessons, made lots of cookies, read a bunch of great books, wrote a letter to my grandmother, spent summer evenings out in the backyard pushing kids on swings and soaking in summer, went on vacation. It has been lovely.

Usually, it’s a little hard to let go of the routine for me. I’m really disciplined about getting the writing time in every day. I haven’t had more than a couple days off from writing/editing since last year at this time when I took a step back from MATCHED. But this time, it’s felt really good, and it hasn’t been hard to stop writing at all. I think it’s because I needed it so much. Needed a break. To recharge. To get some distance.

It’s a fine balance, isn’t it? Because discipline is what gets the books written, but so is inspiration.

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner.

The last post had a couple of great questions in the comments, so I thought I’d answer them here, since I couldn’t address them in just a sentence or two. And I’m going to throw in another couple of questions that I’ve been getting a lot via e-mail.

Diane asked: I got a galley of Matched… I have read it, and loved it! I can’t wait till it is officially is released and I can booktalk it to our teens–I am preparing a booktalk now! But…but…but…I am going to ask the question all the people above will start asking when they read it too. When is the next book due to come out?

We’re planning on having the books come out about a year apart, so it will be in Fall 2011 if all goes well. (And thank you for liking MATCHED! I was so, so happy when I read your comment, and I hope your teens like MATCHED too.)

Enna Isilee asked: Do you finish the entire draft before you take a break? I would assume so. But usually when I write, I’ll take a break half-way through the draft and when I come back to it I think it’s crap and I just scrap it. Ever had that problem? I think that if I actually FINISHED an entire draft, I might feel more comitted to take the time to edit it.

Yes, I finish the whole draft before I take the month-long break. And yes, I have had that problem (coming back to a partially finished draft and hating it and giving up). That’s why I make myself finish the first full draft. Because, by then, you come back and find crappy parts but you don’t give up as easily because it is THREE HUNDRED PAGES LONG AND YOU SPENT SO MUCH TIME ON IT AND YOU ARE GOING TO WRESTLE THAT WHALE INTO SUBMISSION IF IT KILLS YOU. And, also, I always like my finished books more because they have a sense of arrival, of completion, of a story told. So I have a little more faith that they can become something good than I do the half-finished drafts.

Did you know MATCHED would be a series when you wrote it?

No, I did not. I actually thought it was a one-book thing. And it has the same ending now that it did when I queried it. I felt like the character had become who she needed to be and so I ended the story where it felt right. I definitely was thrilled that Penguin saw series potential, though!

Are you worried about all the hype MATCHED is getting?

To some extent, yes. I’ve written six books and I’ve never really had hype before. And can any book live up to a ton of hype? And sometimes I think people think that this book is an “action” book, because of the Hunger Games comparisons, which it is not. To me, this book is the story of a girl named Cassia who learns to choose. So, in a lot of ways, I feel like it’s a quiet book. And I wonder if people expect that.

But, to another extent, no. Penguin is doing a killer job of generating buzz about the book, which means they believe in it, which means the world to me. And what that also means to me is that MATCHED has a better chance of being read by the readers who will find something in it. Who will see themselves in it. And nothing means more to an author than that.

I have this list called the “Books of My Life” which is, obviously, a list of the books that have been the most important reads of my life. (Crossing to Safety, the book at the top of this post, is at the top of that list and has been since my grandmother gave it to me when I was thirteen.) And I know MATCHED will not be one of the Books of everyone’s life, of course. But if it could be on even one person’s list?

Well. That would make my life.

I won’t be posting next week because I’ll be on vacation, and when I vacation, I vacate. But I’ll be back.

Currently reading:
Wolves, Boys, and Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler

UPDATE: The winner of the ARC is AlannahP Javier! Alannah, can you e-mail me your mailing address so I can get this book to you? If Alannah doesn’t claim the ARC by the 10th, I’ll draw again.

Remember when I said I would post a picture of the book I’ve been reading at the beginning of every post? And then I forgot? Apparently I like to lie. I will start posting book pics again–probably not with every post, but definitely more often.

In other non-lying news, today is the last day to enter to win the ARC of MATCHED! I’ll update this blog entry tomorrow morning with the winner.

And in REALLY FANTASTIC news, awesome author Melissa Marr is giving away TEN copies of MATCHED–four on her blog, six on her fansite. Click here for more information. She’s fantastic!

It’s so exciting when people get behind the book. It is kind of crazy to me that we still have almost five months to wait before MATCHED is released. I would wonder what to do with myself if the Boys weren’t so constantly, chronically busy/entertaining and if I didn’t have two sequels to write.

I’m actually at that place in the manuscript of Book 2 where I close the file and walk away for a month. I know a lot of writers do this and I do too. I build the time into my schedule because I know the book will be better if I do. I just get to a point where I’m a hamster on a wheel revising tiny things or trying over and over again to fix a problem that I just can’t fix, even though I know it’s there. There’s one particularly sticky area that I’m going to let sit at the back of my mind while I’m on a break with the manuscript.

This doesn’t mean that I don’t write at all. If a great idea comes to me about the book, I’ll open a Word file and jot it down and save it. I’m working on another project that I really like, and I’m always thinking of things to put in Book 3 and adding them to that file.

But mostly I’m just letting my mind rest. Working on one thing for months and months (I started drafting this book back in November and have tried to work on it daily ever since) makes your focus narrow and tunnel-y. Which is exactly what I can’t have if I want to go back and look at this draft and make it better and solve the bigger problems. I have to get out of my little book world and look around. Try this, with your writing, if you haven’t already. It will work wonders.

I promise I’m not lying.

This is a post of acronyms.

About ALA. Wow. Wow. Wow wow wow. It was amazing. It was a former English teacher’s dream. Famous authors + awesome librarians=heaven. I was only in DC for 26 hours but a lot happened during those hours. (A lot has happened since I returned home, too. The Boys are passing around the throw-up-stomach-flu. My favorite! Stomach flu+potty-training=a special kind of hell.)

But back to ALA.

My first event was the Penguin dinner, where I got to meet authors like Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, and David Levithan. It was wonderful and a bit scary because we all had to give a three minute speech about our books to the 100 people at the dinner. Whew. I am glad that is over. Can you imagine? “I’m going to talk about my book at the same dinner in which Laurie Halse Anderson and John Green and David Levithan are going to talk about their books?”

I got scared again just thinking about it.

But they were also very nice. See pictures below. Please try to ignore how scary-excited I am in the picture with John Green. I’m sorry. I get scary-excited when I meet people I admire (my husband and I both love John Green’s books and have a long-standing “discussion” about which one the other should love most). Also ignore the shine on my face. DC is humid, people. I do not miss that about living back East. I like the weather like I like my Sprite cocktail–dry and crispy.

I am always floored by how generous and kind YA authors are to one another. This was another weekend in which I thought about how amazing this is. Melissa Marr wrote a blurb for Matched and I FINALLY got to meet her and she was wonderful too (and super funny).

The morning after the Penguin dinner, we had YA Coffee Klatch, which was basically speed dating nine tables of librarians, and I wanted to be betrothed immediately to all of them. Then I had a book signing at the Penguin Booth and it was awesome. So fun to meet people and to see them walk away with copies of MATCHED. It was so fun that I left my cell phone there and didn’t realize it until I was trying to call home to tell my husband when he could pick me up at the airport. Awesome! I like to leave an expensive electronic device in every city I visit. It’s my calling card. Next up: my laptop.

My beautiful, fun cousin Andrea came to the book signing (she is the one holding MATCHED in the first picture). Her incredibly nice husband came too and it kind of made the whole ALA for me. To have someone I’ve known and loved for years take that time to come hang out and be there for me was so nice. We got to go to lunch afterwards and it was perfect.

And. I may have left my cell phone in the Penguin booth, but I also accidentally walked away with a copy of MATCHED that Penguin had given me to use during the Coffee Klatch event. (Not only am I flaky, but I am also prone to thievery.) So. Another giveaway, perhaps?

Let’s do it. Just leave a comment. And if you are a follower you get double entries. This will be open until midnight MST next Tuesday, July 6th. I’m going to limit it to the USA…sorry about that. And if you have already won/obtained an ARC or don’t claim it by July 10th I will select a new number.