Ally Condie's Blog

Coming soon!

If you’re in Utah, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Massachussetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, California, or New York, I’m headed your way to celebrate the release of The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe!   More details below, and on the Events page. I’d love to see you there! 

From Publishers Weekly:

Bloomsbury Children’s Books has just acquired the DARKDEEP series, a middle-grade duology scheduled to debut in fall 2018, which the publisher is describing as “Stranger Thingsmeets The Goonies with the heart of Stand By Me.” The books are being co-written in alternating chapters by bestselling YA authors Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs, who describe themselves, in Reichs’s words, as “super-duper best friends.” The two will also write, as part of the deal, a stand-alone novel. After Reichs moderated a keynote panel featuring Condie that concluded the YALLFEST literary festival in 2014, they cemented their relationship the following year at YALLWEST, when they found themselves the sole occupants of a table and ended up eating lunch together. The two have been buddies since, and disclosed that they even decided at that fateful 2015 lunch to attend the same program at Vermont College of Fine Art in pursuit of M.F.A. degrees in Creative Writing for Children and Adults.

Asked how their friendship survived, first, being in the same M.F.A. program, and, secondly, collaborating on a series, Condie responded that it’s “easier to write with somebody else, because when you have someone who cares about the book as much as you do, you have access to double the ideas.” The collaboration has only made them closer: they are planning a ski trip in Utah with their families over the holidays.

THE DARKDEEP is a paranormal mystery set in Still Cove, an eerie mill town in the Pacific Northwest. After four children discover a hidden island in the middle of town, they come across a gateway to another dimension that turns figments of their imaginations into reality. While, at first, this discovery is wondrous, things quickly take a turn for the worse, as nightmares and frightful imaginings emerge and begin spreading out of control.

“THE DARKDEEP is a uniquely exciting mash-up of contemporary middle grade genres,” explained Cindy Loh, publisher of Bloomsbury Children’s Books. “The characters are lulled deeper and deeper into the fringe and it’s their internal journeys—with a little help from their friends—that leave me both dying to know what will happen next and asking the same question they do: if your dreams could come true, is that actually a good thing?”

“We mesh well,” Reich recently told PW, and the two demonstrated the truth of this declaration by conducting a Q&A with each other about the series and how it came about.

Condie: Brendan, since you’re the fun one of the two of us, tell everyone how we came up with the idea for our new book and make them excited about it.

Reichs: Ally and I were both looking to write something a little different from our current projects, just for fun, and we thought it would be really cool if we could do something together. I think it was Ally who first had the idea for THE DARKDEEP, and it spiraled quickly from there. As we were discussing things we liked in kids’ books, this whole framework kind of fell into place.

Reichs: Ally, since you’re the smart one, please explain how we came up with our heroes in THE DARKDEEP.

Condie: We both knew right away we wanted two main characters, a girl and a guy. We knew we wanted them to have been friends in the past—true friends—who have drifted apart. So there’s that tension, but there’s also a certain level of past trust they can draw upon. As we brainstormed the characters, we decided that Opal was tough, and had recently become part of the popular group at school—but felt conflicted about it. We also realized that Nico had a tight-knit group of friends and that he’s dealing with some fallout from something his father has done.

Condie: Brendan, how do we know each other, anyway?

Reichs: Because we never don’t hang out. Ally and I have been friends for years, having done dozens of panels on the festival circuit together and through our involvement in YALLWEST, a literary festival in Santa Monica. It was there three years ago that we both decided to attend Vermont College of Fine Art and get MFAs in creative writing for children and adults. And it was on the VCFA campus that we first started planning The DarkDeep.

Ally, are any of the friendships in THE DARKDEEP based on those in our real, amazing, incredible lives?

Condie: So far, they aren’t completely based on anyone in our real lives, but they are based on the kind of buddy movies that we connected to as kids and still love as adults—The Goonies and E.T., for example. The mysterious elements are important to the story, but the most important part to us is the connections between the characters, and to the reader.

Reichs: There is danger. You eat danger for breakfast. Are you flight or fight?

Condie: I’m actually fall. As in, fall to the ground and curl up in a ball. I know this because my dad, who was a judge, wanted to find out if I had good survival instincts and could escape danger. So he hid in my closet when I was a teenager and jumped out to surprise me. He was really annoyed that I fell down instead of running or punching him. He has since realized that this is a terrible parenting technique and apologized.

BOTH: In a friend group you are usually the…

Condie: I’ll answer for Brendan. Brendan is a great friend because he has a big heart and a way of making everything fun. He’s funny and smart—he’s the friend who always gets the party started and cracks everyone up—but he’s different from a lot of people in that he genuinely wants everyone to be part of it all.

Reichs: I’m answering for Ally, because she won’t say that she’s the best. She’s the kindest, warmest person in every room, someone that everyone is happy to see at all times. Ally is actually interested in you, and what you have to say, and she makes everyone feel heard and appreciated. I could have no better partner for writing a book.

Condie: Brendan, is there anything else you totally naturally want to say about this new series?

Reichs: This has been the most fun I’ve ever had working on a project. Ally and I seem to naturally get each other’s humor and pick up where the other one left off. We cover each other’s weak spots really well and the drafts have been surprisingly fun to write. I can’t wait to do more books together and see where this series goes. We can only promise that it will be shocking, interesting, and a little weird, and that we will always pay attention to our characters.

From Publishers Weekly:

Bloomsbury Children’s Books has just acquired the DARKDEEP series, a middle-grade duology scheduled to debut in fall 2018, which the publisher is describing as “Stranger Thingsmeets The Goonies with the heart of Stand By Me.” The books are being co-written in alternating chapters by bestselling YA authors Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs, who describe themselves, in Reichs’s words, as “super-duper best friends.” The two will also write, as part of the deal, a stand-alone novel. After Reichs moderated a keynote panel featuring Condie that concluded the YALLFEST literary festival in 2014, they cemented their relationship the following year at YALLWEST, when they found themselves the sole occupants of a table and ended up eating lunch together. The two have been buddies since, and disclosed that they even decided at that fateful 2015 lunch to attend the same program at Vermont College of Fine Art in pursuit of M.F.A. degrees in Creative Writing for Children and Adults.

Asked how their friendship survived, first, being in the same M.F.A. program, and, secondly, collaborating on a series, Condie responded that it’s “easier to write with somebody else, because when you have someone who cares about the book as much as you do, you have access to double the ideas.” The collaboration has only made them closer: they are planning a ski trip in Utah with their families over the holidays.

THE DARKDEEP is a paranormal mystery set in Still Cove, an eerie mill town in the Pacific Northwest. After four children discover a hidden island in the middle of town, they come across a gateway to another dimension that turns figments of their imaginations into reality. While, at first, this discovery is wondrous, things quickly take a turn for the worse, as nightmares and frightful imaginings emerge and begin spreading out of control.

“THE DARKDEEP is a uniquely exciting mash-up of contemporary middle grade genres,” explained Cindy Loh, publisher of Bloomsbury Children’s Books. “The characters are lulled deeper and deeper into the fringe and it’s their internal journeys—with a little help from their friends—that leave me both dying to know what will happen next and asking the same question they do: if your dreams could come true, is that actually a good thing?”

“We mesh well,” Reich recently told PW, and the two demonstrated the truth of this declaration by conducting a Q&A with each other about the series and how it came about.

Condie: Brendan, since you’re the fun one of the two of us, tell everyone how we came up with the idea for our new book and make them excited about it.

Reichs: Ally and I were both looking to write something a little different from our current projects, just for fun, and we thought it would be really cool if we could do something together. I think it was Ally who first had the idea for THE DARKDEEP, and it spiraled quickly from there. As we were discussing things we liked in kids’ books, this whole framework kind of fell into place.

Reichs: Ally, since you’re the smart one, please explain how we came up with our heroes in THE DARKDEEP.

Condie: We both knew right away we wanted two main characters, a girl and a guy. We knew we wanted them to have been friends in the past—true friends—who have drifted apart. So there’s that tension, but there’s also a certain level of past trust they can draw upon. As we brainstormed the characters, we decided that Opal was tough, and had recently become part of the popular group at school—but felt conflicted about it. We also realized that Nico had a tight-knit group of friends and that he’s dealing with some fallout from something his father has done.

Condie: Brendan, how do we know each other, anyway?

Reichs: Because we never don’t hang out. Ally and I have been friends for years, having done dozens of panels on the festival circuit together and through our involvement in YALLWEST, a literary festival in Santa Monica. It was there three years ago that we both decided to attend Vermont College of Fine Art and get MFAs in creative writing for children and adults. And it was on the VCFA campus that we first started planning The DarkDeep.

Ally, are any of the friendships in THE DARKDEEP based on those in our real, amazing, incredible lives?

Condie: So far, they aren’t completely based on anyone in our real lives, but they are based on the kind of buddy movies that we connected to as kids and still love as adults—The Goonies and E.T., for example. The mysterious elements are important to the story, but the most important part to us is the connections between the characters, and to the reader.

Reichs: There is danger. You eat danger for breakfast. Are you flight or fight?

Condie: I’m actually fall. As in, fall to the ground and curl up in a ball. I know this because my dad, who was a judge, wanted to find out if I had good survival instincts and could escape danger. So he hid in my closet when I was a teenager and jumped out to surprise me. He was really annoyed that I fell down instead of running or punching him. He has since realized that this is a terrible parenting technique and apologized.

BOTH: In a friend group you are usually the…

Condie: I’ll answer for Brendan. Brendan is a great friend because he has a big heart and a way of making everything fun. He’s funny and smart—he’s the friend who always gets the party started and cracks everyone up—but he’s different from a lot of people in that he genuinely wants everyone to be part of it all.

Reichs: I’m answering for Ally, because she won’t say that she’s the best. She’s the kindest, warmest person in every room, someone that everyone is happy to see at all times. Ally is actually interested in you, and what you have to say, and she makes everyone feel heard and appreciated. I could have no better partner for writing a book.

Condie: Brendan, is there anything else you totally naturally want to say about this new series?

Reichs: This has been the most fun I’ve ever had working on a project. Ally and I seem to naturally get each other’s humor and pick up where the other one left off. We cover each other’s weak spots really well and the drafts have been surprisingly fun to write. I can’t wait to do more books together and see where this series goes. We can only promise that it will be shocking, interesting, and a little weird, and that we will always pay attention to our characters.

I am very, VERY excited to announce that we’ve founded WriteOut, a writing camp for teens. The inaugural camp will run June 28-30, 2017, at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah.

Students will work alongside published authors, go hiking and writing in a National Park, and attend a play at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. We’ll also have a costume ball, book signings and author keynotes, swimming, volleyball, pickleball, and climbing at Southern Utah University, and a closing costume gala. You guys, THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME.

The authors for our inaugural year are:

Ally Condie (Cedar City native, author of the Matched Trilogy and Summerlost)

Brendan Reichs (author of the Virals series and Nemesis)

Brandon Mull (author of Fablehaven and Beyonders)

Margaret Stohl (author of Beautiful Creatures and Marvel’s Black Widow series)

Ann Dee Ellis (author of This Is What I Did: and You May Already Be A Winner)

More info about each author here.

If you want to learn more about WriteOut, click here. If you’re a teen who wants to sign up for the camp, click here. If you’d like to donate, click here. WriteOut is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, so your donation is tax deductible. We are hoping to scholarship teens from rural areas who might otherwise be unable to attend.

We want to give teens the chance to have fun writing, to get outside, and to have the experience of a lifetime. Will you join us?

injury + recovery

I have been running for 24+ years, since I was 14. It is my lifeline and my sanity in many ways. It makes me feel at home in both body and mind. When I move somewhere, I go running in order to learn my town and feel grounded. On a trip, I explore new routes. I have vivid memories of running in Niagara Falls, in Hyde Park in London, on a beach in Mexico, in many, many races, each race a story.

Now, I’m injured. I have been for almost two years.

I’ve done everything the doctors have said. I’ve taken time off. I’ve been to months of physical therapy. I’ve done all the exercises and yoga. It’s not a terrible injury, just a nagging right hamstring pull, and if I don’t run, it doesn’t hurt. It’s one of the most difficult injuries to rehab, I’ve been told by runners and physicians alike, but it’s not dramatic or debilitating at all, unless I want to run.

And oh, how I want to run.

I have made an identity out of pushing through pain. When I was diagnosed with clinical depression in high school, I kept going. I wanted to quit. I even tried, once. But I knew from running that you push through what hurts. And so I did. I went to therapy and took medication and went on to college. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done, but I finished. I recovered. I ran a marathon and it helped me to let go of the thoughts that plagued me. Sometimes running is only the body. Sometimes that can be bliss.

The new hardest thing happened five years ago, when my son was diagnosed with autism and anxiety. I still can’t write about it properly or without tears. I woke up every day unable to breathe with the weight of the sorrow. I wept when none of my children could see me. I ran. I ran and ran and ran. At night, I couldn’t sleep. I felt like I was no longer a person, except I knew I was because I loved him so much. He was in agony. He screamed and wept and was miserable. None of us—therapists, teachers, doctors—could reach him. His psychologist, who specializes in autism and anxiety, was flummoxed too. Sometimes, he injured himself. Sometimes, he injured me or others.

It was at this time that someone I loved and trusted turned on me with vitriol and anger. This was the same person who years ago had made fun of me and told me I was embarrassing when I had depression, who mocked me publicly in front of our mutual friends. I had forgiven her and moved on. But then it happened again, when I was at my new lowest point.

I was already injured, far more than what she could do alone. My child, his suffering, that was agony. But this was pain on top of pain and I staggered under the weight of it.

Not long after, my leg began to hurt when I ran. I ignored it for months. It got worse.

“You’re getting older,” the physical therapist said one day. “This might just be how it is from now on.”

She hurt me. He is suffering. I am wounded, too.

There has been no one moment when I felt myself come through the refiner’s fire shiny and gold. Sometimes I feel that I am all ash and char. Breathe on me, and I will blow away. I will scatter to the wind.

Except I have a core. As many women do. It is the ones I love. For me, it is my son, and my other children, and my husband. I am where they warm themselves and I refuse to stop burning.

I set boundaries. I trust only those who treat that trust with respect. I look at the hikes I have gone on in place of the running I would have done and say Thank you for these views. I let go of the books I might have written and remind myself of the flawed stories I did manage to tell. I see other moms of kids with special needs and we look in one another’s exhausted, knowing eyes and see great depths of pain and joy. Sometimes we look at each other and burst into tears. Sometimes we look at each other and we can’t stop laughing. I think of how far my son has come and the people who continue to help him get there.

I will not lie and say that I would choose any of these things again. Depression, seeing your child struggle, injuries physical and emotional. But the moments of recovery—the claiming of what is good and true in your world, the communion with people who know your heart—these are so many sparks in a dark and beautiful night.

The ATLANTIA paperback (with its beautiful new cover!) is out on October 20, 2015. This book is about sisters and mystery and a crumbling underwater city and falling in love for the first time. It’s a standalone novel (not a series) and it is set in the future (it’s not about mermaids, just people who have escaped air pollution by building a city underwater).

To celebrate, my publisher is sending me on tour with Meg Wolitzer and Jandy Nelson, two phenomenal writers (Jandy won this year’s Printz award, and Meg is renowned for both her adult and young adult fiction). Entertainment Weekly featured the tour in an article here.

So, in short order, I’ll be on my way to Miami, Dallas, Wichita, Chicago, San Diego, and Bellingham, WA! Full tour dates and info below. I would love to see you there! There is NOTHING I enjoy more about my work than meeting with readers. And psst! I might have a copy of SUMMERLOST to give out at each tour stop!

Monday, November 2nd, 2015

6:30 PM @ Books & Books

265 Aragon Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33134

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015

7:00 PM @ Half Price Books

5803 E. Northwest Hwy., Dallas, Texas 75231

Wednesday, November 4th, 2015

6:00 PM @ Watermark Books & Café

4701 E Douglas Ave, Wichita, KS 67218

Thursday, November 5th, 2015

7:00 PM @ Skokie Public Library (sales by The Book Stall)

5215 Oakton St, Skokie, IL 60077

Friday, November 6th, 2015

7:00 PM @ San Diego Public Library (sales by The Library Shop)

330 Park Blvd., San Diego, CA 92101

Saturday, November 7th, 2015

4:30 PM @ Bellingham Public Library (sales by Village Books)

210 Central Avenue, Bellingham, WA 98225

I have a new book! And it’s coming on March 29, 2016! The publisher is Dutton/Penguin, and the editor is Julie Strauss-Gabel (this is the same team that worked on the MATCHED series and ATLANTIA).

SUMMERLOST is about a girl and a boy and a mystery and friendship and loss. It’s very dear to my heart for lots of reasons. And I can’t wait to share it with you. Below is a post that was originally posted on Nerdy Book Club, about the friendship that inspired the book. I hope you enjoy it. And the beautiful cover, by artist Jennifer Bricking.

FALLING IN FRIENDSHIP

I’ve fallen in love many times in my life. In kindergarten with the quiet boy who sat across the table from me. With characters in books, with actors in movies. In college, with the guy who played guitar at the Friday-night parties (reader, I married him). When each new baby boy was placed in my arms, when my daughter stared me down in the airport the day my husband brought her home from China.

I fell in love in seventh grade. Everyone teased me about it. We met in Mrs. Fotheringham’s English class and soon we were always together. We had inside jokes. During band, we caught one another’s eye constantly when funny things happened. At lunch, we ate fast and then sat together in the hallway. We made up nicknames for people. We wrote a fake newspaper together. We planned our Halloween costumes. In the evening, we talked on the phone until my dad got on and told us it was time to be done. We walked downtown to the pawn shop to look at weird stuff. When one of us was in the money, we bought candy at the gas station to share. People teased us about being boyfriend and girlfriend. “How long have you guys been going out?” people would ask. “You like him,” my friends would say.

I did. I liked him so much. I loved him, even, but that’s not a word that seemed allowed in middle-school friendships. Can you love someone as a friend? Can you fall profoundly, deeply, in friendship? In middle school and junior high, romantic love is often on everyone’s minds. We’re playing with that concept, thinking about it. But the true miracle, it seemed to me then and it seems to me now, is finding a friend who lasts.

Justin had a sense of humor that delighted me. Never had I met someone so funny, so smart. And there was a layer there too, of understanding. When my grandfather and baby sister died that year, he was kind. Sometimes he said the wrong thing. Sometimes he didn’t quite understand. But he was always there to say something, and that meant the world. Later, in high school, when I suffered from depression, he sat on the porch swing at my house and cried for me when I couldn’t cry for myself.

When I first saw the cover of SUMMERLOST, with the illustration by the incredibly talented Jennifer Bricking, I cried because it was so beautiful, because it spoke to me. Because those little figures on the front, with that great big sky, reminded me of those two friends years ago. I sent the image to a few people, including Justin and his wife, Lindsay, who is a dear friend of mine (I’m the one who set them up on their first blind date!). Lindsay emailed me back, This cover is so gorgeous. It evokes all kinds of mixed feelings about summer and childhood. It’s kind of dark, yet kind of innocent. She put into words what I felt so strongly.

When I wrote SUMMERLOST, I knew right away that Cedar was going to meet someone. I knew he was going to be special. I knew he was going to be able to help her heal, the way a true friend can. The character Leo is, of course, very different from my friend Justin. Justin and I never worked together, we never even, to my recollection, went to the festival upon which I based the Summerlost Festival together. We didn’t live down the street from each other, and we didn’t give a clandestine tour about anyone famous the way Leo and Cedar do. (We did eat a lot of awesome candy, like Fireballs and Lemonheads and Cherry-A-Lets.) But all the feelings are real. The magic of meeting someone who understands and likes you and who maybe even loves you, in a way that’s rare both in middle school and in the years that come after—that was what I hoped to capture in the friendship between Leo and Cedar in SUMMERLOST.

I listened to these songs to get me into the right mood for writing Rio’s story, and they were an essential part of the creative process. I hope you enjoy them too! I’ve tried not to be too spoiler-y in my explanations for each selection, but suffice it to say that after you’ve read ATLANTIA, you’ll understand even more why I picked the music I did for this list. Also, I arrange my playlists in chronological order, so that the songs/their meaning follow the story arc of the book.

1. Half Light II (No Celebration) by Arcade Fire.

I have so many memories of driving the country road at night on my way home, after book events or kid events or running errands, and listening to this song. Almost every time, I’d come right inside and go to my desk to write something because I felt inspired. It’s the general feel of the song that’s so perfect, plus these lines have so much to do with Rio and the sirens: “Some people say, we’ve already lost/But they’re afraid to pay the cost for what we’ve lost.”

2. Runaway by The National.

Everything about the imagery of this beautiful song is right for an underwater city, and for a character who feels that she is in the wrong place. The lyrics say “we swallow the sun” and address “being led to the flood.” The melody is also beautiful and haunting, and I associate with both Bay and Rio when they make certain choices.

3. Radioactive by Imagine Dragons.

I am a sucker for a good arena song when the feel is right, and this one is great. It has the right amount of anger for Rio as she realizes what has happened to her and deals with betrayals both real and perceived. And radioactivity is, quite literally, one of the reasons the city of Atlantia had to be built in the first place. Also, the parts about waking up, the apocalypse, and a revolution are perfect for Rio’s story.

4. Your Bones by Of Monsters and Men.

This song is like reading a piece of epic poetry—so much to it, so much I don’t quite understand, perhaps, but the beauty comes through so strong it makes me weep. I also love the words—stripped bare of everything, as Rio is over the course of the book, all that’s left is the heart.

5. City with No Children by Arcade Fire.

Another late-night listening, perfect inspiration song. The melody feels like a wave you can’t help but ride along. The line about the city being “a garden left for ruin” and people being unable to “trust a millionaire quoting the sermon on the mount” have a lot to do with Rio’s city, with Nevio the Minister, and with the feeling of Atlantia, a place that has lost the ability to change and grow.

6. Midnight City by M83.

This song led me to the score to the movie OBLIVION, which was also done by M83, and I listened to that score constantly while I wrote this book. The line “The city is my church” is especially relevant to ATLANTIA, and I love the sound of this song—every beat, every part of the melody.

7. Ghosts that We Knew by Mumford and Sons.

Every year, I pick a song that describes my experience of that year. This was the song for 2013. It made me weep, it made me smile. It helped me get through my own rough times, and I also could picture Rio (and Maire) listening to the ghosts of Atlantia and finding their own catharsis.

8. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) by Arcade Fire.

Yes, this playlist is a bit heavy on Arcade Fire. I make no apologies. So many lines in this song–“They heard me singing and they told me to stop”–and “On the surface the city lights shine/They’re calling at me, come and find your kind” fit Rio’s story, especially her journey to power and the way she claims her voice at last.

9. How Can I Keep from Singing by Bruce Springsteen.

There is a very particular scene near the final act of the book where this song fits perfectly. The scene involves many voices, Rio, and Maire, and you’ll know it when you read it. I love Bruce Springsteen, and I love the power of folk music. There is something in it that you cannot get anywhere else.

10. Gravity, by Steven Price. (From the motion picture of the same name.)

I picture this song playing during the final scene of ATLANTIA. It’s gorgeous, empowering, and you can just feel the character emerging from where she’s been to where she will go next.

With my lovely publicist Shanta at BEA this June. I like the way her hand looks like it’s reaching RIGHT OUT of the picture…

We’re getting closer and closer! I’ve posted the official tour dates for my ATLANTIA tour here on the Events page. I’m coming to Utah, Illinois, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Colorado, and Washington, DC. And I cannot wait to see any and all of you who come.

If you can’t make it to any of the tour stops, you can preorder ATLANTIA from my local independent bookstore, The King’s English. They will have me sign them on October 28th (the day the book releases) and ship them off to you.

Also, I have an Instagram account (realallycondie) and a Pinterest account (http://www.pinterest.com/allycondie/) now. Actually, I’ve had the Pinterest one for a while, I’ve just now made it public.

I think that’s all the news for now. But more info on ATLANTIA coming shortly. I can’t wait for you all to read this book.