Big Fun February With Ally Condie

**UPDATED** I forgot to say the contest closes FIRDAY NIGHT. So keep the entries coming, and I’ll pick a winner on Saturday. Tell your friends. Or, don’t, because then you’ve got better chances to win. Okay. As you were.**

If you’re new around here, you might not know that we visited with Ally Condie when MATCHED released November 2010. If you read books and stuff, and haven’t had your sweet little head under a rock, you may know that Ally did an extensive blog tour (in addition to actual get-on-a-plane tours) when CROSSED released in November 2011. I thought I’d give her a few months to get her mojo back before I asked Ally to come talk with us.

Sometimes when you read blog interviews about authors, they sound kind of like working machines. Well, Ally actually IS a working machine. She is by far the most dedicated writer of my acquaintance, and she works as hard on her writing as she does on any of the other parts of her life, which makes her a vast deal more dedicated than, say, most of us. Also sometimes, when you read interviews, the authors get asked the same questions over and over. So to prevent that, I like to ask questions completely unrelated to all that miscellany of writing and get right to the crucial matters of food preference.

Becca’s Brilliant Question: What did you make for dinner last night?

*Ally’s Answer: Stir-fry, for Chinese New Year.

BBQ: Do you miss mail in the mailbox, or are you all for a digital world of communication?

*AA: I miss mail in the mailbox, but I like the instant gratification of the digital world too. And it’s better for the environment! I think!

BBQ: You’re watching your favorite movie (at home) as a well-deserved break. What is the film? Did you change into jammies or sweats? What are you eating?

*AA: Um…is there a difference between jammies and sweats? And I don’t really re-watch movies. That’s lame, I know. A movie I’ve been wanting to see is The King’s Speech, but I missed the PG-13 version in theaters and now I appear to be stuck. I can’t find it online anywhere!

(Quick! Someone tell us how to find that amazing movie in PG-13. I saw it that way in the theatre, and remember that I loved it? And I tried to buy a PG-13 version for Christmas but couldn’t find one? So if you did, or have, or can, TELL! Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled Random-O-Rama. Thank you.)

BBQ: Best dream vacation destination with kids/without kids?

*AA: I’d love to take my kids back to Disneyland. They’ve only been once, but they adored it. As far as without kids, anywhere beachy and warm would be great with me.

BBQ: And how’s that BOOK 3 coming, anyway?

*AA: Great, actually! It’s been a lot of fun to write. I started the series in 2008 and so this feels like the payoff–putting down on paper some of the things I’ve had planned for a long time.

BBQ: Assuming you’ve had a moment to read anything in the past year, what’s a great new book everyone should get?

*AA: I quite enjoyed the latest book in Alan Bradley’s Flavia De Luce series, “I Am Half-Sick of Shadows.”

(Can I get an Amen for Flavia de Luce? Start with Bradley’s “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.” You won’t be sorry.)

BBQ: If you could hire an old-time TV character to help you do your MOM work, which one? (Anything pre-The Nanny) *Perry Mason. He could walk around and smolder at things and then they’d pick themselves up and put themselves away.

(Every time I read that answer, it makes me giggle. See, here’s me thinking Donna Reed or Mrs. Cleaver. Leave it to Ally to bring me Perry. And, hello? I would love to have Mr. Raymond Burr in my house, smoldering. If for nothing else, I will love you forever, Ally, for giving me that image.)

BBQ: Are you partial to a certain brand of running shoes?

*AA: Mizunos. Love them. They fit my foot right and there is something about them that makes the breaking-in period a lot less than any of the others I’ve tried (and I’ve tried a lot).

BBQ: If you were given a bottle of nail polish, would you be most likely to paint fingers or toes?

*AA: Toes. I can’t wear polish on my fingernails. It makes me feel like my nails can’t breathe and I can’t stand it. I know that’s quite weird!

(Not weird at all. My fingers can’t breathe when polished, either. Also, there’s the matter of Unsightly Chipping. But I’m all for toes… Until I start doing dishes with my feet. Then we may have to revisit the chipping issue…)

Thank you, dear Ally, for spending some minutes indulging my bizarre, nosy side.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: PRIZES! I have here (right here — I know you can’t see it, but you can take my word for it) a beautiful copy of CROSSED, for which you are drooling right now.

Want it? Do you? Well, allow me to give it away. All you have to do is leave a comment telling me you want to win the book. That’s it! Then I’ll pick a winner sometime later this week. And I will let you know, winner, that it’s you. Because that’s how I like to do things. If you can manage to live in the USA or Canada, it will help me out a whole lot, thanks very much. I’m not sure my little post office is capable of handling the international shipping thing. (Just kidding. I’m cheap, is all. US or Canada residents only.)

And even if you aren’t the one who gets to take home this wonderful prize, Fear Not. Because we have prizes all month long. Stay tunes and stuff…