Ep 188: Ally Condie

First Draft Episode #188: Ally Condie

Ally Condie, New York Times bestselling author of the Matched
series, as well as Summerlost and The Darkdeep, co-written with
Brendan Reichs. In this conversation, Ally talks about what
inspired her to get an MFA after establishing herself as a
bestselling author, always working on two things at once, and how
the 2016 election gave Ally enough rage to write her newest young
adult novel, murderous revenge story The Last Voyage of Poe
Blythe.
Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode

The Planet of the Apes movies, which were filmed near where
Ally grew up in rural Utah

Ally was inspired by a blog post by Shannon Hale, New York
Times bestselling author of The Princess Academy and Austenland,
where she wrote about writing 1,000 words a day. Ally was
inspired by Shannon to commit to daily word goals. She started
with 500.

Lisa Mangum, editor at Shadow Mountain press, which released
Ally’s first few books

Brandon Mull, New York TImes bestselling author of the
Fablehaven and Beyonders series, who got his start at

Shadow Mountain PressChris Shoebinger, publishing director at
Shadow Mountain Press, who released Ally from her publishing
contract so she could pursue a bigger contract for Matched

Jodi Reamer, literary agent at Writer’s House, who also
represents Tahereh Mafi, New York TImes bestselling author of the
Shatter Me series (listen to her First Draft episode here),
Ransom Riggs, New York Times bestselling author of the Miss
Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series (listen to his
First Draft episode here), John Green, New York Times bestselling
author of The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska, and
Stephenie Meyer, author of the global phenomenon Twilight series

Julie Strauss-Gabel, publisher at Dutton Books, who has
edited John Green, Adam Gidwitz, New York Times bestselling
author of A Tale Dark & Grimm and The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or,
The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog, and Gayle Forman,
New York Times bestselling author of If I Stay and I Have Lost My
Way

The Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in writing for children,
the program Ally attended

Emily Wing Smith, author of The Way He Lived and All Better
Now, and Carol Lynch Williams, author of The Chosen One and
Glimpse, two Utah authors Ally was friends with who also attended
the Vermont College of Fine Arts for the MFA program

Kekla Magoon, author of National Book Award Longlisted X: A
Novel (written with Ilyasah Shabazz), Coretta Scott King-honored
The Season of Styx Malone and How it Went Down, and was Ally’s
mentor at the Vermont program and helped her with an early draft
of Poe Blythe

An Na, author of Printz winner and National Book Award
long-listed A Step From Heaven, as well as Wait For Me and The
Place Between Breaths, was also an advisor at the Vermont College
of Fine Arts

Martine Leavitt, author of Keturah and Lord Death, and
Calvin,  who Ally calls “a stone cold genius.” Martine
helped Ally work on a project during her Vermont residency.

Quentin Tarantino’s advice to screenwriters was to delete the
last two lines of dialogue from every scene, which Alfred Gough
and Miles Millar--creators of Smallville and Into the Badlands
shared with me on their recent First Draft episode. That’s
similar to Ally’s feeling that sometimes she writes past the
natural ending of a chapter.

Brendan Reichs, New York Times bestselling author of Genesis,
and co-writer of Virals with his mother, New York Times
bestselling author Kathy Reichs, and The Darkdeep with Ally.
Brendan and Ally fortuitously decided to pursue an MFA at Vermont
at the same time.

YALLWEST and YALLFest, two national young adult and middle
grade book festivals held in Charleston, S.C. and Los Angeles.
Ally is on the board of the festivals, alongside Brendan Reichs
and Margaret Stohl, New York Times bestselling author of the
Beautiful Creatures series, Red Widow and Royce Rolls (listen to
her First Draft episodes here and here)

Stranger Things meets The Goonies, the pitch for Ally and
Brendan’s co-written middle grade series, The Darkdeep



 


Ally’s pitch for Poe Blythe is: “Mad Max: Fury Road meets
Firefly meets something really lovey.” I got a distinctly Heart
of Darkness (by Joseph Conrad) vibe from Poe when I read it!



 


Write Out, the non-profit organization Ally founded as a way
to bring authors to kids in rural Utah

Brendan Reichs, Shannon Hale, Soman Chainani (author of The
School for Good and Evil series--listen to his First Draft
interview here), and Yamile Saied Mendez (author of Blizzard
Besties: A Wish Novel, and the forthcoming On These Magic Shores)
are among the authors who volunteer at Write Out

Ally and I urge listeners to Marie Kondo your fear -- go
write that angry revenge novel!!!!

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