Crossed Blog Tour! & GIVEAWAY!

We're today's stop on the Crossed Blog tour!!!!!!!  You can continue your adventure of Crossed by checking out the Official Matched Trilogy web page, and the Get Matched Facebook App.

For our tour stop, we have an arts related guest post from Ally, we hope you enjoy!

About Crossed: In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky - taken by the Society to his certain death - only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake.

Cassia's quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander - who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia's heart - change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.  
Click HERE to read the first 2 chapters of Crossed!

About Ally: Ally Condie is the author of the international bestseller Matched, and its newly-released sequel, Crossed. Matched was chosen as one of YALSA’s 2011 Teens’ Top Ten, named as one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Children’s Books of 2010, selected as the #1 Pick on the Winter Kid’s Indie Next List, and received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. In a starred review for the sequel, Crossed, Kirkus called the Matched series an “addictive, layered dystopic trilogy.”

A former English teacher (who still keeps her license current, just in case!), she lives with her husband and three sons outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. She loves reading, writing, running, and listening to her husband play guitar.

When I first knew that the Matched Trilogy would be a trilogy, I knew that I wanted to emphasize one area of the arts in each of the three novels. I was lucky enough to grow up in a home where the arts were important—my mother is a professional artist, and my father always loved playing the piano and telling stories.

Of course, my own personal bent is toward writing—so that was the area of the arts that I focused on in Matched. But I always knew that Crossed would talk about other arts, namely the visual arts. My mom works in the medium of pastels, which are like chalk/charcoal, and her work is gorgeous.

While I can’t paint or draw myself, I deeply appreciate the work of those who can. All my life I grew up surrounded by my mother’s paintings. I saw her go out and see something beautiful and then come home and render it on paper. Like this piece of hers, which is very similar to the geography in Crossed:

I knew Ky’s mother would do the same—that she would have the ability to see beauty and respond to it. Ky is unusual in that he has grown up in the Outer Provinces; he’s had more access to the arts than people within the Society and has lived on a border where people still dared to create. However, they are still restricted in what they can and cannot do, and paint and paper are hard to come by. So Ky’s mother learns to paint with the materials on hand, and though her work doesn’t last long, she knows that there is something important in the act of creation. That knowledge is something she passes along to her son, and we learn through Ky’s narration in Crossed how much that means to him and how integral that is to his character. I hope you enjoy finding out more about Ky in Crossed!

Now check out the Crossed trailer!

 

GIVEAWAY TIME!

We have:

• 1 signed, finished copy of CROSSED
• 1 double sided CROSSED/Book 3 poster
• 3 MATCHED buttons

To giveaway to one lucky winner!

• Click HERE to enter
• All of our regular rules apply
• Giveaway ends 11/14 at 11:59 pm