Come Explore, Dream, and Discover with Ali Cross!

Yay!  I'm so excited for you all to meet Ali!  If you go to her awesome blog, you can learn all about her including this...

Ali's always been a dreamer. She wanted to be a pilot in the Canadian Air Force, a Royal Canadian Mounted Policewoman, and Prime Minister of Canada. She wanted to be a youth minister, an opera singer, and a ballet dancer. And she wanted to be happy. The good news? Not all dreams stay relegated to dreamland forever.

Ali's been an opera singer (five years with Opera Idaho) and tried ballet for one magical summer when she was thirty years old ("A tutu isn't nearly as cute on a 30-year-old as it is on a 3-year-old," she says). 

And she's discovered new dreams that are coming true even now. Including writing science fiction and fantasy for middle grade and young adult readers that transcend the ordinary. After all, who wants ordinary? Not Ali!

And . . . she's happy. It’s true, she's a dreamer. But man, where her dreams have taken her!

Awesome right?  Totally!  And if that isn't cool enough, she's full of all kinds of ninja awesome, but I'll tell you more about that after the interview.  

Ali, how long have you been writing?

I've been writing in earnest for about eight years. 

And, what made you want to write?

I'm honestly not sure! I didn't grow up wanting to be an author or anything, though I did meet Anne McCaffrey as a young girl and told HER I wanted to be a writer (she told me to never let anyone or anything stand in the way of my dreams); and in university I remember wanting to write a novel starring my favorite Dungeons and Dragons character (which was the first book I ever wrote). 

But I really started writing when, on a drive into the mountains for a weekend getaway with my family, I said something that I didn't even know was true. I said "Someday I'd like write a book". And my husband said, "Me too!" For the rest of the drive we brainstormed story ideas. Just before we arrived at our hotel, we stopped and bought index cards, notebooks, pens and tape and spent the rest of our vacation outlining our novels. Best vacation ever! We set the goal to finish before the New Year of the next year (so, a year later, approximately), and we met that goal! Each of us printed out the last pages of our manuscripts just before midnight, 2003. I've been writing ever since!

(That's so awesome!  My husband and I like to think of story ideas on road trips.  We take ideas from road signs and whatever else passes by.  Way to meet your goal!)

Do you have any pet peeves while writing?  Is there anything that you just have to have for concentration?

Hmm, I don't think I have any pet peeves about writing, per se. And to write, I really prefer to have my headphones on and music that's pertinent to my story playing. Right now, while I'm revising my dark paranormal YA, BECOME, I'm listening to a lot of Depeche Mode, intermingled with some Natasha Bedingfield--there has to be some uplifting music in there, don't you think?

(I totally agree about music being uplifting!  Although, for me, it's not so uplifting while I'm writing, but I like it before just to get me in the right mood.)

What are your favorite genre's to write?

I really love science fiction and that's probably my very favorite to write for both YA and MG. However, I also enjoy angsty paranormal stuff like girls who are part angel, part demon and have no clue where they belong. :)

If you could sit down and reread any book, which would it be?

There is only one book (actually, all three in the trilogy) that I can and have reread: THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY by Guy Gavriel Kay. Those books still make me laugh, cry, and dream over the story even on the fourth read-through. Otherwise, I can't stand rereading novels.

(Sweet!  Another book, or books, to add to my list!)

Let's say you only had enough time to visit just one or two writing blogs a day, which would they be?

Oh man. Do you know how impossible this is for me to answer? There are so many blogs that are worthwhile and wonderful. But if I could truly only pick a few (notice how I gave myself an extra one?), it would be my real-life crit partners blogs: Elana Johnson (elanajohnson.blogspot.com), Stacy Henrie (stacyhenrie.blogspot.com) and Jenn Wilks (jennwilks.blogspot.com).

(No way, you have Elana as a crit partner?  *Lucky*  I can't wait to meet your other crit buddies.  I'm heading over now!)

If you could meet any author, dead or alive, who would you choose?

Well, I've already met Anne McCaffrey, which was pretty darn awesome. But I truly would love to meet Guy Gavriel Kay. His trilogy, THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY, changed my life, opened my mind to the possibilities of fiction and daily inspires me to demand more beauty and meaning from the words I write.

What book are you reading right now and which one do you have lined up to read next?

Today I'm going to the library to pick up a copy of HOLD ME CLOSER, NECROMANCER, by Lish McBride, which finally came in. Woot! Next up? I'm thinking DELIRIUM by Lauren Oliver.

And last, but not least, do you prefer fruity candy or chocolate?

Well, I'm good with anything I can pop into my mouth while I'm worrying over a scene, but my absolute fave would be fruity Mike 'n' Ike's.

(Mmmmm.  What a great choice for something to munch on while thinking!  I need to buy those again...it's been too long!)

And now it's time for the real dojo!  Not kidding.  Have you ever felt like writing can be a lonely thing?  Have you ever wished you had more support while crankin' out that novel or working endlessly on revisions?  Well, Ali has the perfect thing for you!  No more waiting for NaNo WriMo every year.  She has come up with something Ninja awesome!

And...she can explain it SO much better than I ever could, so go here now to check it out!  

Thanks Ali for answering my questions!  Be sure to follow ninja Ali on her writing journey.  

Have a great weekend!