On September 30th, I had what was easily one of the best days of my life. Broken Dolls my third middle grade novel was released and I had my book release at Twisted Spine – an incredible horror bookstore in Brooklyn with none other than Clay McLeod Chapman.

If you don’t know Clay, he’s the sort of guy who graciously agrees to do your launch with you and then dresses up like this

And if that wasn’t enough he arrived early, spent a half hour, as people were arriving, sitting stock still in a chair like an actual doll.

Then when we started, I told the audience we were going to play a game and had them all close their eyes. As their eyes were closed Clay got up and slowly crept closer to the audience. In the end he wound up shrieking in one of the audience member’s face. And guess who it was?

My editor, the wonderful Sara Schonberg. It was very funny.

We had an amazing talk about the book, which he described as genuinely scary – like not just for kids scary – which was very kind of him. And we talked a lot about grief. I shared about how when I started this book it was three years after my father’s death and I was ready to talk about grief. And in the writing, my mother unexpectedly passed away. My wonderful editor moved the timeline up for me so that I could take my time because now I was writing about grief while actively grieving. Which was….not easy.

Broken Dolls is in my opinion the best book I have written. Even Stephen King liked it.

I have an email from him taped up over my writing desk. He sent it while he was reading Broken Dolls. It’s three words and it just says “This is good.”

Every time I think I can’t do this writing thing, I look at it to remind myself that my hero thinks I can.

And everyone got to meet the dolls that inspired Broken Dolls. There was Eudora – my little bald baby

Tamzin, who is quite literally just a head and is in one of the scenes in Broken Dolls that scared Clay the most

Jangling Jane was there who Nat Cassidy (read all his books!) got to meet

And of course, our most villainous villain, Miss Abyss

We had a wonderful crowd as you can tell by the very stupid smile on my face

And I can’t thank Clay, the Twisted Spine, and everyone else who came out enough. I am a very very lucky girl. And you all made my dreams come true.

In other news, I’ve started radiation after a long summer of chemo. Just finished week 1 of 5 and am very much looking forward to this being over. In the meantime, my witch book is out on submission – queue anxious submission face

And I’m currently writing the Monsters in the Woods book and after that I have plans for an Alien book and after that…..who knows?*

*I did know but have since forgot. Stupid brain. Reminder friends, write your ideas down.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has posted about, read, shared, reviewed or even considered Broken Dolls. That includes you, Steve

And yes, sending a copy to Mr. King will always be the most incredible thing in the world. Knowing that my book will sit on his shelf, the way his books sit on mine is everything.

Peace, love, and starbursts,

Ally