CassAsks - Ally North (Patreon)

I think it would be really difficult to be in the sapphic romance community for the last year and not have heard of Ally North's Bloom Town duology.

In the last few months, Monica and I have gotten to know Ally a bit (she's the one that knew the family in Gaza that we did the fundraiser for!), and she is really such a kind person. So, really, it was very exciting to have her join us for a CassAsks!

Especially because she has a new book on the horizon...

Read on to find out more about her upcoming release (spoiler: out in the next month!)

CassAsks - Ally North

1. What was your first fandom you ever joined? Did you read/write fic for it? 

So I actually have very limited experience with fandoms because I didn’t even know online fandoms were a thing until I was a bit older, but…and this is potentially embarrassing…I was obsessed with Phantom of the Opera fanfics for a while. I never wrote anything for it, but I would love to write a contemporary sapphic romance loosely inspired by Gaston Leroux’s original book one day. 

2. What part of the writing process strikes you, first (a plot line, a single scene, the characters, etc)?

Setting. It might be my theatre background, but I like to set the stage before I bring in plot and characters. I think place is such a hugely important part of storytelling, and I’m so drawn to worldbuilding that I spend probably way too much time drawing maps and doing image searches when I should be writing. 

3. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I feel like stories were my first language; I was writing them before I could actually write–I would dictate them to my mom and she’d write them down, then I’d illustrate (very badly), and she would bind them into little books (that she still has today). So I think I always assumed I would write books when I was older–not in a self-important or arrogant way but just because it was the one thing I really excelled at. Then when I fell in love with musical theatre as a ten-year-old I actively fought against this idea that I was destined to be an author because I wanted to be on Broadway and be known for that, but as it turns out I can’t actually sing or dance, so here we are.

4. Your debut novel, Bloom Town: Genesis, is a HUGE success in the sapphic world. Can you tell us a little more about the world building that went into this? What about the unique (at the very least, in our genre!) setting called to you?

I’ve never been interested in Westerns, and I’m still not, but also I don’t really think of Bloom Town as a Western but more like an epic romance that happens to occur in the American West during a certain time period. (Which…I guess makes it a Western but it’s fine lol) I just have this obsession with place, I try to treat settings as if they’re characters, and I’d never written anything set in the desert so I thought why not? There’s so much atmosphere and geography to pull from it practically writes itself. And then of course the time period is very much a part of the setting, and I feel like the 1850s were a useful vehicle for transporting readers to a time that is different enough to feel like escapism but also, unfortunately, mirrors some of what we’re experiencing today when considering things like racism, homophobia and bigotry. 

To be totally fair, I do think it’s more of a period piece than legit historical fiction because there are a few areas where I took liberties and bent genuine history, but to that point I want to go on record saying 1. They absolutely did have leather straps in 1852 and 2. All the Indigenous characters and language were deeply and respectfully researched, and I actually did hire an Indigenous culture consultant who is a direct descendent of the First Nations band represented in the book, as well as sensitivity readers. One of my degrees is in Anthropology with a concentration in First Nations Studies, so for many reasons it was really important for me to get that part right. 

5. To my knowledge, the Bloom Town world was first crafted as a fanfic. What are your thoughts on the difference between writing a novel from scratch/with original characters, and writing fanfic? 

It was! And I’m actually so excited to talk about this, I don’t think I’ve gotten the chance to yet. I hope it’s okay if I give some background before answering your question:

Right before the pandemic I was working with a pretty big agent from a well-known agency to edit a young adult fantasy that I’d worked on for nearly ten years. I’d worked hard on this novel, I loved this story so much and I’d definitely paid my dues as far as querying and editing and rewriting, so when this agent wanted to give me edits (which is essentially like an audition–it means they like the story but want to make sure you’re an author they can work with before signing you) I was over the moon. But the pandemic hit and to make a long story short, the agency had to shutter its Young Adult department as a result. Needless to say, this felt like the end of the world after ten years of editing, pitching, querying and believing. I became deeply depressed and uninspired because I knew I needed to pivot and write something new, but also it felt like the world was falling apart and everything was bleak. So my author friend decided to snap me out of it by daring me to write something completely outside my comfort zone, and I jokingly said, “What, like fanfic smut?” And she was like, “Yes.” So I did. I genuinely did not expect it to take off, which is probably why I’ve looked like a deer in the headlights for the past year.

But to answer your question, in my experience there isn’t much difference between writing original stuff and writing fan fic, and I think that’s because I’ve only ever written a couple of fics and the ideas came to me separately from the fandom, but then I plugged them into the fandom as AUs. I think fanfic is great though, and the day someone writes a fanfic of something I’ve written will be the greatest day. 

6. What is your favorite idea that you haven’t yet written?

I have a few that I’m really excited about, but I’ve decided to age up the protagonist of the YA fantasy I mentioned in my last answer and I am so excited for that rewrite because I think it will finally find its home with readers. It’s called The Outsider’s Atlas, and it’s a portal fantasy about a down-on-her-luck recovering addict from Queens who takes a night-shift security job at a private art gallery only to discover the paintings in the collection are actually doorways to another realm. Which sounds like a totally insane premise, I know, but to write this I’ve done so much research on particle physics, dark matter and the chemistry of paint, so at the very least my hope is that readers will be able to suspend their disbelief and go with it. It’s a planned five book series and if I could only write one thing in my entire life it would be this story. 

7. What is your favorite meal?

A deadlocked tie between People’s Choice Pizza with garlic dip (I think this is a New England thing?) and noodle stir fry with black vinegar from The Handpulled Noodle in Harlem. Oh, also milkshakes, which are meals in my world. 

8. What is your favorite trope to read? Is it also your favorite trope to write?

I’m a sucker for enemies-to-lovers in romance, and yes, it’s also my favorite romance trope to write. I also came out late in life so I have a soft spot for sapphic stories about late bloomers, and that’s definitely a trope that will feature in more than one of my novels, sorry not sorry. 

9. Who was your favorite character to write in Bloom Town?

This is a tough one, but probably Frex. I like his grit and his kindness, and his penchant for collecting animals. Plus, there are a lot of bad men in Bloom Town and it was important to me to write a good one as well. I’m fortunate to know quite a few really great guys who are immovable allies and wonderful human beings, and it felt important to not paint such a broad stroke that the implication ends up being all cis men are bad.

10. What book got you into reading? 

As a kid I received a subscription to The Boxcar Children so every month I’d get three new Boxcar Children mysteries, which was absolutely delightful (and left me with many questions about how these children managed to feed themselves and solve mysteries while evading protective services, but I digress). I think those books really taught me about leaving breadcrumbs–hinting at little things that you then come back to later on. Then when I was a little older I read Holes, which–despite it being a kids novel–is an absolute masterclass on storytelling and should be required reading for anyone who wants to write fiction and I will die on that hill. (You have to read the book, it’s a great movie but that doesn’t count.)

11. What book got you into reading sapphic romance?

I actually haven't read much sapphic romance! I say this with shame and I am trying to change this. I’ve very recently read Ruby Landers Ribbonwood and Anna Burke’s Compass Rose and both are absolutely wonderful, and I just started Macon Leigh’s The Flight Risk which is gorgeous so far. I have so many sapphic romances on my TBR now that I’m in this amazing community, and I feel very fortunate that I get to read all of these amazing books one right after the other. 

12. You released Bloom Town: Genesis and Bloom Town: Exodus as a duology. What was the driving decision behind that? 

It was too long for Amazon to print paperbacks as one book. That’s it, that’s the decision. If I’d been with a publisher I know I would’ve been told to cut it down to one book, but that’s the great thing about self-publishing, no one is there to tell you you’re out of control and you need to look at your life and your choices. That said, I don’t regret it, I think the tonal break between the two books justifies it being a duology. 

13. If you could pick one song to epitomize your characters, what would it be? 

For Bloom Town it’s gotta be The Story by Brandi Carlile. Kind of cliche, but it really fits, and weirdly enough the music video only reinforces my feelings on this. 

14. What is your favorite Taylor Swift song and/or lyric?

Welp, if I haven’t already alienated the sapphic community by admitting I’m not very well-read when it comes to sapphic romance, this one will surely be the nail in my coffin. I am not a massive Taylor Swift fan. HANG ON LET ME EXPLAIN–I think she’s amazing, I think she’s insanely talented and I have so much respect for her ability to write songs with amazing lyrics and melodies, I love how much she loves her cats, I love that she loves Mariska Hargitay and wanted her in one of her videos because same, etc. I totally get the hype and I fully support it, I just never personally got super into her music myself. I have a fourteen-year-old niece who would be utterly ashamed of the way I’ve answered this question, so I’ve consulted her and she says my answer should be Cowboy Like Me because “now you hang from my lips like the gardens of Babylon” is the greatest line ever. And now I’ve googled that line and I’m learning how complex and multilayered it really is and now I’m super impressed by both Taylor and my niece. Send me Swift song recs people, I’ll work on this. I can change. 

15. Have you ever read a book – or fanfic – that is criminally underrated? Now is your chance to advertise it: 

Okay, not a book or a fanfic, but the most criminally underrated thing I’ve ever seen in my life was the Broadway musical Finding Neverland. It was based on the movie but the movie is totally different. The musical is transcendent. Literally just the most stunning love letter to storytelling, and it has the most BEAUTIFUL on stage death scene that any show could ever have, ever. It will make you rethink death as a whole. Unfortunately, due to theatre politics it didn’t get a ton of recognition, but as a total Broadway snob I’m telling you, this show was everything. Not even a bit embarrassed to admit I saw it twenty-two times; I just so happened to be living on the Upper West Side at the time and the theatre was a twelve minute train ride downtown, so there were days I just needed a pick-me-up and went to see if they had any cheap last-minute tickets. A big group of us went to the final show when it closed and it was one of the most incredible nights on Broadway I’ve ever experienced, just so much love for stories and the arts. My niece and I even got Finding Neverland tattoos afterward. If you’re the kind of person who understands that stories have the power to heal and connect us all despite our differences, then please, if you ever get the chance to see this show on tour or something, run don’t walk to that theatre. It is the best thing to ever come to Broadway and I will die on that hill (alone, but it’s fine lol) 

To answer your original question though, I don’t know about criminally underrated because I think it was widely appreciated when it first came out, but Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer is a masterpiece and his use of voice needs to be studied by anyone who wants to write or improve their writing. More recently I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead and it’s beautiful, I think everyone should read it but especially Americans because it’s about the cultural divide between rural middle-America and coastal/city America, and I feel like we really need to try to understand each other and look for common ground now more than ever.

16. What would you title your auto-biography?

Sorry I’m Late

17. All right, your newest release, out NEXT MONTH - The Wilds and The Weeds. Tell us about it. Get us pumped. What’s it about, what inspired it – anything you want to share. 

Yes! Very excited for this, it’s very different from Bloom Town but also I feel like if you liked Bloom Town you’ll like this one. I’m pitching it as Jane Eyre meets Sirens, but sapphic and spicy. There’s mystery, intrigue, forbidden romance, mansions and maybe murder. I’m absolutely terrible at pitching my own work, so….it’s a story, there’s spicy sapphicness…just give it a go. (Good thing I don’t have an agent because they’d be slapping me right now.)

18. Finally – where would you put these characters on this seating chart: 

Joey London from the Bloom Town duology by youTaylor Vandenberg from In the Long Run by meBlue from This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone Lara Bennett from Ribbonwood by Ruby LandersMiranda from Compass Rose by Anna BurkeSabran from The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Explain your reasoning :) 

I love this! Okay, so I think Taylor and Joey would hit it off, let’s seat them next to each other on one side so they can discuss their travels and their tendency to run from issues rather than confronting them, maybe they can convince one another to see a therapist. And let’s keep Lara Bennett far away from them–she’s exactly their type. Maybe seat Lara at the head of the table, she can be the host with all her fancy cheeses and artisanal breads. Miranda can sit at the opposite end because she’s a boss and if things get out of hand at this dinner party, she’ll lay down the law. Then on the other side, across from Joey and Taylor (haha…Joey Taylor…sorry, I’ll see myself out) let’s sit Blue beside Sabran, because Blue knows a thing or two about time travel and rewriting timelines and poor Sabran is having herself a really rough time what with all the demands of Queendom, maybe Blue can help her out.