460: How to Deliver Both Feels and Fun
08 August 2025

460: How to Deliver Both Feels and Fun

#AmWriting

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How dare you? That’s the first question KJ asked Ally Carter, whose name is “synonymous with hilarious action and heart-pounding romance” (TRUE). Is KJ outraged? Hell no. It’s a legit question. Ally’s books are so so much fun, with wild action scenes befitting a Bond movie (or a Jason Bourne, OBVIOUSLY) and plots that trot the globe while dancing backwards in high heels and KJ really wants to know—how did Ally give herself permission to just go there? To write the dreamy, wild, sure it could happen but also we don’t even care because we’re so in it story that scares many of us (especially ex-journo KJ, who wastes far far too much time on such non dramatic questions as “but how would someone with that job pay for health insurance? and “technically, how much snow could that unit make in one night?). 



Also asked: how did you learn to write action so well? Do you take all kinds of crazy self defense classes? Or dissect movie fight scenes in slo-mo? Are you fun to watch a spy movie with, or terrible?



I would have asked her if she used to BE a spy…but then she would have had to kill me.



LINKS



National Spy Museum



The Blonde Who Came In from the Cold



The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year



The Blonde Identity



Ally Carter



Ally’s rec: Netflix: The Residence



Instagram @theallycarter The newsletter





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