Maggie Stiefvater's Blog: Maggie Stiefvater, page 399

Things That Amuse Me

Hands up if you know why this commercial reminded me of Linger.

Rejected Cover and Title Concepts for FOREVER

Merry Sisters of Fate, Borders, & Secret Musicians

My monthly short fiction, "Answered by Small Voices," is up over at Merry Sisters of Fate.

In other news, there's not too much more depressing than going to a Borders store-closing sale.

In other, other news, I spent Saturday in the studio both recording the music for the FOREVER book trailer music and watching one of the Secret Musicians record his version of "Summer Girl." (which he may be sharing in May, stay tuned). And yes, there are multiple Secret Musicians, both of which I'm very fond of, musically. One is recording a single version of "Summer Girl." The others are doing a version which will go with an alternative version of the FOREVER book trailer. I can't wait to share them.

And I thought NASA was weird

I really thought that NASA was going to be the most surreal thing to happen to me in a long time.

But I was having a perfectly ordinary evening when I got a blast of e-mails and tweets including this photograph.


That's Jeopardy.

AND THAT'S ME AS A CLUE.

Now the only problem is trying to bathe Thing 1 & 2 while flapping my hands helplessly.

THING 1: May I have a bedtime snack?

ME: Go eat everything within reach in the pantry while Mama stands over here and flaps.

NYC Appearances in March - Teen Author Festival

Once again, I'll be doing the NYC Teen Author Festival this year, which means I have a two events in March to announce. The first is a panel with a lovely line up of fellow authors, and the second is a signing at Books of Wonder with an even more dazzling line up of YA authors.

The panel is on MARCH 19TH from 1-2 p.m, part of a three part series. Details here. Here's the complete list:

1:10 – 2:00: The Ties That Bind, Part One: The Struggle Against Darkness

Kim Harrington
Lisa McMann
Maggie Stiefvater
Robin Wasserman

2:00 – 2:45: The Ties That Bind, Part Two: Family Bonds

Melissa Kantor
Melina Marchetta
Alyssa Sheinmel
Natalie Standiford
Danette Vigilante

2:45 – 3:30: The Ties That Bind, Part Three: Friends and Community

Matt de la Pena
Torrey Maldonado
Michael Northrop
Leila Sales

And then the signing is at Books of Wonder on MARCH 20TH, details here. My slot is from 1-1:45 p.m. Because there are so many authors there, the place will be hopping, so I'll sign as many books as I can, but not the enormous stacks some folks bring to my individual signing (though I'm always glad to see the stacks, don't get me wrong). I'll also be bringing Linger tank-tops to the Books of Wonder signing and giving them away to the first 10 folks in line.

And here is the dazzling list of authors who will be at the signing. If this doesn't awe you, you don't have a pulse and I'm sorry for your undead self.

1-1:45

Lizabeth Zindel (A Girl, A Ghost, and the Hollywood Hills, Penguin)
Maryrose Wood (The Hidden Gallery, Harper)
Suzanne Weyn (Empty, Scholastic)
Danette Vigilante (The Trouble with Half a Moon, Penguin)
Maggie Stiefvater (Linger, Scholastic)
Natalie Standiford (Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters, Scholastic)
Mark Shulman (Scrawl, Roaring Brook)
Alyssa Sheinmel (The Beautiful Between, RH)
Kieran Scott (She's So Dead to Us, S&S)
Leila Sales (Mostly Good Girls, S&S)
Patrick Ryan (Gemini Bites, Scholastic)

1:45-2:30

Marie Rutkoski (The Celestial Globe, FSG)
Lena Roy (Edges, FSG)
Michael Northrup (Trapped, Scholastic)
Sarah Mlynowski (Gimme a Call, RH)
Neesha Meminger (Jazz in Love, Ignite)
Terra Elan McVoy (After the Kiss, S&S)
Lisa McMann (Cryer's Cross, S&S)
Kimberly Marcus (Exposed, RH)
Melina Marchetta (The Piper's Son, Candlewick)
Torrey Maldonado (Secret Saturdays, Penguin)
Barry Lyga (Archvillain, Scholastic)

2:30-3:15

E. Lockhart (Real Live Boyfriends, RH)
Sarah Darer Littman (Life After, Scholastic)
David Levithan (Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, RH)
Melissa Kantor (The Darlings Are Forever, Hyperion)
Carla Jablonksi (Resistance, First Second)
Gwendolyn Heasley (Where I Belong, Harper)
Kim Harrington (Clarity, Scholastic)
Christopher Grant (Teenie, RH)
Margie Gelbwasser (Inconvenient, Flux)
Elizabeth Eulberg (Prom & Prejudice, Scholastic)
Helen Ellis (The Turning, Sourcebooks)

3:15-4

Daniel Ehrenhaft (Friend is Not a Verb, Harper)
Sarah Beth Durst (Enchanted Ivy, S&S)
Matt De La Pena (I Will Save You, RH)
Brent Crawford (Carter Finally Gets It, Hyperion)
Eireann Corrigan (Accomplice, Scholastic)
Susane Colasanti (Something Like Fate, Penguin)
Marina Budhos (Tell Us We're Home, S&S)
Kate Brian (Book of Spells, S&S)
Philana Marie Boles (Glitz, Penguin)
Judy Blundell (Strings Attached, Scholastic)
Cathleen Bell (Little Blog on the Prairie, Bloomsbury)

Slick the Wonder Car

My Valentine’s Day began with Lover deciding to puke in lieu of taking the kids to school, so the morning school run fell to me. Distracted as I was by my imminent reveal of the FOREVER teaser, it was all I could manage to scrape together lunches and otherwise make certain my children wore pants before leaving the house. I was feeling virtuous about getting out the door on time when I discovered, in the way of most major Hollywood motion pictures, that there was a set-back at the last minute. The Valentines that Thing 2 had completed in painstaking, breathlessly slow, 5-year-old handwriting had vanished. I’m not certain who would want fourteen IronMan valentines, but if you see them, you can keep them. We did them again.

Which meant that by the time I got into the driveway, we were running a little late.

And that is when I made my first mistake.

Lover had just traded in his previous car, the Land Yacht, for something more fuel efficient. I had yet to try the new car, and in my infinite wisdom, I decided that this was the day to take it. The new car, which I named Slick the Wonder Car (without my husband’s knowledge) due to the fact that it is slick as a new-made dolphin, turned out to be more complicated than I thought.

I like to think I know as much about cars as the next person, but apparently not.

I sat in the driver’s seat, key in hand, Things 1 & 2 buckling up in the back seat, and that was when I first got a good look at the key. Normal keys have a key part, and then a fob part. Anything different from this is a perversion of nature.

Slick the Wonder Car was a perversion. There was no key and fob. There was only fob. I did not how to operate a vehicle in which there was only fob. In front of me, the clock informed me we were two minutes late. I moved the seat forward, because at least I was going somewhere then. No answer presented itself. What was I supposed to do with this keyless key? Panic, that’s what.

I stared at the fob, looking for buttons and knobs that would shoot out a key, feeling like I’d fallen into an 80s movie with Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock. USE THE SHELLS.

Three minutes late.


ME: There’s no key on the key!

CHILDREN: It just goes in! It just goes in!

ME: *frantically thinks that’s what she said, that’s what she said*

That’s when I saw a slot by the steering wheel. A curiously fob-shaped slot. I inseredt the fob with the dubious trust of someone using an unfamiliar ATM -- will I get this back later? -- and the car came to life.

Four minutes late.

ME: Drive! Drive!

My euphoria melted. Driving was a no go. Slick the Wonder Car informed me the parking brake was on. But I, for one, saw no parking brake. There was absolutely nothing useful looking in sight. There was nothing but smooth surfaces and leather as far as the eye could see. It was like a Lady Gaga photo shoot.

CHILDREN: Oh, great, we’re going to be late because Mama can’t drive!

And then I saw this.


First, I noticed that Lover had a Lego Batman as his co-pilot (that is two super heroes in one blog post! I think that’s a record!) And then I noticed a glowing red light next to a letter P. In movies, you aren’t supposed to hit the red glowing button, but Slick the Wonder Car gave me no options.

ZOOM! We careened from the driveway.

And that was when I notice the speedometer.

Now, in my normal life, when I’m not driving Loki, I drive an ordinary little Jetta. It has a speedometer that looks something like this.

But that was not what Slick the Wonder Car’s speedometer looked like. This was what it looked like.

So that was what was in front of me -- that, and the open road, and suddenly I was flashing back over every moment spent going over 72 miles per hour between the ages of 19 and 29. I could hear the riffling of the sheaves of speeding tickets. Hear once more “license and registration” in a dozen different vocal timbres.

I was Atticus Finch presented with a rifle. James Bond presented with a fashion model. I had seen this weapon and I knew how to use it.

You cannot put OMFG on a speedometer without expecting that Maggie is going to attempt OMFG at some point.




This is the part of the blog post where you all are expecting me to tell you about the ticket that I got on Valentine’s Day.

Turns out, for all the things that Slick the Wonder Car could do, it couldn’t move distracted ladies in Broncos, old men walking Pomeranians, or change the school zones to something more conducive to speeding.

I want my money back.

In Which I Read the First Pages of FOREVER

Friday Five. The Forever Edition

I just got home from being snowed in at the writers' retreat and I'm pretty much incapable of anything but lists.

1. I mentioned before I'll be releasing a video of me reading the first few pages of FOREVER on Monday, Valentine's Day. Well, now Scholastic has given me the time and place: noon EST, on my Facebook page. So that's here. It will stay up indefinitely (some folks asked).

2. There were some rumors, after we got snowed in in Branson, that people were planning on eating me as food ran short on the retreat. I'm relieved to report that I was not eaten. But Jackson Pearce did make this video anyway.




3. And finally, in last retreat related news, here are the folks who were on the last live chat (including me). Natalie Standiford, Jeri Smith-Ready, Jackson Pearcce, and Dawn Metcalf. Thanks for the folks who came out to chat!



4. I will actually be blogging like a normal person in the week to come. But for now I'm just going to sit here and be happy there's no snow anywhere in sight. 

5. I have no five.

Unfortunately, Branson Has Rendered Me Edible

I believe Jackson Pearce describes our situation the best.

Monday's Live Chat & Tonight! Is! Me!

Aaaaaaaand once again, I'm posting the covers and bios of the authors who were on the chat last night. And here's the line up for the chat tonight, starting at 8 p.m. EST here: www.livestream.com/jacksonpearce. Come and ask questions! See ya then.

1. Jackson Pearce (SISTERS RED, SWEETLY)
2. me. (me)
3. Natalie Standiford (CONFESSIONS OF THE SULLIVAN SISTERS, HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN ROBOT)
4. Jeri Smith-Ready (SHADE, WICKED GAME)
5. Dawn Metcalf (LUMINOUS)

And last night's authors:

Tessa Gratton: TESSA GRATTON has wanted to be a paleontologist or a wizard since she was seven. She was too impatient to hunt dinosaurs, but is still searching for someone to teach her magic. After traveling the world with her military family, she acquired a BA (and the important parts of an MA) in Gender Studies, then settled down in Kansas with her partner, her cats, and her mutant dog. You can visit Tessa at TessaGratton.com






Julie Kagawa - Julie was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes.
To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dogtrainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full-time.

Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, two obnoxious cats, one Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and the latest addition, a hyper-active Papillon puppy.

Carrie Ryan - Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Carrie Ryan is a graduate of Williams College and Duke University School of Law. A former litigator, she now writes full time. She lives with her writer/lawyer fiance, two fat cats and one large puppy in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are not at all prepared for the zombie apocalypse.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is her first book and a companion, The Dead-Tossed Waves, will be released Spring 2010.









Sonia Gensler - Sonia Gensler grew up in a small Tennessee town and spent her early adulthood collecting impractical degrees from various Midwestern universities. A former high school English teacher, she now writes full time in Oklahoma. So far, her husband and cat are putting up with this. The Revenant is her debut novel.