Words on Words by Maggie Stiefvater

UK Events in June (also BEA)

Thu, 24 May 2012 14:28:52 GMT

This is just a quick, delighted post to say that I will be briefly in the UK in June, and my UK publishers have managed to squeeze in two public events among the non-public ones. I know it's not very widespread, but I will be back at some point after THE RAVEN BOYS, I swear. Plus, a little part of me is leaping up and down because one of my 2012 New Years' Resolutions was "Go to Wales." Hay-on-Wye just barely counts, but . . . it counts. IT TOTALLY COUNTS.

So here they are:

June 10th, 11:30 a.m., Hay Festival
Hay-on-Wye, UK
This is a ticketed event! Buy tickets early to prevent disappointment.
http://www.hayfestival.com/p-4342-maggie-stiefvater.aspx
Facebook event page here.

June 11th, 6:30 p.m., Signing & Discussion
Waterstones, Bath, UK
Timing may be 6:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. — we're finalizing but I wanted to share it ASAP. So please confirm with store before traveling!
Facebook event page here.

For those of you headed to BEA this year, I have two signings at the show:

In-booth signing for THE RAVEN BOYS
June 5, 3-4 p.m. Booth 25

In-booth signing for THE CURIOSITIES with Brenna Yovanoff & Tessa Gratton
June 7, 12-1 p.m. Booth 2357

As always, all of my events are here. I know that I don't get EVERYWHERE, but I do my best to share the love. I do travel about half of the year, and I need some time to write and spend time with my family too!*

*I say this because I am guaranteed at least a dozen "BUT WHY DON'T YOU EVER COME TO SMALLVILLE, OH?????" "DO YOU HATE THE NORTH????" and "WHAT, NO CANADA?????" comments on every event post, ever. **

**I don't come to Smallville, OH, because it's inefficient for my publisher to send me to smaller towns. I do not, in fact, hate the north, of anywhere. In fact, the north of the UK is my favorite part. And Toronto treated me exceptionally well last time I was there so I'm sure I will be there again.***

***"WHAT, NO VANCOUVER??"

Why I'm A Writer & Not a Fighter Pilot

Wed, 23 May 2012 19:59:20 GMT

I know what it means to manage my time, but my question is how do you know your goals?

When i read your blog i always have the feeling that you kept the invincibility of youth, that there's nothing that can come between you and your dreams, so how did you keep that?

I am finally an adult (or am supposed to be one...) and so many people tell me what is right or wrong that i'm not sure about my goals anymore and i slowly feel how this feeling of doing the right thing slips through my fingers. How did you keep true to yourself when i bet there where times when people disagreed with your dreams and goals?

This is a reader question on the blog post from last week, and I thought it was a really good one, so I asked if I could blog about it this week. I’m going to answer in reverse order, if that’s okay. And if it’s not, you can read the post backward.

How did you keep true to yourself when i bet there where times when people disagreed with your dreams and goals?

This one, actually, I’ve already answered here. Actually, and sort of here. Both of those posts sort of boil down to “ignore other people because their opinions don’t matter” which sounds terrible and is a gross over-simplification, but is a good starting point.

When i read your blog i always have the feeling that you kept the invincibility of youth, that there's nothing that can come between you and your dreams, so how did you keep that?

Why thanks. I kept it because I decided to keep it. I believe we only go round this lifetime once, and I believe in getting to the end of that lifetime with no regrets. I think the saddest story ever is the one that starts “this is what could’ve happened.” The story that involves settling for just okay instead of great. The story that ends up with you reminiscing about the past instead of looking to the future.

I’m depressing myself.

As far as things coming between me and my dreams, that’s true. I don’t think there’s too many things that can possibly do that. I mean, I know there are lots of obstacles out there, but I also think I’m stronger or at least more stubborn than any of them.

A big hurdle, for lots of people, is money. I realize lots of people have a much lower risk threshold than I do, but I would pretty much always rather sacrifice monetary security when it comes to having the life I’ve dreamed about. Money is . . . it’s just money. I walked out of my only legitimate post-college job to become a portrait artist, because it was just time to start trying for the life I wanted. As someone who lived not just a shoestring, but on the thread of a shoestring while getting my art business underway, I assure you that you need far less of this thing called money than you think you do. Whether or not you’re willing to give up cable and square footage and red meat in your diet in exchange for pursuing your goals is another question entirely.

I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. I respect people who have made their dreams come true. But I have just as much respect for people who are trying to make their dreams come true. It’s about the journey. And I think that seeking is the key to keeping that indefatigable dreaminess of youth.

I know what it means to manage my time, but my question is how do you know your goals?

Here is a short list of things I thought I wanted to do when I was younger:

- fighter pilot

- trial lawyer

- radio DJ

- comedian

- show jumper

- soundtrack composer

- rose hybridizer

- cartoonist

- 2D animator

- rally car driver

- screenwriter

- children’s book illustrator

- pastry chef

- history professor

- archeologist

- Robert Bruce fangirl

I used to tell people I felt lucky because I always knew what I wanted to do when I grew up, but I’ve come to understand from my teen journals that this is only the beauty of hindsight speaking. In reality, I basically wanted to do everything, and I had long, agonizing brainstorming sessions where I wondered how I could possibly be, for instance, both an animator AND a fighter pilot. I could’ve made any of the things on that list the goal for my life. But I settled on writing. Not just writing, but novel writing, and not just novel writing, but commercial fiction writing.

How did I narrow it down?

All of my career goals up there scratched some sort of itch of mine: how I wanted to be remembered after I was gone. How I wanted to see myself. How I wanted to look at the world. How I wanted to spend my day. How I wanted people to view me at cocktail parties. How I was most content. What I was most willing to happily devote years to improving at.

Many of the things on those list still satisfy one or more of the conditions above. But writing is the only thing that satisfies all of them. After I’m gone, I want people to have known me as a writer. I want to see myself as someone who finds stories everywhere. I want to look at the world through the lens of character arcs. I want every day to be different and unpredictable: some days writing, some days researching, some days touring, some days doing things I could’ve never imagined. I want to shift people’s lives in tiny ways through my stories; convince them that they’re all heroes too and make them look at nature and magic in a different way. I love to write, I love to get better at it, and I love that it really lets me do everything else on that list too, if I really want to. I never get tired of the work aspect of it.

We have dreams for lots of reasons, but we don't have every dream for every reason. Once you narrow it down to one that fulfills everything you want, your real dream should be obvious. And then you just have to make it happen.

Discuss?

Working Moms and Next, Next, Next

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:47:42 GMT

This week has been a delightful one. First of all, my new Metloef bodhran (Irish drum) arrived in the mail on Monday, and I'm so looking forward to recording with it.

Secondly, the Old House of Stiefvater is getting pretty empty, and the New House of Stiefvater, two hours away is getting pretty empty (as is evidenced by the above video). Our move in date of the 31st, right before I head off to BEA, is looking actually plausible.

Thirdly, I have those two Virginia events (Fredericksburg and Alexandria) with John Corey Whaley tomorrow and the next day, and I adore Corey, and not just because I love his book and he looks like Samwise.

Fourthly, I am working on the sequel to THE RAVEN BOYS and it is going well, so everything in the world is rosy that can possibly be better by being rosy, and all things that are bad when rosy are not rosy at all.

Anyway, all this delightfulness and rosiness reminded me that I haven't addressed reader questions in awhile, and there was one question that multiple readers asked in multiple ways, both in my blog and at last night's chat. Here it is:

Is your office in your home? If you are alone in a very quiet house all day with no children or husband underfoot, how do you get yourself going each day and stay motivated to write without dropping everything and putting in a load of wash? These are the kinds of things I wonder about my favorite authors...

I have a question! Though I don't want to infringe on your privacy, so if you'd rather ignore it I totally understand. I'm just wondering how you balance young kiddos and writing - do they get to go on tour with you? :)

I do indeed have children, Thing 1 and Thing 2. They predate my writing career by a very little bit, but not my art career, which had a lot of the same demands. Namely, that my office was in the house, there was a lot of travel, my hours were theoretically amorphous and flexible. I had the Stiefvater Things pretty early in life, so I basically have always had both children and a career.

Here's something that I should put right out front: both of those things are very important to me. I'm not going to do percentages or a pie chart, but I should tell you that I always knew I wanted a creative career and that having children was going to complement that dream, not crash it. I firmly believe that if you don't believe the same thing — that you are entitled to a career same as any other human of any other gender — you will not accidentally fall into an agreeable parent-career balance.

Now that that's out of the way, the practical nitty-gritties. Part of this question is really about time-management. I've blogged about this before. In some respects, kids, laundry, day jobs, cat litter boxes, lawn mowing, college courses, and freelance fighter pilot lessons are all the same: they are all demands on your time. And so it just comes down to prioritizing and being clever and honest about the time you really do have.

Next, the womb warts themselves: Things 1 and 2 have known for a very long time that my writing and art are important career things for me, and so they respect quiet time when I'm on deadline and they're home from school. And before they knew about careers and paying the rent, they had an established "quiet time" — at first they had a nap from 12-2 every day, and then, when they no longer napped, they knew they had to watch a movie in their room with the door closed or play quietly with the door closed or devise evil plans that will eventually come back to bite me with the door closed.

Next, next, Lover: My husband has always been supportive of my career, because he knew I took it seriously. If your Lover doesn't feel the same way, I highly suggest you get an upgrade.

Next, next, next: Last year, I was away from home more than I was home and I wrote two novels. Lover quit his job to help with the kids, and I brought all of them or some of them along when I could. But it's important to point out that before that, I was writing and touring and Lover was working full time himself, and we still pulled it off. We have a good parental network within an hour's drive, so that definitely helped, and we also were equally committed to each person getting down what they needed to get done. We wanted it to work. So we made it work. There is a way, I promise. I wrote Lament on Wednesdays only, from 4-6 p.m., because I was working such long hours with my art show stuff. It took me four months. It can be done, I PROMISE.

Next, next, next, last: Women. There is a lot of guilt associated with taking time for your career versus spending time nurturing children. Every time you leave the house and the kids have a babysitter or a substandard dinner or no bedtime story, our culture screams at us for being bad mothers. But guess what. Working mothers are not bad mothers. Women who have a sense of self-identity, either through a career or through a home-based activity, are women that kids respect. My father was on an air craft carrier for six months out of the year when I was a kid. I adored him and still do, and what's more — I'm pretty much just like him. So it's not the amount of time you spend sitting in the presence of your kids. It's how you use that time.

So: Prioritize. Educate those close to you. Surround yourself with like-minded people. And kick some ass.

Maggie Stiefvater & The Trampoline of Doom

Fri, 11 May 2012 22:31:47 GMT

Recall, gentle reader, that I promised you the tale of the Trampoline of Doom. Here is that tale. It's a short one. More like a encyclopedic entry in the Great Big Book of Items of Doom than anything else.

I came across it while I was in California for a wedding*. My entire extended family and I had rented a Very Spiffy House in Santa Barbara for the occasion. If you have not been to California or to Santa Barbara or met my family, I highly recommend it. All of these things offer a wide variety of activities. Below is a photo journal of such things.

Well, mostly I just played a lot of pool. I considered a photo montage of all of the days and times my sister took photos of my playing pool, but it wasn't really interesting to anyone but the pool table's mother. So you get just one.

I also shopped for dresses for the ALA Printz event in June. Like an adult. Like a normal adult woman. I was shopping like a pro.

Uh, no, I didn't buy anything.

I also did some research for the sequel to THE RAVEN BOYS. This is the Chumash Painted Cave, which dates from the 1600s "or something." I'm paraphrasing from the historic marker.

Then I did more research by going to see one of the country's largest fig trees.

No. I don't think you get it. I said one of the country's Largest. Capital L.

I also enjoyed senselessly unending sunshine and aggressively beautiful landscapes from the front yard of our rental.

Which is where I found the Trampoline of Doom.

Let me break this down for you, what you're seeing.

That's right, it's an in-ground trampoline, designed for safety. You can't jump off and tangle your limbs in anything except grass. Pretty brilliant. Also, you could hide bodies in the pit underneath it. That's a free bonus suggestion right there. Anyway, it's the paragon of safety. Until you zoom out.

Let me break down THIS scene for you.

That's right. This trampoline, far from being a paragon of safety, is actually a way to get rid of unwanted children. Tired of bad grades? Disappointing skin tone? Substandard room cleaning action? Simply tell them to go out to play on the trampoline and your problem is solved!

Needless to say,

Thing 1 and Thing 2 mostly swam in the pool.

Pieces of Pieces and Things and Stuff

Tue, 08 May 2012 21:23:19 GMT

I am finally, finally, finally back home. I was sort of back home last week, after being out on tour for two weeks, but then I had to fly back out to California for five days of sort-of wedding (don't ask.) and I had no brain for blogging. But today I am home. Finally, finally, finally. I need to do a blog post on both the Trampoline of Insanity and on handling critique as a writer and artist, but because I am behind on posting about bits and pieces, I'm going to first do a post about them.

Piece #1: On May 15th, I am doing a live chat with Lucy Christopher, hosted by Figment and This is Teen. We'll be talking about how we build character and anything else you can think to ask us. Details here. Oh, in fact, here is my face inviting you to come:

Bit #2: I will briefly be in the UK in the middle of June. I'll be doing things like the Hay Festival. I don't know how many other public events I'll be scheduled for (it's largely a research trip and - gasp - vacation! what are these things!?), but I'll post them on Facebook and here when I get them.

Stuff #3: Domestically (that makes me think of vacuuming), I will be at BEA in New York City in June, too. Also ALA, in Anaheim. I don't have the final details on either of those things either, but I figured I should put that out there. Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, I'll be doing two events in my home stomping grounds in Virginia in just a little over a week. All of my events are always here.

Thing #4: Will Patton is narrating the audiobook of The Raven Boys, which comes out on September 18th, same as the hardcover. I really wanted him to do it, and I'm really glad he agreed to. His version of it is so compelling, and just today they've released the sample (including some Maggie-composed-music): http://soundcloud.com/scholasticaudio/the-raven-boys

Piece #5: I have a new app on Facebook that lets you read the first two chapters of all of my books for free (including The Raven Boys). Oh, technology. What a mench.

Stuff #6: I didn't have a chance to talk about how much I adored touring with Siobhan Vivian, Elizabeth Eulberg, John Corey Whaley, and Daniel Handler (also known as Lemony Snicket), but I did. They're all lovely, weird people and I'd share a cookie with any of them. I think this photo of Corey, Daniel, and I is my favorite of the bunch.

Next up, later in the week: the Trampoline of Doom. (I first typed that as the Trampolice of Doom, which sounds like an important sci-fi short story that your dad read in the 70s.)

Sushi/ Play-Doh/ Happiness

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:13:40 GMT

I'm aware that many exciting things have happened in my life in the last week, but for me, the most immediately exciting is the fact that I managed to pull off making avocado sushi rolls.

I am very motivated by food.

LOVER: There is some sort of flavor to these things that I'm not sure about, but it doesn't seem to stop me from eating them.
ME: How many have you eaten?
LOVER: 11.

It is a sort of food that requires a preparation very similar to that of making Play-Doh snakes, and I like that.

I am easily pleased.

Maggie Does Texas. And California!

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:31:56 GMT

I apologize for my blog radio silence. You don't have to tell me that I've been bad. The weight of my shame dogs my footsteps. That said, it's not entirely without reason. I've been on the road since the 13th (I'm now in that stage of touring where time feels imaginary, which is why I'm posting on my blog at 3 a.m. in the morning), and in lieu of any actual words left in my brain, I'll show some pictures.

My first step on the tour was Houston Teen Book Con, which I attended with my fellow Scholastic authors Siobhan Vivian (The List) and Elizabeth Eulberg (Take a Bow). After an action packed day of panels back-to-back, we were supposed to rent a car and drive to Austin to meet our editor, David Levithan, and have an event there.

I figured that when Scholastic meant "rent a car," they meant, rent this:

So I did. Siobhan, Elizabeth, and I blasted up the highway from Houston to Austin at nearly the speed limit sometimes and then we arrived in Austin in time for an event at Book People. You see us here with David moderating.

Then David tried to drive the Camaro back (I fought him for the keys and lost). But you can see that the Camaro took its own revenge. It's not designed for Davids. Camaros are designed for Maggies. (As you can see from this photo which is NOT from this week but rather three weeks ago when I took my real-life, non-rented, much-older Camaro to the track):

This is what happens with Davids behind the wheel:

Then it was time to drive back to Houston for TLA. I think my favorite event there was the Scholastic Breakfast. I remember when a crowd this size would've made me hide under a table.

The reason I loved this event, aside from the fantastically passionate Texas librarians, is the format. It was a Reader's Theater, which meant that the authors were assigned a role from a scene in each book, and together, we acted them out with fairly hilarious results. Some of us were thespians. Others of us were just hams. (This is Elizabeth Eulberg, me, Michael Northrop, and Augusta Scattergood).

And it was also the first event ever where I talked about The Raven Boys in public. We acted out a scene that nobody else has heard, which was fairly awesome and terrifying.

The day was closed out with the YART dinner, where all of the authors got together and milled with librarians. I don't drink, but I'm aware these photos of Siobhan, Elizabeth, and I, will not convince you of this.

Then it was on a plane to California! Siobhan and I met up with Libba Bray and Pete Hautman (winner of the LA Times Book Award!! whoo, Pete!) Our first event was at Mrs. Nelson's, a delightful indie. We did blog interviews first.

We'd admired our wall of books second.

Then we had another panel, moderated/ barely controlled by David again.

Then it was time for the LA Festival of Books. Two action-packed days of signing and panels. And lots of sunshine, which is nice. Why aren't more book things outdoors? Oh, right, because they aren't all in California. Alas. Alack.

Anyway, that brings me to today. To 3 a.m. California time. Now I'm meeting up with fellow Printz honoree Daniel Handler and Printz winner John Corey Whaley for another three days of events in LA and San Francisco. Okay, that's a lie. David & I actually already met with Corey, and I have photos on my phone of him not enjoying sushi. But they're the sort of bad photos of contorted faces that you save for blackmail later. Or at least I do.

Remembering Diana Wynne Jones

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:06:14 GMT

Just a tiny bit over a year ago, my author hero Diana Wynne Jones died. I wrote a letter to her on my blog that she would never see and mourned that there would be no more Diana Wynne Jones books. Now, the blogosphere is alight with a celebration of her life, and her editor asked if I would be a part of it. I struggled to think of what I could say in addition to the letter I already wrote her, and I think the best thing is to just repost the letter and then add what I missed at the end. And please, any of you guys who also loved her — please post your experiences with her books on your blogs and twitter and Facebook so that this whole week can be one big love-fest of DWJ fans.

Dear Diana,

I found out yesterday that you'll be discontinuing the chemotherapy you'd been undergoing for your lung cancer and I realized it was time to write a letter. Past due time.

Again and again in interviews, I've listed your books and career as one of my main influences, but I never actually told you directly. So here goes. When I was a young, evil child, I read your books again and again. I'm pretty sure I stumbled on Charmed Life and The Lives of Christopher Chant first, during my years living in between the shelves of my public library. Then Archer's Goon and The Ogre Downstairs, checked out again and again. Then I hit on Fire and Hemlock, which I didn't like the first time, partially because I was too young and partially because my sister loved it, and there was no way I was going to be caught dead loving something that she loved. She must feel so vindicated now that I've finally agreed to love it.

All the while I was writing horrible books with overwrought characters and dreaming of being an author.

Then some summer I hit upon Dogsbody and I know I did other things that summer, but I don't remember any of them. Because I read Dogsbody back to back six times. I still remember laying on my bed -- on a hot, muggy, thunderstorming Virginia afternoon -- closing the last page of the book, sighing, and then flipping it back over to the front to read it again, not even getting up to stretch my legs.

And somewhere along the way, I decided, that was why I wanted to be an author. I wanted to be that author who changed someone's life. Not through deep and weight philosophical tomes, but merely by the sheer physical weight of the days spent lost in the pages and mood of the book. So much of my childhood was reading and so many of those books were yours. So even after hitting the bestseller list and getting lovely emails from around the globe, my favorite ones are still the ones that say: "I have reread Shiver or Ballad or Lament 14 times."

Thank you so much for being part of my childhood and adulthood and everything in between. I owe a debt more than any letter sent via e-mail or post could say, and I'm sorry that it took bad news for me to send it.

The other day, I pulled out Fire and Hemlock and reread it for the first time in years. And you know what I did when I got to the end? I flipped it back around and started reading it again.

Yours,

Maggie

I'm reading it again and thinking, what can I add to that? I don't know if I can. Maybe just additional gratitude for how her body of work and her career continues to support me as an adult. Every time I wonder what my goal is with each book that I'm writing, I think about opening a Diana Wynne Jones novel and seeing that page "also by Diana Wynne Jones" — with her list of other books. And I'd run my eyes down the list to see if I'd missed any, and I'd remember the ones that I loved particularly, and I'd feel that warm glow of knowing I had so many options of Diana-books to dive into when I was done with this one. I would like to do that, Diana. I don't know if I can pull if off like you did . . . that's a bit of a lofty goal. But if I can come close, that would be a pretty amazing life.

The First Two Chapters of The Raven Boys!

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:03:49 GMT

Man, I'm revoltingly excited to let you guys know that Entertainment Weekly is giving an exclusive peek at The Raven Boys -- they have the first two chapters up for you to read here.

I hope you like them. *ulcer*

I always think this moment will be less ulcertastic with each novel, but, no. No, that first moment of the book getting out there is always like that moment when the roller coaster first starts to plunge . . .

I'm a Magician. No, Really.

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:35:04 GMT

I'd be able to pack faster if I didn't want people to think I was a magician.

Tomorrow morning first thing I'm headed off to the airport to begin two weeks of touring to fun places (Texas! California! Texas! California!), which means today I have to pack for two weeks of touring to fun places. There are a few difficulties associated with long term packing:

A) One never knows what the weather will be, and in 2012, one knows even less. One could pack for all possibilities, but that would not be space efficient. Tis better to gamble, gentle reader. Better to gamble.

B) One has to pack for multiple dress codes. I have simplified this process considerably by refusing to wear anything but jeans since 2008, but occasionally there are extenuating circumstances. For instance, I have to attend the LA Times Book Award reception where THE SCORPIO RACES is a finalist, knowing that if I win, I will have to stand in front of everyone. I will break my jeans-rule for that. I have a dress I can crush into the size of my eyeball that I can wear, but the shoes will be annoying. Maybe I can wear my combat boots.

C) One has to abide by TSA standards. So that means no more than 3, 3 ounce bottles of fluid in carry on, and nothing that you could poke someone's eye out before gaining control of the plane and using it to fly to Tahiti. Also one has to be able to whip their lap top out in security.

D) One has to hoard food whenever possible. Maggies are allergic to some preservatives and intolerant of others (which you might be too, to some degree)(although hopefully it doesn't make all your hair fall out and your skin slough like it does to me). So one must find room to stuff bags of cookies and possibly loaves of bread, like a hobbit or Peeta would do.

E) One must bring the office. One is always on a deadline, so the lap top and the charger and the iPod and the headphones must come along. Otherwise one's editor begins to make squinty eyes.

F) One probably has to look cool in public while carrying the stuff. It had to be said. I think it's important to counteract all the cranky, tired, deflated people I see in airports whenever possible. Which is why I usually pack in this for trips a week or less:

Every little bit helps.

And then, of course, if you are me, there is also:

G) One must convince others that one is a magician.

Basically, what I'm trying to tell you is this: every time someone says "I can't believe you got ___ weeks of travel into ___ bags," or some variant, I get an additional 10 minutes added to my life. 10 minutes might not seem like very much to you, but go eat a cookie and time yourself. Do you see how many cookies you can consume in 10 minutes? A lot. It adds up.

So it has become not only a matter of convenience but a matter of pride that nothing short of a month-long-book-tour can break me and send me packing a bag I have to check in at baggage. Everything else I will make fit into carry-on bags. Through sheer force of will.

Which means that today, packing day, becomes all about me trying to get as much of A-F into my luggage while still accomplishing G. And I use all my old techniques: packing jeans that will stand me wearing them two or three times. Packing layers instead of sweaters. Packing only what I need and not what I think I might possibly need. Rolling everything instead of folding it. Eventually, after working away at it for an hour, I end up with one or two or three weeks of outfits and my duffel spread out on the floor. And things of course don't fit, because you can't fit two weeks of touring into a duffel bag, no matter how good you are at packing.

Which is when I use magic.

Because I'm a magician. No, really.

Solving for X

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:49:49 GMT

In my continued attempt to answer reader questions, I decided to pull another one out of the stack today. Some of the questions I got were quite specific (like “what font did you use for the chapter headings in Lament?), so I’m trying to hit the ones that have the most universal relevance first. Here’s one I though might interest multiple people.

What's considered too much? My book is hovering at a precarious 156,000 words, and I'm not even halfway through the plot. I've run it by some people and so far they don't think I can cut any of what I have already. Of course that will change later, but how do I where the line between a long book and rambling is?

There are a few things you should know about me.

1. One of my eternal fears is being boring. It means when you ask me a question out in public, I will always try to answer in as few words as possible, and then I will pause to analyze your facial expression. If your eyebrows are still saying that you are interested, I’ll shoot more at you. If I’m at all not certain about the status of your eyebrows, I will fall silent and give you a chance to escape to powder your nose.

2. I write young adult novels. I like bucking the system and setting fire to expectations and other amusing pastimes, but I don’t do those things without good reason. That means that I am aware that most young adult novels are between 50,000 and 90,000 words long, and I will do my level best to put my story into that many words unless badly pressed.

3. I believe you can always cut. When I wrote the first draft of THE RAVEN BOYS, it was a monster — 40,000 words too long, in my opinion. I went through the draft and cut out a word here and there, a redundant sentence here and there, and lo and behold, I lost 40,000 words without removing a single scene. That means I kept all of the action in a book 2/3rds shorter. There is always more you can cut out of a manuscript. There’s always a shorter way to say something. A chapter is like an equation: solve for x. You can start out with a huge long equation and get it down to x = 32 x 11, and that might accomplish what you want. But never forget that you could always strip it all the way down to just this, if you had to: x.

4. I think nearly any writing question can be answered by looking at it from the perspective of a reader. So when the question is: “is eight narrators too many?” imagine books you read with loads of narrators. When the question is: “can I tell this story entirely through flashbacks?” remember how you react to it as a reader. When the question is “is length a problem?” try your level best to recall everything you feel about long books. How they affect your purchase decision, how they affect your decision to pick them up out of your TBR pile, how they make you feel when you’re halfway through. The answer will be different for every reader, but the best thing you can manage is to write honestly for the reader you are.*

*not the reader you wish you were, either, by the way. no cheatsies.

How does all this boil down in regards to our question above? Well, like this. At some point in the world of word count, a manuscript ceases to be a story and begins to be an assault.

You don’t want to be that person who gets asked a question and goes on and on without checking the eyebrows for permission. It is better to leave them wanting. You don’t have to solve entirely for x, but if you leave your book in epic form, it becomes an equation that fewer and fewer readers have the desire to solve. I don’t know if you remember my post about gimmee points, but exceptional wordiness is a decision you have to make consciously. You have to be aware it’s going to limit your audience every time you go over the standard length for your genre. Personally, I’d rather use my gimmee points elsewhere.

Because too often length is not a conscious story choice. It’s a sign the author doesn’t really know their own story. That the focus has been adjusted too wide. That the prose is sloppy. And when I say too often, I mean, pretty damn often.

You might convince me that your 156,000 word novel needs to be that long. But I will then turn around to my bookshelf and pull out my favorites in multiple genres and quote numbers at you:

ANANSI BOYS (adult genre sci-fi/fantasy): 107,972
ENDER’S GAME (adult genre sci fi): 100,609
THE NIGHT CIRCUS (adult literary)(ish): 120,937
TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE (Adult literary): 155,717*

SAVING FRANCESCA (YA literary): 58,782
HUNGER GAMES (YA genre): 99,750
WHERE THINGS COME BACK (YA contemporary): 56,527**

*this is the fattest book on my shelf at the moment, apart from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
**you can find out more numbers here at Renaissance Learning.

So is x>156,000 a good length for your book? It is, if you can answer the question like this:

“I can’t cut anything from this manuscript.”

But you’d better be right.

Two Virginia Events Added

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 13:21:33 GMT

I always feel a little tremulous about adding Virginia events to my calendar because I, like all authors, fear the prophet-in-your-home-town effect of local events. There is nothing weirder than having lovely events elsewhere and expecting to come home to a lovely event bolstered by family and friends and then discover that somehow, you have lost your family and friends and in fact, no one else got the memo either. In past years, I've actually managed to have more family and friends show up at the events hundreds of miles away than just down the road.

NONETHELESS it has been a long time since I've done events really close to my stomping grounds, and we have added two to the May calendar. Also, they're not just events but awesome events because John Corey Whaley will also be at them. You will recall, gentle readers, that I adored his book.

So here are two events that are really, really in my stomping grounds. In fact, the Jabberwocky Books store is about 50 feet away from where I first took bagpipe lessons, 500 feet away from where I first met my husband in college, and a mile away from my old alma mater. It's also really close to the used bookstore that I completely ganked for the bookstore in the Shiver series. The plus side to coming to the events close to my house, though, is that I tend to bring loads of extra foreign editions and swag to give away, because I don't have to bring it on a plane.

May 17th, Printz Event with John Corey Whaley, 6 p.m.
Jabberwocky Books, 810 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401
https://www.facebook.com/events/353722794662830

May 18th, Printz Event with John Corey Whaley, 7 p.m
Hooray for Books, 1555 King St., Alexandria, Virginia 22314
https://www.facebook.com/events/201851039929762

Maggie Answers the Easy Ones

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:55:02 GMT

I feel a little guilty because I solicited reader questions a few weeks ago with the full intention of immediately jumping on them. And then, instead, life jumped on ME, and began punching me about the face and neck until I cried "Uncle." And by crying "Uncle," I mean that I last night I finally turned in the first draft of REQUIEM (the third and final faerie book) to my crit partners (Although now I wonder about the title REQUIEM. Maybe SO SING THE DEAD would be sexier.). And then I realized that I hadn't, in fact, answered a single question, and that was what was keeping me up nights (also saying "REQUIEM?" "SO SING THE DEAD?" "REQUIEM?" "SO SING THE DEAD"?)

But no more of this obfuscation! I got many deep and important writing questions from readers. But those are not the ones I'm going to answer today. No, in three hours I'm headed to the studio to work on the music for the RAVEN BOYS trailer, and I would like to keep my brain soft and tapioca-like until then. So I'm going to answer a bunch of the easy questions instead. Here goes.

Where did you get your satchel? I've been looking for one that expands, and yours appears to do so very well.

I'm not certain where Reader saw my Giant Leather Bag. In person it's easy to spot on me, as I always have it, but online I think maybe . . . in the first four seconds of this video? In this photo? It is delightful and old and I think from the 1950s. Which is not where I got it from, lest you think I have a Tardis (I traded that for my Camaro). I got it from http://suziefloozie.com/vintage/index.php.

Will you be returning to Australia after releasing the Raven Boys?

I don't know when I'll be in Australia next, but I know I will, one day, come back. It was awesome, as Australians already know. Right now I'm trying to keep my international travel in 2012 to a dull roar since I'm juggling about 14 creative projects that I want to get out into the world.

I know that all fan mail to you is sent to Scholastic, but do you ever get to see it? It wouldn't be an inconvenience on you, would it?

For the record, the politeness and kindness in the way this question was worded warmed the cockles of my black heart, so thank you for that. And yes, I do see it. It goes to Scholastic where they put it, unopened, in giant envelopes with other fan mail, and then they send the lot to me. They seem to be quite efficient at it, judging from the dates of the letters that arrive daily (thanks for that, guys!). I, however, am NOT efficient in replying, mostly because I insist on replying to all hand-written letters with a fellow hand-written or anciently type-written letter, which takes me a long time. And then I am notoriously bad about putting the replies into the return addresses if an SASE wasn't included. For instance, right now, I can look at my Sharpie Printer and see that there are 12 letters that I replied to ONE MONTH ago that I have not had the time to address envelopes for. So I do reply to them all. But it takes me a glacial time.

Can you give us any further information on Requiem? Even just a few words?

You mean SO SING THE DEAD. Or maybe REQUIEM. Or maybe SO SING THE DEAD. Well. Apart from the fact that the first two words of the current manuscript are "Luke" and "Dillon," what else can I say? Just that it follows Dee and James in their final adventure, and that it's slated to come out in 2013 but I don't know which season at the moment. Sorry.

What time period was SCORPIO RACES set in? Sometimes it seems modern, often not so much. Maybe it is just set in an alternate universe.

I see people describing SCORPIO as dystopic, and it really, really isn't. It's not sent in future where killer horses bust out of the sea. It's set in an alternate history where the only thing that is different is killer horses that bust out of the sea in one tiny part of the world. I have an actual time frame for when I believe it takes place, and I put some clues in the book to that effect (like the cars), but I'm not going to tell you. Yes, I'm playing the enigmatic author card. I hear it's all the rage.

How many email address/ online profiles do you have? Okay, that came out sounding a bit stalkerish, but honestly, do you have specific public address and then 'friend only' email for personal life?

Rule of thumb: if you say the word 'stalker,' you probably aren't one. Also, I have three e-mail addresses, but they all funnel into one inbox. I have it set up so they tidily shuffle themselves into about 25 different folders labeled things like "family" and "blog" and "twitter" and "reader mail" and "scholastic." It took me an entire year to realize that if I did the sorting after they came in, I went insane. I couldn't look at 4,000 emails a month without deciding I was running away from the civilized world and never coming back. I don't have multiple profiles on social networks, though. I consider all of them public. I tried having a private Facebook, but I never used it. I do really like having the multiple email addresses, though.

How many instruments do you play? And what are they?

I play six, but like foreign languages, I speak some better than others. They're the piano, highland bagpipes, tin whistle, harp, bodhran, and guitar. Is that six? Most of them are on my youtube channel in one form or another.

Where do you live in Virginia; my English teacher wanted to know?

I am currently living on the east side, but in two months I am moving to the west side. The east side has more caffeine but fewer mountains. The west side, where I was born, has more mountains but fewer teeth. It's a trade-off.

What happened in the end of Forever?

I'm not going to say anything I didn't already say here: http://mundiemoms.blogspot.com/2011/08/live-author-chat-with-maggie-stiefvater.html (Click on “replay” and it will show you the archived chat).

Not really a question, but would love, love, love to see a post with your Scorpio Races playlist.

It's on the new website here! This is my sort of music. Well, I mean, it all is. But this is more me than usual.

Do the people in THE SCORPIO RACES go to school? They never seem to go to school!

Like a lot of farming communities in Ye Olde Days, school in Thisby is secondary to scraping out a living, is very seasonal, is often done by parents, and is also done at age 16. There is no University of Skarmouth where you can major in Homicidal Horse Husbandry with a minor in Terse Expressions (though if there was, Sean Kendrick would be teaching.) So Sean and Puck are already well past school-age. Leaving them all their time to do productive things like risk their lives on dangerous animals and make questionable decisions.

When was the last time you Googled yourself?

Just now. The first hit in the past 24 hours, according to Google, is http://merryfates.com/, which is seems so unfair, as it is MY site. Well, the site I have with Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff, but still. Google, I already know that exists. You FAIL! no cookie for you.

BEHOLD! New Website = New Goodies

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:01:18 GMT

I realize that this announcement is probably not as thrilling to the rest of the human population as it is to me, but here it is:

I have redesigned my website.

And by "I," I really mean "Forefathers," who are crazy talented web designers. I asked them to design a site that would fit all of the extras for all the books and incorporate some of my art and be easy to navigate. I didn't think it was really possible, but they've done it. And it is now officially live at www.maggiestiefvater.com.

And there are all sorts of goodies there that I hope readers will like. Such as:
- all of the book trailer tunes for download
- prequel and postquel extra stories for the faerie books
- discussion guide for Shiver
- wallpapers and icons
- playlists for all the books
- the recipe for November Cakes
- foreign editions and where to find them
etc. etc.

I will also be gradually moving my blogging presence over there, too, though I'll try to make the transition slow and painless by mirroring blog posts over there for awhile (although not this blog post. It seems strange to put a blog post about your new website on the blog which is on your new website).

So let me know what you think!

In Which Maggie Reviews the Hunger Games('s Audience)

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:49:30 GMT

The other day, VH1 asked me to do a review of the Hunger Games movie, which I did. Actually, the one that went live yesterday (read it here) is my second version of the review. I had to rewrite it because my first review that I dashed out, on re-read, was about the audience. When I confessed on Facebook that I'd had to throw out that first version, Facebook asked me if I'd post it here. So I will. But be warned, it's sort of bitter and opinionated.

Below are my original, just-seen-the-movie, unedited thoughts:

__________________________________

I’m pleased that everyone in the world now knows what the Hunger Games is about because it spares me that awkward moment of trying to explain that it’s about kids killing kids on national television. Some people just can’t buy into the concept. “It’s too implausible,” they would always say. “Who would watch kids killing kids on TV?”

I want you to hold that thought.

Opening night. The ever-growing line to get in made my teen author heart glad. It was made up of people of every size, shape, color, age, and race. Somehow, this incredibly intelligent YA book, skewering America’s love of voyeurism (reality TV, tabloids, shock bloggers) had managed to speak to all of them. I felt warm in the general direction of all my fellow Americans.

It didn’t take me long to feel warm in the general direction of the movie, either. Yes, the content of the first book was edited to fit into two hours, but it was more cutting than altering, and the spirit of each scene was so vibrantly attuned to the text that it felt as if the director had reached inside my head and placed my thoughts onscreen. Insert deja vu here. About twenty minutes into the film, I realized I hadn’t spent even a second analyzing the film from the point of view of a non-reader.

Get yourself together, Stiefvater! I exhorted myself. You’re supposed to be reviewing this movie for VH1! NOW IS NO TIME FOR RABID FANGIRLING.

But it didn’t work. I can’t separate my experience as a reader from my experience as movie-goer. I can’t even tell you what I thought worked the best about this adaptation. The casting (Stanley Tucci as Caeser Flickerman was genius)? The sets (with the exception of the strangely imagined cornucopia, the poverty of District 12 and the opulence of the Capital were awesomely done)? The acting (I can’t describe how moving it was to see Katniss [Jennifer Lawrence] begin shaking right before entering the arena)?

Basically, this: I cannot imagine a reader being unhappy with this adaptation. It maintains the spirit of the original so well.

That disturbing question lurked, though: “who would watch kids killing kids?” I couldn’t forget, as I sat in that theater, that I was. I told myself it was different for viewers in America versus viewers in Panem. Because in America, in this theater, we knew what this movie was trying to say.

And then one of the tributes — the kids in the arena — was murdered. Though every kid onscreen was now a killer, this character was responsible for the death of one of the more sympathetic tributes, and she’d even seemed to enjoy it. Anyway, her neck got snapped.

Around me, the theater erupted in applause.

Applause.

As I sat there with my hands pressed into my thighs, that’s when I realized just how well the film makers had done their job. Like the Gamemaker, they’d carefully monitored audience perception of good and bad, success and failure. Through editing and music and selective storytelling, they made villains and heroes of twenty-four victims. They had exactly proved the scathing point of the book; that we glossy and well-cared for members of the Capital could be made to enjoy watching a teen die.

My verdict? It’s a crazy-good piece of film-making about the insanity of kids killing kids.

Who would watch something like that?

Turns out, I would. But I’m still not going to clap over it.

______________________
Since writing this first review, too, I've had several people tell me that the movie just wasn't violent enough. They would've preferred to see more gore in order to enjoy it. I don't think I have to embellish my previous review in order for anyone to know my thoughts on that.

Cover Reveal: THE CURIOSITIES

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:44:30 GMT

I have been a slightly to moderately bad blogger in the past few months, and I apologize. Not because I've been pretty sparse with my posting, because there have been good reasons for it, but because I haven't been able to TELL YOU about so many of the reasons. I'm revoltingly pleased to be able to share one of the reasons with you now. Here's the cover of THE CURIOSITIES: A COLLECTION OF STORIES, which is a collaboration with Brenna Yovanoff and Tessa Gratton. Many people will recognize that we've been collaborating online for quite awhile, posting several hundred of our stories over at Merry Sisters of Fate.

Well, we got to talking about doing an anthology that offered the online stories in a print version . . . and something more. We wanted to show the behind-the-scenes process of being Merry Sisters of Fate, which is about a lot more than posting stories online. Because of course Brenna and Tessa are also my critique partners. They read every stitch of writing I do before my editor ever lays eyes on it. They know every project I have in the works for the next six years. They know everything about my writing life.

And it's sort of mutual.

And this book tries to show that. Because not only are there some of our favorite stories from the past few years, but there are also three exclusive stories, essays on our critique relationship, and, most importantly, comments in the margins from all of us. Basically it's a look inside our brains. Here's two samples:

Anyway, I'm really REALLY pleased with how it's turned out. And I'm holding an advanced review copy in my hand RIGHT THIS SECOND. And if you want to win one, we're giving them away over at Merry Sisters of Fate. And even if you don't want to win one, I hope you'll let me know what you think about the cover and contents!

P. S. I saw Hunger Games.
P. P. S. More about that later.

Five Things About CODE NAME VERITY

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:35:23 GMT

I’ll confess right up front that I’m not usually a big historical fiction fan. I realize this seems somewhat hypocritical of me, as I was a history major in college and adore history, but a lot of times, I find historical fiction more impenetrable than a primary source document. The characters either don’t feel like real people to me, or they feel like modern people to me. I get distrated by historical info-dumps and bored by epic scale machinations. Basically, I like my historical fiction very personal and very intimate. So when I got sent a copy of CODE NAME VERITY, I thought, okay. I’ll read twenty pages and then I’ll give it to my sister.

But my sister has not yet gotten this book, because I don’t want to let it out of my house yet. I adored it.

1. First of all, I believe it. The people feel like real people to me, and the details feel like real details. ARE they real details? Possibly not. We all slip up on our research sometimes, but man, this stuff feels genuine. The main character’s best friend is a pilot, and that part I knew was real even before I read that Elizabeth Wein had a pilot's license. I could feel the real-life love and knowledge of flying seeping through the pages. It was grand.

2. It doesn’t feel like anything I’ve read before — certainly not in YA. Not just in genre or in subject matter, but just . . . the characters are unique and specific people and the situations they’re in are unique and specific. It feels like I looked through a tiny window into a real life, and that’s just not something you can cut and paste.

3. As with all my favorite books, it rewards the careful reader. If an author can make me gasp once, it’s likely that novel is ending up on my favorites shelf. If an author can make me gasp THREE TIMES, either the author is making me read their novel underwater or it’s really cleverly done. This one’s really cleverly done. It was a three-gasper. When was the last time I read a three gasper? I don’t remember. Maybe when I read THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST underwater . . . Now, that said, CODE NAME VERITY is not a fast read. If you go into it expecting to whip through it in an evening or even two, you’re not doing it justice. Give the characters some time to infest your heart.

4. It’s hard, but not harrowing. This is worth pointing out, because the central premise is that the narrator has been shot down over occupied France and is now being tortured for her confession. It could be awful. Sort of like BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY, which I also loved, but would never read again because of how hard it was. This book, on the other hand — not only does it have so many lovely and sweeping moments, but it’s also surprisingly funny. I laughed out loud several times. Thought when I tried to explain to Lover why I was laughing, I invariably failed. LOVER: I thought you said she was being tortured? ME: Yeah, but, the Hitler line, it . . . never mind.

5. It stuck with me. This, to me, is the Holy Grail of novels. I love some novels and forget them the moment they’re out of my sight. Other novels I love and then they become part of me for days or weeks or forever. I will be reminded of them at the strangest moments. CODE NAME VERITY does more than stick with me. It haunts me. I just can’t recommend it enough. I can’t even make this recommendation funny. I love it too much.

Images from The Raven Boys Trailer

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:11:53 GMT

This past week, I've begun work in earnest on my book trailer for The Raven Boys. This one's exciting and terrifying because I'm a) returning to my artistic roots, colored pencil (as you can see, this used to be a Thing for Me), and b) because I'm doing more traditional animation, which means way more frames than ever before. Here are a few sneak stills from the trailer so far:

I've already accidentally eaten a big swath of paint off my desk with my natural turpenoid. Oh, it feels good to be making art again.

As always, you can find out more about The Raven Boys on my site.

In Which Maggie Asks "Any Questions?"

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:57:10 GMT

Today I was scraping chunks of files off my desktop and I realized I had a document that was called "Reader Questions" that I'd been keeping to answer on the blog. I opened it and was delighted to discover that I had been studious by accident — I'd already answered all of the questions in it. So I figure today is a good day to ask if you have any questions you'd like to see me tackle on the blog (keeping in mind I answered a bunch HERE recently).

This is also where I am going to embed a video that the entire world has seen, but just in case you haven't you must. It combines many of my loves: absurdly complicated videos, alt rock, and CARS.

The only thing that would make that better is if it had been done in a Camaro. My Camaro, possibly.

Oh, heck, and while I'm spamming you. Go buy the latest album by Fun., if you haven't yet. This is what they sound like live, and on the album, they are like that + Queen + summer + awesome. Just do it.

March/ April events (VA, CO, TX & CA)

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:30:17 GMT

I have updated my March/ April events (I always add them here as soon I get the details of them) so I figured I'd better post them here. I've been enjoying my three months of hermit-like behavior over the winter but I'll confess my feet are itchy as well.

March 16, speaker: Virginia State Reading Association Conference
Richmond, VA
http://vsra.org/
(conference for educations, librarians, booksellers; open to public with conference registration)

March 31, keynote speaker: Colorado Teen Literature Festival
Denver, CO
http://coteenlitconf.org/

April 14, Houston Teen Book Con
Houston, TX
https://www.facebook.com/events/238896692855437/

April 16, This is Teen Signing with Siobhan Vivian & Elizabeth Eulberg
Book People
Austin, TX
https://www.facebook.com/events/247414035347126/

April 19, This is Teen Signing with David Levithan, Libba Bray, Pete Hautman & Siobhan Vivian
Mrs. Nelson's Toy & Book Shop
La Verne, CA
https://www.facebook.com/events/344445218927095

April 21-22, LA Times Book Festival
TBD

Monday, April 23rd, Printz Event with John Corey Whaley
Burbank Public Library—Buena Vista Branch auditorium
300 N. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91505
7PM

April 24, Event with Fellow Printz Winners John Corey Whaley & Daniel Handler
Book Passage
Corte Madera, CA
https://www.facebook.com/events/328494377199062/

April 25, NYMBC presents the Printz Winners
Books Inc, 601 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA
https://www.facebook.com/events/255705127844383/

I would like to point out the awesomeness of folks that I am doing group events with here, including my peep Libba Bray, who was with me on This is Teen events last year, and John Corey Whaley, whose book I just read and adored, and David Levithan, my fearless editor at Scholastic.

Hopefully I'll see some of you folks there. If you do come out to see me, please let me know when I know you from the blog! I don't remember everybody's handles online, but I remember a lot . . . and I remember a lot of icons. It makes me feel cozy when I know I'm among blog readers.

Texas! Whoo! San Fran! Whoo! Actually, all of it: whoo!

Knock Knock. Who's There? Peanut.

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:50:55 GMT

My Jack Russell Terrier Peanut is a pretty magical animal.

1. She is a friend to all cats. Indeed, Peanut is a friend to all animals in God’s green earth that are smaller than her, because animals larger in size to her are Meanies. There is a memo going around the planet Jack Russells are meant to have keen hunting instinct and killer urges, but Peanut was snuggling a marmot or something that day and missed it.

2. She has one black nipple. I think this is pretty special, because Peanut was not born with The Black Tittie. She went her entire life with a pink and pleasantly cow printed undercarriage until she got pregnant, when one of her nipples became both black and revoltingly misshapen, sort of like The Nothing from The Neverending Story. There was nothing to be done for it, the vet said, but blog about it, so she still has it to this day. Also, she has nine of them in total. Because even numbers are for other dogs.

3. Do you know how animals have keen senses of intuition that make them highly tuned pronosticators of natural disasters? Not Peanut. Peanut is concerned about only two things in this world: 1) animals larger than herself and 2) knocking sounds. A knocking sound could mean someone at the door, and someone at the door means Peanut has to bark, and when Peanut barks, it surprises and shocks her, which means, therefore, all knocking sounds effectively surprise and shock her. And her detector is set pretty low. Examples of knocking sounds include fingers drumming on a desk, a shin hitting a chair, a cat scratching its neck, and large men testing weapons ten miles away at the Naval Weapons Center.

4. Aside from being Endlessly Kind, Slightly Defomed, and Occasionally Anxious, Peanut is Intensely Faithful. She spends most of her time sleeping beside by desk because if I put her out back, she just jumps the fence, runs around front, and peers anxiously in my office windows until I cannot stand her eye-boring supernatural gaze and let her in to sleep under my desk again. Thing 2 asked me once, “Mama? Why do Peanut and the cat follow you to the bathroom?”

I do not know, Thing 2. I do not know.

Peanut also adores car rides, which was why we decided recently to take her to see Future House of Stiefvater. As you’ll recall from my post about cows, Lover & I have just bought our first house, two hours away from our current one. Unfortunately, we cannot move into Future House of Stiefvater until May. This fact pains us, and so we are forced to invent several reasons each month to visit the house. Despite the fact that we have a perfectly reasonable moving date with a moving van, we instead gorge personal vehicles with boxes of books and toilet paper and anything else remotely car-sized and set off on the journey across the state. On one of these trips, we decided to take Peanut, as she had an uncanny response to our last move. Namely, despite having never been to our new house, she correctly identified it through a seriously of anxious whines, random quivers, and clawing at car windows as soon as we began to approach it. Magical!

Of course we wanted to see if she’d do it again. So in the car she went. Peanut’s a great traveler, generally adopting one of two positions.

A) the origami animal. This position takes place in the passenger seat or between the Things in the backseat and requires a lot of folding.
B) the noble beast. If you are thinking “that looks a lot like Kate Winslet in Titanic,” we’re thinking the same thing. This position occurs with her front paws on the center console and the air conditioning rushing past her luxurious hair.

Unfortunately for us on this particular day, Peanut was feeling a bit . . . gassy. Ordinarily, members of the Stiefvater household have plenty of time to get clear of Peanut’s flatulence, because if she hears herself fart, she considers it a knocking sound, and so she will begin to bark. Sadly for us, her farts this day were silent killers.

So we were all nearly perished by the time we got to the general vicinity of The Future Home of Stiefvater. Despite our critical shortness of breath, however, we were all eager to see if Peanut’s magic house-identifying powers were still in full force. As we covered the last twenty miles, conversation died down. None of us wanted to risk saying anything that might tip Peanut off. We wanted to see the master at work. No hints.

The following happened.

And there you have it. Peanut is magical and continues to be magical. Also, in case you’re wondering, my sense of smell is just now returning.

2012 Critique Partner Love Connection

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:01:07 GMT

I've been asked several times in the last few months if I would do another critique partner love connection on my blog and I now have enough requests that I'm going to go ahead and do it. I did one WAY back when and another last year and, looking at it, I find that the wording on both of those still mostly applies, so here we go:

Okay. As y'all know, I have two critique partners (tessagratton and brennayovanoff ) whom I love dearly. They rip and tear at my ms with everything they have in them and they read what I read and love what I love and . . .well, after a long critique partner search, I have learned much about what I need in crit partners, and they are what I need.

However, it's come to my attention that not all of my blog readers have found what they need, and they're having a hard time putting out a call for crit partners on their own blogs because of traffic. Some of them are really good too -- agented or published or close to agented or published, and they need someone at that level. Others are just starting out.

So I thought I might do a Crit Partner Love Connection here on my blog, if anybody's looking. This is PRECISELY the way I found Tessa and Brenna.

Here are the rules, such as I ever have rules:

Post a comment saying the age range (adult, YA, MG), a brief, one-sentence blurb about your book or just the genre if you don't want to share more than that, and whether or not you have an agent, etc. Also the last book that you read that you loved that you feel epitomizes you as a reader.

Then, if someone sounds appealing to you, you send them a message saying so and find out if it's mutual. If it is, you exchange the first 50 pages of your manuscripts, critique them, and return said critiques. If either of you doesn't feel like the crit relationship is working at that point, you get to smile and say thanks and walk away without any questions asked. That's the way it works.

NOTE: I myself am not looking for critters. Two partners is enough for me -- I can't keep up with anymore. I recommend definitely two or three partners for best results. That way when someone says "this sucks!" and someone else says "does not!" you can be the tie breaker. But if they both say "this sucks!" and you say "does not!" it means you're wrong. ;)

Okay. Go! Any questions?

From Rough to Final, Continued

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:56:39 GMT

You might recall that ten authors helpfully showed off their process from rough draft to final earlier this year. I am pleased to report that I have twp others to add -- Gayle Forman, author of IF I STAY and WHERE SHE WENT, dissected a chapter of the latter. It felt rather familiar to me, because she talks about how changing a character's motivations and mood can entirely change the tone of a chapter, even if the events stay mostly the same. That was something I found out a lot when I was editing FOREVER. Anyway, you can read the entire blog post here: http://www.gayleforman.com/blog/2012/02/29/before-and-after/

And Melissa Marr also shared two blog posts she'd done in a very similar way. Stunningly, they are HANDWRITTEN.
http://melissa-writing.livejournal.com/386679.html
http://melissa-writing.livejournal.com/386830.html

And the original post with the other ten authors:
http://maggiestiefvater.blogspot.com/2012/01/from-rough-to-final-ten-dissections.html

And the original original post where I dissect a short chapter of THE SCORPIO RACES
http://maggiestiefvater.blogspot.com/2012/01/from-rough-to-final-dissection-of.html

Speaking of other blasts from the past, I was asked today on Twitter how I found my writing critique partners. I was also asked by someone else if I'd be doing another Critique Partner Love Connection this year. I think I will do that posthaste. Hold on for that.

Heckling Office Supplies

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:47:37 GMT

Today while I was trying to work, my printer was just sitting there. Looking at me.

And on my desk there was a brand new Sharpie. Just sitting there. Looking at me.

*elapsed time 1 hour 20 minutes*

Finally. Finally I can go back to writing this chapter.

Valuable, Content Filled Posts: i.e., my cat playing fetch

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 04:32:35 GMT

I tell people all the time that my cat plays fetch, but they don't believe me. Not in a meaningful way.

Sometimes it feels like it takes YouTube to end any discussion these days.