1. First of all, I die of the awesome. Check out the site for the Italian edition of Shiver. Warning for those at work and with small, impressionable dogs: site involves howling. It comes out in two days over there, on the 7th. And check out the gorgeous cover. LOOK AT THE CLAW MARKS. Love hurts, baby.

2. In slightly less awesome news, only because the cover is the same, the Dutch edition of Shiver is now available. It's called HUIVER over there. Which I'm hoping means SHIVER in Dutch. I really have no idea. It looks suspiciously like a brand of vacuum to me, and there are no vacuums in Shiver. There is a vacuum in LINGER. There, don't say I never told you anything about what to expect in LINGER.

Does anyone have any clue what the subtitle means?

3. My short fiction involving egotistical enchanters is up at Merry Sisters of Fate. Twas written in an airport with a woman looking over my shoulder. It was eerily like sketching in public.

4. We went to see a bunch of sheep yesterday, at a Fall Fiber Festival, involving much gorgeous wool and yarn. Thing 2 pets and observes twenty different sheep and then at the end of the day, walks to twenty-first sheep and says "Can I pet your cow?"

That kid's Harvard-bound, I tell you.

5. Current musical obsession (for the past two weeks): "Patient Patient" by The Morning Benders. Sorry, no fun music video, and the sound quality is not as mind-blowing as it could be, but dude. Try not grinning while listening to this song. Go on. Try it. If you can manage, you are a heartless harpie.

There are a few reasons why me doing this meme is wretched and depraved.

1) I am supposed to be writing. I am actually in the middle of a very *spoilery* scene in FOREVER.

2) I already have a debut cover. In fact, my debut had two of them. I don't really need to design another.

3) I took this way too seriously.

4) This breaks about every single rule that I have ever written about not procrastinating.

5) Okay, so it was fun.


Here it is:

CREATE YOUR DEBUT YA COVER

1 – Go to “Fake Name Generator” or click

http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/
The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to “Random Word Generator” or click

http://www.websitestyle.com/parser/randomword.shtml
The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title.

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click

http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php
Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop,

Picnik, or similar to put it all together. Be sure to crop and/or zoom in.
5 – Post it to your site along with this text.


And here is mine. Yes, I was a child of the 80s and read a lot of Crichton, what's your point?





I'm far too proud of the little metro map off to the side there.

I didn't realize at first that I was supposed to type into the search engine the fake name of my fake novel when I randomly generated an image. So I was a bit appalled that I pulled 'break' and then the first photo with a person was a little girl in a pretty blue dress. I thought it was a sign from the heavens that I should be working.

Luckily, when I typed in 'break' I instead got a photo of a guy threatening a daffy duck mug with a gun. Far more appropriate. Hey, did you notice that it's a one word title? So feasibly this novel could be in my future. ;p

Bah, my conscious is calling. Says something about writing a novel . . .


ETA: This is the original photo, prior to my tweaking:

Okay! I have waited far too long to announce my launch party for SHIVER, but I'm going to make up for it by posting one million details today, including the final cover image! Also, right after this, I'm going to post a SHIVER contest, with a chance to win ARCs and finished copies and music and fun things.

First of all, here's the link to the e-vite. If you do think you might be able to make it, it would make me exceptionally happy (and you do like me exceptionally happy, right?) if you'd RSVP there. And now here is what the e-vite says:

Location:
College of William & Mary Bookstore, Colonial Williamsburg
345 Duke of Gloucester Street
Williamsburg, VA 23185 US

When: Friday, August 7, 5:00PM to 7:00PM
Phone: (757)253-4900

I'll be signing books and reading from SHIVER (which may or may not involve me standing on a chair and/or reenacting scenes from the book with a guitar, depending on my caffeine consumption). There will also be drawings for two giveaways: one is a candy gift basket from Wythe Candy Shop, the candy shop that inspired one of the best-loved scenes from SHIVER*, and the other is a giveaway for librarians and teachers: win a free author visit for your library or classroom.

*one early review from a book blogger says "there's a scene in a candy shop that will leave you absolutely salivating. I dare you to read that one just once." It was also mentioned specifically in the offer letter from my editor. Said candy shop is a five minute walk from the bookstore where the launch is held. Coincidence? I. Think. Not. Don't miss it!

Refreshments will be in attendance. A play-doh and face painting station will keep kiddies occupied so don't feel shy about bringing them. (I have someone else lined up to paint faces, but, again, depending on my caffeine consumption, this may devolve into Maggie painting wolves on people's cheeks).

Please RSVP; the bookstore also recommends calling to reserve your copy of SHIVER (especially if you're planning on buying more than one) to ensure they don't run out.

You know you want to come. See you there?

It has been four days since I got back from the Gothic Girls retreat in Savannah, and I have finally, I think, caught up on lost sleep. While I was gone, weird and wonderful things happened, like one million positive reviews of SHIVER before it's even been released. Also Scholastic has put the first chapter up to read as well as to listen to (that would be me reading).

So I was going to do a long run-down of our trip to Savannah and everything that happened, but first, I'm going to post all the SHIVER stuff. Because there's, um, a lot.

First of all, I got to see the cover of the UK edition of SHIVER (October) and Scholastic sent me their trailer for SHIVER (I did one too, but that one's not appearing until July).

So here they are:


Also, SHIVER is now sold in 17 foreign territories (plus the UK), which is so weird. There will be a Serbian SHIVER. A Catalan SHIVER. A Finnish SHIVER. A Brazilian SHIVER. Millions of SHIVERs . . . Basically what it comes down to is that Scholastic could call me up and say, "Great news! We've sold a Lunar edition of SHIVER -- now sentient beings living on all satellites of Earth will be able to read SHIVER!" and I would believe them.

And SHIVER has been picked as Borders' Original Voices pick (*Maggie struggles to think of non-redundant way to rephrase that sentence and gives up*) for August!

I've also realized that it is less than 7 weeks away from my release date. That's soon. In two weeks, I'm going to hold another giveaway, so stay tuned.

And . . . I think that's it on the SHIVER front. I'm pretty sure. Next, onto the Gothic Girls post, involving fun videos . . .

I am thinking of doing an online chat on the craft of writing and schtuff like that, because a lot of folks have been asking me writerly questions and I feel useless when I'm not in a good place to answer them. And Sunday evening, say 9-11 EST, sounds like a karmically good time to have such a chat. If this sounds like it's appealing to anybody, would you comment so I can gauge interest? Otherwise, I swear I will watch Rock of Love Bus and even I know how sad that is.

um. Also. My lovely editor Brian (he of Monty Python quoting goodness) at Flux sent me a copy of LAMENT with its brand spanking new cover. This caused me much joy at the post office.

ME: This is as exciting as when I first saw my name on the ARC!

BOOK:

ME: Oooh, look at the spine! The spine has a falling clo -- whoa! look at the back! It's got my three starred reviews on it!!

BOOK:

RANDOM LADY AT POST OFFICE: Is that your book?

ME: You betcher. See my name? Go ahead, try to pronounce it.

RANDOM LADY AT POST OFFICE: Not a chance. Did you notice the dagger is shiny?

BOOK: You betcher.

I'm hugely pleased.

Sooo . . . I can finally show you guys LAMENT's new cover! It's getting a brand-spanking new cover starting with this printing, to go along with BALLAD's hot cover. (Flames. Flames. FLAMES!) (I can't say that enough)

What do you guys think!? I'm thinking raining clovers + homicide-enabled weaponry + super shiny letters = WIN. Yes?



I think my next post will be waxing poetic on writing first drafts. Because I sure as snot am doing a lot of that lately. Any objections?

I can't help it. I do this for every novel I write . . . design a cover that will never see the light of day. It sort of makes it more real. And puts me in the mood. :D

And anyway, it's how you can tell I have a headcold . . . I'm useless for real work but wonderful for playing with my pencils and photoshop.

Well. My publisher had the title and cover meeting for my novel today and I have now learned . . . uh, that I can't tell you anything. Well, I could, but I'd have to kill you. Seriously, I can't even hint what's happening yet. It's driving me crazy!

Um, on the other hand, though, the idea of a bunch of people spending an hour and a half discussing my novel is just so many different shades of cool.

My cover and title meeting was pushed to next Tuesday, and I am filled with doom and angst. Or at least a double-shot of pissed and shot-down anticipation. I really thought I that today I would emerge, triumphant, holding the proud carcass of a cover concept and firm title over my head.

Not to be.

Tonight the village goes hungry on the title and cover front, and I was forced to eat fourteen chocolate chip cookies in order to fill the gaping void left inside of me.

The week stretches before me, an infinite empty space. And then I remember I have a day job.

Guess it's not quite so empty.

Last night was my first night sleeping on a mattress paid for by fairies. Regular blog readers will know that I recently sold the rights to my first fairy novel to Flux and that I was going to use part of the advance to buy my husband and I a new mattress. Well, I did just that, and last night was the first night on it.


It took a bit of getting used to last night. For starters, it's one of those pillow tops, which means it's taller than our old mattress. A lot taller. But it looked comfy, so I pole-vaulted on up there and gasped a bit, my lungs adjusting to the thinner atmosphere.



Huh, I thought. This is strange. Where's the dying animal sound that normally accompanies my arrival in bed? This new mattress, unlike our old groaning one, was silent and glad to see me. I could almost hear it saying in a pleasant air stewardess voice: welcome to your new mattress bought by fairies, maggie stiefvater. we hope you have a pleasant night with us. we're planning a nonstop trip to morning.



So then I lay down to find my first comfortable spot of the night. Then - gasp - I didn't wake up until eight this morning. That freaky air-stewardess voice in my head hadn't been kidding on the "non-stop" part. And my eyes didn't feel gritty when I opened them. Could it really be morning? As strange as the painless awakening was, imagine my shock when I looked in the mirror and discovered I had no bags under my eyes. I was beginning to think those babies had moved in for good.

And the best part? My hair looks fab. I couldn't figure out why this was until I looked at the neat and tidy sheets. Sheets that hadn't been tossed and turned in. Hair that hadn't been teased into a rooster fro by fretful pillow rolling.

I almost don't feel bad that I bought this mattress instead of a Camaro project car. Almost.

Anyway, you're probably wondering what the images are all around the text. Well, my lovely publisher Flux is having my cover and title meeting on the 16th and they've invited me to send in cover and title concepts for consideration. Of course this has led to me creating a great deal of digitally pleasing trash (you've seen some of it here) and depositing it in my editor's inbox. "Stolen" and "The Midnight Bird" are my latest two suggestions and the rest are ones that I made look slightly more official from before.

The girl with the key was the most popular one last time -- how about now? And which title grabs you the most?

Oh . . . the formatting on this post is going to be a nightmare, isn't it?

I confess, me and my camera (his name is Malachi) have way too much fun. Sometimes a sketch is not cool enough and I need to call in Malachi.

Can you picture a title which I haven't thought of yet plastered on the bottom? Gawd, I'm so happy they have a team of marketing geniuses thinking up a title for me so I can just finish the revisions and eat cookie dough in peace. Because my list of potential titles so far is . . . wow. Bad.

Yesterday, my editor (the charming Andrew Karre of Flux) sent me an e-mail to let me know when they were holding the meeting to discuss my cover and my title. Whooooo . . . does it not sound so real? So . . . posh? Not only will my novel have a cover it will also have a title. Anyway, Andrew went on to tell me to get my brain thinking of any title or cover ideas that I might have (which is very cool, because a lot of authors don't get any say at this point).

So even though I have over two weeks to hatch brilliant ideas, I had to try out my brain right away. Will you guys give me your thoughts? Dedicated readers of my art blog will remember what my novel's about, but for those just dropping in, it's a young adult urban fantasy, and this is how it was described in the deal section of Publisher's Weekly: A shy 16-year-old finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy who enters her dull, suburban life seemingly out of thin air — trouble is, he’s a soulless fairy assassin.

So. With that in mind, I sketched out four quick ideas (thanks to Kate for one of the concepts). Whatdya think? Keep sketching? Or does one make you want to grab it off the shelf. And yes, four leaf clovers are important in the novel; the main character can't see the faeries unless she has one.



And this last one is what happens when I run out of ideas and just go for the obvious.