So I am finally back from my absolutely brilliant UK tour for SHIVER and so much happened that I don't think i can even begin to be coherent, much less figure out what is interesting to everyone and not just to me. So let's go for photo spam instead, shall we? The business part of the UK trip was a whirlwind of efficient public transport, cups of tea made almost right but not quite right, hoards of folks with cool accents, and posses of schoolchildren in smart jackets. I would show you amazing photos of my library visit in Birmingham, my school visit in Derby, my vampire/ werewolf panel with Justin Sompers in Cheltenham, and my book signing in London, but . . . I don't have any. My publicists were snapping away, as were fans, so they're out there somewhere, but they are not on my camera.

Okay, so first of all. Scholastic UK treated me like the Queen Mum. They sent me flowers in my hotel room! (Exhibit A) They took me to lovely restaurants! They ordered me private cars after we missed our connecting flight, had to stay a night in New Jersey, and got to the UK a day late! (don't ask. I am still annoyed).

Anyway, the tour bit was fantastic. I had a signing at the Golden Treasury in London, where I got to meet folks I knew from Facebook. Witness the fact that people can spell my name right in other countries too:


I also spent a few hours with four teens who'd won a competition with Bliss Magazine; first we had high tea at a posh hotel, then we headed to the Absolut Ice Bar to have (nonalcoholic) drinks served in glasses made of chunks of ice. Yes, that is ice on the walls. Yes, it was below freezing in there, yes, they gave us coats and gloves, and yes, this is a photo of the author of SHIVER actually shivering.



We also spent a bit of time on the Tube in London -- both for the signing and also for meeting up with my art friend Katherine Tyrrell (who has a massively well rated art blog called Making a Mark). We met in the National Portrait Gallery restaurant, which had great views of the city. Apparently before I got there Katherine had told them that I was a Very Famous Author Who Shouldn't Be Killed, as they were very concerned about my preservative allergy and making sure I didn't ingest anything that would make me twitch. After we had dinner with Katherine, we got to see Vivaldi's Four Seasons performed at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, which was pretty darn awesome, even if I was falling asleep from jet lag during "Summer."

Anyway. Tube. I saw this advert on the wall and was forced to pull out my camera and snag a photo, annoying many people in leggings (everyone regardless of leg shape wears leggings in London, it's slightly troubling). Because, hello, it says "Beck's" and has a wolf howling. Get it? GET IT?

So all of the touring stuff was brilliant -- I think my favorite moment was when one of the school kids raised their hand and said "I don't have a question. I just want to say your accent is really cool!"

You heard it here first.

So after four days of traveling back and forth by train to events while my husband roamed free in London, my intrepid lover secured a rental car and we headed up toward Whitby in Yorkshire. As you may recall from an earlier post, I'd had a dream about Whitby Abbey so I wanted to go there, and my next novel (not FOREVER) is set on cliffs, so I wanted to go cliff hunting too. So onward. It was four hours from Cheltenham to Whitby, which became six, because we were forced to stop at Cool Things.

Like:


At random old churches, like this one, Breedon on the Hill (nothing like a specific name to make things sound important)(for instance, I'm renaming myself Maggie Who Points At Things).


Witness the pretty stained glass in this church. Also, witness the tombs. They had two ordinary ones with sculptures of recumbent medieval folks laying on top of them, but then they had this one, which for some reason featured what was on its inside on its outside:

( lj cut for massive photoness )

i have been sitting on this news FOREVER (and I don't mean the novel FOREVER). So now I can stop being coy and start hyperventilating instead.

Shiver. The. Movie.

Unique Features picked up the film rights -- they are associated with Warner Brothers -- and this is the official word:

Pic will be produced by Unique Features partners Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne.

Book covers a bittersweet paranormal romance between a teen who becomes a wolf each winter and his girlfriend, who helps him find the secret to staying human. The first installment was published by Scholastic Press in August and has been on the bestseller lists for six weeks. The sequel novel, "Linger," will be published next August. Unique acquired all three books in the series.

Shaye and Lynne, who at New Line covered such fantasy and supernatural subject matter as "The Lord of the Rings" and "Blade," sparked to the author's voice, and said they couldn't ignore the grip that otherworldly stories have on young viewers.

"I'm not the biggest werewolf or vampire fan, but the author has a strong take on a young adult sensibility," Shaye said. "It's also a sexy love story that isn't too over the top."

Shaye and Lynne used their discretionary fund to acquire the book in a competitive bidding situation. They will bring it first to Warner Bros., where they have a first-look deal, and will set a writer shortly.

I will be excited as soon as I start believing it's real.

Remember how I said I'd do a Ballad related post every Tuesday and Thursday until October 1st when it came out? Well, it's managed to be Tuesday again, so here goes. I will probably post about my DragonCon/ Decatur Book Festival adventures tomorrow. Or possibly a butt kicking or hopelessly inspirational post. It's been awhile since I've done one of those.

But first, a Ballad contest. Well, actually, it's a Ballad/ Shiver contest. Because you are playing for Shiver prizes but with Ballad content. Here are the prizes:

1) A signed Shiver audio book.
2) Another signed Shiver audio book.
3) A CD of my Homicidal Faerie Mix -- the music I played while writing Ballad

There are two ways to be eligible. One is for bloggers of all sorts. You post

1) the cover
2) the link to Amazon
3) The teaser

and then comment here with a link back to your post. Every comment is an entry (if you have two blogs, comment twice).

And the other is for Facebookers; it's less image intensive. You post
1) The teaser
2) the title
3) the link to Amazon

The contest ends next Thursday, the 17th.


Here's the teaser:

And the link for the Amazon page is here. Before you go running off to pre-order on Amazon, however, any of you who are planning on possibly coming to the October 8th launch at Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA, listen up. Everyone who reserves a copy of Ballad at Fountain Bookstore will get a signed frame from the trailer at the launch.

Okay, onto the html. For blogger entrants who want it the easy way, here's the html to grab and paste (just choose HTML view while posting your blog, then cut and paste this text:


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/maggiestiefvater/3248865066/" title="Ballad by Telltale Crumbs, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3092/3248865066_dbc846711b_m.jpg" alt="Ballad" align="right" height="386" width="250" /></a>This is a teaser from Maggie Stiefvater's BALLAD, a novel involving homicidal faeries and kissing that's coming out October 1st.

<blockquote>He turned towards me. For a long moment, he stood facing me. I was held, anchored to the ground – not by his music, which still called and pushed against the music already in my head and said <em>grow rise follow</em> – but by his strangeness. By his fingers, spread over the ground, holding something into the earth, by his shoulders, squared in a way that spoke of strength and unknowability, and most of all, by the great, thorny antlers that grew from his head, spanning the sky like branches.

Then he was gone, and I missed his going in the instant that the sun fell off the edge of the hill, abandoning the world to twilight.</blockquote>

Buy it <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ballad-Gathering-Faerie-Maggie-Stiefvater/dp/0738714844/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_3">here</a>. Enter the contest at Maggie's blog <a href="http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com">here</a>.

Okay, I have film on the brain. I just saw Nanny McPhee and I have a new favorite actress for Grace -- Eliza Bennett. You can see it, can't you?

And I know no one will agree with me, but I think Jason Flemyng would be a great Ulrik.

I'm not sure why I needed to make this post so urgently, at 9 p.m. at night after watching Nanny McPhee. I just did. And now I have.

I have been intensely remiss in not posting about my launch party details, but I was waiting on photos from various cameras not belonging to me. Now I think I have enough to go by!

The day began as a Friday (which, coincidentally, is how it ended as well). I was scrambling around all morning to make sure I had everything I needed, and also to make sure that tltrent had a place to sleep when she arrived. Worst case scenario: she sleeps in Loki. Best case scenario: the washer and drier conspire to make clean sheets available.

By the time she arrived, I had finalized her non-Loki sleeping arrangements, and off we sped towards Williamsburg -- two and some hours away. Much heckling occurs. On the way, one of my crit partners calls with insanely good but secret news that I cannot reveal. So I'm pretty much flying high as a kite by the time we get to Williamsburg. Tiffany uses her parking karma to find us a spot right behind the store (those of you who have visited Colonial Williamsburg will know that this Does Not Happen). And then we walk around the side of the store and find this:



A giant Window of Shiver!!! Please note, from left to right: Box of Shivers, Tiffany Trent, Maggie Stiefvater, GIANT POSTER OF MY COVER.

After dropping off the box of books, we meet up with Girl Reporter,kellyrfinemanand her two daughters, procure caffeine, and begin to explore. It is not a trip to Williamsburg without hitting up the toy store there, so I drag everyone in to admire the selection. I find a wolf puppet and cannot resist reenacting a Shelby moment.

Wolf: I want to kill your girlfriend!!! Me: Oooooh, bring it! etc.

( more photos under the cut if you have not been turned off by the admittedly graphic wolf puppet photo )

ETA: Folks, I have NO part in the actual casting choices/ auditioning/ anything having to do with the movie -- that is all in the realm of Unique Features & Warner Bros. The movie option is also the VERY early stages of moviedom, so they're not even looking for actors yet. This is merely a fun post about who I think looks like the characters in my head. In reality, I think a Shiver movie would be best served by plucking some unknown actors out of the woodwork -- folks who can act no matter if they look exactly like my idea of Sam and Grace or not.

**Here ends public service announcement**

Onto the audio book contest. First of all, I clicked on everybody's links and looked at everybody's Sam and Graces. And people. Please! Tom Sturridge is far too edgy to be Sam (although I found the photo of him in a bathtub absolutely hilarious given the circumstances). Sam is an innocent bambi! Anyway. First of all, my picks for Sam and Grace.

For Grace, I'd always thought Dakota Blue Richards, because she'll be the perfect age. But then one of the Very Clever Commentors suggested Rachel Hurd Wood and I thought OH! WAY BETTER GRACE! I like her because she's pretty in a very approachable, plausible, non-Hollywood sort of way, and looks like she could take werewolves in stride.

Dakota Blue Richards (yes, I KNOW she's too young here):
Rachel Hurd Wood:

For Sam, it was harder, because I don't think of him as Hollywood-handsome. In SHIVER, I think I describe him as having a nose a girl couldn't pull off and floppy black hair. And I think I mentioned his heavy lidded eyes. I'm very big on the heavy-lidded eyes for him. Oh, and fuzzy eyebrows. So at first, I was sort of thinking Lee Pace, who is way too old (sorry, Lee, I still think you're very pretty. Just not jailbait age):


then I thought Jim Sturgess from Across the Universe captured Sam's Beatlesesque image, but still too old (again, no offense, Jim, your version of "Girl" still makes me want to remove layers of clothing):

And then I realized that if I made the easy leap from actor to rock star, I was golden. Because I think Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys is terribly Sam-like to me. See?
Example 2:
Example 3:




You're feeling it, right? Alex, call my agent . . . oh yeah, and don't get any older, okay?

ETA 8/29/09:

Okay, I have film on the brain. I just saw Nanny McPhee and I have a new favorite actress for Grace -- Eliza Bennett. You can see it, can't you?

And I know no one will agree with me, but I think Jason Flemyng would be a great Ulrik.

I'm not sure why I needed to edit this post so urgently, at 9 p.m. at night after watching Nanny McPhee. I just did. And now I have.

Anyway. The randomly generated winner of the audio book (only one, there were 48 comments and slightly fewer than that entries) was wandren -- shoot me an email!

Okay, and now the second contest. The promised contest for the Shiver audio books!

I've been asked approximately a million times who I was choose to play Sam and Grace if Shiver was made into a movie, and that inspired me to finally post this contest. This one is a lot simpler than the BALLAD contest.

I will give away one audio book for every fifty entries (so fifty entries means that I will randomly pick one winner, seventy five means I will randomly pick two, one hundred ten means I pick three, etc.), and you enter simply by posting a comment here saying who you would cast as Sam and Grace in a hypothetical Shiver movie. With links, pretty please, so that I can see!

On Friday, 9:30 EST, I'll pick winners through some mysterious means, and then I'll post who I would cast. Sound good? Go!


ETA: My crit partner, Tessa, informs me I sound incoherent with my math. I meant that I would give out 1 audio if I got 1-50 responses. Another if I got anything over 50 (50-100), and another in the next bracket of 50 (100-150). Etc. Savvy?

For this Friday Five, I really have to mention the other bits of blog tour. I have this sneaking suspicion that I am forgetting some, but heh.

1. Blog tour (let me know if I missed you and I will add).

Blog Tour Wrap Up:

Interview about Maggie’s formative years

Interview about what I listen to while writing

Interview involving the one thing I will not eat

Guest post about why I think paranormal is so popular

Interview on what makes my novels different

and the contest to win SHIVER

Lori Devoti (blog), Interview, August 4, 2009

ETA: Guest Post on how I arrived at my take on the werewolf mythology

5 More Minutes with the fab Saundra Mitchell

The following just happened in the Stiefvater household.

My friend Carrie: Do you know if you're still on the [NYT] list?
Thing 2, aged 4: I don't like this house.
Me: I don't know. It's not really time yet.
Carrie: Well sometimes it takes awhile to get through the house.
Thing 2: I would like to live at Nonnie's.
Me: Thing 2, you can't live at Nonnie's. We can visit her tomorrow.
Carrie: Tell me when you find out.
Me: I will.
Thing 2 (putting on his boots): I'm going to walk to Nonnie's.
Me: Thing 2, it's five miles. You will get smushed on the road.
Carrie: I can't wait!
Thing 2: I will walk on the grass.

*phone call*

Thing 2: I'm going to live with Nonnie forever.
Me: I thought you wanted a bath.
Thing 2: Nonnie has a bathtub.
Phone: Hi. Maggie? This is David.
David: *is Maggie's editor with superpowers*
Me (to self): OMG. David phone call = Catastrophes. Miracles. Moving up the list. Bunnies transmogrified into authors for the first time in a lab in South East Asia.
David: We're not going to call you every week, now, but . . .
Thing 2: I'm leaving now.
Me: !!!
David: How does number five sound?
Thing 1, aged 5: I'm going to miss Thing 2 when he's living at Nonnie's.
Me: *strangled noise* *possibly coherent statement?*
Thing 2: *opens door*
Me: *throws herself in front of door.*
Chorus of Publicists: This is awesome! This is amazing! You moved FOUR SPOTS!
Publicist 1: In the right direction.
Me: *possibly another coherent statement*
Thing 2: I need to go to Nonnie's RIGHT NOW! She's my NEW family! *breaks loose and runs into yard*
David: *has possibly been speaking for a minute without Maggie focusing on words* . . . we are so happy. Congratulations. #5 on the NYT List.
Chorus of Publicists: Congrats!!
Thing 1: Mama, Thing 2's escaped. I'm going to draw a picture of our family without him.
Me: Thank you so, so much.
Thing 2: *heading towards street*
Thing 1: You don't have to say thank you, Mama. I like to draw.


In other news, I owe people posts. I need to do a round up of the second half of the blog tour. And I need to do an audio book post. And I need to do a rundown of the launch. These things will happen. I swear they will.

I swear my next post will not be a SHIVER one. I swear it. But I need to post the millions of links that I have for the blog tour already, because if I wait until Friday, the list will go on forEVER. Also, on my release day, we took my family out to my favorite restaurant in the whole wide world and then went searching in Richmond for evidence of SHIVERs in the wild. And found them -- both at Barnes & Noble and at Fountain Bookstore, the indie that is holding my launch party for BALLAD in October. Good stuff!

My sister was kind enough to snap photos of me observing SHIVERs in their natural habitat.

Also, I found out two things today.

1) Flavonoids are in tea. And they are good for you, apparently, even though they rhyme with "android."
2) SHIVER got a starred review in Publisher's Weekly. These are also good for you.

And here is the list of places involved in my blog tour this week. I've mentioned if they're doing giveaways, so you can try to score a copy of SHIVER or some art or something else fun. There is also >gasp< a giveaway for a BALLAD ARC in there too.


http://angieville.blogspot.com/2009/08/shiver-blog-tour-interview-with-maggie.html
Interview & giveaway. on what it was like seeing the hardcover for the first time.

http://sixverstein.livejournal.com/71129.html
interview and giveaway for a piece of SHIVER art by moi.

http://yankeeromancereviewers.blogspot.com/2009/08/shiver-by-maggie-stiefvater-interview.html
interview. on lessons to be learned from SHIVER, or not. win a signed finished copy of SHIVER

http://fabulousfrock.livejournal.com/331666.html
writerly interview where I answer what the strangest clothing is that I’ve ever worn.

http://www.eclecticbooklover.com/2009/08/interview-maggie-stiefvater-author-of.html
interview where you find out one thing that I WILL NOT EAT

http://patesden.livejournal.com/56311.html
interview. on branding yourself as a writer.

http://www.thestorysiren.com/2009/07/contest-of-awesomeness.html
Contest of awesomeness- win signed SHIVER and a signed BALLAD

http://seaheidi.livejournal.com/151889.html
rather funny interview asking which about why wolves. instead of bears, for instance. and what’s up with the one word titles?

http://lindajsingleton.livejournal.com/131503.html
interview on which came first, writing, music, or art.

http://ibteens.blogspot.com/2009/06/maggie-interview.html
interview which asks how I survived being a teen and what some of the ideas were that didn’t make it to the page.

http://magicalwords.net/specialgueststars/special-guest-friday-maggie-stiefvater/
blog post on how Scholastic and SHIVER made a clean, non-swearing girl out of me.

http://universitychic.com/article/career-qa-ya-author-maggie-stiefvater
interview and giveaway on writing as a career and how to get there.

http://alanajoli.livejournal.com/109946.html
guest blog post on how there are one thousand ways to write the same plot.

http://writingraw.com/
Interview about the writing process

http://cleanwriter.livejournal.com/34474.html
Interview about how I got to be the weird way i am.

http://lushbudgetproduction.blogspot.com/2009/07/mini-interview-with-sam-and-grace-from.html
Interview with Sam and Grace

Let me know if I've left anyone off this list and I'll catch you on the Friday round up!

First of all, IT'S SHIVER DAY!!!!!

Second of all, look what arrived with perfect timing!? Editor Mixtape at Scholastic told me to keep my eyes open for a package in the mail; something to celebrate my release day and getting LINGER off to production. I had to open it in the post office parking lot and then proceeded to laugh like a crazy person.

In case you can't tell what it is, it's a red coffee pot.

It's not even used.

In order to understand the significance of the red coffee pot, I'm afraid you will have to read SHIVER and then read LINGER. And then you will come back to this post and laugh at David's cleverness.

Until then, I'm afraid you will just have to take my word on it that it is very, very amusing to me.

Okay. So, secondly! I promised I would post the playlist for SHIVER today, and indeed I will. I made one on playlist.com, but unfortunately they were missing a few tracks. So I'm going to give it to you straight, then embed the one that playlist had, which you can actually listen to. Savvy? Yes.

So, here it is:
1. "The Ocean" - The Bravery (the general thematic song)
2. "Sundrenched World" - Joshua Radin
3. "Run" - Snow Patrol
4. "Cemeteries of London" - Coldplay (hunt scene)
5. "Make This Go On Forever" - Snow Patrol
6. "Matroshka" - Dredg
7. "Underwater" - Vertical Horizon
8. "Star Mile" - Joshua Radin (making quiche)
9. "Set the Fire to the Third Bar" - Snow Patrol
10. "Jeremiah" - Starsailor
11. "Bug Eyes" - Dredg
12. "Everything'll Be Alright" - Joshua Radin (bookstore scene)
13. "Hide and Seek" - Imogen Heap (car scene near end)
14. "A Clock is Ticking" - Snow Patrol (Jack scene near end)
15. "Peter Returns" - James Newton Howard (last scene)
16. "Wake Up, Open the Door, & Escape to the Sea" - Blaqk Audio (ultimate nookie scene)

I am very sad that I can't find an online version of "Peter Returns" because DAMM it's perfect.

Basically, I listened to Snow Patrol, Joshua Radin, and Imogen Heap nonstop. Also, Blaqk Audio, although I doubt this will evoke a very Shiver emotion in anyone else. I'm not sure why it worked for me -- I felt a little silly including that one that I used to write the nookie scene, but in the interests of full disclosure . . .

Actually, it's funny to see how varied the playlist for LINGER is in comparison, because of the influence of iTunes and how I could buy individual tracks. Huh. There's an anthropology paper in there somewhere, folks. A boring one, but one nonetheless.

Anyway, the playlist:



And finally, I have several audio books of SHIVER that I can giveaway in various contests or drawings or something. Do I have reader interest in such things?

1. This week is my launch week, as you guys know, because I can't stop talking about it. Tomorrow is the official release date.

I have been informed that even though SHIVER was not technically out last week, its sales numbers were almost good enough to land it on the bestseller list.

Um, that is crazysauce.

Also, hugely exciting. I confess that as a writer, there are other milestones that would thrill me more than landing on the bestseller list (like getting a life sized statue of myself erected in some North Carolina town which will then be named after me), however, the idea of landing on the list does excite me, for the following reason.

All along, I told everyone that if I ever landed on the bestseller list for any of my books, I would put air conditioning in my car, Loki, and paint him black with white stripes. I am uncertain now about the painting black with white stripes, as I've sort of gotten used to his extremely ostentatious red paint, but as I sit here and swelter in 90 degree weather, I am wishing very much that Loki had air-co. Because basically I can't drive him until November as it stands. Not only is the car lacking in air-co, but the driver is positioned perfectly behind a V8 engine that gives off more heat than a star. Well, not all stars. Just those little ones. Brown dwarves? Scientists found one that is only 770 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's about right.

Anyway, bestseller list aside, the first few weeks of a book's life are crucial, so if you were thinking of buying SHIVER, or coercing your aunt into buying SHIVER, or thinking of buying copies of a single book for every member of your extended family, or anything like that, I'd be obliged if you did it in the next two weeks.

And . . . if SHIVER makes it onto the bestseller list next week, I'm going to let blog readers vote on whether I repaint Loki black with white stripes or merely give him a better red with black stripes. Sound cool? I'm putting my car's coolness fate IN YOUR HANDS.

Okay, first things first. For anyone who didn't already know, I'm having the launch party for SHIVER on August 7th in Colonial Williamsburg, VA. And I would love for any and all to come. There will be a gift basket giveaway from Wythe's Candy (the candy shop I basically ripped off for the candy shop scene in SHIVER), a giveaway for a free school or library visit, and face-painting and play-doh station for the urchins. Also I will be signing SHIVERs and being rambunctious. And Colonial Williamsburg is gorgeous. Worth the trip. Also, Busch Gardens is there, too, if you're of the roller coaster persuasion (I recommend the Loch Ness Monster if they haven't changed its name).




I've mentioned it once before but as it draws near, I wanted to mention it again (specially since I have a lot of new readers in the past few weeks). Details and place to RSVP are here.




And to make up for talking about boring details of launch parties, I will do kittenspam. This is our new kitten -- well, technically, it is Thing 1's new kitten, but I don't think that counts as I'm the one doing the scooping of pooping and it's my lap she's sitting on right now -- accidentally acquired at a car show last weekend. Her name is Monkey and she is impossible to scare, very tolerant of being stretched by children, and likes our dogs.



She also stole a hamburger bun off the table the other day and ate it. That was after she stole a chocolate chip cookie the size of her head and ate it.



Those were interesting poos.



Also, SHIVER has been spotted in the wild at multiple Barnes & Nobles and indies. Kristina Springer, who wrote THE ESPRESSOLOGIST (which i have already pre-ordered long ago), sent me this photo of SHIVERs at Anderson's Bookstore in Naperville. I'd love for anyone who saw a particularly impressive display of SHIVERs to snap a cell photo and send it to me! Wow, the grammar in that sentence hurts me.



And finally, to conclude this Epic Post, I will be doing a BALLAD contest/ giveaway in the middle of next month. So stay tuned.



Colonial Williamsburg photo from Bill
Barber.

Okay, I'm doing a massive wrap-up post of blog tour interviews and stuff in the first week of August, but I had to post a link to this new one now, because it was rather entertaining to do. Nancy at Ravenous Reader interviewed Sam and Grace from SHIVER instead of me.

Here 'tis.

My author copies of SHIVER came in yesterday. I thought that since I'd seen one, I'd seen them all. But no. The effect of 30 some SHIVERs is like the effect of seeing the first finished SHIVER, times thirty something.

Also, SHIVER is apparently already stocked in several Barnes & Nobles.

Also, apparently, it's inching slowly up the Amazon Teen Romance rankings -- it's at #25. Um. Right below a bunch of editions of TWILIGHT. That's crazy. And thank you, guys.

My head may possibly explode. I am completely unable to concentrate today. So instead of doing my final push of edits for LINGER, I am going to post photographic evidence of author copies. With variously sized animals for size comparisons.

Okay. I am finally now recovered enough to do a Massive ALA Post, Complete with Photographs Stolen from Publishers Weekly. I didn't bring a camera as I was planning on scoring a few books that I really, really wanted, so I left my camera in Virginia.

So, first of all, my trip started on Friday afternoon. I headed up to my friend Marian's house in northern Virginia. She needed photos of a pony for sale and I needed a pad to crash in closer to the Baltimore airport, so I arrived with a camera and she handed me sweet tea and off we went. Isn't said pony pretty?

SATURDAY

Anyway. Bright and early on Saturday morning -- think 5:30 -- think there's a Visine for that -- I headed to BWI airport. I pass without event through the terminal and sit on the plane. In my head I am happily thinking about the fact that I am going to have lunch with both editor Yoda (previously at Flux, now at Carolrhoda) & editor Mixtape (Scholastic) at the same time.

Then the captain comes on.

CAPTAIN: I'm afraid there is bad weather in Chicago. We have a no ground order until the weather improves. We'll keep you posted.

CAPTAIN (45 minutes later): We were actually wrong. They told us there was bad weather and there really wasn't, so we could've gone. However, it's good that we didn't, because while we were waiting, we found a leak in the hydraulics. 1 in 500 planes, folks, and this is that plane.

CAPTAIN (15 minutes later): The mechanic has checked out the hydraulics and found that the leak is within legal limits. We're taking off anyway!

As I'm watching a glossy fluid travel over the wing I can glimpse from my window, I wonder why they didn't just stick with the weather story, which was simply and logical and had zero accountability for them. Say it with me, boys and girls. T. M. I.

Needless to say, I missed my editor lunch. I tried to let them know that I'll be appallingly late through a series of text messages which took me so long to punch in that the girl in the seat next to me started laughing at me. My texting speed is woefuly and willfully bad.

In the end, my editors had lunch with each other and I only got to share a cab from my hotel (where they were waiting, much to my eternal gratitude) to the convention center. Editor Mixtape gave me two finished copies of SHIVER, which were almost incomprehensibly beautiful. Best part? The text inside is blue. I really wanted to go back to the hotel and curl up with them and pet the shiny covers, but business called. I was forced to put them in my bag and pretend they weren't calling my name in icy blue tones.

So. Meetings of Editor Brian (who has yet to acquire nickname) ensued, as did signings of BALLADs until they were all gone. There was an almost slap-fest between a librarian and a teen boy for the last copy. Disappointingly, it was settled without coming to blows.

After the BALLAD signing, I hoofed it to the Scholastic booth where Tracy, the Scholastic publicist and all around awesome person, met me and whisked me into downtown Chicago for an interview with Booklist. It went well, as I mostly didn't swear. That I remember. Also, Ian (said Booklist interviewer) recommended STITCHES as the graphic novel to get. Tracy and I made a note of this.

Then off to see the Bean (note to self: try to procure photo Tracy took of me and her in the Bean). And then slipping into Little Black Dress for a Scholastic awards dinner. I met Elizabeth Bunce, the Morris Award winner, there and was totally charmed. Also met Arthur Levine, who I thought for some reason must be an old man, and is actually a very dapper Not Old man who forever wins points for knowing the Mom's on the roof joke. And Cheryl Klein, an editor at Arthur Levine/ Scholastic and the person who gave me my very first personalized rejection!

Basically, good times.

SUNDAY

Up brilliantly early for the YA Coffee Klatch. Basically, this was throwing thirty-something authors at thirty-some tables of librarians in a weird, geeky version of speed-dating. The list of authors here was rather star-studded and intimidating, but that turned out to be irrelevant, because the only time we managed to glimpse each other was when they put us together for a giant group photo, where we all smiled/ grimaced/ showed lots of gum in eighteen directions at once.

Right after that, I was whipped to the Scholastic Literary Brunch. This is Publisher’s Weekly’s take on it. My major observations were

a) it was very cold in there. I had goosebumps on my goosebumps. When I read from SHIVER for the audience, I had cool *shivering* effects to add to the ambiance.
b) I want the translator of Heartsinger to read SHIVER to me at bedtime, because she did a gorgeous job reading Heartsinger.
c) Editor Mixtape dropped yellow frosting on the shoes I had borrowed from a friend for that morning.
d) I was feeling like the shoes had gotten what they deserved, since the bastards had by that time given me four honkin’ huge sores.
e) if the shoes had been mine and not my friend’s, they would’ve died in a fire very shortly after this trip.

It was an amazing event. There was a group of great teens there that were hugely enthusiastic and made me forget my gaping shoe wounds and lack of sleep. There is photographic evidence of me forgetting about these things, as you can see.

Then we all went tearing back to the convention center for a group signing. I was sitting next to Mark Teague, who was so nice that I felt quite insane in comparison. In fact, Lisa Schroeder has a pic of us on her blog (don’t ask me what I’m doing with my hands, I have no clue and don’t really want to know) that sort of describes it all.

Ooh, and while I was signing, Tracy scored me a copy of STITCHES -- which I read since then and it is AMAZING. (review and generalized gushing to follow later this month).

Then a brief tear around the convention floor to score some books -- I only asked for things I really wanted, because they don’t do any good sitting on my shelf -- and then back to the hotel to get dolled up for the Newbery/ Caldecott Banquet.

While waiting in line to get into the banquet, I spotted Brian Selznick. I really, really wanted to go up to him, but I was convinced I wouldn’t be able to form actual words, such was the depth of my fannishness. Editor Mixtape, however, was kind enough to introduce us, and this is how the conversation went.

Mixtape/ David: Brian, this is Maggie Stiefvater.
Brian: Hi, Maggie.
Maggie: Nckgh?
Brian: Nice to meet you to.
Maggie: Ungh . . . gnucklick! mmmm!
Brian: Yes, I’ve been an artist for quite awhile. So you are too?
Maggie: Ngh immer asglhmmm!
Brian: Oh, David wants to know when I’ll be done with my next project too.

He was kind enough to pretend that my fangirl incoherencies were actual sentences. I appreciate that.

Then we got to hear speeches from the award winners -- Neil Gaiman’s was fantastic. He had this great line . . .something about how there are not books that are good for you and books that you enjoy, but just . . . good books. He was a lot more pithy. But it was a wonderful point.

Anyway, so I teetered off to bed insanely late and thus concluded day two of the festivities. Oh, and that's a random photograph of me, Editor Mixtape, and Holly Black, nicked from PW. Holly Black isn't the only author I ran into, either. I met Lisa Schroeder, Cynthia Liu, Susan Fine, and millions of others who are all running together into a stream of literary awesome.



MONDAY


Monday morning I had breakfast with Melina Marchetta. I am terribly in love with her writing and I was really excited to grab some tea with her one on one. We talked the book biz and chattered about each other’s books -- it was . . . um . . . THIS COOL to hear that an author that you absolutely love is also a fan of your writing. The best bit was finding out that she was a very thinking sort of writer. And also that she is playing in a literary world that I was very much hoping she’d go back to.

Then I sat in the convention center and started to write my monthly story for Merry Sisters of Fate (story is here).

Then to Anderson’s Bookstore in Naperville for a pre-publication visit and a video interview with Becky Anderson. I loved every bit of this visit, from talking with Becky (who was so enthusiastic about SHIVER I possibly peed myself). I signed a ton of books, talked with a ton of librarians, teachers, and teens, and ate the preservative-free pizza that they were so nice to order for me. (nothing has ever tasted as good as that pizza. Nothing). And the best bit? All the teens and other folks there signed a copy of SHIVER for me.

I can't wait to go back to Anderson's after SHIVER's come out.

TUESDAY

And finally, a four-thirty a.m. trip to the airport to fly to Detroit for a meeting at Borders’ offices in Ann Arbor. It was great to meet the Borders YA buyer, Liz, again. She was nice enough to give me some of her recs for good YAs about to come out, and Elizabeth at Scholastic made my day by a) catering the event with preservative-free food so that I didn’t die and b) shipping all my ALA and Borders’ books back to my house so that I didn’t have to lug them around the airport. Borders is so incredibly enthusiastic and supportive of SHIVER. If I was actually fully awake now, or during any part of the trip, I would probably be rendered quite useless by total amazement at the direction that SHIVER’s life cycle has taken, but the single most useful thing about sleep deprivation is that it makes fantastic and amazing things like TOTAL CRAZY SHIVER IS EVERYWHERE AAAAAAAAAAUUUGGGGHHHHH a lot easier to take in. So. That’s a good thing.

Then home again -- I was lucky enough to catch an earlier flight with no hydraulic leakage (at least that they told us about) and I fell asleep during take off. I awoke a few hundred miles outside Baltimore, and my mouth snapped shut.

Which meant it had been hanging open.

That’s sexy.

Thus concludes the highly abbreviated version of my ALA festivities. And then the zombies came, and everybody died.

Okay, as I count down to the final moments of my giant SHIVER ARC contest (still time to enter), I figured I would post some behind the scenes photos from the making of my trailer, for anyone who is interested.

Here's the trailer:

And here, in dazzling pictoral goodness (click for larger), are some of the nitty gritties.

Okay, I'm planning on doing a behind-the-scenes post on the paper cut trailer later today, but I just had to fursplode becauase quietselkie forwarded a SHIVER-filled email from Borders. And there was SHIVER, all over the place -- including a link to the exclusive SHIVER music that I wrote for Borders. I can finally share it!

It's here.

I don't think I can possibly describe how weird it is to see a piece of music that I composed on the homely keyboard sitting behind me and recorded in a studio in Fredericsksburg sitting there on the Borders' website. I mean, I know they asked me to write it . . . but I didn't think they'd actually use it.

It's THIS weird, seeing it.

Anyway, that track's called "One Happy Day," and there's a scene in SHIVER where Sam uses that phrase -- that's the scene this song was written for.

And now for the contest! First of all, the lovely prizes.

1) Two ARCs of SHIVER, mailed out as soon as the contest is finished.
2) Two finished copies of SHIVER, mailed out as soon as I get my author's copies.
3) Two CDs of the music I wrote for SHIVER and LAMENT.
4) 15 minute live-chat with the author (that would be me) to talk about my books, your books, your dog, or whatever!

And the rules:

1) Watch the trailer I made for SHIVER below (it took me dozens of hours to make the hundreds of paper cut outs and then photograph the multiple frames per second)(Yes I am crazy).
2) Post a link to the trailer or embed the trailer online. Every unique place you post it counts as an entry. Sooo that means you can embed it on your LJ, post a link on twitter, post a link on your Facebook, and embed it on Myspace, and it would count as 4 entries.
3) Comment back here telling me where you linked it, numbered like so: 1. LJ, 2. Twitter, 3. Facebook, 4. Blogger, etc., with linkies, so I can spend my time writing more books instead of counting and verifying entries.

ETA: If you tweet it, kindly use the hash tag #shiver!

I will hold a Giant Drawing on Tuesday, July 7th, at 9 p.m., and post the winners here and on my Blogger blog.

Sound good?

Here's the trailer!