Event Report: Maggie Stiefvater at Blue Willow

I went to see Maggie Stiefvater for the third time at Blue Willow Bookshop last night.  It was her second stop of THE RAVEN KING tour, and I've been excited about this event for awhile.  I love this series, and everyone I talk books with has been buzzing about it since bookstores put it on sale early.

Getting there was a nightmare.  It normally takes me around 45 extra minutes with rush hour traffic; today it took me more than two hours due to rush hour traffic and construction.  I arrived after the stated event start time, but before Stiefvater started talking.

The really, really bad?  Blue Willow sold out of the book.  They had five colors of line ticket for preorders, and said there were about 20 per group.  With 100 preorders, I would think they would have ordered more copies.  (It seemed like maybe 20 day of people got a copy, although it was hard to tell how many people in line got a copy and how many didn't.)  I was far from the only one who didn't get a book.  Some bought backlist, some ordered a copy to come in later, but I'm sure the bookstore lost a bunch of sales.  And yes, I could have preordered, but I go to a ton of book signings and have absolutely never been unable to buy the book.  I love Blue Willow and think they bring a lot of great events to the community, but I was hugely disappointed.

Sometimes Blue Willow has events off site, and I think they should have done that last night as well.  The bookstore was packed.  Everyone had to shuffle tighter together every time someone else showed up for the event.

The good: Stiefvater was hilarious.  I love seeing her talk.  She gave several different anecdotes about her average workday, and explained how she wasn't responsible for John Green setting himself on fire.  I also met some cool people while waiting in line to get my copy of BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE signed.  (And hey, she recognized me!)

Next Thursday, May 5, the Fierce Reads tour will be at Blue Willow.  I'll miss it due to my prior commitment to Captain America: Civil War, but right now I feel less bad about missing it that I would have before.

Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Book three of the Raven Cycle
By Maggie Stiefvater
Available now from Scholastic Press
Review copy
Read my Maggie Stiefvater tag

Ever since I finished this book, I've been discussing it with fellow fans.  It's been a little hard since the book wasn't out yet and we had to keep the discussion quiet, so as not to spoil new developments for others.

But that is my number one reaction to this book, and this series as a whole.  I need to talk about it.  I need to pour over the details and make crazy theories about what I think is going to happen next.  I ponder each detail: Is that a clue? A red herring?  Just a bit of flavor?  It's hard to believe that there is only one book to go.

The Raven Cycle has a notably slow, meandering pace.  BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE picks up the pace.  I thought that it didn't go so fast as to be jarring compared to the previous two books, but one person I talked to thought it moved a hair to quick in the beginning.  It's very clear that things are getting serious.  One of Blue's greatest secrets is revealed (to some people), there are deaths, and the book ends with one very shocking revelation.

BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE adds several characters to the already crowded ensemble.  My favorite was Piper, wife to the apparent villain of the story.  (He comes on strong, but finishes weak.)  The banter between Piper and Greenmantle is hilarious, a wonderfully conscienceless counterpoint to the banter between the raven boys and Blue.  There is still time to develop the existing characters further.  This is really Blue's book, with a strong assist from Adam.  I particularly liked the focus on Blue's abilities and finding ways to be more than just a battery.  I also liked that it seems like Blue and Gansey's budding relationship might not explode into irrevocable drama with Adam.  Maybe Maggie Stiefvater could pull it off, but I am afraid of standard teen drama bogging the final book down.

So far, however, this series hasn't let me down yet.  I am in love with the characters, the tone, the unexplained magic of it all.  Okay, one development in particular strikes me as coming out of the blue, but I enjoyed it enough to roll with it.  (Plus, it led to an adorable scene of Ronan and Adam racing shopping carts in a parking lot.  Those boys.)  I can't wait for the inevitable doom that is sure to come with the end of the cycle, because I have enjoyed the lead up so much.

Review: Sinner

Companion to the Wolves of Mercy Falls
By Maggie Stiefvater
Available now from Scholastic Press
Review copy
Read more posts in my Maggie Stiefvater tag

Cole St. Clair and Isabel Culpeper return in the long awaited conclusion to their relationship that began in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series.  I'm very happy that Maggie Stiefvater waited until she was inspired to write their story, because SINNER is sun drenched, sexy, and the story these characters deserve.

For those who just want to jump in, it is possible to read SINNER without reading SHIVER, LINGER, and FOREVER first.  Cole even starts by warning the reader that he's a werewolf so that wouldn't surprise the uninitiated.  Grace and Sam are briefly mentioned, but they're off doing their own thing.  However, SINNER is most satisfying if the reader knows how Cole and Isabel's relationship originally went sour (not to mention what happened to Cole's drummer).

I really liked that Cole is still dealing with his addiction issues in SINNER.  He might've gotten clean during the series, but being sober is an ongoing process.  And Cole is a master at finding new addictions and new ways to self destruct.  It's even more difficult to keep control since he's agreed to be on a reality webshow and his producer wants drama.  Isabel might bring the drama, but she won't sign a release.  (Smart girl, as always.)

Cole and Isabel are such a wonderful pair.  The both hold themselves aloof, but Isabel does in coldly while Cole reaches out through a persona.  Isabel is pretty good at seeing through Cole's mask, but he's pretty terrible at seeing through hers.  It isn't easy between them, but it could be worth the effort.

I think Maggie Stiefvater just keeps getting better and better.  SINNER is a wonderful story about two damaged people helping each other and learning what lies beyond their passion for each other.  It's a story about art, and family, and grief.  I expect the fans who have been waiting for more about Cole and Isabel will not be disappointed.

Review: The Dream Thieves

Book Two of the Raven Cycle
By Maggie Stiefvater
Available now from Scholastic Press
Review copy
Visit the Maggie Stiefvater tag for more

I've been debating how to approach this review for awhile.  I want to gush about it, but I fear that everything I want to gush about would spoil the small, wonderful surprises of THE DREAM THIEVES.

The characterization in this series continues to be almost perfect.  If there's a flaw, it's that previously barely mentioned characters are super important.  Blue's growing affection for Gansey is so well done, as is her growing to desire to kiss and be kissed despite her knowledge of the consequences.  Her family of psychic women becomes more important, including a strange romance for her mother.  Adam, who now has some power of his own, is growing ever more resentful of Gansey's money and privilege.  Noah keeps disappearing, a worrying development.  But THE DREAM THIEVES is really Ronan's story.

Ronan is a tough guy to like, but I tend to like him because the story openly admits that fact.  In THE DREAM THIEVES, he faces his antagonist/foil, the drugged up and wild Kavinsky.  Ronan has secrets, and Kavinsky thinks he knows what those secrets are, but he's often ever so slightly wrong.  Meanwhile, there's also more focus on Ronan and Gansey's relationship, the two of them siblings by choice.  It's terrific.

The plot of THE DREAM THIEVES meanders, and very little of it seems to have anything to do with the hunt for Glendower.  At the same time, everything feels like it has to do with Glendower.  Maggie Stiefvater is excellent at creating a portentous atmosphere and making every other thing that happens seem like it could be symbolic of things to come.  I can't wait to see how this series plays out.

Okay, I did it.  I think I made it through this review without any spoilers.  Now go read the book so that we can spoil it up in the comments!

Review: The Raven Boys

Book One of The Raven Cycle
By Maggie Stiefvater
Available now from Scholastic Press
Review copy courtesy of Krystal of Live to Read
Read my reviews of LAMENT, BALLAD, SHIVER, and LINGER
Read Maggie's guest blog

Guys, I am blown away.

It's not like I don't know that Maggie Stiefvater is a terrific author.  I've been a fan from the very beginning.  And I knew she was excited about THE RAVEN BOYS, from both her blog posts and hearing her speak at TLA.  I still didn't expect this.  All of the books I've previously crowned the best of the year are going to have to step aside for the true king.

Blue Sargent knows that magic exists.  She lives in a family of seers, though she is not a seer herself; she magnifies others' abilities.  Every seer tells her the same thing: the first boy she kisses, her true love, will die.  Then she sees Gansey's spirit on St. Mark's Eve.  The only explanation is that he's her true love or she kills him.  In Blue's case, it might well be both.  But when she meets Gansey, she doesn't fall for him.  She falls for Adam, one of his best friends.  But she is pulled into the magnetic Gansey's search for a lost Welsh king.

The characterization in this story, you guys.  The characterization.  Gansey cannot say the right thing and he buries himself under a perfect, empty surface.  Ronan is a bundle of anger and hugs for his pet raven Chainsaw.  Adam is a scholarship student and both cares deeply for his friends and wants to make his own way through live without their help.  Noah, the smudgy one, hangs quietly around the edges.  Suffice it to say, I want to knit each raven boy a fuzzy, ugly sweater to replace their school raven sweater and cuddle them and show them that they are loved and it will be okay.  And of course, it isn't going to be okay.  There's an aura of dread throughout THE RAVEN BOYS.  There's going to be death.  It's inevitable.  THE RAVEN BOYS is a book where you know things will not end well.  And I may love happy endings, but I adore impossible situations and certain doom even more.

If you didn't like the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, I'd still give THE RAVEN BOYS a chance.  With it's use of Welsh mythology, it's closer in style to her faerie books.  Even then, THE RAVEN BOYS is a new sort of beast.  It's a book where the magic is limited in scope and barely present, yet frightening to encounter.  It's a book about love - not romantic love, particularly - and the lengths people will go to for love.  And the lengths people will go to for power.  It's about being a teenage boy and being a teenage girl and all the craziness that entails even without life and death on the line.

If this review is incoherent, please excuse me.  I've been left bereft of much of my senses.  The only thing clear to me is that I must read the second book of Stiefvater's Raven cycle as soon as possible.

Forever: Cover and Pre-Order

I love the cover for FOREVER, the final book in Maggie Stiefvater's Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, though I still wish it were yellow as I predicted in my LINGER review. It will be available next year on July 12.

But you can pre-order an autographed copy now. Just follow this link to Fountain Bookstore. Note that you can also buy her backlist authographed too.

Review: Linger

By Maggie Stiefvater
Available now from Scholastic
Read my reviews of SHIVER, LAMENT, and BALLAD
Read Maggie Stiefvater's guest blog



This review took me longer to write than I thought it would. I kept producing a disjointed mess. I finally produced something I am happy with, but be warned. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF SHIVER.

SHIVER and LINGER are obviously lovely books. They have a distinctive, monochromatic papercut look. With SHIVER, I didn't think of it as much more than nice packaging. Reading LINGER with SHIVER in mind, I realized how thematically tight the Wolves of Mercy Falls books are.

SHIVER is the winter book. Yes, it takes place toward the end of autumn, but it's all about winter coming. Thus, the blue. LINGER is the spring book, even though it takes place at the end of winter. As Cole says in his first appearance, "[S]pring had come too soon."

Spring frequently represents rebirth, or new life. Sam has been cured. Cole has been infected. Isabel must move forward without her brother, who she helped die. Grace must move forward with Sam, who gave up something she wished for desperately in order to be with her. Grace's parents must face the fact that their neglect has turned her into an autonomous being. 

None of them are prepared to deal.  Sam wants to remain a kid, not responsible for protecting the pack.  Cole wants to remain a wolf, ignoring the pressures of human thought.  Isabel doesn't want to acknowledge what she wants.  Grace wants to pretend she has everything she wants.  Grace's parents want to continue to pretend she's a well-behaved little girl.

Chick Lit Teens quoted Maggie as saying Grace's parents felt like they could safely ignore her since "she's yet to set anything on fire." But now she has set something on fire. She's sleeping with a boy, and that gets their goat. They know parents shouldn't let their child sleep with a boy. Yet it's still a transparently false attempt at parenting. They still barely police her. They also ignore the fact that Grace is clearly sick. For all the good parts of spring, there's still spring fever.

And oh, are there good parts of spring.  Sam and Grace's relationship is incredibly sweet.  They're just so into each other.  I do maintain what I said in my review of SHIVER - they have lives outside of each other.  Sam once more works at the bookshop.  He gets into arguments with Cole.  Grace hangs out and bakes with Rachel.  She explores the woods with Isabel.  The bits narrated when they're apart do help to show off just how adorkable they act together.  Sam makes Grace a little less guarded and she makes him a little less earnest (to use Cole's word).

As for Cole and Isabel, they make wonderful foils to Sam and Grace.  They are sarcastic and lustful and definitely not optimists.  I'd already gotten to like Isabel in SHIVER, but it took me awhile to warm up to Cole.  I think I did because in his own way, he's as earnest as Sam.  He's so definitive about what he likes and doesn't like in addition to being a sharp observer of people.  But Cole tries to blunt himself because he isn't one to take the truth lying down.

I am so curious as to what FOREVER will mean for these characters.  And you can trust Maggie Stiefvater to make a book about kissing and wolves meaningful.

Maggie Stiefvater Signing Report

Today, I went to see Maggie Stiefvater at BookPeople. Other bloggers in attendance, based on bookmarks or business cards I received, include the ladies of Girls in the Stacks, Mystical Lit Lounge, Windowpane Memoirs, and Project 52.

Maggie started off with a few anecdotes about the most common questions she receives about LINGER: "Did you do any research, like reading werewolf books?" and "Why werewolves?"

She said that she did quite a bit of medical research as well as research on dead German poets (for Sam's point of view), but didn't read any werewolf books. After all, she knew what werewolves were. Long anecdote short, she chose werewolves because of childhood phobias and Teen Wolf.

Then came a short reading, of Cole's first narration. Maggie wrote an earlier scene first and didn't like Cole's personality and had plans to cut him from the book. Then she wrote the first chronological Cole scene and couldn't abandon him. Answering a later question, she admitted to having trouble with Cole's snark as well as Isabel's tendency to not say what she means.

During the Q&A, Maggie was canny about some of her answers - she wouldn't discuss happy endings or hook-ups. The secret novel comes out in Spring 2012 and contains both beaches and kissing. She's seen the cover of FOREVER, but won't reveal the color yet. (I'm hoping for yellow with goldenrod text.)

Other questions she elaborated more, sometimes with her trademarked anecdotes. Kraken are the New Vampires goes viral more than anything else, although apparently the story of her hearing about being #1 on the NYT Bestseller list is being oft repeated, with embellishments in the case of the Hungarians. Also, there is a third Book of Faerie, titled REQUIEM, and is told through the point of view of an already introduced character and finishes Dee's story. It got pushed to the back of the line and may get pushed back again. SHIVER has been optioned; the screenplay is written (not by Maggie) and is currently undergoing rewrites. Maggie has a small consultation role, but no real power over the movie.

Then came the signing! There were lots of people at the event, but the line moved quickly.  I was toward the front of the middle and this photo was taken after I got my books signed.

When I told Maggie who I was, she drew an adorable Thorn King in my copy of BALLAD. Look at his billowing cloak! It was a very fun event. Maggie's even funnier in person than she is on her blog. Tomorrow I'll post my review of LINGER.

"Waiting on" Wednesday

Hosted by: Jill

I am eagerly awaiting LINGER!



Check out the gorgeous trailer, handmade by the genius Maggie Stiefvater herself:




Plus, by sharing this trailer you can win one of four crazy awesome prizes.

Click on the "maggie stiefvater" tag to learn more about her novels.

Rachelle Knight Recommends . . .

Rachelle Rogers Knight is the author of bibliobabe.com as well as READ, REMEMBER, RECOMMEND and the recently released READ, REMEMBER, RECOMMEND FOR TEENS. Rachelle is hosting a contest for each of her Traveling to Teens stops. Be sure to check out her page for In Bed With Books - the contest ends 5/12. In addition, be sure to stop by later today for my review of the journal.

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The theme of the READ, REMEMBER, RECOMMEND FOR TEENS Traveling to Teens Tour is "Great Summer Reading". For each of my guest posts on the tour, the blog host and I will both recommend a book we feel would be worthy of some sunny weather, summer reading.



Have you been missing tales of furry, cuddly wolves - who might also make great boyfriends? If so, Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver series is the ticket to some exciting summer reading, without the worries of a pesky vampire to spoil the fun.

Grace is a cute, smart, slightly introverted seventeen year old girl in chilly Minnesota. She is completely normal, except for her obsession with the wolves that live in the Boundary Woods behind her house. When she was six, she was pulled from a tire swing by these same wolves and bitten. A horrible death was barely avoided by an aggressive male wolf - with beautiful eyes. Since that time, Grace watches for 'her' wolf, taking pictures, leaving scrapes of food, and watching for any news concerning the welfare of the pack.

When another teen turns up missing (and ultimately dead), Grace's hometown reacts by hunting the wolves. When a wolf is shot, Grace's questions about her wolf are answered. In that moment, Grace not only gets a new cute boyfriend, but that boyfriend is the human form of ‘her’ wolf. What happens next is an exciting romance, filled with suspense, longing and fear.



Sound like the 'stuff' of a good summer read? Good news! SHIVER continues with the July 20th release of LINGER, the next in the story of Grace and Sam - a werewolf love affair to remember.

Accolades for SHIVER:

• Indies Choice Book Award Finalist
• ALA Best Books for Young Adults
• ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers
• Amazon Top Ten Books for Teens
• Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2009
• Border's Original Voices Pick & Finalist
• Barnes & Noble 2009 Top Twenty Books for Teens
• CBC Children's Choice Awards Finalist
• SIBA 2010 Book Award Finalist
• Junior Library Guild Selection (Shiver and Linger)
• Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Nominee
• Glamour's Best Book to Curl Up With

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Now for my part!



Since Rachelle recommended SHIVER and LINGER, I have to recommend Maggie Stiefvater's LAMENT and BALLAD. Both are available for paperback, which makes them more affordable and more transportable than SHIVER, for those who want their summer read on the go.

Stiefvater's modern faerie tales will particularly appeal to music lovers. And for those who are tired of weak-willed paranormal romance heroine's, BALLAD's Nuala will be a welcome relief. I know it's sometimes harder to find Flux books in a brick and mortar store, but these two are usually in stock due to SHIVER's success.

Win a Linger ARC!

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other.  Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack.  And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.

Enter to win an advanced review copies of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie's blog.

Review: Shiver

By Maggie Stiefvater
Available now from Scholastic
Read my reviews of LAMENT and BALLAD
Read Maggie's guest blog



Sometimes (okay, all the time) I fall behind on my blog reading. While reading Renay's YA Fabulous, I came across this review of SHIVER by the Rejectionist. The Rejectionist's main issue with the novel is Grace, who she terms an Enfeebled Heroine, a la Bella Swan. To wit, "Grace has literally no interests outside of her werewolf boyfriend and COOKING[.]" I can totally get behind being tired of Enfeebled Heroines. But did I see Grace as one?

First, I love debating gender issues. My favorite show on TV right now is Dollhouse, which is fraught with gender issues. The setting is a high class brothel and the main characters are either high class prostitutes or pimps. There's an interesting blend of misogyny and feminism, the show getting some things oh-so-right and others oh-so-wrong. The stories are entertaining, but the discussions it engenders are the real treat: rich, combative, and multi-layered. What better tribute to a show that revels in perception, memory, and point of view? So when I normally don't address other's reviews, I thought The Rejectionist's was worth highlighting. It helped me think more critically about how I viewed Grace. And since some of the comments got nasty, I want ya'll to remember: both of our interpretations are correct, and neither of them are.

SHIVER opens with Grace being attacked by (were)wolves. Her behavior is inexplicable. She doesn't stuggle or panic. She simply relaxes and lets it happen. It's a creepy and off-putting opening. Maggie Stiefvater lets the reason for her behavior unfold slowly, and never shoves it in the reader's face. Sam picks up on the wrongness, but chooses not to push the issue. It's a unique treatment of the subject, as most books that contain it can't help but shove it into the foreground. To me, it's the key to Grace's character.

Grace is the victim of child abuse.

Her parents don't hit her. They don't tell her she's stupid, or a slut. She's got food, clothes, and a warm house. But she's alone most of the day. Her parents ignore her. They don't relate to her. Shortly after the attack, her dad forgets her in the car and she ends up in the hospital. Yes, parents make mistakes. Parents who pay attention to their children don't forget they're in the car.

Grace has grown up perceiving herself as unimportant. Before the attack, her only refuge was reading. She likes to do it outdoors, having developed a relationship with nature to replace the lack of human contact. After the attack, she focuses her attention on the wolves, particularly the one who saved her. The yellow eyed wolf saw her as important, something worth saving, which allows her to see herself as important. She has trouble making friends, but ends up with two close friends, one of whom shares her love of the wolves.

Then, when a peer's death puts the wolves in danger, she risks her life by going into the wood when the hunters are out in order to help them. The wolves are her family in a way her parents aren't. Throughout the novel she wants to save Sam and his pack. She sometimes works harder to save the wolves than Sam. She works to find Jack Culpepper, whose behavior puts the pack at risk, and to find the cure.

Let's count her interests other than Sam and cooking: reading, exploring nature, hanging with friends, saving the wolves. I think that's not bad for a teenager, particularly one in love. She's sometimes withdrawn and blank, but I saw that as a symptom of the abuse rather than a weakness of characterization.

Now we come to the main thing I focused on while reading SHIVER, the thing that had me thinking, "I can't believe this was published by Scholastic! Squeaky clean Scholastic!" SHIVER is sexy. Stiefvater's BALLAD and LAMENT are sensual. SHIVER is sexy. Sam is the reticent one in the relationship, the one who knows he doesn't have much more time as a human. Grace is the one who knows what she wants and goes after it. She pursues her relationship with Sam ardently. She's the agressor in the relationship, the one who pushes things forward. That's not the usual portrayal of teen girls at all. Am I entirely sure it's healthy for a young, emotionally fragile girl to become deeply involved with a boy, especially a boy who may be forced to abandon her? Actually, I'm pretty sure it's not. But it makes for an intriguing romance, particularly when Grace and Sam both approach it maturely and find healing with each other. (Sam's issues are another essay.)

I thought SHIVER was a sexy romance with an new style of werewolf and a supporting cast I looked forward to seeing more of. Grace was the understated center, working to save the wolves and become a normal girl, caught up in the newness of having her obsession obsessed with her when not even her parents thought she was worth thinking about. But I must admit, she doesn't kick anyone's ass. Then again, she's a bookworm junior in high school - not the type of person known for kicking ass and taking names.

Review: Ballad

By Maggie Stiefvater
Coming Oct 1st from Flux



A little less than a year ago, I received an e-mail promising me homicidal faeries. I, being the sort too dumb to know when a deal is too good to be true, said yes. In return for the novel, I became a fan of the affable and clever Maggie Stiefvater. And now that I've read BALLAD her insidious claim is stronger than ever. I'm waiting for the paperback of SHIVER, but maybe I shouldn't. I might owe her my collection of shamrock memorabilia.

When BALLAD opens, James is still recovering from the events of LAMENT. He almost died and the only person who knows why he almost died can't help him recover since she's pretty much shattered by the events too. Along comes Nuala, attracted by James's talent with the bagpipes. Of course, she might be attracted to the piper himself as well. Of course, that might not be his only problem, since the faeries aren't overly found of Deirdre. Of course, James is too neurotic to really process any of this.

Maggie Stiefvater knows how to string together a sentence. She knows how to haunt you with a motif. She knows how to write music so that you hear it in your heart. She knows how to create a unique narrative voice, so that you don't need the name before the chapter or the epigraph to know whether James or Nuala is speaking. (Or to separate them from Deirdre's voice in LAMENT.) She knows how to rip your heart out of your chest without resorting to tearjearker tactics. All it takes are Dee's unsent text messages, full of everything she needs to say to James but can't. (And she would be the absolute bitch Nuala thinks she is if we didn't have those messages to tell us what she's repressing.)

If Blogger eats this review like it did my first review of LAMENT, I'll cry. I don't want to think about this too much, I just want to pour it out. That's what reading BALLAD was like: an experience that swept me away into James and Nuala's world of music and love and pain and desperate hope. Also, the book is funny. James and Nuala are both sarcastic and quick-witted. Many of the side characters hold their own. I love the side characters, especially Paul. They sneak up on you, going, "Hey, I've been here this whole time. Being awesome. Now that you know it, I'm going to level up in awesome just to blow your mind." They're like Stiefvater herself in that way.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go hug my book. And cry over the fact I don't have time to re-read it or LAMENT.

Now, both B&N and Amazon are showing BALLAD as In Stock despite the fact the release date is Oct 1st. So go ahead and click on the cover and buy yourself a copy. You won't regret it . . . except for the fact you'll be a slave to Stiefvater's brilliance.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Ballad

Ya'll probably already knew I wanted to read BALLAD, based on my review of LAMENT and my intro to her guest blog. But it's almost here (October 1), and it bears repeating, especially since cool prizes are up for grabs.



Blurb from Amazon:

Remember us, so sing the dead, lest we remember you

James Morgan has an almost unearthly gift for music. And it has attracted Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and then feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. James has plenty of reasons to fear the faeries, but as he and Nuala collaborate on an achingly beautiful musical composition, James finds his feelings towards Nuala deepening. But the rest of the fairies are not as harmless. As Halloween—the day of the dead—draws near, James will have to battle the Faerie Queen and the horned king of the dead to save Nuala's life and his soul.

Teaser:

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 grow rise follow – 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.

Meme: Create Your Debut Novel Cover

I took this meme from Maggie Stiefvater's awesome el jay. She released SHIVER last month, and in October we'll be graced with BALLAD, the sequel/companion novel to LAMENT.

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.

My first verb, disentangle, was not found on flickr. However, I did find a photo for my second verb. I have Photoshop on my laptop but not the desktop, so I used Picnik. It's very easy - this cover took me less than half an hour and I've never used the software before. (Most of the time I was playing with fonts. I love fonts.)




Now the question is . . . do you want to read my book?

Maggie Stiefvater on Happiness

Maggie Stiefvater is the author of LAMENT, which I loved. I cannot wait for the sequel BALLAD, which comes out this year. Plus, her new series is beginning with SHIVER. Check out her el jay and the Merry Sisters of Fate comm because this is one author you'll want to learn more about. Her blog posts are always entertaining and informative.





I like the new cover since it gels with the contents and will match the cover of BALLAD, but I loved the old one. The charcoal details shown throughout the book were lovely.



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Liviania welcomed me to do a guest blog on happiness for her in honor of her birthday and her blog's anniversary. Happy blogbirthday, Liviania! I'm going to try my best to keep it vaguely book related, so here goes nuthin'.

1.Happiness is, first and foremost, sweet tea and cookie dough. Let's be serious here.

Shoot. I broke my book-related promise with the first item on the list.

1a. Happiness is, first and foremost, sweet tea and cookie dough while reading a good book.

2. Happiness is a year of books that I am dying to read: THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, by Carrie Ryan, THE DEMON'S LEXICON, by Sarah Rees Brennan, AS YOU WISH, by Jackson Pearce. Zombies, demons, and genies, respectively, all with love involves. So after your boyfriend is bitten by a zombie you can sell your soul to the devil in return for a genie who can grant three wishes: 1) eliminate the zombie threat, 2) give your soul back, and 3) give me the sequel.

3. Happiness is also a year of books that I've loved being made into movies that will hopefully not suck: HARRY POTTER, THE VELVETEEN RABBIT, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, and THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE. Okay, wait. TTW doesn't come out until 2010, but that's still enough fun movieness for happiness. I am currently trying to stop watching the Harry Potter trailer on repeat so that I can continue on to #3.

4. Happiness is Melina Marchetta. I have read SAVING FRANCESCA and JELLICOE ROAD in quick succession and I'm about to start in on FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK. She writes such wonderful reluctant love stories into her redemption stories. They entertain even a reader such as myself who is more often entertained by novels that involve supernatural creatures popping people's heads off.



5. Happiness is having two books coming out this year that I'm really proud of: SHIVER, on August 1 (a girl and boy fall in love; the boy must become a wolf each winter), and BALLAD, on October 1 (the sequel to LAMENT where James must choose between saving his best friend-long term crush or the faerie which is making him change the way he sees himself). SHIVER has been so exciting -- the German, Italian, and Dutch rights all sold right away based upon the first 77 pages (we didn't even have the full manuscript ready for them to look at) and BALLAD has this absolutely drop dead gorgeous cover with FIRE on it.

6. Happiness is having finally amassed a nice pile of young adult book review blogs that I regularly check for recommendations. This one, YAreads.com, Reviewer X, Guys Lit Wire, The YA Mansion amongst others. . . it's taken about a year and a half for me to find my way around the YA book world, but it's a great community. Great for procrastinating on writing.

7. And finally, happiness is finding good books in unexpected places. Like under a pile of clean laundry that you'd avoided folding for a few weeks. Why, hellloooo, John Green!

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It may have broken her rule, but I can get behind tea and cookie dough. (Though really, coffee is better than tea.)

Maggie's offering one lucky duck a signed copy of LAMENT. You wanna be the lucky one? Follow the rules.