September 28, 2009

Book Signing with Maggie Stiefvater!!!!!!


So a few weeks back I was complaining that authors never come to Minnesota.  Well lo and behold Maggie Stiefvater, author of Shiver, announces she is coming to Minnesota!!! I didn't care where she was going to appear, I would be there.  Turns out she was appearing at a Barnes and Noble not too far away. Dragging my sister along, I went to the signing on Saturday night. She was appearing with two other YA authors that are published by the same publishing company as Maggie, Flux Publishing.  We got there and got seated.  I was happy to see several young girls there, so I knew they would ask questions. 



The event started with each author sharing a little about themselvs and their writing process, and then they opened it up to questions.  Another author on the panel, Kristen Cronn-Mills, had a question for the group.  Her publisher wanted to know if teenagers had to have the main characters in a novel end up together or was it ok if they didn't.  A great discussion started - boiled down to NO as long as there was a good reason for them to be apart.

The Q and A was great.  I learned a lot about Maggie, her life and her writing process.  Here are a few things:
  • she legally changed her name when she was 16 years old
  • she was homeschool, so loves going to schools so she can steal characters for her books
  • she takes great glee in putting her characters through difficult things.  She commented that when she learned Sam in Shiver couldn't look at bathtubs because of childhood trauma, she knew she'd force him into a bathtub at some point during the book!
  • She almost had to change Sam's name in Shiver, but was able to leave it as is
  • she wrote Shiver because she cried at The Time Traveler's Wife and wanted to make people cry
  • after writing Shiver she had to write Ballad to counter act the sweetness of Shiver.  She said she had to burn someone at the stake!
  • she is full of energy and had us all laughing several times.  I think if I spent the day with her, she'd wear me out! 



After the questions they all stayed to sign books. I had Maggie sign all three Shiver, Lament and Ballad.  I also bought the books by the other two authors, Margaret Willey and Kirsten Cronn-Mills because they both sounded great.  I'll be highlighting Kirsten Cronn-Mills at some point.  I read the first few pages of her book The Sky Always Hears Me and was hooked!

I'm so glad I went! And between you and me - I think my sister enjoyed it too!















And this last pic is to enter Maggie's incrediable give-away.  Go here to see what it is!


8 comments:

  1. OMG
    OMG
    OMG
    HOW cool.
    I'm terribly jealous! :)
    Thanks for sharing your photos and story.

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  2. Sounds like a really good time. Glad you got everything signed and learned a bit about Maggie. Good luck with the contest!

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  3. Sounds like a blast! I'm very jealous you got to meet her.

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  4. im sooooooooooooo jealous! lucky =)

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  5. *squee* You guys are so cute! I hope Maggie gets to come down to Southern California... maybe for Linger? (hint hint, Flux!)

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  6. Glad you had a good time! Although, as Kirstin Cronn-Mills' publisher, I'd like to correct one point: WE did not ask her to clarify if teens want the characters to end up together at the end of books. I can't remember who Kirstin said asked her this: possibly a friend or a colleague. But her publisher is, for the record, happy to see characters end up together or apart, depending on how the narrative plays out (is either ending justified?) and would never force a writer to come to one conclusion or the other. :-)

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  7. this is such a cool website. I love it. I've read some books that are posted om this website!

    Swimswim96@yahoo.com

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  8. Thanks for sharing -- I had to miss Maggie's signing in my area and was so bummed. I'm so glad that I can live vicariously through your visit!

    (And I love the owl t-shirt!)

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