1. I could post about something awesome before going off to NCTE, but instead, due to popular request, I am posting my Awesome Brownies That Taste Like Box Brownies recipe.
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbs vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa powder (I like Hersheys' special dark)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup flour
Preheat oven to 350. Grease 8 x 8" baking dish. Combine everything but flour, cocoa, and salt, stir. Throw in everything else but the chips. Add the chips. Stir, baby! Bake 30 minutes or until a fork stuck in the middle just comes out clean (let set up for about 10 minutes before eating or they will be goopy).
2. I've posted the tentative dates for a lot a lot of the foreign editions of SHIVER, if you're curious.
3. I'm at about 20,000 words on my NaNo novel. Am I worried? Not yet . . . will be posting on this concept later.
4. Don't let your Jack Russell get into your brother's espresso. Just sayin'.
5. Musical obsession for the day/ month/ life: Anyway You Choose to Give It, by the Black Ghosts. It's on the playlist for Cole from LINGER . . . *gasp the spoilery, it kills me!*
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Clearly, You Need Some Cheering Up
The collective You seems a bit down today, so if You are one of these, have a feel good post.
A feel good song ("Any Fun" by Coconut Records)
A feel good short video (it is 14 minutes long, but get your boss to watch it with you and tell me you aren't smiling at the end):
A totally feel-good story about Nubs.
Another cheery song without a fun video.
And finally, a feel-good inspiration statement that's true as true: you're not somebody when you achieve your dreams, you're somebody as soon as you start to try to achieve them.
Not precisely sure why I feel compelled to post this, but I do, so here it is. My feel-good post. I'm doing something for someone today that I feel really good about doing, so maybe this is the cause of my smiley face.
A feel good song ("Any Fun" by Coconut Records)
A feel good short video (it is 14 minutes long, but get your boss to watch it with you and tell me you aren't smiling at the end):
A totally feel-good story about Nubs.
Another cheery song without a fun video.
And finally, a feel-good inspiration statement that's true as true: you're not somebody when you achieve your dreams, you're somebody as soon as you start to try to achieve them.
Not precisely sure why I feel compelled to post this, but I do, so here it is. My feel-good post. I'm doing something for someone today that I feel really good about doing, so maybe this is the cause of my smiley face.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Pre-Order LINGER! Whooo!!!
Whoohoo! We interrupt this Maggie-work-day to announce that LINGER is now available for pre-order!!! It has a tiny bit more about the novel. And I should also mention that the price will probably drop closer to the date, if it's the same as their other pre-orders, and Amazon charges you the lowest price when it ships. I can't believe it's already up! And that it's still thrilling to see it, even though this is Maggie Book #4.Oh man am I excited and nervous to see how readers react to this one. :D
The Care and Reading of Maggies
I
've been thinking the past week about how much my reading habits have changed since I was a teen. It used to be that I would finish everything I started, no matter how little I liked it, and I could only read one thing at a time. And never while I was writing.
Now, I put down books regularly if they aren't gripping me 'round the neck, I read several books at a time, depending on my mood, and if I get stuck in my writing, it's a surefire sign I haven't been reading enough. I'm gonna say I think this is because of time crunch and solidifying my own style and subject matter.
Anyway, at the moment I'm reading a couple of things -- SISTERS RED, by Jackson Pearce (it's an ARC), SO BRAVE, YOUNG, AND HANDSOME, by Leif Enger, and of course, the Italian version of SHIVER ("Lasciami in pace, Ulrik, okay? Lasciami in pace.")(I still can't read Italian).
I came to the Enger book by way of his first one, PEACE LIKE A RIVER, which I love with the fire of one hundred suns. And I came to PEACE LIKE A RIVER by way of the Alex Awards. I'm usually not a big fan of lists -- tis the season for lists, like Amazon's Top Ten Teen Books for 2009 and Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books of 2009, both of which have SHIVER on them, so I say too much -- simply because my tastes are not the most mainstream of tastes and lists often don't help me. Like . . . I like paranormal, but not mainstream genre paranormal for the most part, so lists of werewolf books leave me high and dry, for instance.
But then I stumbled across ALA's Alex Awards. I didn't even know what they were for at first, I just knew that they had three books that I'd loved on the list. Adult books, which is odd for me, because I tend to live in the YA section. So thrilled with finding a list with so many Maggie books on it, I began madly requesting other books on the list from my library to see if I had finally, finally found a Maggie List.
And I had.
Even though I don't always love all the Alex Award winners with the fierce affection of PEACE LIKE A RIVER or THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE or CROW LAKE, I can still see why they're on the list, and I can finish them (which these days is pretty impressive for my gnat-like attention span). They all have a certain produndity to them (is that a real word? I don't care. I'm using it) and they are all told stylishly, with powerful, memorable characters. They tend to be slow, whimsical, unfurling plots set in rich settings. And did I mention character-driven and pretty prose? Oh, yes, the hot buttons of Maggie were being punched, and I didn't even know what the award was for.
Well, recently I bothered to actually read the mission statement and found out that "The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18." Well, this particular YA author is nothing if not predictable.
Anyway, suddenly, I understand lists. Because I would have never picked up the books on this list in a thousand years -- the descriptions of some just don't pull me in -- but my faith that they would be told in the same way as the other Alex books I'd read made me buy them. And they are always worth it. (So thanks, ALA!)
So do you guys have lists that work for you? Awards you always pay attention to?
've been thinking the past week about how much my reading habits have changed since I was a teen. It used to be that I would finish everything I started, no matter how little I liked it, and I could only read one thing at a time. And never while I was writing. Now, I put down books regularly if they aren't gripping me 'round the neck, I read several books at a time, depending on my mood, and if I get stuck in my writing, it's a surefire sign I haven't been reading enough. I'm gonna say I think this is because of time crunch and solidifying my own style and subject matter.
Anyway, at the moment I'm reading a couple of things -- SISTERS RED, by Jackson Pearce (it's an ARC), SO BRAVE, YOUNG, AND HANDSOME, by Leif Enger, and of course, the Italian version of SHIVER ("Lasciami in pace, Ulrik, okay? Lasciami in pace.")(I still can't read Italian).
I came to the Enger book by way of his first one, PEACE LIKE A RIVER, which I love with the fire of one hundred suns. And I came to PEACE LIKE A RIVER by way of the Alex Awards. I'm usually not a big fan of lists -- tis the season for lists, like Amazon's Top Ten Teen Books for 2009 and Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books of 2009, both of which have SHIVER on them, so I say too much -- simply because my tastes are not the most mainstream of tastes and lists often don't help me. Like . . . I like paranormal, but not mainstream genre paranormal for the most part, so lists of werewolf books leave me high and dry, for instance.
But then I stumbled across ALA's Alex Awards. I didn't even know what they were for at first, I just knew that they had three books that I'd loved on the list. Adult books, which is odd for me, because I tend to live in the YA section. So thrilled with finding a list with so many Maggie books on it, I began madly requesting other books on the list from my library to see if I had finally, finally found a Maggie List.And I had.
Even though I don't always love all the Alex Award winners with the fierce affection of PEACE LIKE A RIVER or THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE or CROW LAKE, I can still see why they're on the list, and I can finish them (which these days is pretty impressive for my gnat-like attention span). They all have a certain produndity to them (is that a real word? I don't care. I'm using it) and they are all told stylishly, with powerful, memorable characters. They tend to be slow, whimsical, unfurling plots set in rich settings. And did I mention character-driven and pretty prose? Oh, yes, the hot buttons of Maggie were being punched, and I didn't even know what the award was for.
Well, recently I bothered to actually read the mission statement and found out that "The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18." Well, this particular YA author is nothing if not predictable. Anyway, suddenly, I understand lists. Because I would have never picked up the books on this list in a thousand years -- the descriptions of some just don't pull me in -- but my faith that they would be told in the same way as the other Alex books I'd read made me buy them. And they are always worth it. (So thanks, ALA!)
So do you guys have lists that work for you? Awards you always pay attention to?
Monday, November 16, 2009
A New Look at the Romance Genre & National Press Club Book Fair
First of all, Thing 1 wrote her first story today. It was this:
"A Princess"
And a princess
loved the prince.
The Prince
loved
the Princess.
The End.
So upon finding her writing this (she is five years old and very slow at writing so it probably felt like she'd written SHIVER by this point), I entered a motherly dialogue with her.
ME: That's a nice story.
THING 1: I skipped the Once Upon a Time. Because Once was hard to spell. And everyone knows that part anyway.
ME: True enough.
THING 1: It's a love story.
ME: A love story?
THING 1: In a love story, nobody figures anything out.
ME: *snorkles*
THING 1: But the prince loves the princess. And the princess loves the prince. I'm giving this to Grandma.
Anyway, I would like to point out that these views on starting the story where your plot begins (none of this Once Upon a Time stuff) and nothing but kissing going on in the way of plot is exactly how I came to write Shiver.
Out of the mouths of babes.
That aside, if you're in the Maryland/ D.C. area, I've been invited to sign at the National Press Club Book Fair tomorrow night from 5:30-8:30 p.m. in downtown D.C. With posh political luminaries. It is $5 to get in, but once you're in, there is 90 of us authorly types, including Chris Matthews, Gwen Ifill, a senator, Spike & Carla from Top Chef, and of course an author of werewolf kissing books. How can you stay away? I mean, seriously. if nothing else, it's the great start for a joke.
"A Princess"
And a princess
loved the prince.
The Prince
loved
the Princess.
The End.
So upon finding her writing this (she is five years old and very slow at writing so it probably felt like she'd written SHIVER by this point), I entered a motherly dialogue with her.
ME: That's a nice story.
THING 1: I skipped the Once Upon a Time. Because Once was hard to spell. And everyone knows that part anyway.
ME: True enough.
THING 1: It's a love story.
ME: A love story?
THING 1: In a love story, nobody figures anything out.
ME: *snorkles*
THING 1: But the prince loves the princess. And the princess loves the prince. I'm giving this to Grandma.
Anyway, I would like to point out that these views on starting the story where your plot begins (none of this Once Upon a Time stuff) and nothing but kissing going on in the way of plot is exactly how I came to write Shiver.
Out of the mouths of babes.
That aside, if you're in the Maryland/ D.C. area, I've been invited to sign at the National Press Club Book Fair tomorrow night from 5:30-8:30 p.m. in downtown D.C. With posh political luminaries. It is $5 to get in, but once you're in, there is 90 of us authorly types, including Chris Matthews, Gwen Ifill, a senator, Spike & Carla from Top Chef, and of course an author of werewolf kissing books. How can you stay away? I mean, seriously. if nothing else, it's the great start for a joke.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Hey, you Virginia Types: Book Signing Today
Hey, Virginian types: if you are in the area, I have a signing today from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Midlothian Barnes & Noble: 4600 Commonwealth Center Pkwy, Midlothian, VA 23112.
Now I must manically go burn a playlist to listen to on the way down there, for my NaNo novel. Because there are not yet laws against brainstorming while driving.
Yet.
Now I must manically go burn a playlist to listen to on the way down there, for my NaNo novel. Because there are not yet laws against brainstorming while driving.
Yet.
Friday, November 13, 2009
The Early (Horrible) Writings of Maggie Stiefvater
Or, what a bestselling author's work looked like at age 16.
Our theme on Merry Sisters of Fate this week is our horribly bad high school writing years, complete with examples. Today was my day to post some examples of my early writing, the more hilariously bad, the better.
I have to say that I had a plethora of bad writing to choose from, as I wrote (but didn't always finish) 34 novels before I was published, and started writing when I was but a tiny maggot.
There were many forms of badness to choose from, from the very subtle to the roaringly hilarious, but finally I put my writing faults into a few major categories. And if you want to read them and find out just how bad I was (I was very bad, trust me), you'll have to go here.
Our theme on Merry Sisters of Fate this week is our horribly bad high school writing years, complete with examples. Today was my day to post some examples of my early writing, the more hilariously bad, the better.
I have to say that I had a plethora of bad writing to choose from, as I wrote (but didn't always finish) 34 novels before I was published, and started writing when I was but a tiny maggot.
There were many forms of badness to choose from, from the very subtle to the roaringly hilarious, but finally I put my writing faults into a few major categories. And if you want to read them and find out just how bad I was (I was very bad, trust me), you'll have to go here.
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