Maggie Stiefvater Archives - The Nerd's Wife

Maggie Stiefvater Signing

Tuesday, August 3, 2010 / By Arena Blake

Last Thursday, The Nerd and I packed up and headed south to Austin to meet Maggie Stiefvater.

I’ve waxed poetic about my love for her and her books many, many times on this blog.

So, you’ll forgive me for one more post about her total awesomeness.

The event was at Book People, an independent bookstore in Austin.

It was my birthday, so I was super-stoked to get to meet one of my favorite authors on my birthday.

One of the best things about being a book blogger is the huge community that you join and the friends you make.

This is me with the Girls in the Stacks, another group of DFW book bloggers.

Stacy’s husband made an origami crane out of a subway paper to give to Maggie.

If you’ve read Linger, you know that’s the perfect gift for her.

I also met Michelle from Windowpane Memoirs.

Here’s the group of book bloggers: Girls in the Stacks, Mundie Moms, Stephanie and Jennifer.

Soon, it was time for the signing!

Here’s Maggie hanging out behind the curtain before she was announced.

She read from Linger and answered some questions from the audience.

She is *so* funny and even made a Monty Python joke.

I was able to capture most of it on video, and will be posting that soon.

It didn’t take long for me to get through the line.

We chatted about how it was my birthday, and she recognized me from Twitter.

I was pretty excited!

She personalized my books and even drew a wolf in my copy of Shiver!

It was a great day!

I got to meet one of my favorite authors, Maggie Stiefvater, on my birthday! Happy birthday to me!

Categories: Reading

Wolves of Mercy Falls Winners

Monday, July 26, 2010 / By Arena Blake

Three days ago, I launched a contest for *signed* copies of Shiver and Linger by Maggie Stiefvater.

The contest was live for 48 hours.

I dubbed it the “Wolves of Mercy Falls” giveaway and set it on its way.

I had no idea what I was in for.

Over the course of *two* days, 162 people entered the giveaway.

Those entrants tweeted, Facebooked and howled their way to 501 entries.

How *amazing* is that?

And, this lowly little blog went from 280-something followers to 420 followers!

Seriously, you guys rock!

Now comes the fun part — naming the winners!

To determine the winners, I made a spreadsheet with each entrant’s name listed one time for each of their entries. So, if you had six entries, your name was listed six times in the spreadsheet.

Then, I mixed the names up by sorting them randomly.

Finally, I used Random.org’s random number generator to come up with two numbers between 1 and 501.

Winner #1 is Tiffany!

Congrats, Tiffany! You will receive *signed* copies of Shiver and Linger, purchased by me for this giveaway.

Winner #2 is Reena!

Congrats, Reena! You will receive a copy of Linger, provided by Scholastic.

I’ve e-mailed both winners. They have 48 hours to respond and claim their prizes.

I had a TON of fun participating in the Got Books? Event.

I hope you guys enjoyed all of the giveaways from the participating blogs.

A *HUGE* thanks to GMR and The 1st Daughter for hosting this amazing event!

And thanks again to Scholastic for providing a book for this giveaway, and allowing me to participate in Maggie Stiefvater’s Linger Blog Tour.

Finally, thanks to everyone who entered! I am humbled by the response and I appreciate you all so much!

Categories: Reading

Linger Blog Tour: Interview with Maggie Stiefvater

Saturday, July 24, 2010 / By Arena Blake

I have been waxing poetic about my love for Maggie Stiefvater and the Wolves of Mercy Falls series for a while now.

I love this story and I could *not* wait to get my hands on Linger.

So, when I had the chance from Scholastic to participate in Maggie Stiefvater’s Blog Tour, I jumped on it.

Yesterday, I talked about the covers and how much I loved them.

Today, I’m going to talk about the story. My Review:

From the author’s website:

“In 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 Isabel, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.”

Maggie’s writing is lyrical. It moves you through the story without realizing you’re turning the pages.

This is a story that focuses on the characters — it is told from four points of view, but does not feel disjointed at all. Each character pulls you through the novel, adding depth and details that make the story so much richer.

I *loved* Isabel in this book. She seems like your typical small town queen bee (believe me, I’ve seen my share of those!) but she has so much more to her. She is complex and intriguing and her attraction to Cole add another layer to her character.

And let me say this: Maggie Stiefvater is not afraid to put her readers through the emotional paces. You *want* one thing to happen, but she’s not afraid to give you something else, something that you didn’t know you wanted.

It’s like all those times you pray and pray and pray for one thing, knowing that it is the only thing that will make you happy. But God gives you something you didn’t ask for. Something so much better.

I truly loved this story, and I can’t wait to see how it all turns out in Forever, slated to be released next summer.

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater is available from Amazon.

And now, some questions for Maggie:

When you first saw the cover for Shiver what did you think?“That it was drop dead gorgeous and fit the mood perfectly. Also, that, amazingly, I would have never come up with the concept myself. It was sort of strange to think of a bunch of people sitting in a room somewhere talking about my book without me. That was a weird feeling I was to experience a million times over in the next year.”

And what was your reaction to the cover of Linger?

“Happy seal clapping. Not quite as loud and thrilled as Shiver, because I knew the theme they were going to go with to match Shiver and the newness of that concept was part of the thrill, but still, I was pretty darn happy that we had another beautiful cover.”

How did you feel when you found out the books would be printed in colored ink (blue for Shiver and green for Linger)?

I actually didn’t know about this until I saw a finished copy. I remember I had just gotten into Chicago for a book event and my plane had been delayed and sat for three hours on the runway so I was galloping to a signing, when my editor ran along side me and handed me a finished copy of Shiver, the first I’d seen. I
opened it up, saw the blue text, and immediately wanted to go back to my hotel room to see if everything sounded sexier in blue. (it does, by the way).

As an artist, it must be hard for you to be so hands off in the cover design. What’s the hardest part?

“Letting go. Not sending one hundred .jpgs of cover concepts. Not saying ‘can we change these branches?’ Trusting someone else!”

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

“Just that one of the best parts about the cover design process is seeing all the foreign covers (since Shiver is licensed in 32 countries, there are a lot; www.shiverseries.com has them all) — same book, wildly different jackets. It’s pretty amazing to see the divergent visions different editors and cultures have forthe same story.

Because it’s still Sam and Grace in between the covers.”

*****You learn more about Maggie Stiefvater by visiting her at the following sites:

Maggie Stiefvater’s website:

http://www.maggiestiefvater.com/

SHIVER series site:

http://www.maggiestiefvater.com/shiver/

Maggie Stiefvater’s blog:

http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/

Author Twitter:

http://twitter.com/mstiefvater

Author Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maggie-Stiefvater-Really-its-me/412830324465?v=wall

Maggie Stiefvater’s Linger Book Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l59sMzeA_vQ

Scholastic.com official Shiver page

http://www.scholastic.com/shiver/

*****

Want some copies of these books all for yourself?

Go enter my Wolves of Mercy Falls giveaway for a chance to win *signed* copies of Shiver and Linger from me, and a copy of Linger from Scholastic!

A very special thanks for Scholastic for including me in this blog tour!

And thanks most of all to Maggie Stiefvater, for dreaming up these stories.

Categories: Reading

Wolves of Mercy Falls Giveaway

Thursday, July 22, 2010 / By Arena Blake

I’m really excited for a fun weekend of the Wolves of Mercy Falls here at The Nerd’s Wife.

I’m participating in the Got Books? Event, where more than 100 blogs will be hosting giveaways on their sites throughout the weekend.

As part of this event, I’m going to be discussing the totally awesome covers for two books:

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

and

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

You see, I work in the printing industry, and I can appreciate the pure beauty of these covers. Not only for the amazing artwork, but also for the different applications that enhance that artwork.The cover jackets are printed with a matte finish and metallic inks. The titles and author names are embossed, with a bit of clear varnish applied on top.

As you run your fingers over the front cover of both books, you can *feel* the title and author name pop out from the rest of the cover. I love, love, love when you can *feel* the different parts of a cover application.

Pull the cover jackets away and you will find leaves blind embossed on the front cover of each novel. Many books lack little details like that.

But the *best* part?

Shiver, which takes place in the winter, is dominated by cold, metallic blue ink on the cover. Open its pages, and you’ll find the story printed in dark blue ink. How cool is that?

Linger, which happens once spring has started to peek out in Mercy Falls, is dominated by different shades of metallic green ink on the cover. And inside? Yup — green ink!

I cannot think of any other books I’ve read that were printed in an ink other than black.

It is such a unique touch that really pulls together the design package of the books in this trilogy.

I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the cover of Forever.

Maggie Stiefvater interviewed the cover designer to find out the details on how he came up with the design. It’s actually *really* cool and you should go check it out.

Tomorrow, I’ll be interviewing Maggie on her thoughts about the covers as part of her Linger release blog tour. So be sure to come back and check that out!

And now, to the giveaway!

womf giveaway banner copy

**Contest Now Closed**

There will be *two* winners.

Winner #1 will receive *signed* copies of Shiver and Linger by Maggie Stiefvater.
This prize was purchased by me for the purpose of this contest.

Winner # 2 will receive a copy of Linger by Maggie Stiefvater.
This prize was donated by Scholastic Press for the purpose of this contest.

The Rules:

Only one entry per person.

The contest is open to U.S. and Canada residents only.

You *must* be a follower of my blog to enter.
If you are a new follower, you will receive 1 entry.
If you were a follower prior to the start of this contest, you will receive 2 entries.

Fill out the form below to enter. Do not leave your entry in the comments.

Increase Your Chances:

Complete the following tasks to increase your chances to win!

+1 – Become a fan of The Nerd’s Wife on Facebook.
+1 – Follow The Nerd’s Wife on Twitter.
+2 – Tweet about this contest. Sample tweet: Enter to win *signed* copies of Shiver and Linger by @mstiefvater from @thenerdswife: http://bit.ly/d9P0yw

Contest ends Saturday, July 24 at 11:59 CST.

Good luck!

PS – Don’t forget to enter my

July Book Extravaganza

while you’re here! You could win a book of your choice from a *dozen* of the best YA books this year! (

Linger

is one of them! **cough**cough**)

Categories: Reading

In My Mailbox

Sunday, July 11, 2010 / By Arena Blake

It’s here! It’s here!

I am so, super-excited because this week I got Linger by Maggie Stiefvater in the mail!

It is so, so pretty!

And the ink inside is *green*!

Squeeeee!

Since I last posted about the release mix-up, Maggie has announced that they moved up the official release date to July 13. So, if you don’t already have a copy, you can get it soon!

AAAAAAANNNNNNDDDDD!!

I have big, big news!

I’m sure to tear through Linger in the next week (I mean, I literally *can’t* wait!)

But – I won’t be posting my review until Saturday, July 24.

Why?

Because I’m going to be part of the Linger release blog tour, and I’ll be *interviewing* Maggie Stiefvater that day!

Can I squee again?

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

I am so, so excited!

My interview questions were a bit different from the normal author interview questions, so be sure to check back to hear the questions and her answers.

Are you excited? I AM!