Linger Blog Tour: Interview with Maggie Stiefvater

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.

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.”

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:

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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.