Picture drawn by Maggie Stiefvater, 2009. Header made by S.F. Robertson, 2010.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Blog Tour- Linger by Maggie Stiefvater Review + Interview + Contest!


Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
"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."- summary from Amazon

Yes, this is a jam-packed post!! I've got my review of Linger, a short interview with Maggie, and a contest where you can win a copy of Linger! So let's get started.

In Linger, we get the same wonderful, poetic prose that was in Shiver. I absolutely love the way Stiefvater writes; the details are amazing without being overbearing and flowery. It also comes across as necessary rather than like she's trying to fill up pages.

I loved the multiple narrators too. It can be difficult to pull off, but Stiefvater did it well. It flowed smoothly for me while reading and the transitions between the narrators always made sense. It was really cool to see inside each character's head, especially the new character of Cole and Grace's friend Isabel, who I loved. Isabel was so funny and I really related to her.

The climax was amazing and it was hard to put the book down. Not only that, but the ending was one I was not expecting and it ends on such a cliffhanger. I want Forever now!!


INTERVIEW WITH MAGGIE STIEFVATER

1) You run a short story site with your critique partners called The Merry Sisters of Fate. How did that site come about? Has doing it helped your novel writing?

*preens* It is always very flattering to be asked about Merry Sisters of Fate. Yep, it’s a short story blog that I post to along with Tessa Gratton (BLOOD MAGIC, 2011) and Brenna Yovanoff (THE REPLACEMENT, 2010). It started out because of my art background. Back when I was a portrait artist, I was part of a movement called A Painting a Day. The idea was to start and finish a complete painting, even if it was small, all in one day . . . every day. I love challenges and I wanted to get better, so I did it for about two years -- floating around the world now are hundreds of Maggie paintings that I sold worldwide. What was amazing was looking at the difference between my art at the beginning of the project to the end. I mean, even though I didn’t paint any more per day than I had before, somehow the act of doing a complete painting instead of just working on part of a big one really made me get better.

Anyway. I thought that the same principle would work for my writing, so I asked Tessa and Brenna if they were up for something crazy. They were. For the first year we each wrote a short story every week, and posted it online, no editing. As we got more embroiled in professional pursuits, we had to cut it back down to one a month for this year, but it really did work. I can see a huge difference in my writing since we started.


2) What do you have planned for your readers after the release of Forever, the final Wolves of Mercy Falls book? Can you tell us anything about it?

I can tell you lies.

Well, I can also tell you that I’m working on a standalone paranormal YA quite unlike anything else I’ve ever done. With blood, beaches, and kissing. I’m really revoltingly excited about it and wish I could tell you more. But I can’t. I can tell you that it’s not about kraken, despite the rumors.


3) What is your favorite Jelly Belly jelly bean flavor? Or, if you don’t eat those, what’s your favorite snack to have while writing?

Ugh, jelly bellies are not actually food. They’re like eating flavored pustules. I prefer cookie dough. Now there’s a real food.


4) What book(s) are you currently reading, or are about to start?

I am about to start THE LAST SUMMER OF THE DEATH WARRIORS by Francisco X. Stork, because I loved his MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD with a furious passion.


Thanks for stopping by, Maggie! Now, if you want to enter to win a copy of Linger, just leave a comment below saying what (or who) you're looking forward to seeing in Linger or say something about Maggie's interview or why you love her. If you just say "Enter me!" and nothing else, you'll be disqualified. Contest will end Wednesday, July 28 at 11:59pm.

FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Link above is Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.

12 comments:

  1. Gosh, I love Maggie ! Thanks for the contest and for the interview. In my opinion, Maggie is one of my favourites YA author, she's funny and very talentend. Love the comment about the cookie dough ^^
    I haven't read Linger yet, but I'm looking forward to discover Cole, because it seems like he is the complete opposite of Sam, which can be really interesting.

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  2. I love that she challenged herself! i really appreciate authors who try their very best to get better even when they're already amazing!

    lol cute comment about the cookie dough
    awesome interview!

    thanks for the contest!

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  3. I'm loving the interview, but I'm glad to hear someone else shares my distaste for jelly beans and my love for cookie dough...Maggie rocks!

    Thanks for the contest!
    Email address:
    thebooksophisticate@hotmail.com

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  4. Great interview. Cookie dough is totally real food. Really looking forward to finding out what happens next.

    bacchus76 at myself dot com

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  5. love maggie and shiver! awesome interview and contest! i'm really dying to read linger and i'm look forward to reading more about the characters from shiver and how they've been doing and i'm interested in learning about cole

    mariannguyen16(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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  6. First: Is the contest international? :) Anyway, I like your blog so i just thought i would write a comment! ^^

    Great interview and original questions! It was fun reading Maggies answers to them... :)

    I really love Maggie because she's true to her fans, she takes the time to communicate with us and she just seems like she's really down to earth! :)

    Can't wait to read Linger because the end in Shiver made me cry rivers, and I just need to know what happens with Grace & Co (Also, I can't wait to read about Cole. ;) He sounds like an interesting character!).

    - Rebecca, breakingfree.dk! :)

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  7. I love Maggie! She is so talented and hilarious! I think it is really cool that she challenges herself with the Merry Sisters of Fate!

    a_readers_adventure at yahoo dot com

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  8. I love Maggie because we had a great time at the twitter chat the other night. this is a great interview too, been loving this blog tour
    sportsDOTerikalynnATgmailDOTcom

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  9. I'd love to see Grace transforming in a wolf. And more Isabelle too, because she reacted to the transformation like i would, with excitment and interest.

    Maggie seems to be very kind and sweet, her books are awesome. I loved the interview and the contest.

    e-mail:
    l-e-potter@hotmail.com

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  10. What I'm looking forward in Linger is Cole and Isabel. You wouldn't imagine how many blogs I've been on looking at reviews about Linger. The one constant person I keep hearing about is Cole, and my intrest is over the roof. I want to see if he is as cool and sexy everyone says.

    Maggie is one in a million type of author. The way she writes is like pure poetry. I can't wait to see what she does in the future.

    Thanks for this awesome contest.
    Pokadots1121@yahoo.com

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  11. Thanks for the contest!!!! i love maggie!! I'm really looking foward to see how Grace and Cam deal with the changes to grace

    email: silvisplace@yahoo.com

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