In Which I Express my love for THE RAVEN KING and Maggie Stiefvater

So excited for THE RAVEN KING by Maggie Stiefvater! Managed to get to her event at Blue Willow this week despite getting caught in crazy Houston traffic caused by a shoot out on the beltway. Yeah, that was no fun.
But from my last minute seat on the floor, I snapped this pic:

I have loved, loved the world Maggie has created for the Raven Boys series. Truly magnificent writing. Brilliant. Only a few chapters in and already hooked again.

Maggie Stiefvater is the real deal, y'all. You probably know this already. But her artist's eye helps create stories like no other and her characters twine themselves around your heart. *I'm looking at you Ronan. And you Gansey. And you Blue and Adam.... Okay I'm looking at all of them.*

Two years ago I got to hear her teach about writing at SCBWI LA, which was also a true pleasure to learn about process through her eyes.

Anyway. If you haven't started the RAVEN BOYS series yet, do so right now. Four books, Raven King being the finale. You will thank me.

Til next week, when the IWALT countdown begins because tomorrow is MAY!!

Five for Friday, including Olivia Pope and other Things

Somehow January is almost gone. Crazy, that! And I am in that waiting mode for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the first full draft of It Wasn't Always Like This is done and I am getting input from editor, beta readers etc. That 'take a breath' couple of days that comes before I dig into revision.

And so the five:

1. Very thrilled to announce that I will be teaching a Full Novel Workshop for a whole glorious week at The Writing Barn in Austin, along with Tim Wynne-Jones and Nicole Griffin and a host of other visiting authors! This is the first time I've taught at something so comprehensive. My friend Sandy said "It's like writing camp!" and I guess it really is. Here is the link: http://www.thewritingbarn.com/barnpresents/full-novel-revision-week-ya-mg-tim-wynne-jones-nicole-griffin-joy-preble/
If you're working on a novel, I would love to see you there!

2. Still reading Blue Lily, Lily Blue, the next Raven Boys installment. Maggie Stiefvater is a true genius. I know I say this every time, but it is absolutely true. Her descriptions and word choice and her plotting! Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

3. Scandal was back last night. Oh Olivia Pope. Although I have to say that the machinations of the plot made absolutely no sense to me. *slight spoiler alert here, but not much* Did the bad guy seriously have to do ALL THAT to find out that the President loves you? Like, if he could do ALL THAT crazy sh**t, wouldn't he already know?? It's NOT A SECRET from like, what? A zillion people? I mean even if you are denying it. So how stupid is he? Why didn't he just get right to his attempt to force Fitz to do whatever he's going to attempt to force Fitz to do?? Seemed like an obscene amount of effort for no particular reason. #justsaying

4. After having not eaten s'mores for like 2 years, I have now had them twice in January and let me say, yay to that!

5. Had a lovely time on last Friday night's panel at Champions Forest BN with debuts Susan Adrian and Becky Wallace and me and awesome author Mary Lindsey!  Got to chat some about Finding Paris! After which my friends Ed and Deb introduced me to a sazerac -- which is this amazing cocktail of whiskey, bitters, pernod, and flaming lemon peel and sugar. (Pernod is an absinthe type liquor; the original absinthe was strong enough to fry your brain, I do believe.) Oh my goodness, I love this thing!

It's Friday! Time for Updates and Booktalk

Yesterday was one of those days. The kind where come about 2 PM you think, well, nothing much is getting done here today and I'm good with that and then all hell breaks loose and the next time you look up from the million things it's like 9 PM. But EXCITING THINGS!! And someday I will spill all the beans.

Amidst all this, the week long landscaping adventure is over and my first thought after the initial 'yeah it looks pretty and I guess it was worth the $' was the thought, "Holy shit, what will the basset-boxer who loves to roll and dig do to all that mulch? Especially the new flower bed that's sort of in one of her old sprinting paths."  Don't tell me, okay?

Finally back to Maggie Stiefvater's Scorpio Races, which I started about a year ago and then put down because of this and that and now picked up again and am loving. It is a slow read -- much slower than any of her other books and certainly slower than Raven Boys and maybe that's why I put it down when I did. But the language and the description is lush and gorgeous and unique and really NO ONE writes like Maggie Stiefvater. So damn good! But so visual in these small, specific ways that you really do have to concentrate on seeing it all. Because every sentence gives you an image of some sort. Brilliant. Damn brilliant. And underneath the beauty is a story of two characters who both want the same thing for different but similar reasons. And the lengths they will go to and the danger they will endure, in fact embrace. Did I say brilliant. Sometimes you're just not ready for a book. But right now I'm ready for this one.

And just finished The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen. I adore Sarah Dessen's work. I love losing myself in her N.C. worlds, particularly the beach books. I love finding hidden - or not so hidden- references to characters from her other books. I love her formula for telling these stories set in summer where the main character discovers that the world is not exactly as she has seen it. I sink in and I am so happy to be there. Emaline's journey in Moon and More is a perfect example, but with some different and I think more realistic results at the end. *slight spoiler coming* Not all endings can be tied up with a bow. I appreciate that because that's how I write, too. We don't all get our HEA just because the story the book is telling is over. So bravo! That said, I was less fond of the moments where Dessen 'breaks the fourth wall.' If you follow Sarah Dessen's blog, if you are a fan, you know that she is super fan of GMA. I love that quirky revelation. I like when she blogs and tells everyone that it must be summer because she's made deviled eggs. She is real and funny and engaging when she blogs. But there are minor -- very minor, as in barely referenced but still there- characters in Moon and More named after the GMA crew. There is a Robin Roberts. A Mr. Champion. I think there's even a Josh Elliott. Which is funny and in-jokey. And sweet. But it pulls me from the story. Because now no way do I believe these characters, minor as they are, are anything more than a device to pay homage to real people. And honestly, I wish they weren't there. Maybe that's just me. I still ADORED the book. For the record, Morris is my favorite character. Daisy, too. I'd love to see a book about Daisy in fact! I think she'd make a fabulous main character.

And thus endeth Friday book talk!

Happy weekend everybody!