Tag: Maggie Stiefvater

Wild Hair and Water Horses: Swoon-Worthy Reads

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Cover Crush

Confession: In real life, I’ve always wanted to be more carefree than I actually am. This urge stirred when I saw the cover for Tarryn Fisher’s ATHEISTS WHO KNEEL AND PRAY. (This book is not about atheism.) I immediately wanted to be the girl on the cover. She’s so wild and beautiful and free-looking, and she might just be in the middle of a ritualistic dance. Just put a bonfire in the background…You see it?

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I want in on it all. Come to find out, the book is about a must. And let’s just be honest, if we haven’t already been someone’s muse, don’t we want to? For me, that’s a big YES. 

True Love

I accidentally started reading SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Stiefvater  last week. There was this giveaway (I didn’t win.), see, and it included a quote that you liked from the book, so I started looking for my favorite one, and here I am 3/4 the way through the story again. This book captures me. It gets all the sizzling lightning bolts. ⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡

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Are you reading something worth sharing? I’d love to put a few of your tried-and-true stories on my TBR! 😍

Characters, Voice, and Sweater-Vested Cats

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I just got through reading the live event I missed last night.  I was teaching a class, but that is irrelevant.  I hate that I didn’t get to witness this as it occurred, but I gained motivation as well as knowledge from it that I would like to incorporate and, of course, share with you fine people.  Figment and ThisIsTeen brought together Maggie Stiefvater and Lucy Christopher for a fireside chat about “The Voices in [Their] Head[s]”.

The authors, both Printz Honored, speak on character development and voice specifically as well as answer questions from the audience. The link to the conversation is here.  I highly recommend it. I’m off, now, to reread and note things to remember from the transcript.  Thanks to all who put this together and the authors who participated.  These type of things mean a lot to me.  🙂

Oh, if you want to know about the sweater-vested cats, you have to read the interview!!  I know.  Evil, right?

Motherhood and Writing: Articles with Advice to Share

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This blog has taken a bit of a turn since we’ve discovered Blue.  Pregnancy has had a tendency to be all-consuming, but I don’t want to put off my goal of finishing the first draft of the book.  My critic partner and friend sent me an article concerning motherhood and writing that I would like to share.  As I gather more advice, I’ll add them to this post.  I think it would be nice to refer back to these links as trying situations come up.

The List:

Maggie Stiefvater (I love, love, love her advice on time management.  It’s just the right amount of encouragement and scolding that I need.)

Do you have any favorite articles with helpful hints on managing both writing and family?  Comment below, and I’ll add them to the list!

The Discovery of Goals

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I have never made New Year’s resolutions.  No really, it’s true.  I’ve made wishes—

“Please, let my acne be unnoticeable this year.”

“I hope I can still fit into these jeans by New Year’s resolution time next year.”

“It would be great if I was doing something I loved…whatever that is.”

–but never actual resolutions.

So if you read the “About” information, you noticed that I’ve been working on First Book for about a year and a half.  I set no other goal for myself than, “Finish First Book.”  This was daunting.  I’ve heard of people who spend their entire LIVES finishing one book, and I want to write another one because my first will most likely be poo, but I only have ONE lifetime!  What’s a girl to do?!  *Commence panic attack*

I couldn’t find a paper bag to breathe in, but luckily, I found these two articles by authors Maggie Stiefvater  and Holly Lisle  which introduce a goal formula.  I hate math but I love formulas.  They’re like plans and I love, I mean LOVE, a plan.  After reading the articles, I scolded me for not caring enough about myself to expect great things from my life, comforted me for being proactive now, and began thinking about MY goals, my plan.

Here is the formula I created from these two articles:

Accomplishable by only you + describable (not vague) + positive + expiration date = GOOD GOAL

(Disclaimer: There are other aspects from the articles that I needed to consider not included in my formula, so I hope you’ll read these articles.  Above is bare bone.)

I thought a neat way to start this blog would be to share with you my goals that I have so far.  I’ll do a follow-up blog in December of 2012 to see how it went.  I already feel more accomplished for the coming up year because I know some things I WANT to accomplish instead of entering the year just hoping something interesting happens.  I feel the intimidating resolution of finishing First Book is within my grasp just because of perspective.

2012 Goals (In random order)

1.  Select a writing conference and attend.

2.  Practice my guitar and piano.

3.  Begin learning ukulele.

4.  Paint 3 canvases.

5.  Complete the rough draft of First Book by March 31st.

6.  Complete revisions by June 30st.

7.  Ready query letters and publisher packets by August 1st.

8.  Finish prep work for Second Book.

9.  Blog at least once a week.

I’m super pumped about trying this which, consequently, makes all aspects of my life (even the broken ones) much more bearable.

So, how about you?  Are you ready for 2012?