An Evening With Maggie Stiefvater

This weekend was wonderful (whoa alliteration) for many reasons:

First, I went to a close friend's bachelorette party.

Second, I had amazing sushi.

Third, I met the New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater. And SHE. IS. AWESOME.

Maggie Stiefvater is one of my absolute favorite authors, so I was beyond thrilled when I found out she was doing a signing near me. For those of you who don't know, Maggie is a bestselling YA author, most known for the Wolves of Mercy Falls Series which includes Shiver, Linger, and Forever. She is also the author of Lament and Ballad, and her newest novel is The Scorpio Races, which I just started reading and absolutely LOVE.

This was the first author event/signing I've ever been to and I went alone, so I was slightly nervous since I didn't know what to expect. But I had nothing to be nervous about because Maggie is just SO nice and funny and an overall amazing person. There were probably around 100 people there, so the turnout was pretty good. When I got there I settled into a seat and waited in anticipation for Maggie to appear on stage.

For the first segment of the event, Maggie spoke for about 20-30 minutes. And let me tell you, she is SO funny. I'm talking hilarious. She's very passionate about the stories she tells and puts on these crazy voices for emphasis. She spoke about the "Ten Steps for writing a Maggie Stiefvater Novel", which I now wish I wrote down. I'll try to remember them for you, though I can't promise they are in order.

So here they are, the Ten Steps for writing a Maggie Stiefvater Novel, from Maggie herself (each step was explained with a Maggie-style story):
1. Come up with an idea.
2. Pick a "mood" for the novel.
3. Know the ending.
4. Do the research.
5. Start writing.
6. Somebody has to die within the first chapter or so.
7. There is no step 7.
8. Add food to the novel. Yes, food. (She even invented her OWN food for The Scorpio Races, called November Cakes. You can find the recipe on her blog here.)
9. Ummm...yeah, I don't remember this one.
10. STEP 10 I REMEMBER! Because it was this: Forget all of these steps. :)

And there you have it, the 10...er, 9 steps for writing a Maggie Stiefvater novel! After she finished speaking, she opened up the floor for Q&A, and then she signed books. She was very generous to sign the 4 books I brought--Shiver, Linger, Forever, and The Scorpio Races.

She even doodled in my copy of The Scorpio Races!

In the little "program" the library gave us, it included the recipe for Maggie's November Cakes, along with Maggie's recipe for "Cookies The Size of Your Head". I am going to make these cookies tonight because I am CRAVING chocolate chip cookies. And since Maggie is obsessed with cookies/cookie dough, I don't think she'll steer me wrong. If you'd like this cookie recipe, you can also find it on Maggie's blog here. If you haven't read Maggie's books, I highly recommend them. Her writing style is unlike any other.

I hope you guys had a great weekend too! Let's make this a productive week!