Fun Friday: Crafty Fantasy Fans!

Hello and Happy Friday!  Lisa here.  As some of you may know, in my other life, I’m a yarnie and bookbinder.  I’m also a big promoter of the craft site Etsy, and I have a little shop there where I sell my journals.  I’m far from being the only fantasy-loving craftie on the site, though, and I wanted to showcase a couple of the fun things people make, inspired by the very kinds of stories we love here.

Firstly, a journal from a fellow bookbinder… this is, yes, a Vampire Diary, by repaper.

It wasn’t exactly inspired by the show or the books, according to the listing, but personally I can’t help but thinking about a Salvatore or two when I look at it.  I think the toothy look of the binding and the bits of red “blood” are especially clever.  Fun!

Secondly, some Summer Fairies yarn by WeirdAndTwisted.

This yarn shop is fab.  I also really like her handspun that’s inspired by Hagrid’s coat on Harry Potter.  This fairy yarn is lush and perfect, though… it definitely looks fairy-worthy.

This next listing is reverse-engineered by BoopieCreations from the new movie Alice in Wonderland, which I just reviewed on Monday.

You can see just how close this knitter came to the originals, in the picture here.  You can also find a lot of Twilight knits on Etsy, of course!

And lastly, because I was so excited to run across it…

This is a lovely necklace by cynthial11 that’s inspired by Maggie Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls series, shown with a cover of Shiver, one of my favorite books that I read last year.  The sequel, Linger, is due out in just a little over a month (July 20th!) and I can’t wait!  You can read our interview with Maggie right here.

I just love seeing how people can take inspiration from myths and stories and create beautiful things—or recreate, as the case may be.  Are any of you crafters?  What inspires you?

Fun Friday: Released this Week!

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce was released this week, and it’s one of the two books I’ve most been looking forward to this summer (the other is Maggie Stiefvater’s Linger, from the Wolves of Mercy Falls series!)

If you haven’t heard about Sisters Red, this is the summary from goodreads:

Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris– the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She’s determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead.

Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts fiercely alongside her. Now Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves and finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax– but loving him means betraying her sister and has the potential to destroy all they’ve worked for.

Twenty-five-year-old Jackson Pearce delivers a dark, taut fairy tale with heart-pounding action, fierce sisterly love, and a romance that will leave readers breathless.

I’m so excited to read this.  The cover itself would have drawn me in and held me captive, but I’ve been watching Jackson Pearce’s blog and twitter, and I really just think she’s one of the smartest, sassiest authors to hit YA in a while, and I’m excited to watch her take the YA market by force.

Fun Friday: Trailer for Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

This is the sequel to Shiver, which I read last year and fell in love with instantly.  I even broke my I’m-too-poor-to-buy-hardcovers rule because the book is too pretty not to own… and I was worried the paperback might not have the pretty blue ink that the hardcover does (Linger has green ink, by the way!)  Also, I didn’t think I’d be satisfied with waiting for the paperback or reading a library copy of Linger.  I want this in my pocket, yesterday.  (Big pocket, yes.)

How gorgeous is the trailer?  Probably about as gorgeous as the book, if past experience is any indication.  I’m looking forward, muchly.

Fun Friday: Another Book Trailer

Because some are works of art and truly worth watching:

Fun Friday Interview: Maggie Stiefvater!

Today we are delighted to be able to chat a little bit with Maggie Stiefvater, author of Lament, Ballad, and the acclaimed Shiver, the first novel in her Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, with the sequel Linger due out in July. (Hooray!)

So welcome, Maggie!  We’re super excited to getting to know a little bit more about you.

First things first.  Many of your characters have some sort of strong musical leanings… can you tell us a little bit about your own musical background?
Music makes the world go ‘round. My mom put me at the piano when I was a tiny maggot, and then I picked up other instruments as I went: harp, guitar, bodhran (that’s a sort of Irish drum), tin whistle, and finally, in college, the bagpipes, which I played competitively for a few years. Yes, I know. You don’t have to tell me.
Anyway, I love music. I have it playing all the time, Celtic, Classical, Alternative Rock . . . I have music playing right now. “I Love the Trees” by Nomos. I was just listening to “Walking the Dog” by Fun. before that.

You’ve shown off some of your doodling on your Livejournal, what other hidden talents do you have?

I swear, I have no other hidden talents beside art and music and writing. I can’t make tortillas. I am not good at sitting still. I can drive a stick shift. Does that count? Also, I can perform a cartwheel.

What is your absolute, no-holds-barred favorite bit of the writing process?

That moment when I write a scene and I know that it is going to hurt the readers in some way, either because it’s so, so bad or so, so good. I love to put characters in situations that almost break them, and the almost-breaking is fantastic — but so is the other side when they become giant and strong.

We’re all about YA fantasy here.  What is it about the genre you find so appealing?

Teens are really powerful, passionate people. Who wouldn’t want to write about that? One day I might write an adult book, but for now, I love writing about that edge when you find yourself.

Do you, have you, or would you work in another genre?

Other than fantasy YA? I always tell people that there is something very lovely about a platonic shower with your boyfriend/ husband/ lover, but that I would never be able to write on in a YA though I really want to. One of these days, I will be unable to stop myself and will have to write an adult book because of that. When you see me come out with my first adult book, look for the shower scene. Because that will be the cause of it all.

Your faeries really are nice and homicidal, aren’t they?  You also seem to know faerie lore like the back of your hand.  Was this all research you did for your books, or was it something you were already familiar with?

Oh, I grew up with this stuff. I was a small, strange child like Coraline or Wednesday Addams, and I always had a fat, dusty tome of mythology in my lap. While other girls were telling you about fairy godmothers, I was advising you to hang open scissors above cribs to keep fairies from stealing the baby.

Musicians are always being asked for their influences–who are your biggest influences in writing?

Hm. Audrey Niffenegger, because she first gave me the “hmmm, I wonder” thought about alternative point of views, and also because she made me cry, which never happens, and made me want to do that to other people. Mary Lawson’s Crow Lake was lovely and subtle and taught me to trust my readers. Diana Wynne Jones taught me to use humor when things got bad.

You have some seriously awesome music on your story soundtracks on your website.  What music is inspiring you right now?

Thanks! I am listening to “Eagle Eye” by Brian Tyler for a Super Secret Project I am writing. And I just handed the draft of FOREVER to my editor while listening to “First Floor People” by Barcelona.

I loved Shiver and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series–Not asking for specific spoilers here, but looking at it in comparison to your Faeries series, are we going to be sticking close to the characters we know, or get a closer look at some of the smaller characters from the first book in Linger and Forever?

A little bit of both. Linger is definitely more a true sequel to Shiver than Ballad is to Lament. We definitely get Sam and Grace, but the world opens up a bit to include Isabel and a newcomer, Cole. I’m very excited to see how readers react to them . . . especially Cole, one of the most challenging characters I’ve ever written.

I’ve just discovered your Merry Sisters of Fate blog that you’re involved in—can you tell us a little more about that?

Ooh, yes! I write short fiction each month over there at www.merryfates.com, with my two critique partners, Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff. The theory was this: when I was a full time artist, I was part of a movement called “Painting a day.” You were supposed to start and finish a painting each day — usually a small one so you could manage it all. I did it for two years and so there are hundreds of Maggie pieces out there. And I got so amazingly better from year to year because of it that I decided that it would be fantastic to do the same thing with my writing. So we jumped in and started the blog, and for the first year, we each did a short story every week. Now we’ve cut back to once a month because we all have other deadlines going on, but man. Those first stories versus what we do now? It’s been amazing.

Thank you so much for your time, Maggie!  I can promise that the Hollow Tree plans on keeping a very close eye on you in the future!

Thank you guys so much for the fantastic questions!!

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Be sure to check out Maggie’s author website and blog, and look for her books in stores!  They come highly, highly recommended from the Hollow Tree Team!

Book Geek Wednesday: Looking Forward To 2010

I can’t believe it’s already the second day of December.  This year has been a whirlwind for me—I guess it really is true that the older you get, the faster the years fly by, but really now, I’m not that old.  And while I don’t understand where 2009 has gone to, I have to admit, I’m excited for 2010.  Not least because of all the amazing YA novels set to come out next year!  Here’s a look at just a couple of the ones I’m simply dying to get to:

All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab. – January 12th 2010 by Delacorte BFYR

Not fantasy, but man does it look good.

Carly: She was sweet. Smart. Self-destructive. She knew the secrets of Brighton Day School’s most privileged students. Secrets that got her killed.

Neily: Dumped by Carly for a notorious bad boy, Neily didn’t answer the phone call she made before she died. If he had, maybe he could have helped her. Now he can’t get the image of her lifeless body out of his mind.

Audrey: She’s the reason Carly got tangled up with Brighton’s fast crowd in the first place, and now she regrets it—especially since she’s convinced the police have put the wrong person in jail. Audrey thinks the murderer is someone at Brighton, and she wants Neily to help her find out who it is.

As reluctant allies Neily and Audrey dig into their shared past with Carly, her involvement with Brighton’s dark goings-on comes to light. But figuring out how Carly and her killer fit into the twisted drama will force Audrey and Neily to face hard truths about themselves and the girl they couldn’t save.

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater – July 20th 2010 by Scholastic Press

I’m only halfway through Shiver, but I’m totally excited there’s a sequel!

In Maggie Stiefvater’s 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 Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love — the light and the dark, the warm and the cold — in a way you will never forget.

Sleepless by Cyn Balog – July 13th 2010 by Delacorte Press

I loved Cyn Balog’s debut novel, Fairy Tale.  Can’t wait to read this!

Eron De Marchelle isn’t supposed to feel a connection. He is a Sandman, a supernatural being whose purpose is to seduce human charges to sleep. While he can communicate with his charges in their dreams, he isn’t encouraged to–after all, getting too involved in one human’s life would prevent him helping his other charges get their needed rest.

But he can’t deny that he feels something for Julia. Julia, with her fiery red hair and her sad dreams. Just weeks ago, her boyfriend died in a car accident, and Eron can tell that she feels more alone than ever. Eron was human once too, many years ago, and he remembers how it felt to lose the one he loved. Eron has always felt protective of Julia . . . but now, when she seems to need him more than ever, he can’t seem to reach her . . .

Sandmen are forbidden from communicating with humans outside their dreams. But will Eron be willing to risk everything for a chance to be with the person he loves?

Spells by Aprilynne Pike – May 4th 2010 by Harper Teen

I confess, I haven’t read Wings just yet, but I can’t wait to get to it, and I’m excited to hear about the sequel!

Six months have passed since Laurel saved the gateway to the faerie realm of Avalon. Now she must spend her summer there, honing her skills as a Fall faerie. But her human family and friends are still in mortal danger–and the gateway to Avalon is more compromised than ever.

When it comes time to protect those she loves, will she depend on David, her human boyfriend, for help? Or will she turn to Tamani, the electrifying faerie with whom her connection is undeniable?

Honestly, those are only a few of the books I’m looking forward to!  As far as YA fiction goes, 2010 looks bright indeed!  (All descriptions from goodreads.com)