An evening with Maggie Stiefvater
Nov. 15th, 2017 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grammarwomanA few weeks back, I saw on Tumblr that Maggie Stiefvater was out on a book tour, so I checked the list of locations. I was surprised to find that she would be stopping by the library in the next town over; we're not exactly a popular destination for authors.
So tonight was the night! I checked her Tumblr for any last minute announcements, and felt pretty lucky it was still on after seeing that she had had to cancel her previous stop due to illness. The venue had posted an announcement that people wanting signatures had to buy a book on the premises, so I planned to get there a little early to pick up a copy. Then I was running late (which is the story of my life), and literally got to watch the person ahead of me buy the last two books. *SIGH*
Her talk was really lively and entertaining, and with the ease of her delivery, I'm guessing that it's her standard talk. She does not stop; she's like a thin Gothy version of the Energizer bunny. She told stories of how she must give off vibes of either doing drugs or building bombs, because she gets stopped by every airport's version of TSA. (When she was in the local grocery store, someone pointed at her and yelled "Werewolf!") So even though she loves to fly, she had the brilliant idea a few years back to drive her beloved '73 Camaro on a cross-country tour from Virginia to California and back. Her Camaro decided to leave behind parts of itself in most major cities on her tour, including her brakes going out twice, once on the way down a mountain in Colorado with her husband asleep in the passenger seat. She debated about waking him up, but the rattling of the gear shift knocking against his thigh did the job for her. She also noted that guys whizzing by her in pickup trucks who leered at her saying "Do you need help, little lady?" never actually were able to help her: "Instead of having tools, they just were tools."
The town they coasted into a stop in was a tiny little place called something like Delstop, and the receptionist at the only mechanic in town was, as Stiefvater put it, a "middle-aged Mexican lady" who upon hearing that she was faced with a paranormal fiction author, was full of tales of the supernatural. Stiefvater said this was one of the founding parts of her latest novel, "All the Crooked Saints". She then mentioned that the central family of the novel had the gift of manifesting people's hidden troubles into physical manifestations, and launched into a story of her college years. She started at age 16, was diagnosed with OCD (turning her self-identification from the seven letters of "hot mess" into three), had three part-time jobs to help pay tuition, and also spent four hours a day practicing for competitive bagpiping. She said then that one early review of the book had said it was a fable of her meditation on mental illness; she figured the manifestation of her troubles would be a bagpipe.
Stiefvater is very big in Bulgaria; she was met at the airport by tons of fans and even paparazzi. The promoters had evidently read every piece of social media in which she had talked about herself, because they kept surprising her by insisting on her demonstrating her talents, like bringing out a white grand piano so she could serenade the crowd. The kicker was at a masquerade ball attended by thousands, where they pulled her out on stage and presented her with a set of Bulgarian bagpipes, apparently made from a recently dead goat. She gamely played it even though she had little clue as to which way was up. The crowd was thrilled; then the organizers brought out five strapping young men who played for her on their own goat pipes. Being stopped by the German TSA with her gift of Bulgarian bagpipes required some explanation.
She answered a handful of questions from the crowd. When asked her favorite Raven Cycle character, she didn't want to choose, especially because the series was written in the third person, but Adam was her favorite POV from which to write. "Scorpio Races" was the favorite of her own books. She couldn't point to one favorite written by another author, but her first favorite was "Dogsbody" by Diana Wynne Jones, a book that she read at a young age, finished, and then proceeded to read 11 more times. When she came across an unfamiliar page in the book, Stiefvater realized it was a list of Jones' other works, "like a million of them", and she realized that someone could be an author as their job, which kicked off her own desire to do so.
She then serenaded the crowd on a set of travel bagpipes, saying a full-blown set would rival an airplane flying overhead for decibel level, and warning us that it was going to sound like angry bees as she warmed up. (It did.) She played a short tune, still nimble of fingers, and everyone applauded.
Then it was time to line up for autographs. I thought briefly about nipping over to the closest bookstore for a copy to get signed, but then I looked at the line of people and decided that getting home earlier was a better idea. Next time, I will definitely bring my own things to get signed.
So tonight was the night! I checked her Tumblr for any last minute announcements, and felt pretty lucky it was still on after seeing that she had had to cancel her previous stop due to illness. The venue had posted an announcement that people wanting signatures had to buy a book on the premises, so I planned to get there a little early to pick up a copy. Then I was running late (which is the story of my life), and literally got to watch the person ahead of me buy the last two books. *SIGH*
Her talk was really lively and entertaining, and with the ease of her delivery, I'm guessing that it's her standard talk. She does not stop; she's like a thin Gothy version of the Energizer bunny. She told stories of how she must give off vibes of either doing drugs or building bombs, because she gets stopped by every airport's version of TSA. (When she was in the local grocery store, someone pointed at her and yelled "Werewolf!") So even though she loves to fly, she had the brilliant idea a few years back to drive her beloved '73 Camaro on a cross-country tour from Virginia to California and back. Her Camaro decided to leave behind parts of itself in most major cities on her tour, including her brakes going out twice, once on the way down a mountain in Colorado with her husband asleep in the passenger seat. She debated about waking him up, but the rattling of the gear shift knocking against his thigh did the job for her. She also noted that guys whizzing by her in pickup trucks who leered at her saying "Do you need help, little lady?" never actually were able to help her: "Instead of having tools, they just were tools."
The town they coasted into a stop in was a tiny little place called something like Delstop, and the receptionist at the only mechanic in town was, as Stiefvater put it, a "middle-aged Mexican lady" who upon hearing that she was faced with a paranormal fiction author, was full of tales of the supernatural. Stiefvater said this was one of the founding parts of her latest novel, "All the Crooked Saints". She then mentioned that the central family of the novel had the gift of manifesting people's hidden troubles into physical manifestations, and launched into a story of her college years. She started at age 16, was diagnosed with OCD (turning her self-identification from the seven letters of "hot mess" into three), had three part-time jobs to help pay tuition, and also spent four hours a day practicing for competitive bagpiping. She said then that one early review of the book had said it was a fable of her meditation on mental illness; she figured the manifestation of her troubles would be a bagpipe.
Stiefvater is very big in Bulgaria; she was met at the airport by tons of fans and even paparazzi. The promoters had evidently read every piece of social media in which she had talked about herself, because they kept surprising her by insisting on her demonstrating her talents, like bringing out a white grand piano so she could serenade the crowd. The kicker was at a masquerade ball attended by thousands, where they pulled her out on stage and presented her with a set of Bulgarian bagpipes, apparently made from a recently dead goat. She gamely played it even though she had little clue as to which way was up. The crowd was thrilled; then the organizers brought out five strapping young men who played for her on their own goat pipes. Being stopped by the German TSA with her gift of Bulgarian bagpipes required some explanation.
She answered a handful of questions from the crowd. When asked her favorite Raven Cycle character, she didn't want to choose, especially because the series was written in the third person, but Adam was her favorite POV from which to write. "Scorpio Races" was the favorite of her own books. She couldn't point to one favorite written by another author, but her first favorite was "Dogsbody" by Diana Wynne Jones, a book that she read at a young age, finished, and then proceeded to read 11 more times. When she came across an unfamiliar page in the book, Stiefvater realized it was a list of Jones' other works, "like a million of them", and she realized that someone could be an author as their job, which kicked off her own desire to do so.
She then serenaded the crowd on a set of travel bagpipes, saying a full-blown set would rival an airplane flying overhead for decibel level, and warning us that it was going to sound like angry bees as she warmed up. (It did.) She played a short tune, still nimble of fingers, and everyone applauded.
Then it was time to line up for autographs. I thought briefly about nipping over to the closest bookstore for a copy to get signed, but then I looked at the line of people and decided that getting home earlier was a better idea. Next time, I will definitely bring my own things to get signed.
