I arrived at Chapters Oshawa just over an hour early, quickly grabbing a seat and settling in for the wait. The stage was already prepared, music was playing, and everyone around me was chatting excitedly! While we were waiting, many people were admiring the Sharpie guitar that Maggie had brought to give away during her Canadian stay and filling out ballots for entry. (I read on Twitter that the guitar has since been won by a teen girl during the last event at Chapters South London... ) And I was excited because I got to meet two fellow book bloggers! After missing them at the Dystopian Tour at Indigo Yorkdale in May, I finally got to meet Mel from He Followed Me Home... Can I Keep Him? and Jackie from My Ever Expanding Library! It was so nice meeting both of them and getting to chat with them in person!
Maggie began telling us about a time when she was in the UK on tour and how students from several schools had come by bus to see her. When the time came for questions, no one would speak up! And when questions did come, they didn't ask about her novels... they asked about more mundane things like how her flight and hotels were... and that she had a cool accent. So she first wanted to point out that she was: a) driving to all the events, b) their hotels were great, and c) she was aware she had a cool accent. She told us not to be afraid to ask questions when the time came!
Afterwards, Maggie talked about writing Forever and the kind of research she did for the novel. She searched online about wolves and found a website where they talked about the different ways that wolves had died in the past (there are many!), and found a particular one that she thought would be a terrible way to die. So, of course, she thought it would be a good idea to base some of what she read and use it in the novel knowing it would probably shake up some of her readers. She also told us about her cool experience meeting some wolves up close in Hungary where she got to see the pack hierarchy in action for herself.
Continuing to chat about Forever, she said she had submitted Forever two weeks before her deadline but she wasn't satisfied with what she had written.. so she ended up re-writing her draft of Forever and changing the ending. Originally, there had been a scene where Sam woke up to find gasoline on himself and his house was about to be set on fire by Shelby!
Maggie began taking questions from the audience afterwords! A question was asked about the book titles for the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, and we learned that Shiver had originally been called Still Wolf Watching. Scholastic, her publisher, didn't really like the title though so they asked her to change the name and it became Shiver. We also learned an interesting fact about the cover for Forever! The cover used to be a brighter red and featured maple leaves, but Maggie thought it made the book seem like it was set in Canada when it wasn't, so the cover was changed in that regard. She also thought Sam's jeans looked too skinny and he wasn't the type to wear skinny jeans... but they didn't change that though. It's nice to hear that Maggie had some involvement with how the Forever cover came to be! Maggie also said that she had always wanted to be a writer since a young age and shared some earlier story ideas that she had. One of the earliest stories she had ever written involved two Scottish terriers who were driving a red Porsche. Another story she wrote as a teenager involved soldiers, bystanders and a dog in place in front of a flag pole. She turned the tables by asking us a question, wanting to hear who we thought the POV was written in. Everyone began shouting answers, with many of them being the dog... but then she quieted the audience and said, "The flag!" It was so unexpected! She remembered how she had ended the story saying how the flag didn't care what was happening to the others because it was, well, a flag.
Before I knew it, it was time for the book signing! I had barely noticed the time flying by because I was enjoying myself too much listening to Maggie to notice! I wasn't as nervous as I usually am (an improvement!) but I don't think I'll ever get over being rather shy. Maggie was so kind and friendly though when it was my turn to get my books signed! She was also giving away some swag to everyone patiently waiting in line too.
Thanks so much to Maggie Stiefvater and Tessa Gratton for making the journey up North to visit some of your fans in Canada! Also, lots of thanks definitely go out to Chapters Oshawa and Scholastic Canada for hosting such an awesome event!
Here are some other recaps from more Canadian bloggers you can read too! If I see more summaries of the Ontario events pop up, I'll be sure to add them below:
- Jackie's recap of the Chapters Oshawa event on her blog at My Ever Expanding Library
- Mel's recap of the Chapters Oshawa event on her blog at He Followed Me Home... Can I Keep Him?
- Sara's recap of the Chapters Oshawa event on her blog at One Word After Another...
- Wendy's recap of the Indigo Yorkdale event on her blog at A Cupcake and a Latte
- Avery's recap of the Chapters South London event on her blog at Avery's Book (and Other Fun Stuff) Nook
- Jen's recap of the Chapters South London event on her blog at Lost in the Library
*****
And I did mention there would be a giveaway, right? I'll be giving away ONE SIGNED COPY OF FOREVER! To enter this giveaway, you must be a FOLLOWER and it will be open INTERNATIONALLY. The last day to enter will be AUGUST 8, 2011 after which point I'll choose a winner using a random number generator. I will send an email to the winner for their mailing address and they'll have 48 hours give or take to respond back. (And yes, you'll get an extra entry just for commenting on this post!)
