Nuala feeds off the souls of creative young men just like James, trading her inspiration for pieces of the men, but finds herself so intrigued by James (a talented piper who has refused her 'gift') that she begins to offer James inspiration at no cost to himself. From reading your blog and website, I know that the main character in BALLAD is not Dee/Deirdre, but rather James, and that it involves James's entanglement with a faerie muse named Nuala. The follow-up to LAMENT is BALLAD: A Gathering of Faerie (due out on October 1st), which is set at an exclusive school for humans possessing other-worldly gifts. I’m afraid this only continues unabated in BALLAD.Īctually, it’s interesting, because one of the big challenges for me when writing SHIVER, which deals with a quasi-scientific (I’ve always wanted to use “quasi”) explanation for werewolves, was that I couldn’t fall back on fun legend for my plot twists or character backgrounds. I’m a folklore magpie, and I love finding similar threads in different tales and myths and poking them into plot holes. Why the interest in Celtic and English legend? Did the initial drafts of the manuscript include all of these elements, or was that something that evolved over time? LAMENT includes references to Irish folk songs, Celtic folk and fairy tales, Alexander the Great, Thomas the Rhymer (a Scots prophet), Shakespeare and Spenser. In it, we follow Deirdre Monaghan, a talented 16-year old harpist who finds that she's a 'cloverhand' – a person who can see faeries – and her developing awareness of her 'gift', as well as her relationship with Luke, a soulless faerie assassin, and with her best friend James, who has gifts of his own.

Your first novel, published by Flux, was LAMENT: The Faerie Queen's Deception.

(Ordinarily I read as much as I can possibly get my hands on, but alas, no ARCs for SHIVER or BALLAD, so I'm flying in the dark, I'm afraid.) Nevertheless, I shall soldier on.ġ. So, this interview is trickier than some as I've only been able to read your first novel, LAMENT, and the short fiction you've posted at Merry Sisters of Fate.

But enough fangirling over the new cover – let's get to the interview, shall we? As a result, I've seen it faced at local Barnes and Noble stores that didn't used to have the book in stock. LAMENT actually just got itself a gorgeous, eye-catching new cover. Despite her fondness for one-word titles, Maggie is actually quite chatty, and has given answers using more than one word. Kellyrfineman Today, I've got an interview with Maggie Stiefvater, author of LAMENT and of the forthcoming novels BALLAD and SHIVER.

Ballad maggie stiefvater