This week, we sat down with YA powerhouse Maggie Stiefvater to talk about myths, metaphors, and her upcoming book, All the Crooked Saints.
Her editor, David Levithan, joined in to talk about the editing process. He said, "The only thing certain about the initial proposal is that most of it will not end up in the final book." Maggie agreed emphatically, sharing a story about how she sent the manuscript for All the Crooked Saints to David very early — even before sharing it with her agent — because she knew he would understand the drastic changes it would still undergo before becoming a finished product.
My personal favorite part of the episode, however, is when we call Maggie's father and her brother Andrew up to the microphone to share some of their favorite stories about Maggie's childhood. Her father talks about how Maggie created a weekly newspaper that she would distribute, and take a lot of creative license with, of course! And Maggie and Andrew talk about how Andrew always encouraged her to write stories, namely by starting each of their play sessions with the same questions: "What's the way, Maggie?" (Shiver fans, recognize that line?)
But wait, there's more! After all of that, we hop on the phone with Booklist editor Daniel Kraus to talk about the recent list 50 Best YA Books of All Time, which just so happens to include Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Cycle.
He gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how the Booklist staff went about narrowing down all of YA publishing to the 50 best books, and why there might be some surprising titles on the list!
Pop in your headphones and give this new episode a listen here, or through the Apple Podcasts app or the Google Play Market.
