Angieville

And the winner is... bookwormam ! Please contact me with your mailing address and I'll get your copy of Ballad on its way. I have to say I was delighted to read all of your favorite ballads and love songs. I was surprised, though I probably shouldn't have been, by how many chose "Unchained Melody." It was the most popular choice by far and it is a lovely song. There were several others suggested that are favorites of mine and I decided to put together a "best of" list, if you will, of your favorite ballads and/or love songs. Enjoy!

I think it's time for a giveaway, don't you? Thanks to the generous people at Flux , I have one copy of Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater to give away to one lucky commenter! I'm very excited about this giveaway because I thought it was such a great read and an excellent companion novel to Lament . You can find my review of both books here and here , as well as an interview I did with Maggie last month. I've posted Maggie's awesome book trailer here before, but here it is again because it's totally worth a second viewing. Maggie has since put together a playlist for Ballad , which you can also check out here . The rules for the contest are simple. To enter please leave a comment telling me your favorite ballad or love song. One extra entry if you become a follower, two for current followers. Make sure to leave me a way to contact you. The giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only and closes on October 1st-- Ballad ' s official release date!

There she goes again. With her fantabulous, freaking book trailers. And I'm not even a fan of the format myself. I generally find them the height of cheese, though I realize I'm not likely the target audience. Still. If I'd never read her books or heard her name, I would want to read both Shiver and Ballad based on these awesomely beautiful trailers Maggie Stiefvater made herself. Wouldn't you? For a behind-the-scenes peek into the making of the Shiver trailer, go here . Amazing. Maggie also has contests going on to win both books. So be sure to check those out here .

And right on the heels of Shiver comes Ballad -- the sequel (perhaps companion novel would be a better term) to Lament . In a shift similar to the one in between Melissa Marr 's Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange , Ballad switches narrators from Dee to her best friend James Morgan. And James, like Marr's Leslie, is in rather a lot of trouble. The story follows his struggle to recover from narrowly escaping death at the hands of homicidal faeries in order to protect Dee, as well as his stuttering attempts to deal with life after telling his best friend he's in love with her and having her not return the sentiment. Even though James doesn't care much what happens to himself, he does still care about Dee (almost against his will). And so he follows her to Thornking-Ash Conservatory, enrolling in a school full of gifted musicians guaranteed to annoy the crap out of him, in order to be near her. And despite the fact that he's a piper and they have no program to suit his ...

For the last several years I've been experiencing a more-than-passing longing to attend the legendary Book Expo America . It all started back when I used to frequent a lovely place known as Readerville . I met so many wonderful people there and a few of them used to regale us youngsters with tales of floors of bookish sorts, rows of publisher booths, stacks of free galleys, and line after line leading to authors willing to talk to you and smile at you and nod patiently while you tell them you love them. My longing grew. Soon I began plotting how to get around the minor obstacles of lack of funding and a location nowhere near New York City. Well, this year everything just fell into place. It should be noted that it helps to have a husband willing to keep the kids and garden alive while you go off gallivanting with a few thousand other hopeless bibliophiles. And every time you call to check in he tells you everything's under control, everyone's happy, and go back to enjoyin...

Maggie Stiefvater is very happy with the cover for Ballad , the upcoming sequel to the awesome   Lament . And rightly so, eh? It's lovely! And so very bright and fiery in comparison to the much colder cover of its predecessor, which, for the record, I really love. I also like the new subtitle for this one: A Gathering of Faerie. Here's the blurb: In this sequel to Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception , faeries follow James and Dee to Thornking-Ash Conservatory, where James struggles with his feelings for Dee and with the dangerous faerie muse, Nuala. When Halloween plunges both Dee and Nuala into danger, James finds he can only choose one. Sigh. Ballad is due out in October.