Photo by Stephen Voss

SinceThe Raven Boys (Scholastic), the YA author and SLJTeen Live keynoter has had teens spellbound by the trials of Blue, her fatal curse, and the enigmatic boys at a local private school. Maggie Stiefvater chats about The Raven King and what’s next on the horizon. Fans of course are super excited to read the last installment of “The Raven Cycle.” How did you feel as you completed the final chapter in this series of books? Finishing a series like this is like eating a really delicious meal. You can’t tell if you want to go back for seconds because you’re still hungry, or just because you enjoyed the flavor so much. After finishing a project, I always imagine what it would look like if I went back for seconds. Maybe I could just prepare the same dish tomorrow night, I think. Maybe I could serve it to guests next week and they wouldn’t mind having the same thing. Maybe I could assemble the same ingredients in a different way to fool everyone into thinking I was cooking something different when really I am just making the same dish over and over! BECAUSE I LOVED THAT DISH. Ultimately, I pull myself out of the mood, though, and set off onto something as different as possible. One never wants to ruin the memory of that perfect meal, after all, by belaboring the moment. Did you have some kind of system to keep track of the various threads, mythologies, and character relationships? There are two answers to this. The first is an answer that doesn’t depress me hugely, which is that I have a set of the books that I underlined heavily to remind myself of lines and threads that I wanted to return to later. The second answer is that I had created a version of Gansey’s journal for myself during the first book, full of my historical research, Lynch family backstory, Gansey anecdotes, maps, myths and legends I wanted to tap into, and sketches. And then I lost it. You see how this is hugely depressing. Thank you for reminding me. My extreme apologies, Maggie! Along with these complex written volumes, you’ve created art and intricate videos to flesh out this world. Did these projects ever influence the books or were they always offshoots of the novels? All of those projects are actually secret excuses for me to play with music or art.  I’d like to thank every reader who begs me for those extras, because each one of them represents a day or a week or a month that I cheerfully got to splash in a different pond than usual. Did you initially intend to write this story as a series of four books? Originally it was meant to be five, actually. I had only a very rough plan with the Shiver trilogy and had paid for it later in the series, when I had to do lots of research work, uncovering stuff that would have made the arc of the trilogy stronger if done earlier. No harm no foul, but I try to make each book better than the last. So I pitched the Raven Cycle to Scholastic with plot summaries for each of the books, showing where the series was going . . . including the major reveals at the end. It made it a lot easier to look as if I was clever if I knew all along where I was ultimately headed. This series explores the tension between fate and forging your own destiny. Where do you stand? “Oh, do you think that’s what it explores?” Stiefvater asked with a cunning look. “I would have said ‘the series explores what makes a hero’ but I suppose we can do yours.” I like to think we’re all a combination of both. We are born with things that restrict us (because I am short, I will never be a basketball player; because I have no wings, I’ll never be a bird) and with things that help us (I have a knack for music). We’ll call this stuff fate. These predestined attributes or conditions set us on a certain path. But then there’s all the moving parts that we can control with courage and study and skill. We can use the latter to mitigate or improve the former. That’s the forging your own destiny bit. What are you working on next? I’m working on a standalone young adult novel set in southern Colorado. It has magic in it. That’s all I’m going to say, because after five years of working on a series fraught with expectation, I’m hugely enjoying writing a novel that doesn’t have to be anything but the best version of itself. Save Save Save Save