MERRY FATES OFFICIAL ANTHOLOGY

Merry Sisters of Fate

12th-Aug-2010 03:28 pm

Today the Best News Ever went public!

"NYT bestselling author of SHIVER Maggie Stievfater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff's package of stories, as well as conversations about where these stories come from, taken from their popular blog The Merry Sisters of Fate, from flesh-eating faeries and demons in love, to unearthly magicians and alternate histories, to Andrew Karre at Carolrhoda Lab, for publication in Spring 2012, by Laura Rennert at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency for Stiefvater and Gratton, and Sarah Davies at the Greenhouse Literary Agency for Yovanoff (World English)."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's also a great article about it in this week's Children's Bookshelf!

Allow me to quote it, because I love this part:

"Andrew Karre, editorial director for Carolrhoda Books and Carolrhoda Lab, describes the project as in line with the Lab imprint’s mission: publishing books that push boundaries in YA fiction. “Passionate teen readers” are as interested in process as they are in the finished product, Karre insists, and they also “expect and appreciate” access to their favorite authors on the blogosphere. Teen readers are sophisticated enough, he adds, to realize the amount of hard work that goes into writing a story, even for the most critically acclaimed authors."

That's right, folks. We push boundaries! Hee hee. But you already knew that, didn't you!

Maggie, Brenna, and I have been reflecting on how amazing working on Merry Fates has been. What it's done for our writing, for our friendship, for introducing us to so many avid, hilarious, insightful readers. We think the best way to sum it up is to offer some telling statistics.

Start date: May 5th, 2008.
Stories posted: 207
Comments received: 7,457
Entries total: 365
Number of unique visitors: 117,645
Number of visitors a month: 7,000+
How Often One of Us Slimes: 4/per year
Fairy Tales Retold: 28
Vampire stories: 8
Goblins: 4
Contests: 10
Drownings: 5
Kisses: approximately 87
Happy endings: .... 3?

So, Readers, if you could have us put anything into this crazy, wild, innovative book... what would it be? In your wildest dreams? Let us know in the comments, and on Monday we'll pick a random winner.

The PRIZE? Justin Timberlake.

Ok, no, really:

The prize will be a notebook. A blank one, that the three of us will sign and inscribe with wit, humor, and possibly blood. Then mail to you, so that you can write your own epic stories inside. It's possible ~~Maggie~~we will draw ~~dirty~~ pictures in it.

ps. LOOK WE HAVE A TWITTER ACCOUNT NOW TOO!

Tags:anthology, awesome, contest

Comments

12th-Aug-2010 08:37 pm (UTC)

llwheeler

Congrats! That's wonderful news. :D I think you should include some of the comments from the stories you choose. Hilarious, witty, odd, whatever...

12th-Aug-2010 08:47 pm (UTC)

tessagratton

Thanks!

12th-Aug-2010 08:37 pm (UTC)

bleuberi21

Are you asking which stories should be in it, or things like blood and stuff?

12th-Aug-2010 08:46 pm (UTC)

tessagratton

If there's a story you're dying to have in it, that's fine. But what sort of extras interest you? Chats? Silly drawings? Line notes we send each other? That kind of thing.

Knock-knock jokes?

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12th-Aug-2010 08:46 pm (UTC)

feisty_beden

Well you already know my answer:

Recipe for eternal youth using Gelfling extract. Please.

12th-Aug-2010 08:47 pm (UTC)

tessagratton

That might be expensive, just FYI.

12th-Aug-2010 08:47 pm (UTC)

chloeeepatd

Having all of you introduce each story would be awesome. The comment idea is also great! And maybe you could each come up with a prompt, however insane, and then randomly trade prompts and write a short story from each!

12th-Aug-2010 08:48 pm (UTC)

tessagratton

I like the idea of introductions!

12th-Aug-2010 08:48 pm (UTC)

mercwriter

Oh, fantastic news! :) Congrats!

You know what would be fun? Illustrations (will there be illos in the book?) -- creepy ones, too!

12th-Aug-2010 08:48 pm (UTC) - Anthology.....here's and idea

mommyalli

Ok, probably not what you are looking for but was thinking....out of all of ya'lls books (yep ya'll...I'm from Texas) what people would you pair up as couples? Like who would you pair up in Tessa's book to a person in Maggie's book....and what would the relationship be like. Crossing the boundries of the binding of the book, so to say, to see how you think alternate romances would fit.

12th-Aug-2010 08:48 pm (UTC)

breakdownslowly

I love the idea for this book! It sounds amazing!

I would love some of Maggie's craziest tweets. Like the contest for Linger where we had to figure out what the mysterious cookie cutter might be.

12th-Aug-2010 08:49 pm (UTC)

lunalila

Super wonderful news! Big congrats to the three! So eager to read you, as I'm kind of a new reader to the Merry Sisters I've lost all the fun from the comments.. should read backwards I guess.
I'd love to see your coments on each other stories and how them helped to grow the stories bigger. And yes, I'd love to see some drawings or even some music if there is any to accompany them.

12th-Aug-2010 08:51 pm (UTC)

rowangolightly

I'm so very proud of you all! This is just awesome news. Yes, I do think you should include some of the pictures, comments and blog content that everyone has posted here.

*big cheesy grin* See Tessa, I TOLD you I'd be able to say, "Yep, I knew her way back when!"

12th-Aug-2010 08:51 pm (UTC)

mckayla_141410

In my wildest dreams, I'd like a friendly Rottweiler in here. Rotties are always being called "vicious". People need to see that they shouldn't blame the breed but the deed. I know, pretty wild, eh? Yeah, but that's basically my big "wild" dream. It would, honestly, be really cool.

12th-Aug-2010 08:57 pm (UTC)

brennayovanoff

Well, the ones is this story are not necessarily friendly, but they're very well-behaved! (I love Rottweilers—we always had them around growing up and I would never speak ill of them)

http://community.livejournal.com/merry_fates/81140.html

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12th-Aug-2010 08:56 pm (UTC)

harlequins_tale

Congrats guys that is totally awesome news :P It's been so cool to read all of the stories on here and be apart of a great community of other avid readers.
If I had a choice I'd say how about writing a random story about each other because then that would add to how you all have become fast friends since starting this.
I do like the idea about introductions to each story by whoever wrote it.

12th-Aug-2010 08:56 pm (UTC)

serafina_zane

No ideas, just noting that this seems like it's going to be really, really awesome... I'm excited to see how it turns out. I also like the new layout--love the header!

12th-Aug-2010 09:09 pm (UTC)

brennayovanoff

Maggie made that header this morning and then we spent half an hour staring at it gleefully :D

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12th-Aug-2010 08:56 pm (UTC)

stilla_maris

!!!!!!!!!! Congrats, congrats -- that's marvelous!! I'm so thrilled for you three and I can't wait to see the result!

I would love it if each of you contributed a recipe -- I'm thinking about Maggie's cookie baking. Or, perhaps, a suggested menu for an afternoon luncheon with one of the characters from a story. (Or brunch, dinner, whatever -- food is love, right, so literature-themed food events is super duper double love.) :)

audra

12th-Aug-2010 08:57 pm (UTC)

cariblogs.blogspot.com

Lots and lots of Maggie's doodles and drawings. Maybe some color pictures of her art.

12th-Aug-2010 08:57 pm (UTC) - EEEP!

storyteller1123

Can't wait!!! Congrats!!! (we all knew it was coming!)

Can we have how you guys met and started this thing?
Definitely Knock Knock jokes
Drafts of the short stories if there are any, comments from each other included
Drawings of you attacking any revisions that you had to do because that can just be turned into awesomeness.
A dinosaur.

PLEASE JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE! haha.

12th-Aug-2010 08:58 pm (UTC)

Anonymous

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MAGGIE.

There should be some of those in that anthology.

12th-Aug-2010 09:00 pm (UTC) - anthology ideas

soccergirlada

I like mommyalli's idea. I also like the idea of your opinions on each other's stories, your favorite quotes from your stories and the other authors, as well as random stories that may have given you ideas for some detail you put into one of your stories you may not have put in otherwise.

(Sorry if this isn't right or doesnt make sense. Im kind of new to this kind of thing.)

12th-Aug-2010 09:07 pm (UTC) - Congrats!

tennath

We now have the opportunity to lug ALL THREE of you around with us to laugh and cry with ANY TIME WE WANT?! That's amazing! I got happy dance excited when I read about this book! Can't wait for it to come out!

I really do enjoy the round table discussions y'all post. It's insightful to how each of you approach writing, and how well you three get along! Drawings would be fun too.

But really, I would like to know some really funny stories from when you three get together and just talk. The type of behind-the-scenes things that we don't even know as readers.

Or...each of you take a scene from another's story, any of the shorts y'all have written or even the novels, and rewrite them using one of your characters. Really, I would just like to see one of the werewolves as a Replacement. Could you imagine being a wolf who is allergic to blood or iron? Vegetarian wolf...LOL. Ok, maybe my sense of humor is just warped...

12th-Aug-2010 09:07 pm (UTC)

holland_eliese

Oh! Congratulations!

I think that nice little forwards to each story commenting on the complete ridiculousness of how it came about, or whatever, would be great. (Y'all are all hilarious when it comes to backstories on the stories.) Little foot-notey comments on the bottom of the page would be original.

Also, those IM-y conversations that we've seen which start out really, really deep and end up with y'all saying things like "Wow X character from X book does end up being naked quite a bit, doesn't he?"

12th-Aug-2010 09:09 pm (UTC) - Mallory Johnston @twilight_mj_93

Anonymous

To be honest, I'd probably fill it with my own novels. I'm a writer and I plan to publish one day. Hopefully I'll meet Maggie Stiefvater one day! =D It might not happen, but I'll write it in there. Or it could be a dream journal, filled with personal goals! Oh wait, I'm rambling. Sorry! Bye!

12th-Aug-2010 09:10 pm (UTC)

elegantsnobbery

Please, oh please, include Tessa's epic stick drawings.

12th-Aug-2010 09:18 pm (UTC) - ♥

f_orgottendream

Congrats guys! I can't wait. ♥

Hm, wildest ideas?

one-How about telling how each of you got into writing craze? c:
two-The cover could have little quotes from each of the stories on it, written in different fonts and colors. That would be really neat. :3
three-Have fans send in pictures and drawings inspired by your stories.

12th-Aug-2010 09:34 pm (UTC)