Official Maria V. Snyder Blog

Yes, I know what I said in my last post!  But technically this is part of Part 4...right?  I wanted to do this post for a special reader - those on Facebook know her as my administrator for the MVS Fans page and those on Goodreads know her as the Study Buddies moderator.  As you can see, she's very involved with my books and is one of my biggest supporters.  How big?  I'm glad you asked! Alethea first emailed me September of 2008.  She worked at Borders (rip Borders :( at the time and told me she had two copies of my Study series books, one to keep and one to loan out.  Alethea then proceeded to tell me her goal was to hand sell 400 copies of my books by Christmas that year.  Thrilled by her email, I replied, offering to send her signed book labels and bookmarks to her store.  Of course she'd love them and asked for 200!  Yikes - but I didn't hesitate (if someone is offering to hand sell hundreds of y...

This series could go on forever, but I'm going to cap it at four :)  This last installment brings a few pictures of Valek - he has inspired many of my readers and I've heard about a number of "book crushes" and out right "undying love."  Good thing he'll be back for more adventures in late 2014!  And there's a picture of Maren and Leif and a bookmark. Anime Valek (Shea Crumbley) Valek with Emily (the artist)     Maren and Leif (artist VMH) Here's a bookmark designed by Renee V. (a.k.a. my cyber stalker):

More talented readers.  The artist of the pen and ink pictures is Amy Harlib - she sent me a bunch of pictures, but these two are my favorites:    And I recently found out Amy is also a contortionist! If you want to see her in action check out her website - it's just AMAZING and I think I pulled a muscle just watching the videos: http://www.reverbnation.com/amazingamycontortionistuniqueyogadancer    Below is a picture of Tammy - who recently earned her BLACK BELT!  CONGRATS to Tammy!! She was inspired by my strong female protagonists and now you don't want to mess with Tammy.  And below is a cartoon that I received right after POISON STUDY was published in 2005.  I've had it hanging on my desk for years and failed to write the artist's name on the back and it was two computers ago :(  But I wanted to share because it's one of my favorites: Click on the picture if you can't see the whole thing.  And if you can't read...

Part 2 of my series showcasing my fabulous and talented readers!  My readers are always asking me which actors I'd pick to play the various characters.  And I never know who to say because I'm not up on the current crop of young actors.  For Yelena I do like Summer Glau from the Sarah Conner chronicles - she played the terminator/body guard and some of you might know her as River from Firefly , but she'll probably be a grandmother by the time my books are ever made into movies. JanYves Stewart designed wallpaper of a few of my characters and he picked a few actors to play Yelena, Ari and Janco.  Take a look: The writing are quotes from POISON STUDY: "Yelena, I'm offering you a choice. You can either be executed, or you can be Commander Ambrose's new food taster." [Valek] "A fool would refuse the job." "What shall I tell the executioner?" "I'm not a fool."       I'm not sure who these actors are ...

My readers provide me with the biggest and most unexpected joy of being a published novelist.  Now, I know you're thinking, what's so unexpected? you wrote a book and had it published for people to read.  Yes, but I didn't expect the outpouring of love.  I didn't expect to inspire other artists to paint and draw pictures based on my stories and characters, to inspire other writers to write their own stories,  poems, and fan fiction.  To inspire lovely videos, graphic art designs and even cartoons.  To inspire young women to take kickboxing and karate classes and one young lady to not commit suicide.  Would you expect all that? And the best part is they share their poems, stories and pictures.  I have two pencil drawings hanging on my wall (one is on the left of Valek - credit and other photo is below), I have jewelry inspired by my books, and I have thousands of emails (and I saved every one!).  In this se...