Official Maria V. Snyder Blog

I returned from my adventures in Europe a couple weeks ago. And I've been spending my time meeting little deadlines all due before our Thanksgiving holidays.  One was doing the final edits on OUTSIDE IN - due today and finished last night :)  Another was writing a travel article for a local magazine called b magazine - it's geared for boomers.  I enjoy writing these articles, plus they allow me to take my travel expenses off my taxes :) Another deadline is filling out the Art Fact Sheet for my new Healer fantasy.  The only problem, I still don't have a title and I'm only a quarter of the way in.  But the art department likes lots of time to come up with cover art...so I'll be brainstorming the next couple of days.  Either that or procrastinating. I was also visiting schools last week.  I visited my son's high school's creative writing class (no - he's not taking it :) and talked about writing and publishing.  Here's a group pic: ...

The reason it's been quiet over here on my blog, I've been in Europe these last 9 days.  My husband has/had business in Switzerland and Belgium and at the last minute...well, not quite that short notice, more like a week...he invited me along.  I'm in Brussels right now and due home this Saturday.  I do love to travel, but I'm missing my kids - they're fun to travel with, but couldn't miss so much school. It's been an interesting trip - we started in Zurich, Switzerland for a few days, then took a train to Luxembourg for the weekend.  My husband is on a quest to visit as many countries as he can and I'm happy to keep him company :)  A train ride through Europe sounds romantic doesn't it??  I was looking forward to the trip - however the realities of train travel is far from idyllic.  After being delayed 4 hours because of the strikes in France (they'er striking over the increase of their retirement age to 62), we finally get underway...

As promised, I'm going to write about my mini tour in sunny California.  It was pouring rain in Pennsylvania when we flew out - we, as in me, my daughter Jenna and my niece Amy.  Jenna was going to miss four days of school, so she had a ton of school work to take along.  She's in 7th grade.  We flew into Los Angeles and Daniel directed us to our hotel in Glendale.  Daniel is my GPS - it's a Garmin and you can choose which "voice" you want and I picked the British Daniel.  Something about the British accent sounds so...smart. Our first full day we had breakfast with Alethea and her husband.  Can anyone tell me which of my books, Alethea is mentioned??  The real lady works at the Borders in Glendale and she has been a dynamo in hand selling my books and I'm not talking a few copies, but hundreds.  Maybe even over a thousand - it's been about two years.  The picture below is from the last time I was in Glendale for a STORM GLASS rel...

Since I've returned from California, I've been scrambling to keep up with...everything!  I  can really relate to the 3 Doors Down song, Running Out of Days , from their Away From the Sun album.  Especially these lines: "All these little things in life and they all create this haze. Too many things to get done and I'm running out of days."  Yep, I hear you! Last week I did get my email newsletter out on Wednesday the 13th. ICE STUDY Part 7 was included :)  If you're a subscriber and didn't get the issue - check your spam folder.  And if it's not there, then you need to add this email addy to your approved list:  Maria_V._Snyder_Author@mail.vresp.com     I've also been scrambling to reply to my emails.  So if you've sent me an email, I'm about a month behind, but I will answer.  I don't like to be so far behind, but I feel better about it after I saw Kelley Armstrong's post on Facebook that she had 6...

That's Los Angeles, California not Louisiana :)  On Thursday, I'm going to be flying all the way across the USA to the west coast for a couple of book signings and to participate in a book festival.  And just like when I flew to Scandinavia for a Baltic Sea cruise back in July, LA is currently having a heat wave!  It was 113 F there on Monday...yikes!  We had temps in the low 90s F when we were in Sweden, which is normally around 75 F that time of year. Speaking of the weather....I wrote a guest blog about weather and magic for Black Gate Magazine.  My short story, Cursing the Weather is going to be published in the magazine this December.  Here's a link if anyone's interested: http://www.blackgate.com/2010/09/27/the-weather-part-art-part-science-and-part%e2%80%a6-magic/ My mini West Coast tour is going to be a blast.  I can't wait to see all my southern California readers again and my friend, Alethea.  Plus my daughter, Jenna and niece, Amy...

Welcome to my very first author interview and give away on my new blog!  Cue music! PERSONAL DEMONS is Lisa Desrochers debut young adult novel. It was released in mid-September and already getting buzz.  I read her book back in the Spring and give it this blurb: “Fun and entertaining . . . the fight for Frannie’s soul isn’t going to be easy, and the excitement doesn’t stop. Good versus evil shouldn’t be this much fun, but it is! A hot debut.”   Uh... I tend to be wordy with my blurbs... Leave a comment and/or ask Lisa a question by Monday, October 4th if you'd like to win a signed copy of PERSONAL DEMONS.  I'll chose one winner using Random.org.  I also have the good luck to be meeting Lisa in person next Sunday where we will both be on October 3rd over at the Orange County Children's Book Festival ( http://www.kidsbookfestival.com/index.html ). We will be at the Teen stage.  Here's the official cover copy:...

I'm heading back to my old Alma mater tomorrow.  I'm doing a really fun event at Penn State University's Abington Campus in Abington (close to Philadelphia - my old stomping grounds) in the evening.  I spent two years there before heading up to the main campus.  It was called the Ogontz campus then.  During my two years there, I drove to school in a bright orange Oldsmobile Starfire - the car weighed a ton and got like 6 miles to the gallon.  Plus there was a dent from the previous owner (my Aunt, who gave me the car so I really can't complain...er...). The dent was patched up and covered with red primer (the plan had been to re-paint the car a more subdued red - my favorite color - it never happened).  Even the wheels were orange!  I was always late for my early morning classes (no surprise - I'm not a morning person) and the only parking I could find was far away and way downhill from the Sutherland Building, which didn't have...