Friday 21 December 2012

Let It Snow Books: Interview with Maria V. Snyder + Giveaway



Welcome to Day 11 of Let it Snow Books 2012, where for the next two weeks you have the chance to read some really fun holiday posts from some of your favorite authors, both here and at Ex Libris.

Today, we welcome author Maria V. Snyder here at Books to Brighten your Mood with a festive post and you will have the chance to win a copy of Scent of Magic.Maria and her work need no further introduction from me. Even if you have read only one book written by this amazing author you instantly fall in love with her characters and incredibly intricate world building. At least I know I was, from the very first book I read of hers. So, it doesn't really come as a surprise that her latest release, Scent of Magic, is among my favorite reads for the year.
Read on for a taste of my review of Scent of Magic:
Maria V. Snyder just can't write a story that isn't amazing! Simple as that. This author is plainly brilliant and by each book of hers that I read she proves that over and over again. Scent of Magic is brilliant!
After reading and absolutely loving...
Read the rest of the review here.

-Since this whole event is about the Best Books we read in 2012, could you share with us some of your favorite titles you read this year?
Maria:  Well I don’t know if these books were published in 2012, but I read them in 2012 J I really enjoyed listening to On the Edge, by Illona Andrews – it reminded me of the Yelena and Valek / Avry and Kerrick dynamics and I liked Rose – a strong and smart heroine. I also listened to Heartless, by Gail Carriger – it’s the fourth book of her Parasol Protectorate series and it’s wonderful and hasn’t gotten old. Again another strong and practical protagonist. I’m listening to Timeless the fifth book right now. The Restorer by Amanda Stevens is an unique urban fantasy about a woman who restores cemeteries. The Maze Runner, by James Dashner is excellent, The Farm, by Emily McKay is an unique YA post-apocalyptic, which is hard to do considering the amount of them flooding the market. And I’m still loving Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampire series – I read Last Breath and Black Dawn back to back.

-Is there anything special you usually do for the holidays?
Maria: Bake cookies and a pie – I never bake any other time of the year J We drive around and look at x-mas lights and we hide a few of our kids’ presents and give them clues to find them on x-mas morning.


-Do you have any favorite holiday themed stories (movies or books)?
Maria: All time favorite is The Grinch! I love that green guy. He has a dog – how bad could he really be??

-Could you share with us your favorite holiday meal/dessert/candy?
Maria: Growing up, my grandmother made home-made spaghetti – yup, she mixed the dough, rolled it out in a sheet and hand cut every single strand!! Then she made the gravy (what we called tomato sauce) from scratch and put in beef, veal, meatballs, and hot and sweet Italian sausages to cook in it all day. Yum! And the leftovers tasted even better – no lie!

-What’s one of the best gifts you ever received/gave for Christmas?
Maria: One x-mas I printed out a bunch of pictures of my children from our various vacations and trips around the world and put them in an album for my mother – I made it a story with captions – it starts out with my kids looking bored and wanting to go on a trip and they try and think of a place they haven’t been. Each page is of a place they have been and, by the end of the album, I have pictures of them sleeping, worn out from remembering so many trips. It took some time to put together, but my mother LOVED it.

-You’re holiday shopping, name a few things you’ll buy this year.
Maria: My son was just accepted to Penn State University! So I’m buying lots of PSU sweatshirts/T-shirts for him and for his proud grandparents. I’m also big on buying books so my daughter is getting a nice stack.


-Let’s say you have the chance to spend the holidays with a fictional character, who would that be and what would you be doing?
Maria: I would like to spend some time with Ari and Janco from my books. They’re lots of fun and I think we’d just hang out, talk and drink some beers.


-We all love Christmas holidays, but I was wondering if there’s anything about them that you find annoying?
Maria: What I find annoying is seeing x-mas decorations in the stores in September, and hearing x-mas music before Thanksgiving. And now my local gym is playing x-mas music at a fast beat so I’m working out to Oh Holy Night at 160 beats/minute!

-What would you ask Santa to bring you this year?
Maria: I would ask for a beach house!

-What would be your (bookish or not) New Year’s resolutions?
Maria: To stay on top of my deadlines! With my new contract, I have to write 4 books in 3 years, so I need to stay on top of things or it’ll be a stressful nightmare. Also to not over commit to non-writing/non-family events.

Thank you for stopping by Maria and Happy Holidays!

About the author
Maria V. Snyder switched careers from meteorologist to novelist when she began writing the New York Times best-selling Study Series (POISON STUDY, MAGIC STUDY and FIRE STUDY) about a young woman who becomes a poison taster. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, Maria dreamed of chasing tornados and even earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Meteorology from Pennsylvania State University. Unfortunately, she lacked the necessary forecasting skills. So she worked as an environmental meteorologist until boredom and children drove her to write down the stories that have been swirling around in her head. Writing, proved to be more enjoyable than meteorology, and Maria returned to school to earn a Master of Arts degree in fiction writing from Seton Hill University. Unable to part company with Seton Hill and its wonderful writing program, Maria is currently a teacher and mentor for the MFA program.


Visit Maria

About the Book:
Title: Scent of Magic
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Series: Healer, #2
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Length: 400 pages
Release Date: December 18th 2012
Purchase Info: Book Depository, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads



Hunted, Killed—Survived?

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of her friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomanical King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confident, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet; an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

War is coming and Avry is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible ... again.



~~~~~~~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maria has generously offered a copy of Scent of Magic to one lucky commenter (Open Internationally.)All giveaways end on January 5th.


~Fill the form below to enter ~
a Rafflecopter giveaway

50 comments:

  1. My friend decided he wanted a game of Guess Who, but with the faces of people he knew, so I made it for him.

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  2. A pearl necklace that I gave it to my mother.
    Thanks a lot for the giveaway!

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  3. book to my friend, for book lover, book is always a great christmas gift

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  4. I think the PS3 games i buy to my brother. He is happy, i am happy and my friends are happy too.

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  5. A sweatshirt I decorated for my mother with the handprints of her two youngest grandchildren and her first great-grandchild.

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  6. I did a special jewellery for a friend feathuring something she really like so she could have something with her when she is traveling too and since it's handmade there is only one like this

    thank you a lot for this oppottunity to you your book ^^ ( after the blog tour is a new international opportunity and i'm really grateful for it)

    all the best and happy holiday!!

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  7. gave a friend books by a fav author

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  8. A painting I did for my dad! :)

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  9. I don't celebrate christmas, but if I did, I would've given out a book :)

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  10. I had to think real hard for books to give to my nephew/niece this year. They don't usually read books but I want to get them to see how wonderful it is to read books, so... I guess that's it!

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  11. The letter I wrote my mom. It was very uncharacteristic of me since I rarely express my love for my parents. Her reaction was the best thing ever.

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  12. hand-knitted socks and scarves - they took time to make and are unique

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  13. Hand knit socks. I call them my 'Dobby socks' and make sure they are fun colours that don't match, I usually put them inside a book.

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  14. I gave my mom jewelry. That might not seem like a big deal, but that was the first year I was able to buy stuff with my own money.

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  15. I made books for my friends telling the story of how we became friends.

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  16. I made a book of my mother, for my mother in 5th grade. Does that count? Lol. She loved it. Especially the part where she is "sitting on the wall, has a great fall, and all the men come tumbling after" Haha. She could not stop laughing and I was oblivious to why she was laughing because she was a beautiful goddess to me. :P

    I love Maria Snyder's books. Thanks for the interview and giveaway! Merry Christmas to all :)

    -Monica G.

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  17. Maria Snyders "Poison Study" to my sister - who is now a fan of Maria's books.

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  18. Uh, one Christmas I bought my Dad two Santa statues (small china ones of course) which looked funky and was doing awesome moves :) My whole family laughed so hard when he got it, it was a happy happy Christmas :)

    Really looking forward to Scent of Magic!!!

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  19. I wish Santa could bring me this :)

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  20. I gave my boyfriend the game Guitar Hero last year, and he loves it. Lucky for me, he plays it with headphones on.

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  21. The Christmas jumper I made for my best friend last year, with hand sewn Santa and pompom snow,she loved it and wore it Christmas day. This year her mum wore it for her last day at work! :)

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  22. I'm excited for the knitted, stuffed Dalek I'm giving my husband this year!

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  23. Supernatural season seven to my husband, his favorite show!

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  24. I would have to say that my best gift was a thousand paper cranes I folded in a month strung together. It's not really a true Christmas gift in spirit, but I gave it to my friend on Christmas day, so it totally counts.

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  25. Just recently gave someone one of my favorite books :D Thanks for the amazing giveaway!

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  26. PS3 to my ex a few years ago

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  27. A Celestron C8 telescope.

    Happy Holidays & thanks for the amazing giveaway!
    elizabeth @ bookattict . com
    GFC: BookAttict

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  28. I drew a portrait of my little brother and am giving it to him this christmas.

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  29. The best gift I ever gave for Christmas was a brand new bicycle for my son - he wanted one so much and was ecstatic to get it.

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  30. The best Christmas gift I ever gave was this year I gave a Nook Color to my friend. He reads technical books (that come mostly in pdf) a lot since he's a computer programer, which means the regular Nook and Kindle don't work for him.

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  31. A drawing. Thank you for this giveaway! :D

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  32. My FIL is an avid reader but will never touch an e-reader so every year I save up books that I know he will love and give him a giant box of books for Christmas. The box always has enough in it so that it will last him the whole next year and he never has to buy a book. Good thing for me he isn't real picky and I know his favorite authors. It so much fun seeing him go through them!

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  33. My mom a new sweater that she wanted this year. Thanks for the chance to win!

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  34. The doll's house I gave my daughter one year was a huge hit.

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  35. A letter and some favorite candies to my grandfather a couple of years ago.

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  36. I hope I always give good gifts-- I try, anyway! :-) But a couple of years ago I gave my two brothers their first mp3 player-- it was like I gave them gold. It was awesome :-)

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  37. Don't really celebrate Christmas here.

    reviewing.shelf@gmail.com

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  38. I brought my brother Chelsea (his favourite team) championship gear from England

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  39. My kids a lot of fun games and toys:)

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  40. A tickle me cookie monster to my niece. And the way her face lite up was the best present I could get :)

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  41. My sister loves the tv show Psych, so I bought her 5 seasons.

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  42. Well the ones that are most from my heart are books!

    raffle name: Nikki O

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  43. Oh I'm not sure! I always try to get a really good present for my little sister, and one year I got here these awesome wall stickers that took FOREVER to find.

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  44. I often gift books! All my friends love them!

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