Why the creator of The Dream Thieves might have the next Twilight on her hands
Is she a builder? No, Maggie Stiefvater is a rising talent in the world of young adult fiction: her last book, The Raven Boys , was snapped up by the people behind the Twilight films. The sequel, The Dream Thieves, is out this week.
OK I'll bite… Hold the bad vampire jokes, this is no Twilight. Stiefvater had the initial idea for the Raven series aged 19, but says she "didn't know enough to do the material justice". At the book's heart is the friendship between sensible Blue and four boarding-school boys, but there's also a quixotic hunt for a Welsh king, and a house of female psychics. Plus street racing.
Street racing? As in racing cars illegally? Yep. Stiefvater was a street racer during her youth: "I was a terrible, terrible teen who had a problem with boys being snotty, and loved driving fast."
Anything else we should know? Stiefvater was home-schooled from the age of 12 – "which gave me time to do things like play bagpipes in a band, ride horses and be wild without people saying, 'That girl's insane!'" She's married with two kids, and is an accomplished artist and musician.
She says: "My books reflect how I feel inside the whole time."
We say: Intelligent teen fiction. Meet Diana Wynne Jones's heir.
The Dream Thieves is published on 5 September by Scholastic, £7.99. To order a copy for £6.39, with free UK p&p, go to theguardian.com/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846
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