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Jules<\/strong><\/font>: Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, our weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week—whether book-related or not—that happened to you. <\/p>\n You know we really love featuring illustrators and artists<\/strong><\/a> here at 7-Imp, and we like to pride ourselves on featuring all different styles of art. And it’s not often that we feature art that hasn’t been created for a children’s book, though we love doing that, too. And I can’t remember that we’ve ever<\/em> featured art like today’s — straight-up realistic portraits of animals, rendered in colored pencil. These are from artist, author, and musician Maggie Stiefvater<\/strong><\/a>, who calls herself an “equestrian artist…Suffice to say,”<\/em> she writes at her site, “I draw and paint a lot of horses<\/strong><\/a>…I take my horse portraits very seriously. It seems to me that if you want an exact replica of what any horse looks like on a given day, there are plenty of cameras out there to help you with that. You need an artist only if you want to capture the mood of the day, the character of the horse, the feeling of the moment frozen in time. There’s a point where the camera just doesn’t cut it. That’s where an artist steps in.”<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here’s a bit from Maggie, whose first novel—an urban fantasy—will be released this October:<\/p>\n “What would I say if people asked me?<\/p>\n Well. I guess first of all I would say that, if cats didn’t exist, I wouldn’t have been able to make a living as an artist. Because cats in general and my evil cat, Moose, in particular made me a lot of money! I started out doing cat portraits and then Moose portraits, and slowly my naturally deranged personality took over and I did the <\/em>Cat of the Old Masters Series. Each of those Old Master Cats was 2.5 x 3.5″, and I sold the originals on eBay for literally hundreds of dollars in some cases — it was very surreal!<\/p>\n Right now, it’s hard to reconcile my animal portraiture with my YA novel on homicidal faeries, <\/em>Lament<\/strong><\/a> {illustrated by Julia Jeffrey<\/strong><\/a>}, but in the future I’d really love to do a graphic novel.”<\/em><\/font> <\/p>\n Lament<\/em> (Flux, October ’08), as Maggie puts it at her art blog<\/strong><\/a>, is about a musically talented high school girl who falls for an enigmatic boy who seems to know a lot about her. And, adds Maggie, it “sucks that he’s a fairy assassin.” There is more information about the book here<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n Thanks to Maggie for stopping by, and we’ll close this part of the post with The Writer’s Cat<\/em>:<\/p>\n Hey, remember last Sunday was my birthday, and Jules did that big awesome Post of Embarrassing Moments From Our Collective Past<\/strong><\/a>? It was so freaking awesome I forgot to do any kicks. So I actually have two weeks to work with here.<\/p>\n 2* The night before, I went to a party thrown by my upstairs neighbors. At midnight, they got everyone to sing “Happy Birthday” to me (very slow and minor-key, so it was kind of a birthday dirge – very appropriate for 35). Then Dana gave me two Pups<\/strong><\/a>. They’re these stuffed toys that also serve as muffs, and they are hilarious.<\/p>\n 3* Other great presents: an original work of art by Princess Piper (thanks, Jules!); a beautiful necklace of green beads (thanks, Mom!); a super-comfy hooded sweatshirt-robe (thanks, Leslie!); and my own copy of one of my all-time favorite movies, Airplane!<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (Don’t judge! It’s funny!) (Thanks, B!).<\/p>\n 5* Remember last week Libby<\/strong><\/a> mentioned in her kicks<\/strong><\/a> that she complained about not getting a review copy of Paper Towns<\/strong><\/em> on her blog, and the publicist from Penguin saw it and sent her one? Well, I followed suit and complained that I didn’t have one either. Libby let the publicist know, and now Jules and I have copies too! Thanks, Libby and Jillian!<\/p>\n 6* I read a couple of classics that I really should have read a long time ago, and loved them both: I Am the Cheese<\/strong><\/em> by Robert Cormier, and A Wizard of Earthsea<\/strong><\/em> by Ursula LeGuin.<\/p>\n 7* Maybe the biggest kick of all: my husband is finally home from his summer theatre gigs.<\/p>\n 7.5* Bonus Kick: This hilarious piece from McSweeney’s, “Jean-Paul Sartre’s Script for Without A Trace<\/em>.”<\/a><\/strong> It makes me want to suggest we all get together and start Blog Like Your Favorite Existentialist Day. Anyone else? Just me? …Right, just me. Oh well, the piece is really funny.<\/p>\n 1). My conversations with Alkelda<\/strong><\/a> this week about motherhood, how it can be difficult sometimes to mother very young children, and the moments of frustration I had this week. She got it<\/em> AND gave me good advice. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/Isgard1.jpg\")
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Anyway, before I went full time as a writer, my main business was animal portraits in colored pencil. I have lots of boring credits to my name like internationally exhibited and collected, gallery represented, blah blah blah, but none of them really meant as much as that squealy e-mail from a client saying that I’d captured the essence of their furry companion. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
1* That freaking awesome birthday post. Thanks again, Jules, and to everyone who joined in with comments.<\/p>\n
4* B. also took me out for Thai food at a new yummy restaurant. And Dana baked me Key Lime Cupcakes<\/strong><\/a>. Oh my god, they were good. And then at work on Monday, my co-workers treated me to a delicious flourless chocolate cake. Ridiculously good!<\/p>\n