Sunday, March 23, 2008

Welcome!

Welcome to the Mary Stewart Novels blog! This is a companion blog to the fan site my sister, Julie, and I just created for our favorite author, Mary Stewart. There was a sad lack of info on the web about Mary Stewart's books -- there weren't even any decent book synopses out there. So we built our website, because everyone should know about Mary Stewart.


We wanted some way to communicate with visitors to the site, and we didn't like any of the guestbooks that we could find. So we decided to try this blog. Because we like to talk about Mary Stewart and want to meet other fans.

Posts probably will not be published all that frequently. We both have other blogs (Jennie's book blog and Julie's craft blog), plus, you know, jobs (that pesky need for food and shelter, I tell you). ;) But we hope to get a post up once a week or so.

A quick tour of MaryStewartNovels.com. We have a biography, synopses of all her books, reviews, and some quotes from interviews we've found with Ms. Stewart. The extras page has some random features, including a cover gallery and a map of settings.

What we need now is feedback! Please let us know what you think of the site and how we can make it better. This is our first website, so we're still trying to figure it all out. Any suggestions are welcome. If you see any typos or broken links, please let us know. Comment here or email us at contact (at) marystewartnovels.com.

Thanks!

7 comments:

Kerry said...

Oh dear, you've made me want to dig out my Mary Stewart novels and start a huge reread. I've even got a few I bought second hand (okay, I think I bought them all second hand) and never got around to reading. Just when I felt like I was getting my TBR vaguely under control as well. I've added your blog to my RSS feeds and I hope to see more posts here.

Kerry said...

Okay, I haven't added the blog to my feeds because Google Reader tells me it doesn't have one. If you have any control of it, please do add one. I'll never remember to come and check the blog, so I need a feed reader to tell me what's new.

Jennie said...

Kerry--I think I fixed the feed. I'm not exactly sure what was wrong with it--it should have been on by default. But it seems to work now. Let me know if you have trouble.

Thanks for visiting! You should definitely pull out those old Mary Stewart books you haven't read. I need to get to her Merlin trilogy, which I've never read.

Kerry said...

I've got it now. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I think it's wonderful that you have created a Mary Stewart website. She's been one of my favourite authour forever, and I've never found as much information about her anywhere as on your site.

It was interesting to see the summary of the movie version of The Moonspinners. Almost doesn't sound like the same movie. I remember seeing previews for that movie (I've just aged myself, haven't I?) and it put me off reading The Moonspinners for a few years, which is a shame because it has turned out to be one of my very favourite Mary Stewarts. Haley Mills as Nicola Ferris? No, no and no!

I also enjoyed reading the section where Mary setwart talks about her writing. I find it interesting that she detested Thubder on the Right. It is one of my least favourite of her novels. It never worked as well for me, partly, I think, because it is the only one written in the 3rd person, but now I'm going to hjave to go back and look at it to see how purple her prose was. I have always admired the beauty of her decsription in the rest of her novels.

I found your Mary Stewart website through Jennie's reading blog which I found through Sussanna Kearslet's website, which makes a circle of sorts because I discovered Sussanna Kearsley while looking for someone who wrote books of a similar style to Mary Sewart.

Thanks so much for making your website and this blog. I'll be visiting again.

Jace said...

Congratulations, Jennie and Twin, on the creation of this great blog + the beautiful Mary Stewart fan site. Keep up the good work!

I've read only three Stewart books - Nine Coaches Waiting, Wildfire At Midnight and Madam Will You Talk? but have more in the TBR. I love her writing - very classy and understated but wonderfully evocative. :)

Anonymous said...

So pleased to discover you (via Deanna Raybourn's blog). I've been a fan of Mary Stewart's since I was a teenager. I read THE MOONSPINNERS after I'd seen the film, then read everything else. Now in my fifties, I'm re-reading her and finding she's just as good as I remember. My current favourite is THE GABRIEL HOUNDS.

I now write contemporary women's fiction myself (www.lindagillard.co.uk) and feel sure MS must have inspired/influenced me. She certainly made me want to travel. (I live on the Isle of Skye where WILDFIRE AT MIDNIGHT is set, but that's not one of my favourites.)

Does anyone write romantic suspense now? It's a much neglected genre in the UK.

Good luck with the website and blog!