What I'm Reading

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Why the heck should you care what I'm reading? Well, because it's fabulous. Alas, that is not the point of my post, though I'll come back to it. At the retreats and conferences I go to I keep hearing this great piece of advice so I thought I should pass it on to all my writer friends: read! Seriously, that's it. More to the point though, know what's selling in your genre, get a feel for the competition. I love reading fantasy to the point where I read it almost exclusively. But, when I started writing my YA novel I realized I had to read YA first. I'm glad I did because it has helped tremendously!

So, back to what I'm reading. I just finished Aprilynne Pike's Wings (which has since hit the bestseller list, whoo hoo!), but it was so great I have to rave about it too. If your writing YA you should really read this book because it's fresh, different, and has already become hugely popular. Aprilynne captures the 'voice' of a 16 year old girl so acurately that it's amazing, and she makes the unbeleivable completely beleivable. Loved it! I am now reading The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan. The first page absolutely blew me away. Sarah is like a force of nature, wild, all-consuming, and completely unexpected. You will love her. Besides, she's Irish and that really comes through in her writing which makes it a blast to read! These two ladies have completely changed the way I think of YA and they're the reason I started writing it in the first place! Check them out, you won't be sorry you did.

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