Good news is that the third book in the Rider’s trilogy is coming along nicely and should be out relatively soon.  Definitely before mid June when I head off to a two-week writing workshop, but likely earlier than that.

Right now it’s resting between drafts so I can go back to it and see all its flaws and fix them and make it a better book.  (Okay, not all of its flaws, but some of them.)  Then it’ll go off to a couple of folks to make sure I “nailed the landing” so-to-speak.  And then it’ll be ready for the world.

Now, in the meantime, while you’re excitedly waiting for the third book (I hope), there are many many other wonderful, great books out there.  And because I’m waiting for this current draft to age, I even get to read some of them.

This week I devoured the latest Juliet Marillier book, Den of Wolves.  I have to say it’s so nice to read a master at work.  She’s a brilliant storyteller and great at writing real, vivid characters.  Fortunately for me, my mother now loves this series, too, so she bought the hardcover and gave it to me to read when she was done with it.  (She never got into the Sevenwaters series, but these she likes a lot.)

Another set of books that are blowing up my also-boughts right now are the Black Mage books by Rachel E. Carter.  I haven’t had a chance to read them but the covers are gorgeous and what’s not to love about a magic school premise?  Plus, people who buy my books seem to have also bought these books, so maybe check them out if you haven’t already.

As an author (and nerd), I also like to read some non-fiction here or there.

On the writing front I recently enjoyed The Fantasy Fiction Formula which was recommended by Jim Butcher at a conference I went to earlier this year.  (Although if you haven’t read Techniques of the Selling Writer, I’d start there.  I think they deal with some of the same concepts but Swain wrote about them first and reading his book was a real aha moment for me.)

And as a fan of psychology, I really enjoyed reading You Are Not So Smart.  I don’t remember much from my undergrad degree in psychology, but I do remember the concept of heuristics and this book talks about them so it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling to see that because a while back I tried to google for the concept and nothing came up and I wondered if I was losing my mind.

Anyway.  A few ideas for those of you who don’t already have enough to read.  (I have two full bookcases of to-be-read books…Some have been there for over a decade now.  Oops.  Never enough hours in the day it seems.)