Today is the release day for two first novels by good friends of mine: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick and Servant of a Dark God by John Brown.

Becca is one of my writing friends I’ve known the longest. She and I were in an online class together back in 2002 and then in an in-person writing group for a couple of years until she moved to Colorado.  I read the earliest version of the novel that would eventually become Hush, Hush—back before the character of Patch was a fallen angel—and I’ve always thought Becca had a great writing voice for Young Adult novels.  I also admire her tremendous persistence in rewriting and rewriting her novel until it became a surefire hit.  I look forward to reading the final version.

John Brown and I both went to Bountiful High School just a year apart, but we apparently didn’t know each other at the time. We’ve since gotten to know each other as members of Codex and through the local Utah conventions. John’s lecture on the “three things you need to know to write killer stories” is fascinating, and I highly recommend it to aspiring writers.