Waiting on Wednesday

What I'm Reading: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

What I'm Working On: Writing everyday.

Waiting On: FIRE by Kristin Cashore
October 6th 2009 by Gollancz

Synopsis:
Fire, Graceling's prequel-ish companion book, takes place across the mountains to the east of the seven kingdoms, in a rocky, war-torn land called the Dells.

Beautiful creatures called monsters live in the Dells. Monsters have the shape of normal animals: mountain lions, dragonflies, horses, fish. But the hair or scales or feathers of monsters are gorgeously colored-- fuchsia, turquoise, sparkly bronze, iridescent green-- and their minds have the power to control the minds of humans.

Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.

Wondering what makes it a companion book/prequel? Fire takes place 30-some years before Graceling and has one cross-over character with Graceling, a small boy with strange two-colored eyes who comes from no-one-knows-where, and who has a peculiar ability that Graceling readers will find familiar and disturbing...

Why:
I just finished Graceling, and absolutely loved it so of course I want to read more by this very talented author. Her character development is stellar and her imagination is one of the best I've seen in a long time.

I've got FIRE on my "buy right away" list, but October is so far away.