Authors I’m Glad Are Still Writing

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! Today’s topic is supposed to be “Authors You Wish Were Still Writing Today,” but I can’t really think of any authors that I wish were still writing that aren’t. I guess I could go with dead authors from the 1800s or something like that, but I’m okay with their body of work. So instead I’m going to twist the topic and write about Authors I’m Glad Are Still Writing. Because fortunately, the authors I care about most are, for the most part, still writing.

1. Marie Lu. I could probably say she’s my favorite author, although she’s kind of shifted a little into more adult books (and is writing at a slower pace), which I’m a little sad about, but she’s still writing. She has the second book in a duology to finish, so there’s that.

2. Veronica Roth. This author is one of the reasons I restarted my writing efforts (although not for good reasons, it had good results). I absolutely adored Divergent, although chapter 50 of Allegiant on is dead to me. Which is how I got into fanfiction. Because I couldn’t accept that ending.

That being said, I did really enjoy her follow-up series, Carve the Mark, and am looking forward to her next book, Seek the Traitor’s Son, which comes out on Tuesday (while I’m on vacation, but my daughter can get it off the porch). And I’ve already pre-ordered both books of her upcoming Duology which is kind of like Divergent fanfiction? The Sixth Faction; the first book comes out this fall, and the second book next spring. I did read her other novels in-between, although they didn’t bring the same joy to me as her first two series did.

3. Cassandra Clare. It was several years ago that I first read Cassandra Clare, when I was looking at one of those Goodreads Listopia lists for The Top YA Books of XXXX, and found City of Bones, the first book in her Shadowhunters universe. There have been many, many books in that universe since. While I didn’t start reading the books when they first came out, I’ve been reading her books when they came out for several years now. The last three books in the Shadowhunters universe are supposed to come out starting this fall. Which makes me a little sad. I can see her winding down the universe, although if she wants to go historical, she has many years of stories that she can write (the Shadowhunters began in Medieval times and her earliest novels in the universe begin in the 1800s).

She has an adult series, and it’s good, but it just doesn’t have quite the same magic as her Shadowhunter’s books. I will continue to read the adult series, but I’m not sure that the next series will be an autobuy. I can just go to the library.

4. Suzanne Collins. I often get her mixed up with Susan Collins, the politician, and am wondering what The Hunger Games has to do with whatever political shenanigans are going on. She’s almost exclusively known for her Hunger Games series, and that’s all I’ve read from her. However, I’ve liked her latest prequels to the trilogy for different reasons. The Battle of Songbirds and Snakes was interesting in how it gave us info on how Panem came to be, and Sunrise on the Reaping gave us insight on how Haymitch came to be the way he was. As long as she can make these books interesting, I wouldn’t mind seeing even more books in this series. There are a lot of characters in this series that I’m sure she could write about if she wanted to.

5. Kristy Boyce. The first four authors were ones that I have been reading for several years, but I only discovered Ms. Boyce last year. Her books are cute romances where the main characters play D&D. I preordered her latest audiobook and it just showed up in my library (audiobooks are perfect for listening to at work).

6. Holly Black. I don’t read everything she has written, but I did like The Folk of the Air series and I enjoyed the first book of her adult duology, Book of Night (I have the next book, but so little books, so little time, right?).

7. Kristin Hannah. I’ve only read three of her books so far, but they all seem to be pretty good. I’d prefer that some of her books have a happier ending, but I guess not all books can.

8. Margaret Weis. The first Christmas after meeting my husband, he gave me a Dragonlance book. I read all of her earlier books, and we have two kids (and two cats) named after characters in her books.

For a while, there was a dispute with Wizards of the Coast over her Dragonlance properties, so she started writing another series. But she’s once again writing in the Dragonlance universe, and I’m pretty excited because her next book is about Magius, which I think will be awesome.

9. Emma Southon. She writes nonfiction about the Roman empire, and although Medieval history is my main historical jam, her writing is probably the most entertaining historical writing you’ll ever meet (although she does have some cursing in there). Who knew that one could make running over your father with a chariot or blocking up someone in a wall funny? Yes, I know it’s tragic, but it was thousands of years ago.

10. Erik Larson. Larson is another nonfiction author, although his books aren’t funny like Emma Southon. His books read like a novel though. There are still several of his books that I haven’t read, but I have read several of them so far.

It can be challenging to continue a writing career book after book. Writing the books might not be that difficult (although sometimes writing can be difficult), but the biggest challenge is the publishing industry. If you don’t sell books, they won’t publish you. So I’m glad that these people are still writing.

So what about you? What authors do you wish were still writing? Or were you like me and went in a slightly different direction this week?