Martha lives in College Station, TX, and is an old friend. More accurately, she's an old very good acquaintance, who married an ex-boyfriend of mine. When I (finally) graduated from college, they sent me a copy of her first book, The Element of Fire. It's one of those books that when you finish, you look at it and marvel that the book is not thicker, because you *know* how much stuff was in it...kind of the way Guy Gavriel Kay does.

She's also written City of Bones and Death of the Necromancer; haven't read the latter, but City of Bones is also very good. She has another one out, too; can't recall the title. Tor was her original publisher and she had some problems with them; someone else publishes her now, can't recall who. If you read any of her stuff, let me know what you think.

~Amanda