This is Ilsa J. Bick. She is a child psychiatrist and author of YA fiction. I learned about her because I'm Facebook friends (and former classmates) with a children's librarian who was raving about Bick on Facebook. I believe she called her a rock star of YA lit, or something of the sort. I was intrigued. So I asked this librarian (hi, Mandy!) what of Bick's I should read. The easy answer was "everything." But I looked into Ashes, which seemed to be her most popular work (probably because the third book of the trilogy, Monsters, was recently released). And I knew we had to read that book and talk about this woman.
She doesn't say much about herself on her website or on Facebook, and even Wikipedia is mostly focused on her work.
She has written many Star Trek novels, in addition to BattleTech and MechWarrior stories. Her other YA novels, besides the Ashes / Shadows / Monsters trilogy are The Sin-Eater's Confession, Draw the Dark, and Drowning Instinct. Her next book - it would seem - will be called White Space.
Bick holds no punches, which I respect in any author, but particularly those writing for a YA audience. You'll see what I mean later in the week when we review the scary, gory, dark, twisted Ashes.
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