Happy book birthday to THE QUEEN OF SORROW!

I was raised on fresh raspberries, whole milk, and epic fantasy -- Terry Brooks, Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings, Guy Gavriel Kay... Growing up, I read my favorites over and over again, and I dreamed of writing my own trilogy someday, filled with grand adventure and deadly magic. I wanted it so badly that I barely ever talked about it -- it felt like a wish made on birthday candles, and I was so desperate for it to come true that I didn't want to do anything to dispel the power of that wish.

Today I am so happy and grateful to be able to share that wish-come-true with you! Today my very first epic fantasy trilogy is complete!!! It's the pub day for THE QUEEN OF SORROW, Book Three of The Queens of Renthia, published by Harper Voyager. I wrote these books out of love for the stories that shaped me and out of a wish to add my own brand of badass women to the genre.

Renthia is a world of extreme beauty: sky-piercing mountains, endless glaciers, and towering trees with cities nestled in their branches, all thanks to an overabundance of nature spirits. But the spirits who created all this glorious beauty aren't sweet, frolicking pixies. These spirits want to kill all humans, and only certain women -- the queens -- have the power to control them.

THE QUEEN OF SORROW concludes the stories of Daleina, Naelin, and Merecot, as the three determined queens clash over two countries plagued by bloodthirsty spirits.

If you're interested, more information can be found on my website, including the first three chapters.

To those of you who have come with me on this journey -- ziplining through the trees of Aratay and running with the wolf Bayn -- thank you so much for joining me! It means so much to me to share this adventure with you!

And to those of you who are new to Renthia... Welcome! Happy reading! Just watch out for the trees. They bite.
 

THE QUEEN OF SORROW comes out today!!!

I remember reading ALANNA by Tamora Pierce when I was ten years old and thinking, "If Alanna can become a knight, I can become a writer." *fistbumps ten-year-old me* THE QUEEN OF SORROW, the final book of my Queens of Renthia trilogy, comes out today! 

http://www.sarahbethdurst.com/QueenofSorrow.htm

THE STONE GIRL'S STORY comes out today!!!

I am beyond thrilled to announce that today is the pub day for THE STONE GIRL'S STORY, my fifteenth book!!! It's a fantasy adventure for kids, published by Clarion Books / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  

Makya is a girl made of living stone.  Forever twelve years old, she has outlasted the father who carved her and engraved her body with the stories that gave her life. But now the magical marks that animate her and her stone friends are fading, and she must leave her home for the first time to find help if she wants her story -- and those of her friends -- to continue.

This book is very special to me, because it's a story about stories.

I spent my childhood telling myself stories: every Barbie doll was given a quest, every paper airplane had its own family, and every stuffed creature I could cram onto my crowded bed had a backstory, dramatic adventures, and a redemption arc. 

When I realized at age ten that writers are people -- ordinary people -- my world changed. I began obsessively chasing stories, collecting cool names for characters as if hoarding Halloween candy, squirreling away scraps of paper and spending hours drawing maps of fantastical lands. And I wrote story after story after story, at first filling notebooks decorated with Lisa Frank unicorn stickers and later filling the hard drive of my laptop…until eventually, through the sheer stubbornness of not stopping, I became a writer. It is the only thing I have ever wanted to be.

Stories are as essential to life as food, water, and shelter. They’re how we understand the world and ourselves. They comfort, challenge, and change us. They have the power to save us in dark times, and they can give us the tools to save ourselves. I wrote THE STONE GIRL'S STORY for everyone who wants to shape the story of their life, who chooses to control the narrative of their destiny, who believes that stories have power. And at its heart, this book is the story of a girl learning to become a writer. Which is why it means so much to me.

For more about THE STONE GIRL'S STORY, including the first two chapters, please visit my website. I had so much fun writing Mayka's story and am so happy to be able to share it with you!

Paperback Release Day for THE RELUCTANT QUEEN!!!

So excited that today is the paperback release day for THE RELUCTANT QUEEN, Book Two of The Queens of Renthia!!! My cat Gwen is excited too!

https://www.amazon.com/Reluctant-Queen-Book-Queens-Renthia/dp/0062474111