Reading List According to Readers of Writer Revealed

So here it is ...a fairy short, but very good reading list. 


If anyone wants to keep the list, and want it in Excel, email me and I will send it to you. I plan to include blog links for people who recommended the books in the spreadsheet as soon as I get a chance. 


The list is alphabetized by Author's names.In the brackets, people who recommended each book.


1. A Reaper's Tale: The Undecided by Adam Slade (Carol Ward)
2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Carol Ward / Karin Eider)
3. The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop (Dolly Garland)
4. Anne Frank's Diary by Anne Frank (Dolly Garland)
5. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (Dolly Garland)
6. The Kadin by Beatrice Small (Carol Ward)
7. The Little Country by Charles De Lint (Carol Ward)
8. Ramses Series by Christian Jaqc (Karin Eider)
9. Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers (Erica Chapman)
10. Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers (Erica Chapman)
11. One Day by David Nicholls (Sue Martin)
12. Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber (Sue Martin)
13. Christmas in Seattle by Debbie Macomber (Sue Martin)
14. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Sue Martin)
15. The Swarm by Frank Schaetzing (Karin Eider)
16. The Lacemakers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri (Sue Martin)
17. Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling (Karin Eider / Dolly Garland)
18. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien (Adam Slade / Karin Eider / Dolly Garland)
19. Black Dagger Brotherhood by J. R. Ward (Karin Eider)
20. Teacher Teacher by Jack Sheffield (Sue Martin)
21. Persuasion by Jane Austen (Dolly Garland)
22. One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (Erica Chapman)
23. Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Adam Slade)
24. Next of Kin by Joanna Trollope (Sue Martin)
25. Proust was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer (Dolly Garland)
26. Ilfayne's Bane by Julia Knight (Adam Slade)
27. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Karin Eider)
28. The Body Finder by Kimberly Dertin (Erica Chapman)
29. The Anita Blake Series by Laurell K. Hamilton (Kaitlyn Hall)
30. The Merry Gentry Series by Laurell K. Hamilton (Kaitlyn Hall)
31. Valerias Last Stand by March Fitten (Sue Martin)
32. The Day Job by Mark Wallington (Sue Martin)
33. The Book Thief by Markus Zusack (Dolly Garland)
34. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (Sue Martin)
35. Tam Lin by Pamela Dean (Carol Ward)
36. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Karin Eider / Dolly Garland)
37. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman (Adam Slade / Dolly Garland)
38. The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore (Adam Slade)
39. Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper (Carol Ward)
40. Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer (Karin Eider)
41. The Gunslinger by Stephen King (Adam Slade)
42. On Writing by Stephen King (Carol Ward)
43. The Stand by Stephen King (Karin Eider)
44. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Erica Chapman)
45. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett (Adam Slade)
46. The Woodwife by Terry Windling (Carol Ward)
47. The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan (Adam Slade)

Deadline to Tell The World What To Read

Hi Folks,

Sorry for a bit of silence. As they say....S*** Happens!!

Anyway, so previously, I asked you to send me a list of 10 books you think everyone should read. Books that matter to you for whatever reason - because they entertained you, made you cry, made you laugh, made you think something new...whatever....it's your list....your choice.

I will be posting a consolidated list of those books on Sunday 25th of July - so if any stragglers amongst you want to send their list, please feel free. Email me the list at lostwanderer5 [at] gmail [dot] com, and I will add it.

Final Post: Dolly Garland - Why I Write Fantasy?

According to Oxford Dictionary, Fantasy is "a genre of imaginative fiction involving magic and adventure, especially in setting other than real world."

Magic. Adventure. Heroism. Fantasy makes it all possible. Even the least brave of us can travel through jungles, climb the highest mountain and fight the fiercest tiger. Fantasy makes impossible possible. Even the science fiction I like is because of its fantasy element - imagining things that could be or might be. Worlds that are similar enough to ours to portray humanity that we can relate to, characters we can care about, but different enough to show us a glimpse of a different, magical world that at some point in our life we wish to be in.

Fantasy opens the doors of imagination. It enriches our ordinary world. Fantasy offers a wide scope, with little magic that changes a person or something that changes a world. It could be a new way of looking at our own world, or a journey to completely different one. Fantasy could be anything, and as a writer and a reader of it, it makes me feel that I could be anything. 

I also like the freedom of being able to create my own worlds, and play with magic and creating societies. The most amazing thing is to make it believable, to portray it with such vividity that while people read it, they believe in the existence of that world. To sit in one's living room, and face the dragons or wield a sword or fall in love with a wizard or a vampire....where else could you have it all, but in a fantasy? 

P.S. "Why I Write..." series is at the end. Thank you to all the contributors and all the readers. I have enjoyed reading about what makes you love your genres.

Guest Post: Anne Ashby - Why I Write Sweet/Traditional Romance?

Hi, My name is Anne Ashby and I write Sweet/Traditional romance – Why?


The obvious reason for writing Sweet romance is because I like to read sweet romances. But that’s too simplistic. For me, it’s the storyline/plot which attracts me to a book. The romance is secondary. In a Sweet romance you get both of these, a strong story and a great romance.


Sweet romances need a strong fleshed-out story to flow throughout the book because they don’t explore the intimate part of the developing relationship. Something has to replace this intimacy and with Sweet, it’s a strong, believable plot. As the hero and heroine must have plenty to keep them together on the page and yet be separated emotionally, plot and characterisation become very important. For me, this makes the book worth reading, and writing.


Arguably Sweet stories could be classified ‘old fashioned’ but I strongly disagree with this. Times have changed since consummation of a relationship in a Sweet story couldn’t occur unless the characters were married. Most Sweet stories are set in contemporary times and contemporary situations. Physical acts of love definitely still occur, they are just not described in any detail.  Emotions and tension should build and zing as strongly as in any romance.


I don’t write Sweet because I’m a prude, or at least I hope I’m not. Twenty one years served in the Navy while it was still a very male dominated Service cured me of any prudishness I might have grown up with. I write them because I have stories hankering to be told, and I’m a sucker for a romance. I hope my Sweet stories guide my readers down an intriguing pathway and allow their own imagination to soar.


Visit my website www.anneashby.com  or  www.thewildrosepress.com to order/read excerpts of my forthcoming books 


**
P.S from Dolly - Anne will be available to reply to comments after July 3rd. 

Your Collaboration Needed

So I had this bright idea - well it is bright, in my opinion :-)  Most people who follow this blog are writers, but we also share one other common identity: READERS.

Let's do something as readers that would benefit other readers and ourselves hopefully. I would like you to recommend up to 10 books (you can do 1 if you want) that you think people MUST read, or they are missing out on something. Please make sure it at least has the correct title and author's name.

Please EMAIL YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS to lostwanderer5 [at] gmail [dot] com. I will consolidate them, include your names and links with your recommendations. (So please make sure to send me your links too)

I think it will be a great thing for the readers, and for all of us, next time we have some Christmas money and wondering which authors' royalty cheques we should contribute towards. I haven't set a date for posting the list yet - depends on how many people might be interested, but I will give you a good few weeks.

If you want to leave a note in comment expressing your interest, please do so, but send the actual recommendations to my email address as it would be much easier to manage and to make sure I haven't missed anyone.

I really hope there will be good participation for this, and if your friends or family want to recommend something, send me their list and I will be happy to credit it to their names.

[Signs off....hoping to find a full inbox]

EDIT - Fiction and Non-Fiction both are fine. Just clarify which ones your recommendations are. Also, Adam's comment has led me to add - feel perfectly free and at ease to include your own book. If I had mine published, I am sure I would be including it :-)

Guest Post: John Baird - Why I Write Crime Thrillers?

Crime thrillers allow me to explore human emotions at their extremes, whilst writing about what interests me, such as, love, death, betrayal, vengeance, the pursuit, and the pursued. By placing an ‘everyman character’ (one that people can identify with) in a criminal world, I invite the reader to experience a dangerous journey from the safety of their imagination.    

There is an old adage that you should write what you know. I prefer to say, you should write about what interests you. It follows then, that you should write in the genre that you most often read. My enjoyment of fast-paced, plot-driven, American crime thrillers inspired my desire to write and influenced my style.  

Over time, my reading developed a familiarity with a structure that would enable me to entertain and excite to maximum effect. In a vague chronological order:

1. An event/action that poses Intriguing questions.
2. The presence of obstacles or Conflict.
3. Chapter ending - what next? - Hooks.
4. Gripping Suspense.
5. Unexpected revelations and Twists.
6. More conflict - pile on the pressure to an enthralling Climax.
7. A surprise Resolution.

The key to keeping the pages turning is the need to know; what happens next? This need is why I read and write thrillers.

John Baird, author of Chasing Shadows, coming to America in the summer of 2010.

Website: www.johnbairdauthor.com

Blog: johnbairdauthor.blogspot.com/

Twitter: twitter.com/JohnBairdAuthor 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guest Post: L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright - Why I Write Fantasy?

All About The Wonder: Why I Write Fantasy

            Yesterday, I met my first grader at the bus after school. As we walked home, he asked suddenly:, “Mom, why do you write fantasy?”

            I must admit, I was taken aback. I did not have an easy answer ready on the tip of my tongue (or any other part of my tongue, for that matter.) After stuttering a bit, I recovered and said, “Because it is filled with wonder—wonder, magic, and enchantment. Because when you write fantasy, you can write about anything.”

            And really, that is the reason. For me, it is all about the wonder.

            Fantasy can do anything, go anywhere, occur in any milieu. It can take place in your back yard, in the ancient past, on the moon, in another dimension—the nature and laws of which can be anything you imagine. It can be frightening, romantic, mysterious, filled with intriguing factoids. But there is one thing fantasy does better than any other genre, and that is wonder.

            Wonder is the sensation we feel when we suddenly discover that there is more to the world than we expected….and that this more is better, or at least more awe inspiring, than we had imagined. When this happens in real life—when we hold our infant son for the first time, or rush outside on our way to work to find a baby fawn, all wet and new, standing on our driveway, what is the first thing we always say when we describe the experience to someone else?

            “It was like magic!”

            I live in a world where there is wonder all around me, and no one else ever seems to notice it. Amazing things happen all the time.

Once, I went to the Mall in Washington D.C. in hopes of meeting an author I particularly admired. It is rather a rare thing, to have an author one admires in town. By an even rarer quirk of coincidences, I found myself not in line with the hundreds of other people who were waiting for his signature, but standing next to him, talking to his daughter. There was a sprinkling of rain—which did not dismay his die hard fans in the least—and, when I turned around, a huge rainbow arched across the sky. But it was not just in the sky. From our position, it was coming out of the dome of the capital building!

I had seldom seen a rainbow so clearly, much less one in so auspicious a place! (This was just at the very beginning of the bank crisis, while they were first discussing the bailout. I kept wanting to shout: “Hurry! Catch the Leprechaun! Grab the crock of gold!” ) Things like that just do not happen in real life.

But it did. I even have a picture.

            It was like magic!

            I have always wanted to have a daughter. I have also always wanted to adopt a child. When I was a teenager, I had friends who needed adopting, but no one wanted to take on children who were so old. Too much trouble. So that became one of my dreams, too: to adopt a teenager.

            I also wanted to be a writer. I have always wanted to tells stories. As a child, a group of adults who used to dress up as elves and kidnap their friends for fun once granted me the title “the Legendmaker,” because even way back then, everyone knew that was what I wanted to do.

            But wanting to write and succeeding are two different things. It took me nine years to finish my first novel and another six to sell it. By the time the book finally hit the shelves last summer, I had waited 17 years.

            Then, July 29^th, 2009, a day I shall never forget, not if I lived for a thousand years, it actually happened. My book arrived! After all that time waiting, I held the beautiful volume in my hands.

            But it hardly mattered, because just a few hours before, my husband and I had grasped each other while we sent off the email saying, “Yes, we would like to be the parents to the thirteen year old girl who will lose her ability to have a family forever if she is not adopted before her fourteenth birthday in November.” With the return email, saying that our application was going forward, the picture of the beautiful Chinese girl we had received the day before suddenly became a picture of our daughter. For the first time, after waiting four years, we saw our daughter’s face.

            On the same day, I gained a book and a daughter!

            It was like magic!

            And that is why I write fantasy. Because I want to share that, to weave a tale of awe and enchantment so others can experience even a hint of the way I felt upon those two occasions.

Because nothing is more like magic than magic itself.

            When you walk into your garden and discover that fairies really are living in your lily-of-the-valley; when you are taking a rest by a cool mountain river and you suddenly realize that what you had taken for an outcropping of rock is peering at you; when you come around what you thought was a familiar corner an catch elves dancing in the moonlight, that is fantasy at its best. When done right, it reminds us of those moments in our lives, those real moments, when the curtain of mudanity is pulled aside, and we see, not a little man from Kansas, but something vast and glorious that, if only for an instance, lifts us out of our every day life and into eternity.

            And that is magic.

PS. Being an published author is a delightful thing…but being the mother of a teenage girl is even more wonderful. One’s life is filled with wonder every day.