So I went to the bookstore …

… and was wandering around the Fantasy/Science Fiction section, looking for a new author to read. Not new as in debut, but new as in new to me. Almost bought Naomi Novik’s Temeraire omnibus, but decided I’d rather have it in ebook, and besides, I already have the first novel. I read it several years ago, but it’s on my keeper shelf. 🙂

Then, I thought of Brandon Sanderson. I thought, I really ought to be reading Brandon Sanderson. He’s one of the hot new authors, and I’ve never read him. And from what I heard of him, I thought I’d enjoy his stories. So I headed to the S section and picked up his first novel, Elantris.

And then I realized I was doing it again. This is exactly what I used to do years ago, before I started Fantasy Debut. I can’t seem to kick the debut habit. Amused with myself, I picked up the second story, Mistborn. I liked the idea of a female protagonist, so I decided to start with it. And so I did.

Another debut author who I really think I need to read is Audrey Niffennegger because she wrote a time travel story (The Time Traveler’s Wife) and I’m working on a time travel historical. Occasionally. When I’m not writing fairy tales. Which is almost never these days.

So I’m sampling Mistborn, but the book I’m earnestly reading right now is L. Jagi Lamplighter’s Prospero in Hell, which is the second novel in the Prospero’s Children series. I love it!

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Speaking of fairy tales, I decided to write a prequel to my Cinderella retelling and post it as a free read. I’ll be playing with ebook formats when I do, and I may even load it at Amazon, if it doesn’t look too time consuming. I’m really, really pleased with the story so far. I think it will only run 3000 words or so. The Cinderella story, however, will be close to 40,000 words, if it doesn’t go over.

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This week, I am scheduled to have Shawn Kupfer as a guest on Thursday. Shawn is the genius behind tweet_book, which was the first draft of a novel — 47 Echo — written entirely on Twitter. He is going to write about his unusual path to publication.