One of the nominees for the Edgar Award for Best Novel this year was The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, a multiple Hugo Award nominated fantasy writer. In an Empire threatened by contagion and menacing leviathans, a murder occurs, the weapon a tree sprouting from the body of the victim.
The detectives are a female Nero Wolfe who investigates blindfolded, without leaving her home, and a magically altered Archie Goodwin. Bennett won an Edgar in 2012 for Best Paperback Original for an alternate historical noir science fiction thriller.
I'm one of thousands of authors featured on www.Shepherd.com, a online book browsing site whose founder, Ben Shepherd, claims it's a more effective way for readers to find books they'll fall in love with on the web than Amazon or Goodreads and more akin to the experience of browsing a brick and mortar library or bookstore.
He may be right, because every time I've visited the site to check my own promotional material (which is the primary reason authors join—for free), I end up falling in and following links and come away with something to read.
In order to promote one of their own books, readers are asked to pick a book-related theme ("The best…") and five exemplars. The idea is to draw kindred spirits first to your favorite books and then to your own, with which it presumably has something in common. Rather than manipulate the client by trying to list the five books that were closest in nature to the first in my longest series, I decided to be honest about my five favorite books "with characters you fall in love with." That's my top requirement as a reader for a favorite book. It didn't surprise me that the list consisted solely of genre fiction, because that's 97 percent of what I've been reading for decades. It did surprise me that the whole list of five consisted of cross-genre fiction, with not a single straight mystery among them.
Here's my personal list of "The best historical, fantasy, SF, and mystery books with characters you fall in love with":
I read and write mystery because it's fiction in which something is guaranteed to happen. Most literary fiction comes across to me as a dish without salt. I've always read historical fiction, and I've been writing it ever since young Diego Mendoza popped up in my head demanding that I tell the story of how he sailed with Columbus when the Jews were expelled from Spain.
I read more and more urban fantasy and occasionally high fantasy these days because it's so imaginative and so much fun. I like speculative fiction in general, but my mind glazes over when the science kicks in. I can't read the tech in a technothriller either. And whatever I read, character, character, characters I love, well developed characters I care about are a must. That's what I'm best at writing myself, along with snappy dialogue that moves both plot and relationships forward. I haven't taken my own urban fantasy mystery series as far as a novel yet, but you can read my novelette about Jewish country artist and shapeshifter Emerald Love, aka Amy Greenstein, Shifting Is for the Goyim, and the collection of stories that follow, Emerald Love, Shifting Country Star, as e-books. I've found urban fantasy mystery is as much fun to write as it is to read.
I'm one of thousands of authors featured on www.Shepherd.com, a online book browsing site whose founder, Ben Shepherd, claims it's a more effective way for readers to find books they'll fall in love with on the web than Amazon or Goodreads and more akin to the experience of browsing a brick and mortar library or bookstore.
He may be right, because every time I've visited the site to check my own promotional material (which is the primary reason authors join—for free), I end up falling in and following links and come away with something to read.
- Kate Quinn, The Rose Code
- Diana Gabaldon, Outlander
- Naomi Novik, His Majesty's Dragon
- Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign
- Martha Wells, All Systems Red
I read and write mystery because it's fiction in which something is guaranteed to happen. Most literary fiction comes across to me as a dish without salt. I've always read historical fiction, and I've been writing it ever since young Diego Mendoza popped up in my head demanding that I tell the story of how he sailed with Columbus when the Jews were expelled from Spain.
>Shifting Is for the Goyim
ReplyDelete(laugh/snort) I didn’t know you wrote such a series, Liz. My imagination rampant runs. Dare I read it? Dare I internalize? I keep working to play down that Toy Goy label.
A tree spouting from the body… That is one intriguing premise. I think you sold me.
And speaking of clever, Shepard.com is a very clever site name.
Liz, congratulations for your multiple accomplishments. I look forward to hearing how your fantasy project turns out.
Leigh, you haven't read my Emerald Love mysteries yet? Go go go and do it now! No cleverness intended on the search site. The guy's name is Ben Shepherd.
DeleteThanks for the info about Shepard.com - I'd not heard about it! You know, what you say about 'readers falling in love with your characters' - I work so hard on plotting, and yet, I almost always hear that people love the relationship between my two main characters (Lucy and Elf), and that's what they remember about the books. Sometimes I wonder if I should put so much effort into original plots...sigh. Great post, Liz. Melodie
ReplyDeleteMelodie, I have to work at plots too; the characters spring up fully formed like Athena from Zeus's brow, and the snappy dialogue takes no effort at all. That's simply the kind of writers we are. As I said in my comment on a post earlier this week, we're all different. Take our beloved John Floyd: plots spring from his brow fully formed and don't dare move until he gets around to writing them down. I can only marvel. On the other hand, as he once said to me, he's never written a scene in a Sultan's harem, and it would be fun to see him try.
Delete"A dish without salt" Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Paula. :)
DeleteLove the "dish without salt". And I love cross-genre, too. My favorite of all time is the magical "Bridge of Birds" by Barry Hughart.
ReplyDeleteEve, my husband and I both loved Master Li and Number Ten Ox. I haven't thought about them in a long time. The sequels didn't quite live up to Bridge of Birds. I just popped over to Amazon and discovered it's available on Kindle, as is an omnibus of the books for which the blurb is an essay by the author about how he came to write them and why he stopped.
DeleteI have a first edition of "Bridge of Birds". I loved it so much (getting it from the library) that I went out and bought it.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNote: Comments I've removed are comments I initially posted as new comments when they were supposed to be replies to previous comments. Oops.
ReplyDeleteNo problem at all, Liz.
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