A quick interruption here of the current topic: As noted in the Right Writes tab, my short story "Transition" is available in the anthology Dandelions of Mars.
It is now also available on line. Digital Fiction Publishing has a new on-line publication called Quickfic, made up of reprints only. The volume includes "Transition"...and they paid more than I received from Whortleberry Press for its initial publication.
"Transition" and the other stories are available here: http://digitalfictionpub.com/category/quickfic/
Before advancing to other genres I wanted to mention two other deceased authors of outstanding fantasy. The first is JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and its prequel, The Hobbit. There is also a third outstanding work--The Silmarillion. It is Tolkien's history of the elves and Middle Earth before what is presented in The Hobbit. If you are interested in fantasy history, you'll like it. It does not have the battles in TLotR or the focus on one character as in The Hobbit, but does have other heroes, including one of the canine persuasion.
The other author is David Eddings. His various fantasy series are just plain good and feature a unique take on magic and a unique sense of humor.
One of the oldest genres in this country is the western. The first actual respectable western novel was The Virginian, by Owen Wister. It was published in 1902, and is considered the "father" of the cowboy western. I read the book back in high school...and if you've seen the television series, I must advise that the series is not reflective of the novel. Curiously, Wister did not write another western novel.
Another leading author of westerns was Zane Grey. Grey was a struggling author for years trying his hand at various adventure stories. After reading The Virginian Grey decided that westerns might be the kind of stories he would like to write. In 1912 he published The Riders of the Purple Sage; this was not only his most successful work, but is regarded as one of the best westerns ever written. Grey authored over 90 books, though some of those were published posthumously.
My favorite western author is Clarence Mulford. Mulford's primary fictional creation was Hopalong Cassidy and the Bar-20 crew. One interesting thing about Mulford's writing is that he never went west; he never visited the settings of his books or met real cowboys in their "native" settings. He did his research in a library. Mulford was unique for the time in that he wrote several novels that continued to feature the same characters. This had not been done before in the western genre.
Some of Mulford's novels are available free for download or even just reading on the internet, here: http://manybooks.net/authors/mulfordc.html I do want to point out that due to the era of publication, even words like "hell" and "damn" are censored. They might appear like this: d—n and h—l . Just so you know.
Probably the best known modern author of westerns is Louis L'Amour. Mulford picked L'Amour specifically to carry on his Cassidy stories. L'Amour wrote only two, under the pen name "Tex Burns," and then continued on with his own stories.
If you've never read a western, you should. If you've never read a science fiction or fantasy novel, you should—at least one of each. The same applies to detective stories (I consumed most of the Hardy Boys mysteries when I was about thirteen and Ellery Queen novels later on), sports stories (I recommend Semi-Tough by Dan Jenkins—the movie did not resemble the book at all—the book is good), and commercial fiction like The Harrad Experiment or Catch-22. There is also Romance fiction and its various sub-genres (my current project is a paranormal romance), and adventure novels of various types.
I apologize for not recommending anything more modern. My reading has been limited over the last few years since I've been writing more. If I'm reading for pleasure, I'm not writing.
One of the current (or just past current) popular books is 50 Shades of Gray. I have no interest in reading it, but I will say that at least two authors have evaluated the writing as "poor."
As I mentioned in my first entry eleven months ago, one excellent writer's blog is Anne R. Allen's, here: http://annerallen.blogspot.com/. Her last two or three entries are very worthwhile.
I have no idea right now what I'll write about on the next entry. So tune in and we'll all be surprised.
It is now also available on line. Digital Fiction Publishing has a new on-line publication called Quickfic, made up of reprints only. The volume includes "Transition"...and they paid more than I received from Whortleberry Press for its initial publication.
"Transition" and the other stories are available here: http://digitalfictionpub.com/category/quickfic/
Before advancing to other genres I wanted to mention two other deceased authors of outstanding fantasy. The first is JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and its prequel, The Hobbit. There is also a third outstanding work--The Silmarillion. It is Tolkien's history of the elves and Middle Earth before what is presented in The Hobbit. If you are interested in fantasy history, you'll like it. It does not have the battles in TLotR or the focus on one character as in The Hobbit, but does have other heroes, including one of the canine persuasion.
The other author is David Eddings. His various fantasy series are just plain good and feature a unique take on magic and a unique sense of humor.
One of the oldest genres in this country is the western. The first actual respectable western novel was The Virginian, by Owen Wister. It was published in 1902, and is considered the "father" of the cowboy western. I read the book back in high school...and if you've seen the television series, I must advise that the series is not reflective of the novel. Curiously, Wister did not write another western novel.
Another leading author of westerns was Zane Grey. Grey was a struggling author for years trying his hand at various adventure stories. After reading The Virginian Grey decided that westerns might be the kind of stories he would like to write. In 1912 he published The Riders of the Purple Sage; this was not only his most successful work, but is regarded as one of the best westerns ever written. Grey authored over 90 books, though some of those were published posthumously.
My favorite western author is Clarence Mulford. Mulford's primary fictional creation was Hopalong Cassidy and the Bar-20 crew. One interesting thing about Mulford's writing is that he never went west; he never visited the settings of his books or met real cowboys in their "native" settings. He did his research in a library. Mulford was unique for the time in that he wrote several novels that continued to feature the same characters. This had not been done before in the western genre.
Some of Mulford's novels are available free for download or even just reading on the internet, here: http://manybooks.net/authors/mulfordc.html I do want to point out that due to the era of publication, even words like "hell" and "damn" are censored. They might appear like this: d—n and h—l . Just so you know.
Probably the best known modern author of westerns is Louis L'Amour. Mulford picked L'Amour specifically to carry on his Cassidy stories. L'Amour wrote only two, under the pen name "Tex Burns," and then continued on with his own stories.
If you've never read a western, you should. If you've never read a science fiction or fantasy novel, you should—at least one of each. The same applies to detective stories (I consumed most of the Hardy Boys mysteries when I was about thirteen and Ellery Queen novels later on), sports stories (I recommend Semi-Tough by Dan Jenkins—the movie did not resemble the book at all—the book is good), and commercial fiction like The Harrad Experiment or Catch-22. There is also Romance fiction and its various sub-genres (my current project is a paranormal romance), and adventure novels of various types.
I apologize for not recommending anything more modern. My reading has been limited over the last few years since I've been writing more. If I'm reading for pleasure, I'm not writing.
One of the current (or just past current) popular books is 50 Shades of Gray. I have no interest in reading it, but I will say that at least two authors have evaluated the writing as "poor."
As I mentioned in my first entry eleven months ago, one excellent writer's blog is Anne R. Allen's, here: http://annerallen.blogspot.com/. Her last two or three entries are very worthwhile.
I have no idea right now what I'll write about on the next entry. So tune in and we'll all be surprised.
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