So Before I was Adriane, The writer... I was Michael, The reader. Until the year I've come to call (the year of filler), everything I read seemed to be a filler book. All my beloved characters, every author I read, even one's I've always counted on to never let me down, wrote a filler book. Now what I mean by filler book is this. A story that really doesn't move the over arc of the series along. Sure maybe the character changed... maybe the author killed off all our fav characters, maybe things happened... but well, the book doesn't really mean anything in the long run. (yes, I know, it was hard to write) Maybe they were all on a deadline, maybe it was a plot scraped together from a hodgepodge of ideas, but they didn't really want to write it for whatever reason. They were all Filler. Bubble gum, throw away, and it left me feeling dissatisfied with reading. Sure, I've read stuff since, but it's been labored. Painful. Not fun. It took me almost three months to read ghost story...
At one point in my life, I had a close to three book a day habit... seriously, I was a reader with a capital R. I bought all my authors the second they came out in hardback. I told all my friends to read them... And then I stopped: Cold.
Until: Horded Until: Wool
Now in an effort to fully disclose myself to all you wonderful people. I know the author of Horded. (the second book in the Kingdoms Gone series) She's a good friend of mine, and I beta read for her. (she's one of the only people I've read since 2010) But nothing has ever compelled me to want to have an audience before, a place to shout 'read this book,' it's awesome, go buy it. Enjoy. She's a good author, innovative, tells a good yarn, and doesn't like to be stuck with labels (which I really admire.) But I loved this book. It plucked at the ol' heart, woke the shriveled gray matter, and said, look at me, you'll love me. And I did. It's really hard to beta a book you've fallen in love with because you miss things you are supposed to be looking for, and well, there were long stretches I'm sure I forgot to look too deeply into. But the thing I'm getting at is it made me want to read again. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing. I'm an immersion reader. It's hard for me to put a book down once I've started it until it's over. Anyway, when it's out, I hope you go and check it out. I think she said it was going to be out on April 10, 2013.
Now the second half of this story.
Back in February same friend released the first book in the Kingdoms Gone series. Unlikely, She was doing a five-day free promo. She was rocking the charts. And I had a short story that I had rights back on, and we got to talking, and she said, why don't you put it up on Amazon? So I did. Like I said, she'd put me back in a cheerful mood. I did a two-day free promo. I was really lucky and made it to third place in my category (sort of cool) but at the top was a book called Wool... I admit I was curious. What made that a number one book, I thought and clicked the buy button. I read on the Amazon cloud reader, mostly technical how-to books, but lately, that's where I've been reading. So I said read this now, and it opened up a new browser window... There was wool, the first few lines... man, this author being fancy... talking about the erosion of steps, and handrails... fancy. Then the question comes. Why? Why is he focused on the smallest detail, as children scream and play? Why is he sad. Why is he going to die... What happened. WHY can't I stop reading.... well, you get the picture. It starts off fancy, but it sucks you in; it immerses you in a world that is almost beyond grasp....unless you've been locked up... but that doesn't even begin to describe this book. It's short. 12k, but it well pulls you in. I'm sitting strapped for cash at this point... not much more than fifteen dollars to my name, and as soon as I hit the end of the story, I start searching for the next part cus well, there has to be more. I find out that he put out an omnibus. I click buy-it-now, not caring that it cost six bucks... (cheap for five books... a little over a dollar a book) and start reading the next book in the series within seconds. I stayed up all night.
Then I started trying to talk to my friends about it... they roll their eyes... Wool... I'm sick of hearing about it. It's been all over the net for months now. Where have you been...
In my normal abode, under a rock... I didn't know about Wool. Thought it was something new and cool I could share with them, that I could get them to read, that we could talk about... They made me read the Hunger Games... for cripes sakes... and Twilight. Sigh, not that either are really bad books. They are good books in their own way... for their own audience. I could see why they would appeal to people. I might even review them... Some other day. Today I'm talking about Horded and Wool, and how they've changed my life.
I'm an author, but I've barely written; I'm a reader, but I've barely read since 2010. These two books, in their own ways, have brought me back to my loves, and I want to thank their authors from the bottom of my heart; and well, while I can't get my friends to read them, maybe some of you will. :) And we can have a nice conversation about it in the comments.
Hugs,
Adriane
At one point in my life, I had a close to three book a day habit... seriously, I was a reader with a capital R. I bought all my authors the second they came out in hardback. I told all my friends to read them... And then I stopped: Cold.
Until: Horded Until: Wool
Now in an effort to fully disclose myself to all you wonderful people. I know the author of Horded. (the second book in the Kingdoms Gone series) She's a good friend of mine, and I beta read for her. (she's one of the only people I've read since 2010) But nothing has ever compelled me to want to have an audience before, a place to shout 'read this book,' it's awesome, go buy it. Enjoy. She's a good author, innovative, tells a good yarn, and doesn't like to be stuck with labels (which I really admire.) But I loved this book. It plucked at the ol' heart, woke the shriveled gray matter, and said, look at me, you'll love me. And I did. It's really hard to beta a book you've fallen in love with because you miss things you are supposed to be looking for, and well, there were long stretches I'm sure I forgot to look too deeply into. But the thing I'm getting at is it made me want to read again. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing. I'm an immersion reader. It's hard for me to put a book down once I've started it until it's over. Anyway, when it's out, I hope you go and check it out. I think she said it was going to be out on April 10, 2013.
Now the second half of this story.
Back in February same friend released the first book in the Kingdoms Gone series. Unlikely, She was doing a five-day free promo. She was rocking the charts. And I had a short story that I had rights back on, and we got to talking, and she said, why don't you put it up on Amazon? So I did. Like I said, she'd put me back in a cheerful mood. I did a two-day free promo. I was really lucky and made it to third place in my category (sort of cool) but at the top was a book called Wool... I admit I was curious. What made that a number one book, I thought and clicked the buy button. I read on the Amazon cloud reader, mostly technical how-to books, but lately, that's where I've been reading. So I said read this now, and it opened up a new browser window... There was wool, the first few lines... man, this author being fancy... talking about the erosion of steps, and handrails... fancy. Then the question comes. Why? Why is he focused on the smallest detail, as children scream and play? Why is he sad. Why is he going to die... What happened. WHY can't I stop reading.... well, you get the picture. It starts off fancy, but it sucks you in; it immerses you in a world that is almost beyond grasp....unless you've been locked up... but that doesn't even begin to describe this book. It's short. 12k, but it well pulls you in. I'm sitting strapped for cash at this point... not much more than fifteen dollars to my name, and as soon as I hit the end of the story, I start searching for the next part cus well, there has to be more. I find out that he put out an omnibus. I click buy-it-now, not caring that it cost six bucks... (cheap for five books... a little over a dollar a book) and start reading the next book in the series within seconds. I stayed up all night.
Then I started trying to talk to my friends about it... they roll their eyes... Wool... I'm sick of hearing about it. It's been all over the net for months now. Where have you been...
In my normal abode, under a rock... I didn't know about Wool. Thought it was something new and cool I could share with them, that I could get them to read, that we could talk about... They made me read the Hunger Games... for cripes sakes... and Twilight. Sigh, not that either are really bad books. They are good books in their own way... for their own audience. I could see why they would appeal to people. I might even review them... Some other day. Today I'm talking about Horded and Wool, and how they've changed my life.
I'm an author, but I've barely written; I'm a reader, but I've barely read since 2010. These two books, in their own ways, have brought me back to my loves, and I want to thank their authors from the bottom of my heart; and well, while I can't get my friends to read them, maybe some of you will. :) And we can have a nice conversation about it in the comments.
Hugs,
Adriane