With great pleasure, I welcome PatriciaStoltey to my blog. We've all met bloggers who we identify with from the very first post you read. Patricia was like that for me. You'll notice when reading her blog that she is one of the most supportive bloggers of her fellow writers of anyone you'll meet. She covers a variety of topics on her blogs and has very interesting posts from her guests. I'm thrilled to have her here and believe you will feel the same when you meet her. Here's Patricia:
I love to read, and I’m a creature with a lot
of interests, so I read all kinds of fiction and non-fiction. I even sample
books starring vampires, zombies, and werewolves, though most of those give me
nightmares so I don’t indulge too often. I hop from cozy mysteries to women’s
fiction, on to thrillers and back to noir mystery, then jump to a lovely
romance (like Wedding in Provence by Ellen Sussman) before
grabbing something by Anne Lamott (I’m anxious to read Small
Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace) or a
bit of World War II history (recently finished We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of
the American Women Trapped on Bataan by Elizabeth M. Norman).
I was over
fifty before I finally bought and read the entire Lord of the Rings collection.
I loved them, of course, but still was reluctant to spend a lot of time with
new fantasy authors trying to understand the complex plots lines and world
building process, both very important to understanding the genre.
One popular
fantasy writer, Carol Berg, lives in my town in Northern Colorado, so when I
had a chance to chat with her recently about her many novels, I discovered she
had a standalone called Song of the Beast, written some time
ago but recently reprinted.
Hmmm. A standalone.
And not a really long one, either. I can manage that, I thought.
And when I
found out Song of the Beast had won a Colorado Book Award, I bought a
copy from Carol on the spot.
You’ve
probably guessed by now that Song of the Beast opened my eyes to
the wonders of amazing fantasy novels from contemporary authors. It’s
beautifully written. I fell in love with the characters. And I’ve discovered
dragons. Oh, my. What magnificent creatures exist in this novel, and they are
able to communicate with our main character in mysterious ways.
Is it any
wonder I then scanned Susan’s list of titles to see if she had one that
included dragons? Or that the novel, First Dragon, jumped right onto my
Kindle with hardly a moment’s hesitation?
It’s true.
That little
story leads me to the real point of this blog post. As readers and/or writers,
we limit our world and our experience when we restrict ourselves to one or two
favorite genres. I believe it’s important to read in the genre we write, but I
think it’s equally important to read in the genres we’ll never write. There are
secrets to be learned there.
And for
non-writers, becoming an eclectic reader is educating oneself in the most
delightful way.
~~~~~~~~~
Patricia
Stoltey is the author of two amateur sleuth mysteries (The Prairie Grass Murders
and The
Desert Hedge Murders) plus her new release, a standalone suspense novel
about a woman on the run (Dead Wrong). She lives in Northern
Colorado with her husband and the extremely demanding Katie Cat.
A Goodreads
giveaway for U.S. residents for signed hardcover copies of Dead Wrong is scheduled
to end January 18th. )https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/120958-dead-wrong)
You can learn
more about Patricia at her website (http://patriciastoltey.com).
Visit her blog (http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com)
to check out her frequent guests, including Susan who will be there on February
26th. Patricia can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads,
and Google+.
Do you know Patricia? Are you an eclectic reader like she is? Did you enter her Goodreads giveaway? Are there genres you recently discovered that you found you like?
