Top Ten Tuesday: Authors that deserve more recognition

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.


This week's topic: top ten authors that deserve more recognition

The tricky thing about this topic for me is that sometimes I'm not actually sure just how well-known an author is... so maybe some of my picks are a bit off? Let me know in the comments, I guess ;)

Cat Winters
Her debut, In the Shadow of Blackbirds, is haunting and brilliant. It made me feel anything ranging from happiness to sadness to anger or despair. I'm looking very much forward to reading more from her! I think the book has gotten a bit of coverage in the blogosphere (and rightfully so) but still I think the majority has never heard of it.

Karen Mahoney
A British author whose books I love! She concluded the Iron Witch trilogy in April with The Stone Demon and I can't wait for the next book in her series about Moth, a teen vampire. She has a great sense of humor and I enjoy the aspect of popular culture/nerdiness and snark in her books ^^ She's also really nice to talk to on twitter!

L.A. Weatherly
Her Angel series is amazing! She crafts strong, likeable characters and I love how she balances action and romance! I met her in April in the context of a writing workshop and she was very approachable and gave great, concrete advice :)

Sarah Rees Brennan
Not sure she really belongs in this list? Anyhow, I think many people know of her as Cassandra Clare's friend, but I actually read the Demon's Lexicon books before I heard of Cassie and The Mortal Instruments and damn, they're amazing! The snark! The dangerous, unique magic!

Kate Griffin
When I read A Madness of Angels, I put sticky notes all over the book because there were so many amazing passages! It will make you look at the city in a whole new way. One of my top favorite Urban Fantasy series!

Susan Dennard
Another case of I'm not sure she's 'unknown' enough for this list? Anyhow, her series is awesome! It's a great mixture of historical, steampunk, and zombies. I can't wait for A Darkness Strange and Lovely!

Kelly Creagh
I can't fawn enough over her Nevermore series! If you love E.A. Poe and creepy YA, you should definitely give it a try! She also wrote one of my favorite book boyfriends into existence - Varen Nethers. Her writing is wonderful and I love how she incorporates Poe and his work so seamlessly into the story! It's way too long until the release of the final book :(

Bethany Griffin
Another Poe-person! I love her Masque of the Red Death duology. Her writing is lush but with an unflinching sharpness to it. She's not afraid to hurt her characters but she also shows that they can find moments of beauty in despair. Can't wait to see what her next book will be about!

Gina Damico
If you like reaper books, get this one asap!! Gina Damico is hilarious - I laughed so much while reading Croak on the train that I kinda wanted to stop because everyone was looking at me all weird but I just couldn't because it was so damn good! She mixes the horrible and creepy with the sarcastic and absurdly funny and her imagination is made of awesome.

Susan Kaye Quinn
I've only read episodes 1-6 in her Debt Collector serial but I tell you, it's amazing! If you want male POV New Adult that is not a contemporary but an awesome kind of sci-fi retro-noir story - give it a shot! Fantastic world-building, mysterious characters, and very engaging writing! After reading episode 1-3 I had to get the bundle for 4-6 immediately and I read it all on the same day.


Well... I can't really stick with 10 this time around, so here are four runner-ups that I think are amazing but also well-known -ish, I think? Not sure.
Holly Black, Kelly Keaton, Kiki Hamilton, and Rachel Vincent.


So, what do you guys think of my picks? Have you heard of these authors? And who do you think deserves more recognition? Link me up :)

Workshop with Lee Weatherly

Hi everyone :) 

Last Friday I made a post about the workshop I was attending over the past weekend, taught by Lee Weatherly who wrote the amazing Angel series. I heard about it pretty last-minute in early February, shortly before the sign-ups closed. Lee tweeted about it and at first I couldn't believe she'd be coming to Zurich! I seized the chance though and I'm so glad that I did because it was most definitely worth it!

The workshop was about what to do once you've finished the first draft of your novel. I finished mine at the end of January 2012... and since then it's mostly been lying around. It took me until this last November (NaNoWriMo) to finally even finish my first re-read, and by then I'd forgotten the beginning... again. It was just this big scary mass of 95,000 words written without an outline. What I'm scared of isn't line-edits, it's the structural rewrites. Do I need to insert scenes? Cut? Is there enough tension? Are my characters fleshed-out? What about the pacing? What about show-don't-tell?

All of those questions were addressed in the workshop, and it was a very intense Saturday! But I learned so much during those hours. Lee was so nice and it was great to discuss these issues in a group of like-minded people, even though we write quite diverse genres. Lee's advice was really hands-on and practical, and of course I found it particularly interesting that she sometimes used examples from Angel and Angel Fire to illustrate her points - it was like a glimpse behind the scenes :)

Signed books :) Sorry for the wacky quality...

On Sunday, we talked about another really important and scary topic for new writers: how to find an agent. Prior to the workshop, we had the chance to submit a 'fake' query letter, synopsis, and our first 10 pages to Lee for an individual critique session. Now, I'd read about how to write one of them queries before, but damn was it hard to sit down and try to write a pitch for my own novel!! And to summarize it on only two pages. The feedback was positive and helpful though, which was a great relief! I feel much better prepared to tackle my revisions now, both on the structural level of the story (action and character arcs) as well as on a line level. I had a freak-out Saturday night when I read over the sample pages I'd sent to Lee again and after that show-don't-tell session... I felt like it was 80% telling. I had a moment of thinking all the stuff I write sucks. It was also so old, you know? I wrote it almost 1.5 years ago and my writing is so different now. Turns out it wasn't that bad as I feared though ;) Lee had great suggestions for a different scene to start the novel with, which I'd never considered before. And she liked the character's voice! *swoon*

Yeah, I guess you can tell I had a great weekend! I met a lot of talented writers, some of whom also live in my city. And it's not easy to meet English-writing people in a Swiss city. We also did a reading and I loved getting a glimpse at what the others were working at! And of course I couldn't resist asking Lee to sign my books ^^'

Basically I just want to sit down and revise now, but I can't because real life is a bitch and I'll have to move out of my apartment in 6 weeks and so far I wasn't able to get a new one (been looking for a good month).  And then there's my MA thesis... sigh. But I WILL revise this novel, and I WILL send it to agents and try to get it published. I rekindled my passion to tell these characters' adventures, and ultimately, that's what matters most.

Enough of my ramblings... have you ever met any authors in this type of setting or participated in a workshop? Written a query letter? I'd love to hear about your writing experiences :)

The writerly stuff I get up to this weekend, with a favorite author of mine!

Hey guys :)

I'm just back from an evening at the pub and I'm super-stoked! Nope, I did not have any alcohol... but I'm participating in a writing workshop this weekend, and the instructor is none other than the wonderful Lee Weatherly! Yup, the very same Lee Weatherly who wrote these amazing books (among like 40 others):




I couldn't believe it when Lee tweeted about teaching this course a couple months ago! I mean, we're talking about Zurich, Switzerland! I never would have expected her to come here, or that this sort of English writing scene has been existing right under my knows without my knowledge!

Lee Weatherly

I was really nervous before entering the pub for this informal pre-workshop meeting with the other
participants and instructors, but I'm glad I went through with it! I needn't have worried because everyone was really nice and I enjoyed talking about books and publishing and WIPs, and Lee was so friendly!! I'm looking forward to working with this diverse group of people for the next two days :)

The course focuses on revising, which is something I've been struggling with for a year now. Drafting is fun, but this revising stuff... hard work!! I'm having problems with structure and I feel like I can't get an overview of what I actually have, and how to make it better. You know, pacing, plot, character arcs and development...

I'm so angry at myself for having a completed manuscript and just letting it lie around for more than a year now! I want to polish it and start querying agents and try to get something out there! So I'm really glad that query letters and writing a synopsis is also something we'll touch on in the course.

Anyhow, I need to get myself to bed now so I'm in good form tomorrow :) I'll write a post about the course after it's over. Gosh I'm so excited... and I've said it about a gazillion times... and I've used way too many exclamation marks in this post. Oh well.

Have you guys ever taken part in any workshops or writing classes/seminars? What were your experiences with the other participants and the authors? Did it help you with your work? I'd love to hear some about it!

Top Ten Tuesday: most awesome worldbuilding

Top Ten Tuesday is a weeky meme by The Broke and the Bookish, where they post a topic every week and ask the participants to post their top tens. This week is a freebie, so we can choose whatever topic we like. And because I've recenty read a few novels with really great worldbuiding, I've decided to present you...

Top Ten Most Awesome Worldbuilding in a Novel/Series

In no particular order.

1. Kim Harrison - The Hollows series


This was the first Urban Fantasy series I ever read, and I am still in awe of how thorough the worldbuilding is! Rules, laws, species, habits, rockstars, food, history, places... it seems so real I know I'd be disappointed if I ever actually went to Cincinnati and none of it all was there. I love how Kim Harrison adds new aspects to the Vampire myth (living vs. dead vampires) and also bring in weres, witches, demons, pixies, fairies, leprechauns, banshees, elves, gargoyles... and all of it fits together to create one gritty, realistic world!

2. Neil Gaiman - American Gods

Neil Gaiman is a master of worldbuilding and I could just as well have chosen The Sandman graphic novels, but I decided to go with American Gods. I love the basic ideas of people taking their gods with them when they emigrated to America, then slowly forgetting about them. Old gods having to fight for survival as new gods, gods of technology, appear... intriguing idea. Loads of research on Old Norse gods, Native American gods, as well as eastern European, South American and many other regions must have gone into this. I just love how it all comes together, though I am not pretending that I understand everything in this book. But it contains some of my favorite passages in fiction.

3. Kelly Keaton - Gods and Monsters series

I am re-reading Darkness Becomes Her right now to prepare for A Beautiful Evil, and I was once again struck by how awesome the worldbuilding is! The series is set a couple years in the future, in a New Orleans (now called New 2) which is privately owned by the Novem, a city council of nine old and wealthy families. It is no longer part of the US nor under US law. New 2 has become a haven for all things freakish and paranormal. I love how Kelly Keaton combines traditional New Orleans imagery and themes with old Greek myths and creatures! I have never been to New Orleans or even the US, but the city with its old houses, smells, mix of cultures and beliefs, maskerades, rituals and cemeteries has forever nestled into my mind now.

4. Rachel Vincent - Unbound series

I have not read Shadow Bound yet, but I loved the world of Blood Bound! It is gritty and cruel and realistic. If something like Skills existed, this is what it would be like. I liked the idea of a city divided into different syndicate territories by the river, the difficulty of trying to be independent of the mob and still make a living. This is a harsh world where no one without both fighting skills and a brain can survive very long. There are quite a few serieses involving people with special skills, but the ones in this series worked differently than those in any other I have read.

5. Melissa Marr - Wicked Lovely series

Hands down my favorite fairy series ever! I love how the world of fairie and our world intersect, influence, and depend on one another! I love how each fairy ruler represents the traits of their kingdom. I love the descriptions of the clubs where fairies and mortals intermingle. I love the dark, twisted relationships of some of the characters. And I'm just always in awe of Melissa Marr's writing.

6. Holly Black - Curseworkers series

All of Holly Black's novels that I have read have great worldbuilding, but I've decided on this series for this post. I really enjoyed how the workers are both wanted/needed and feared, the whole history of them and how the great families rose to power in the US. I also enjoyed the whole idea of fighting for equal rights vs. making people disclose their abilities so they can be controlled. Plus of course the whole con artist and blackmarket aspect for workers and protective amulets, as well as the family relationships in this one.

7. Kate Griffin - Urban Magic series

Honestly? If I had put this post into a particular order, this series would top it. I loved how Neil Gaiman brought London to life in Neverwhere, but the worldbuilding in this series just tops everything. I have never looked at London the same way again when I visited after I read the first novel in this series. The city is suffused with magic, a modern magic. Magic in the telephone lines, the tube map, the river, the city lights. Magic in the gutter and the routine and clockwork of the city. The rats. The pidgeons. The beggar king. The graffity and other street art. "Life is magic", and Matthew Swift can use it all. And the writing was so gorgeous that I had to plaster the novels with sticky notes for the especially awesome bits.

8. Laini Taylor - Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Everyone raved about this book when it came out, and it took me way too long to finally get a copy of it... but I am so glad that I did! I loved the Prague Laini Taylor created in this novel, and I am excited to see what the city is really like when I go there in only 8 days! I loved the art and sketchbook aspect, I loved the ideas of wishes made from teeth and bones, I loved the idea of a chimaera world and a doorway that can go anywhere! Chimaeras are a type of creature/myth I had not seen in YA before - the book is just a breath of fresh air.


9. L.A. Weatherly - Angel series

Before I read the first book in this series, I was not a big fan of angel books. Very often they are just suffused with Christian/religious beliefs and ideology, and I'm not a big fan of that, nor do I believe in god. (Just for the record: I have no problem with people who do, as long as they respect that I don't and don't try to convert me.) But a book where angels are evil and suck humans' energy and nobody knows? Well, apart from the Angel Killers of course. Well, I was intrigued. Awesome read!

10. Richelle Mead - Vampire Academy / Bloodlines


Yup, last but not least I have to mention Richelle Meads. To be honest, I did not think the first few VA novels were that great, but probably that is because I read them in the German translation my sister borrowed from a friend of hers before she bought the whole thing as a boxset in English. I read the last 2 books this summer and I was so immersed in that world again, and it was so much better than I remembered, that I had to get the Bloodlines novels at once! I love the moroi/strigoi mythology as well as the alchemy aspects and the whole political dimension in these serieses!


Okay, this post took forever to write for some reason, and I'm sure I have left out a lot of novels with amazing worldbuilding... for example The Mortal Instruments / Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare. Or Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers. Julie Kagawa. The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan.

So, have you read any of the novels I listed above? What are some of your favorite books with awesome worldbuilding? Let me know in the comments :)