I've done a lot of reading and movie-watching as part fueling the story I'm working on for the After Death anthology. One of the books was Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin. Pretty good story with a fresh take on the after life. Not something I'm likely to re-read, but the pacing was great and the idea was unique (and fresh, as I've said). It's a YA book, but I still enjoyed it (I'm 33).
Reading alot of non-fiction regarding the heroe's journey and monomyth - essays and such by Joseph Campbell.
All great food for the right side of my brain so that the left side can shit out the stories. Or is that food for the left side?
Listened to Orson Scott Card's Lost Gate a week ago. Good stuff there. He had two seemingly seperate stories that intersected in the end. He got them both going early on, but then one story dropped off for so long I nearly forgot about it until it came back near the end. Still, the whole thing worked. And although the book stands well as it is, I suspect this is book one of a longer work. I've gone through alot of his stuff now, and I can't say I've ever been disappointed. Even his mediocre stuff makes for a good read.
Before that, I had the opportunity to listen to a fellow Borderland Bootcamp grunt’s debut novel. Southern God’s by John Hornor Jacobs was a pretty good read. It was cool going to the Bootcamp and meeting some of the pro authors whose work I’d already read and admired, but, man, it is waaaay cooler to have met someone who was more or less like me, plugging away at writing, subbing, resubbing, etc, and to then find that the novel he workshopped through the Bootcamp was sold to a reputable publishing company. I do a lot of my ‘reading’ in audio format, so it was a bonus for me to find his book available on audible (where I have a membership). He’s got more books due out from Simon and Schuster, too.
http://www.johnhornorjacobs.com/
