.jpg)
Welcome to Why didn’t I think of that?!?!, our new Summer weekly feature taking place from June 21st until September 20th. We will host a new author each Friday and they’ll share with us a book, character, scene, quote or any other bookish awesomeness they wish they would’ve thought of first in a guest post.
Today we have author Sandy Williams sharing her pick...
I took a good, long look at my bookshelves when I sat down to write this post. I was trying to remember a book that made me wish I’d written it. I looked at the urban fantasy shelf, the sci-fi shelf, the epic, traditional fantasy shelf, and all my historical romance books, and I was surprised when not one of them hit me as being the one book I wished I’d written. Even when I took a look at my keeper shelf - the books I insanely love - I was happy I didn’t write them. If I’d written them, they would have turned out differently, and they were perfect just the way they were. What did hit me were the different techniques writers used to tell their stories. While reading, I often have moments where I pause and say, “Wow. That was brilliant.” Here are a few books where I paused to say “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Karen Marie Moning’s FEVER series. I just read all five books for the first time in July. I’d been putting it off because my series had been compared to it more than once, and I didn’t want her books to influence mine at all. I so shouldn’t have been worried about that. In fact, I should have read them so that they COULD influence my books. KMM is a brilliant writer - brilliant! - and one of the things I loved the most about her FEVER series were the silent conversations between Mac and Barrons. They spoke with glares and their emotions written on their faces, and Mac interpreted them all for us. It was smart and funny and haven’t we all had those silent conversations where we just know what someone else is thinking without them saying a word? Why didn’t I think to put something like that in my books?!
Brent Weeks pulled off a two-page love story in SHADOW’S EDGE, the second book of his Night Angel Trilogy. The individuals involved in the love story did have a past. It was referenced here and there in the rest of the book, but when events brought these two people back together, it was beautiful. I felt their hope. Their relief. They were finally able to be in love and to have a future together, and those two pages were glorious. Until I turned to the next page, which was just awful. But I appreciated how all the little snippets he’d left in the book before that point culminated in such an incredible love story. And these were secondary characters. Weeks made me fall in love with them forever in those two pages.
Brandon Sanderson’s WARBREAKER. A sarcastic, bloodthirsty sword that communicates with its owner telepathically. Enough said.
Author Bio:
Sandy Williams has lived and breathed books all her life. When she was a teen, she was always the first to finish her class assignments so that she could read as much as possible before the bell rang. Her grades didn't suffer (much), and she was able to enroll in Texas A&M University. She didn't sneak in novels there, but every other line of her college lecture notes are filled with snippets of stories. After she graduated, she decided to turn those snippets into books.
Sandy is the author of The Shadow Reader novels, an urban fantasy romance series about a human who can both see and track the fae. When Sandy isn't writing, she sneaks in time to read books by her favorite authors, and she still enjoys playing EuroGames like Dominion, 7 Wonders, and Agricola.
Sandy's newest book, THE SHARPEST BLADE, will be released on December 31st.
For the latest news, subscribe to Sandy's newsletter.
Like her on Facebook
Follow her on Twitter
Source:
http://www.paranormalhaven.com/2013/09/why-didnt-i-think-of-that-with-sandy.html