Saturday, May 8, 2010

In which I promote another person's blog...

Namely, In Bed With Books whose fab writer/reviewer/reader extraordinaire is Liviania. Recently, she has begun a feature that I think is a terrific idea. She calls it "Best Authors You Aren't Reading." Her post today is about Patrice Kindl whose books and whose name I have never heard before.

From a reader's perspective, I love getting recommendations for books and authors whose names are not widely known. I often get disappointed with the big books that everyone is reading. Inevitably, they become so huge that you have to read them but they can't possibly live up to your expectations. The unknowns can pleasantly surprise you and then you have a new favorite author and their backlist!

From an author's standpoint, I love hearing about unsung writers. I want to know the gems that got swept under the publishing rug for various reasons. Maybe it was a small press without a lot of marketing push, maybe it was similar to another book that was more popular, maybe it preceded a trend but didn't start it. Who knows? Sometimes in reading the author's work, you get a sense of what might have gone wrong for him or her.

Great idea, Liviania! Can't wait to read Patrice's work and to hear about the next author you'll discover for us!