What Are You Reading / Past Favorites?

Hello all!  I just added a widget to my blog that shows a list of some of my favorite books.  I just thought I'd throw this post out there and see what books other people are reading and what some of your favorite books have been.   Cheers!

The Saga Begins

Well, here I sit on this dark, gloomy Sunday morning with a heavy rain beating against the window. It's kind of ironic that this is the exact setting from the beginning of the new novel that I have started writing. Maybe that's some cosmic sign that I'm on the right track (or a sign that I should just go back to bed and pull the covers over my head!). 

This is a new adventure for me - I've never blogged before. I've never built a website or done any of the other myriad things that many authors do to promote their stories. I felt, though, that starting this blog would help focus me on getting back to writing down the tale that has been floating around in my head for the past year, and that it would give me a place to connect with you - the readers - who make it possible for authors to want to tell their stories! 

I first started writing The Shattered Earth nearly a year ago, worked on it for a couple of months, and then real life reared it's ugly head and banished my words to the depths of my hard drive. My six year old son started Kindergarten this year, so I've been helping him through the trials and tribulations of the journey through "big-boy school". Over the past year my mother has steadily been progressing down the path of severe vascular dementia, and I have been trying to see to her care and visit her as much as possible before she gets to the point that she no longer recognizes her family. 

That being said, I've gotten to the point where the writing bug is biting me again, and I want to start writing again. I've been a voracious reader since my early childhood - devouring all things fantasy, adventure, and science fiction. More recently I've been reading a lot of books from the zombie apocalypse genre. I've also been eternally fascinated with "end-of-the-world" novels - often referred to as WTSHTF (when the sh!t hits the fan) or TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) books. For me it is fascinating to read about the great variety of problems that the characters in these stories face and how they deal with them. I also love to "see" the different settings and environments that authors create, and it is exciting to think of building a new world from the ground up, populating it, and throwing the characters into it. 

So this is where the saga begins. I plan on posting excerpts and sample chapters from the novel as I get them polished up, and I welcome comments and feedback from you - the readers. Although I am somewhat daunted (e.g. scared sh!tless) by this whole process, I am looking forward to starting this journey, and I hope that you all will enjoy it too!