The answer is simple. Everything from the back of a cereal box to the TV Guide© from cover to cover. No really, I know what you're thinking… who reads the all the TV Guide© listings? Especially way back when - you know, the Olden Days.
Okay, not that far back, but lets say a couple (three) decades ago. When I was a teenager, the TV Guide© wasn't exactly the Reader's Digest©, with interesting tidbit s about famous and obscure actors. Nooooo, I'm talking about boring little snippets of what a show was going to be about.
My favorite books included the Nancy Drew series, Nero Wolfe, Agatha Christie .... anybody sensing a theme here? Any book where justice prevailed in the end was my kind of book. The only deviation from reading mystery/suspense was my fascination with the world created by Piers Anthony in his Xanth series, thanks to Mom and my brother, Todd.
Okay, enough stories about my teenage years. What I'm reading these days is much more interesting I'm sure (vbg).
I just discovered the Cast in ... series by Michelle Sagara, so I picked up the first three in quick secession and read them just a quickly. Wow. That's all I have to say. Just ... Wow.
The “Cast” Series
- CAST IN SHADOW - Trade Paperback, Luna Books, August 2005.
CAST IN SHADOW - Mass Market Paperback, Luna Books, August 2006, Paperback. - CAST IN COURTLIGHT - Trade Paperback, Luna Books, August 2006.
CAST IN COURTLIGHT - Mass Market Paperback, Luna Books, August 2006. - CAST IN SECRET - Trade Paperback, Luna Books, August 2007.
CAST IN SECRET - Mass Market Paperback, Luna Books, August 2008. - CAST IN FURY - Trade Paperback, Luna Books, October 2008.
- CAST IN COURTLIGHT - Paperback, Luna Books, October 2009.
- CAST IN SILENCE - Trade Paperback, Luna Books, August 2009.
This series is a case study on how to use backstory to propel and motivate a character. Here's a description straight from Amazon.com about the first book in the series, Cast in Shadow: Seven years ago Kaylin fled the crime-riddled streets of Nightshade, knowing that something was after her. Children were being murdered -- and all had the same odd markings that mysteriously appeared on her own skin.… Since then, she's learned to read, she's learned to fight and she's become one of the vaunted Hawks who patrol and police the City of Elantra. Alongside the winged Aerians and the immortal Barrani, she's made a place for herself, far from the mean streets of her birth. But children are once again dying, and a dark and familiar pattern is emerging. Kaylin is ordered back into Nightshade with a partner she knows she can't trust, a Dragon lord for a companion and a device to contain her powers -- powers that no other human has. Her task is simple -- find the killer, stop the murders…and survive the attentions of those who claim to be her allies!
Authors on my must read list are Romantic Suspense giants like Linda Howard, Kay Hooper, Iris Johansen, Allison Brennan, C.E. Murphy/Cate Dermody, Rachel Caine.
You know, I could go on for paragraphs, but won't. Let's just say that these women are at the top of their game, and if they published a shopping list, I would probably read it!
Last modified: 7/Sept/2009 9:00pm