It's an enormous privilege that I get to do something I love so much as my job, and that I get to see my work on the same shelves with the writers who were such a huge part of making me who I am today. I grew up on books, reading every chance I got in my childhood. From the time I learned to read until fifteen or so I read pretty much every day. Sometimes only a little bit, but more often a couple of chapters, and in summers when I was off from school, a book or two a day. With adolescence and then the demands of adulthood that tapered off a bit, but it's been a rare month when I haven't knocked off at least a couple of books.
Science fiction, fantasy, and superhero comics formed the core of my younger reading, though I branched into historical and mystery, myth and legend, even the odd bit of mainstream fiction. My ideals and goals, and even the way I think were shaped by endless hours of Tolkien and Norton, McCaffrey, Dickson, Niven, Piper, Kjelgaard and Heinlein among many others. To say nothing of Stan Lee, and all the writers at Marvel and DC. As I've gotten older the list has only got longer and stronger: Powers and Pratchett, Bujold, McCullough (Colleen), Lackey, Weber, Cook, Hughart, Martin… I could go on and on and not reach the end, because it will continue as long as I do.
Writers weren't my heroes when I was younger, but they created them, and I loved and honored them for giving me their worlds to play in and peopling them with my heroes and villains--gods, demons, monsters… I wanted a fire lizard of my very own, a magic ring, a blaster… Again, the list is endless. But most of all what I wanted was a doorway into other worlds, and despite the fact that I didn't realize it right away, my writers gave me exactly that. They did it again and again and again with each new book. And it is my dearest hope and fondest ambition to provide a few of those same doors for my readers.
So, if it strikes your fancy, open SpellCrash and step through into some other place for a little while. That's what doors are for.
Updated to add some book and author links that should have been in there in the first place:
The first chapters of all five books are up on the online fiction page of my website for anyone who wants to see them, along with some short stories.
My website, where I blog. Also Twitter and Facebook
Reviews of the new book: Huntress (currently the top review on the page), and Skunk Cat. And, for flavor, probably the most thorough review of book I in this series, WebMage.
Oh, and a few buy link for the series. Dreamhaven and Uncle Hugos both usually have signed copies of most my stuff. Also: Indiebound, B&N, Amazon
9 comments:
They kept the cover art consistant through the entire series. Cool!
Congratulations Kelly. Got the book first thing this morning, can't wait to read it!
Congratulations on the book and the new series. No wonder you are sounding happy.
love that cover! will be picking up my copy friday.
Thanks folks, and yes I absolutely love this cover. Ace and Christian McGrath have been really good to me on that front with five outstanding covers.
Strangely, I bought it on Friday.
Also, I was interested that Roger Zelazny wasn't on your list of influences, since I've been getting an Amber vibe from this entire series.
Randall, the lack of Zelazny is more an oversight on my part than anything intentional. Whenever I do a list like this it always misses someone. I've read just about everything Zelazny ever wrote and loved much of it.
It was fun seeing you at B&N last night. Congratulations on the book release... it is always still fun, isn't it? :-)
will there be more books in the series?
raven and mel have become family friends i like visiting with - i hate to think there will be no more visits!!
spell crash was great! just finished it tonight.
and LOVED the new shape (however brief)!! wondered if and when it would show up. got to love those tricksters.
if i am not mistaken...there are several more shapes to take on - so we need more books!
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