Books I've Acquired Recently

As I've said before, when it comes to free or dirt cheap ebooks, or any book for that matter I don't download them or purchase them unless I know this is a book that I really want to read.

A book that I've been searching for some time now I found yesterday on Amazon in ebook form - Gargantuan and Pantagruel. It's actually a series or collection of stories written by a French Renaissance author, Francois Rabelais. It's about two giants who go on a number of different adventures and there is a lot of satirical humor in these stories. I finally have it on my kindle and I'm excited about reading it! I must say that I even bought some music years ago, songs inspired by Villon and also Rabelais. I love music from the Renaissance and the middle ages. I also ran across some of Sir Isaac Newton's religious writings, specifically is his writings on the prophecies of Daniel - one of my favorite Bible books and I am currently reading The Last King's Amulet by Chris Northern, which is an excellent fantasy story. I'll definitely be getting the sequel to that book!

I think that as a fantasy writer it is important to read the early masters of the craft. Tolkien and Lewis, Howard,* etc. However, there are fantasy writers who came before them and to reach back and read and to become inspired by their works I feel can add depth and to my own work. I would like to add Milton to this list as well but technically he was not a fantasy writer but authors that I admire respected his work.

*Edited Moorcock out. I have never read Moorcock's work and after having read what he thinks of Tolkien and Lewis - who are masterful writers in my opinion, I felt that to include him in this post with such men would be an insult to their work and to them.

Blog Changes

Blog change update: 

I know a little while ago I mentioned that i would be making design changes to this blog. That is still in the works but I won;t be making those changes until April, when I go on vacation. By then I'll actually have some time to make changes.

Step it up!

The new Lending Library from Amazon has everyone up in arms (authors and publishers anyway). Many indie authors are jumping ship! Even Mark Coker has weighed in on the subject and he isn't happy. I like his site; he's done a lot for indie authors. Smashwords is a good place for indies and all my books are there and I plan to keep them there but he and other distributor/retailers need to step up their game. iBooks and Barnes and Noble have done little to help promote indie authors but many whine about Amazon who has done a lot for indie authors. The most egregious whiners are certain local bookstore owners, all who have snubbed indies, and by that I mean self-published authors. There was a big blow up on Facebook about this last week!

Instead of getting upset, Amazon's competitors really need to bring their A- game. There are a lot of things that need to be improved on iBooks and B&N, Kobo and Smashwords. Seriously. I plan to promote my books on the other retailers in the near future because I do not like putting all eggs in one basket nor do I like monopolies and Amazon could very well become one in the future. But this would be the fault of its competitors who won't step up to the plate and improve their own services.