author appreciation week, day 2

And so continues our week-long celebration of Author Appreciation Week. This initiative was sparked by 2010 debut author Heidi R. Kling (see here for more details). I decided to pick 5 favorite authors + 5 anticipated authors to show my appreciation for. I’ll post one from each group each day, Monday – Friday. My first post is here.

FAVORITE AUTHOR: Suzanne Collins. She is the writer of at least ten books, of which I’ve read 8. My absolute favorite book of hers is THE HUNGER GAMES. I can barely explain my love for this book.  I’m not sure if it is because I read the book before the reviews or what. But I do know that I was blown away by the courage, resourcefulness and likability of Katniss Everdeen. I was charmed, encouraged and impressed by Peeta Mellark. And man oh man, I could not turn away from the plot. All I could do was keep turning the page.

It’s one of those books that I wish I could read again for the first time. To be able to recreate the awe, suspense, shock, and relief I felt. But since I can’t have that original experience again, I’ve turned to examining each chapter, each sentence, and each word to see if I could emulate the techniques of this master. The way she builds worlds and creates characters and and paces the story lines and draws the audience in so close, you feel like you’re running right along side Katniss instead of just reading about it. It’s genius.

Collins is the type of author I strive to be.

ANTICIPATED AUTHOR: Alexandra Bracken. This is another person I first  heard about via the Twitter webs. And then I found her blog in which each post is titled “The One with……”. How can you not immediately like someone who loves the TV show Friends? Alex’s book debut comes when she is in her early twenties, meaning she wrote this book when she was still a teenager. That fact lends itself to (a) a round of applause and (b) irresistibly because that means she is writing about characters that are her own age. She doesn’t need to research the culture shifts and technology to do’s because she’s living them. It’s no ordinary teenager who is articulate and diligent and motivated enough to write a publishable book. I’m betting her age has given her book a unique perspective and I am psyched(!) to read it.

I’ve also learned from both Twitter and her blog that she is in the publishing business. There’s always something fascinating to me about an “insider” becoming a novelist. I’m not sure why, because, actually it makes a ton of sense. I guess it’s because there are a lot of types of people needed to make a publishing house successful and sometimes that doesn’t involve a huge imagination. But if my sources are correct, her book BRIGHTLY WOVEN (which releases on March 23! next week!) will be full of fantastic characters and spectacular scenarios and drama and romance and will be simply delightful. I can’t wait.