– c.

At your level, you’ve read more then Twilight. You should be reading for pleasure again because, as you said, you’ve found your voice.

Horror’s been dead for years, that’s what’s awesome. It’s basically a zombie! Lurching about, moaning, knocking lamps off of tables in a quest for brains.

Someone in their respective genre should endeavor to read the classics, and should have an established reading base. Anybody in their respective industry needs that level of fundamentals. And keeping up with favored new writers is good, but I don’t think one should necessarily go out of his or her way to do so. I think you should just read what you like. I don’t go out of my way to pick up horror novels. I go out of my way to just… read authors I like, or books that sound good, regardless of genre. Genre alone isn’t worth emulating. Every book isn’t a lesson anymore, y’know?

And, I have no desire to read Twilight. I really don’t. But Meyers catches a bad rap — and, if the advice is, “She didn’t read the classics and look where she is,” let’s all remember that where she is happens to be sitting pretty on top of a stack of money and basking in the obsessive glow of rabid fans. No harm, no foul to her for making kids want to read books — look at her that way. Kids who read her are now readers. They may not have been before. They’re going to need to eventually move onto other stuff. That’s where you come in. And me, and Will, and whoever else is ready to take a stab at it.

(Plus, she’s not writing in the horror genre, really. She’s writing in the paranormal romance genre, which is probably right in line with her books.)

Again, I’m cool if you don’t dig the books. I haven’t read them, and almost certainly won’t. But she’s successful. Gotta be some reason that’s the case, for good or ill.

Well — I’m not advocating this for general readers. I’m only suggesting this might be the case for writers.

Also, my concern is that your argument puts non-fiction above fiction as a priority. I find new authors all the time; most of them just happen to be in the non-fiction field.

I see what you’re getting at, and I don’t disagree — the blog post is merely an effort to explain why some writers pull back from reading fiction as much as they used to. I still read it. I still love it. But, like Will, I savor it, so I’m slow with fiction and fast with non-fiction. He nailed it, I think: fiction just makes me want to write fiction, but non-fiction gives me the tools to write fiction.

And to prove that I find new writers, still…

Daryl Gregory! Go. Read “Pandemonium.”

Stat!

– c.

I am not saying this is the smart or right way, just what I do.

-Rob D.

PS – On a practical level, it also makes it rough to find new authors.

Ari — the kind of writer who makes me hate myself by combining both talent and skill with being a nice guy — is not only right, but he said it rightly. That’s a great quote.

I have also voted, now, in Eddy’s poll. If anyone would like to purchase a part of my game collection, lately I need money more than I need old Mystara boxes with CDs in them for research.

This does not apply to non fiction. That should and must be done at every second of the day. News papers, articles, journals, academic works, constant stream of that, please’n'thank you.