I’ve learned a few things over the past few years that I’ve been writing such as the desire of creating, the impulse to write, and what helps spark the two of them. One of the greatest fuels for this spark has been reading. It seems, to my own style, that the more I read the more I write. In the last two years I have become exposed to a new crop of writers that I’ve come to enjoy to help spark my writing fuel. These authors vary in genre and style but all are wonderful reads.
Since I’ve added a number of them to the Amazon merry-go-round, I’m only going to list 2 today. In the coming month, I’ll take the time to do a post about the rest on the wheel.
So this month we look at the writers Scott Sigler and Mur Lafferty.
Mur Lafferty
http://murverse.com/
Stories I’ve enjoyed:
Heaven: Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
Playing For Keeps
Various Escape Pod Pieces
Various Micro Projects
I think Mur was the first podcaster I listened to after listening to my first podcasts on NPR. I heard about Pseduopod and from there heard about more of her stuff and more podcasts. I’d eventually find her audio series, Heaven, on Podiobooks and just love them as the first novel or novella (depending if you consider the first two seasons two separate novellas or a single novel) I listened to in podcast format. It’s been an interesting series as it’s slowly grown organically. I look forward to when they are put into the trilogy of books (if they get combined season 1+2, season 3+4, and season 5 as a standalone). Season 5 is actually going on now as of the time of this post so it’s a really good time to jump into the series. The first four seasons go pretty quickly so don’t be intimidated by the number of seasons. Mur’s published novel, Playing for Keeps, is also a great read. There’s been a number of super hero fiction stories later coming into the published world and Playing For Keeps is a good example of the genre. The audio book, like all of Mur works, is available for download.
I recommend Mur’s works if you like a bit of urban fantasy mixed with comedy. There always seems to be a smile behind the character’s faces in Mur’s stories even when the action is rolling.
Scott Sigler
http://www.scottsigler.com/
Stories I’ve enjoyed:
Ancestor
Infected
Contagious
The Rookie
I really enjoy Scott’s works. His science is great, his characters are quirky, and his stories are spooky. I first heard about him from various podcasts from far point media and took the plunge with listening to Ancestor. I seriously loved the listen. I didn’t grab a copy of it at the time of the listen, but it did inspire me to continue listening. The Rookie was the next book I listened to by Scott. Never thought I’d like a book about football, but the way it was presented (and not just because it was a sci fi story) actually made it really interested. Still not into the sport, but now I understand it and the fascination more. I would next try to listen to Infected but as the hard cover was coming out; I bought that instead and read the rest of the story. Just my preference. I like Scott’s readings but I always prefer to read my novel length fiction. When Contagious hit this year, I grabbed it on both Hard Cover and kindle version. Those two books are a wonderful series (if you couldn’t tell, one is the sequel to the other). Again great story, great read, and great characters.
If you like horror with a bit of realty mixed in with Sci-Fi, I recommend Scott Sigler’s works. Listen to his podcasts, buy his books, and get hooked.
There you have it; two great authors from the podcasting world that are just getting better and better as time passes. In the coming weeks, I’ll be looking at a few other podcast authors I’ve enjoyed and maybe along the way I’ll take the time to expose myself to some more.
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