Writers Read: Jane Lindskold

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Jane Lindskold

Jane Lindskold is the bestselling author of the Firekeeper series, which began with Through Wolf’s Eyes and concluded with Wolf’s Blood, as well as many other fantasy novels. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Lindskold's new novel is Artemis Invaded, the second book in the Artemis Awakening series.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

I read a lot… Sometimes it’s not all in print, though. Audiobooks make it possible for me to turn chore time into “reading time.”

My current audiobook is City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. So far, I’m enjoying it a great deal. The setting is richly detailed, so much so that it’s been easy to overlook that – at least to this point – the plot is comparatively skimpy, and the characters fall into very familiar types. It will be interesting to see if this changes once the setting is laid.

Before that, I listened to So You Want to be a Wizard and Deep Wizardry, both by Diane Duane. The first is solidly middle-grade, but Deep Wizardry begins to dip its toes into young adult concerns. I liked a great deal – especially that there’s a reason for wizardry, and for young wizards being at the heart of the action. Definitely a series I will continue.

I also took a very short side jaunt into the children’s book, The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale. Vividly illustrated in rich color, it’s a wonderful little story. I’d definitely buy it for children, especially new readers. Of special note: Delightful to see a princess depicted as a little girl, not a supermodel.

My main print reading has been the anthology The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth edited by S.M. Stirling. Set in Stirling’s Emberverse, this very long collection features stories from a wide variety of locations and times after the “Change.” My own “The Hermit and the Jackalopes,” set in the New Mexico malpais is included. I don’t always read anthologies in which I have a story but, in this case, many of the featured authors are from New Mexico, and so we keep doing panels together about this collection. I started out reading more or less as “homework,” but have come to sincerely enjoy.

Between post-apocalyptic disaster tales, I read the poetry collection Island Dreams by Gerald Hausman. It’s a vivid, highly personal selection of strongly imagistic poems – mostly free verse, but escaping the clunking “prose cut into chunks” of so much free verse. The brief “Zelazny’s Advice” perfectly caught Roger’s voice.

I’ve also been reading the Naruto manga. Just finished number 70. And, yes, I’ve been following this one pretty much from the start. Amazingly well-done characterization, especially for a story that covers so many years and so many lives.

Somewhere in there, I slipped in Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy by Wendlin Van Draanen. This is the third volume in a series of mysteries centered around junior high-aged Samantha “Sammy” Keyes, whose life is about as far from Nancy Drew-like perfection as possible. I have the next one on my bedside bookshelf….