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Who are you?


Aminar

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This thread is for introductions. Give us just a little bit of backstory. Why you write. Maybe a favorite book or two not by one of the authors on this site.(We'll assume we all love them.) What you do. A quick who's who if you will.

I'm Aminar. If you work hard enough I'm sure you can find my real name on the internet somewhere. If your from the Wisconsin Con-scene you may very well know me. I'm on the Board of Directors for Daisho Con. We have Pat Rothfuss and Scott Lynch every year. If that weren't important to one of my questions I wouldn't have put it, but Pat Rothfuss is the reason I write. I met him before the first Daisho Con, he lives in the area and agreed to come to our convention. pon meeting him I realized that I did in fact want to be a writer, maybe even an author if I got lucky enough. I bounced a lot of ideas around before I started my current project, an Urban Fantasy Novel set in a world of my creation, not Earth. This lets me make up a whole slew of cool beasties, peoples, and cultures; something Urban Fantasy always seems to lack. As of this post I'm 111,111(Great stopping point, hey) words into my rough draft, aiming for 150,000. It needs lots of work.

My favorite book is War of the Flowers by Tad Williams. This is closely followed by Jurassic Park, The Dresden Files, The Kingkiller Chronicles, and Lies of Locke Lamora(and The Way of Kings, but we all knew that already right.)

Now, in the immortal words of a blue caterpillar, Who are you?

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OK, taking a little break from revision, and saw this, so I thought I might as well...

I'm Guenhywvar or Guen, and I am an English writer. I write because I find it calming, instead of venting my emotions on other people, I can write them away some of the time, and when I can't, it takes my mind of it, so a win win situation I guess. Being a teenager I an guided by hormones, so getting angry can happen very frequently, so I have rather a lot of time to write.

When not revising I write with a little bit of games on the side, I love to write, but actually want to be a doctor. Hasn't always been this way, being dyslexic I struggled in English early on, and being as stubborn as a mule, I never wanted to do what other people suggested. But I liked writing somewhat, but got frustrated when it didn't work...Nothing really has changed apart from how badly it doesn't work...

I write mainly because I enjoy it, apart from that it is to express thoughts and convey ideas.

Favourite books, easily Wheel of Time (which introduced me to Brandon and eventually this site). Other than that and Brandon's books? Not sure, my revisions ones have certainly been read the most...

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In my paying job I'm a computer programmer. If I seem overly pedantic at times, that may be part of the reason. I also like playing with words and doing word-games; a good pun is something I'll remember and chuckle over for a long time.

So far I've attempted to write four novels, and completed three -- two novel-lengths, and one novella. I've also written a few short stories, and had one published by a college magazine while I was still a student. My first attempt at writing a story that I recall was probably in about sixth grade, although I didn't pursue it as seriously until I picked it up again in college.

I've been trying to take more inspiration from Howard, especially the emphasis to keep producing and learn from it. I personally feel my writing has improved significantly over the past couple years since I started trying to write everyday, although I also feel it has a distance to go.

My favorite books are wide and varied, and when I'm really interested in the story I can miss problems other people have with many books (although when pointed out later, I can realize the problems). Some of the non-writing excuses authors I admire are G.R.R. Martin, Simon Green, L.E. Modessit, Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, and too many more to figure out. Perhaps not surprisingly, given my previous paragraph, all except Martin strike me as being quite prolific, so that might be inspiration as well. However, despite enjoying their works, I don't know that the type of books I write are much like any of them so far.

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Hey guys. My name's Rick, I'm 27, I live in CO, and by day I fight the ravages of colon cancer in an endoscopy suite. By night, I write and play video games as much as my lovely wife will let me get away with (current addiction that takes up too much writing time: League of Legends).

Besides being a huge Brandon Sanderson fanboy, I enjoy GRRM, Robert Jordan, Michael Crichton (even if his books do read like movie scripts), Terry Brooks, Samuel Shem, Jim Butcher...the list goes on and on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm Clayton. I'm 22, I just graduated from NYU this December, and I live in Brooklyn. I work currently as a paralegal, though I'm looking to break into editing (comics or prose). I'm just sort of living and working at the moment. Eventually I'll have to make the (terrible) choice between a Masters in Creative Writing or Law School.

I'm working on several projects at the moment in both comics and fantasy.

My favorite authors are Tad Williams, Patrick Rothfuss, Terry Pratchett, Guy Gavriel Kay, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, and (obvs) Brandon Sanderson. I'm also a big fan of the Dresden Files, NK Jemisin's The Inheritance Trilogy, His Dark Materials, Joe Abercrombie, Richard K Morgan's A Land Fit for Heroes, and ASOIAF.

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I'm Yakov, I'm 21, and I'm currently a student at Queens College (though I just transferred from another CUNY school so I haven't actually taken classes at Queens yet), and surprise surprise, I switched to Queens because I live in Queens. I'm currently a History major, but at my previous school I was an Engineering major (lasted only one semester until I realized that I hated all my classes) and I then became an English major. With my transfer, however, I switch to History both because it made transferring easier, and because I'd only be taking the boring (non-creative writing) English classes. And also because history is useful for writing. Once I graduate in another year and a half I'll likely try and do a Creative Writing MFA, if they'll have a sci-fi/fantasy writer.

I'm currently working on two projects, one sci-fi epic (what I've been submitting here) and a fantasy story. I'm also currently brainstorming ideas for another several possible books.

My favorite authors at the moment include Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Jim Butcher, Naomi Novik, Patrick Rothfuss, and George R.R. Martin (despite the facts that his books make me so mad sometimes).

Edited by Skyhunter Commander
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My favorite authors at the moment include Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Jim Butcher, Naomi Novik, Patrick Rothfuss, and George R.R. Martin (despite the facts that his books make me so mad sometimes).

I live in the town where Pat Rothfuss lives. Every time he teaches a class at the local university I work when it happens so I can't audit it. Anger face. Love his books though, and there's nothing quite like looking out the window of the Korean place and knowing that the Hobo-looking guy walking by is one of your personal heroes.

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I was, yet again, daydreaming as I made my 30 minute commute from home to my boring 8-4 job in sunny Florida when it occurred to me that maybe not everyone makes up dramatic fight scenes and serious character conversations as they drive. I had been giving some thought as to what I wanted to do with my life, and this realization made me wonder if my natural inclination to live in another world would lend itself toward being an author. I am still wondering, but I am exploring and experimenting as well. I won't call myself even an amateur author until my scattered scribbles of ideas come off of their various post-it notes, church programs, and torn out notepaper and onto a computer in something resembling sense-but I dream of becoming one, amateur or not.

I have since relocated to the Washington D.C. area and am most of the way through season 1 of Writing Excuses. Most of my comments will be from the point of view of an avid fantasy reader, but I hope they will become more relevant as I venture further into the world of story creation, not just consumption. I currently work the technology end of retail but plan on getting a graduate degree in Library Science.

My favorite author is easily Terry Pratchett. I also love Brandon Sanderson (yes, yes, stating the obvious) and I rather enjoy Agatha Christie for a quick read.

It is a pleasure to meet you!

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I'm Rayonn (short for Rayonnoceras, which is a genus of prehistoric cephalopods) I'm studying to be a paleontologist or evolutionary biologist of some sort (hoping to start my Master's this fall), but I've got a secondary interest in history and I like to read fantasy and scifi.

I write because I get ideas for stories, characters or settings (usually settings--and often alternate prehistory settings, like 'What if dinosaurs had survived the K/T boundary event?') and if I don't do anything with them I'll forget them eventually. (Ideas are cheap, but I like to think mine are at least kinda different because of my interests.) I haven't finished a novel-length project. Or really even made a dent in one. I'm currently trying to choose one of my ideas and get in the habit of writing on it regularly. I posted the first chapter of the alternate history I was working on and was convinced by the comments that I need to do more research on it. I don't want to have that excuse (I get worldbuilder's disease already), so I'm probably going to focus on a secondary world or urban fantasy for now.

My favorite non-excuses authors are Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Patrick O'Brian, S. M. Stirling, GRRM, Susanna Clarke, Orson Scott Card, and Stephen J. Gould (ok, he's nonfiction*), in no particular order (except for Tolkien being first). Larry Niven and Jim Butcher will probably get on that list once I read more of their stuff.

*There are advantages to that--I met one of the main characters of one of my favorite books at a geology conference.

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I'm Rayonn (short for Rayonnoceras, which is a genus of prehistoric cephalopods) I'm studying to be a paleontologist or evolutionary biologist of some sort (hoping to start my Master's this fall), but I've got a secondary interest in history and I like to read fantasy and scifi.

I write because I get ideas for stories, characters or settings (usually settings--and often alternate prehistory settings, like 'What if dinosaurs had survived the K/T boundary event?') and if I don't do anything with them I'll forget them eventually. (Ideas are cheap, but I like to think mine are at least kinda different because of my interests.) I haven't finished a novel-length project. Or really even made a dent in one. I'm currently trying to choose one of my ideas and get in the habit of writing on it regularly. I posted the first chapter of the alternate history I was working on and was convinced by the comments that I need to do more research on it. I don't want to have that excuse (I get worldbuilder's disease already), so I'm probably going to focus on a secondary world or urban fantasy for now.

My favorite non-excuses authors are Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Patrick O'Brian, S. M. Stirling, GRRM, Susanna Clarke, Orson Scott Card, and Stephen J. Gould (ok, he's nonfiction*), in no particular order (except for Tolkien being first). Larry Niven and Jim Butcher will probably get on that list once I read more of their stuff.

*There are advantages to that--I met one of the main characters of one of my favorite books at a geology conference.

Awesome, I now have somebody to pester for cool dinosaurs.(If you Don't mind of course.) I'm working on an Urban Fantasy setting where the dinosaurs were preserved (mostly) in an extradimensional bubble, along with a pair of prehistoric societies that hate eachother.

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My name's Jason. Hey. Sup?

I have a Bachelor of Arts in Game Design, so video games is a big thing in my creative inspiration factor. An on-and-off reader until recently, I love books and my Amazon Kindle Touch! It even has speakers!

Anyway, I'll be honest. My confidence in creative story writing/game story development is rather low, so I figure why not learn from the up-and-coming generation of authors? Don't get me wrong, I'm a self-proclaimed pure genius when it comes to game mechanics, but what good is a smooth-running powerhouse on an engine if the vehicle looks shabby?

At the same time, I'm working on some starters of my own, specifically a sci-fi (woah! shock there to me, I'm more into fantasy) story. Hopefully that or a better one ends up here for review.

I guess I'm done rambling for now. Thanks for letting me in on the fun!

Edited by Turos
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I should probably do one of these too, hey? Right.

I'm Silk, also known as Raethe and occasionally even as Natalie. I'm currently completing my MA in English (not creative writing, although as an undergraduate I double majored in English and creative writing), and the fact that I'm aiming to have a final draft of my thesis by this time next month is my excuse for being so scarce around here. I also work as a teaching assistant and a tutor, which is my excuse for being so pedantic. ;)

But, that's kind of a lot of excuses. Moving on!

I write mostly fantasy (surprise!) but I do a lot of hopping around. I write both urban fantasy and traditional fantasy, with occasional forays into science fiction and literary fiction. My current project, which is still in the planning phase, is a superhero novel. So far I've completed one novel, one novelette, and several short stories, with several more of each in various stages of writing and planning.

I've also written a couple of stage plays, and I write music as well. (One of these days I'll get around to writing that musical...)

A curious and unfortunate side effect of being a Master's in literature student is that I no longer have time to read for fun, and in any case when I DO read I read pretty broadly, so attempting to list "favourite" authors would result in all of us being here all day. I will say that I'm currently reading Cat Valente's Habitation of the Blessed, and it's a beautiful book. Also, I'm probably the only person here who hasn't read Way of Kings yet, but before you all come after me with pitchforks you should know that I was in a boxing club for over five years. (Yes, really.) Oh, and I occasionally write book reviews, so I suppose if you're desperate to know what my reading tastes really are, there's always that.

I really hope to be more active around here soon--I keep saying that, don't I?--but in the meantime I should probably stop rambling and go plan those classes I'm supposed to teach tomorrow.

Edited by Silk
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Also, I'm probably the only person here who hasn't read Way of Kings yet

*Face turns red and grabs a pitchfork!*

A curious and unfortunate side effect of being a Master's in literature student is that I was in a boxing club for over five years.

*Snaps pitchfork in half and runs away screaming!*

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Hello Turos and others I haven't seen before...

OK, finally back from exams...So should be more active now...I will try to get through all the reviews now, but..There are lots of them to do, and I have a headache at this moment in time so it won't be happeneing right now, probably do some of the older ones tomorrow...

guen.

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The author's name is Austin Charles, my real name is Austin Barrow

Congrats Aminar, nice to see you pull the 125 k mark. I'm about that at the Incarni, my second draft. A quick note about me, I don't consider myself a fantasy novelist. I just consider myself a writer (not to say that any of you consider yourselves the same). I attend the Columbus College of Arts and Design with a minor in writing. I just consider myself a writer (and artist sure) who happens to write in various genres. A couple of my series are fantasy, but one in particular (the Incarni) is what I choose to submit, and I'm about at the 126 k. Way too long, but anyway, haven't gotten to editing. Not to detract from my own stories I post on here, but I have read a lot of fantasy, but I have also written a lot of literary works that I'd like to get published, but just don't seem to sell. Fantasy is a hot commodity sure, but I've grown on things that weren't fantasy, like Fahrenheit 451, and Ana Karenina. Brandon Sanderson of course is an aspiring author I like, but I go to the classics in my work, Shakespeare, Homer, and Poe for good measure. My contemporary favorites are Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, and Ernest Hemingway. As I write the Incarni, I'm also balancing my writing between a alternate history super hero heist story I call Down Down Dagger. I plan on trying to sell both at the same time, but really, time and patience will only tell. Anyway, I do look forward to reading you guy's selections. I enjoy critiquing as much as I enjoy writing. Write on playas, write on. I look forward to hearing from them ;)

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  • 2 months later...

Hi, all. Silk kindly added me to the list, so I guess I can say hi, now.

My name is John. I tried to think of something clever--like Sigmund Void--but decided I'd keep my real identity: might as well make myself identifiable, for good or ill. (If you see a jhmcmullen, it's probably me. Though there are a host of other, more famous John McMullens out there.)

Male, middle-aged, Canadian. Technical writer by day, person with issues by night...actually, I'm in that space between the kids being old enough to have lots of external interests and not yet licensed, so nights are busy, but still trying to write.) Trained as a biologist, don't do that. Studied karate for a while, don't do that right now (trying to get back in shape for it, though). Had a brain tumour and discovered that after the operation and recovery, I am not as good at anything as I used to be (and still think I am, hence the .sig). So it's time to relearn it all. I hope it will be swift, but it might not be. Don't know.

I write because there is no other choice. I can avoid writing by doing acting or improv or directing or running a roleplaying campaign, and all are good, but none are writing. I have had fallow periods--we have a drama-of-the-quarter lifestyle--and I will again, but there will also be productive periods.

Writers I like: I like Sanderson (I'm here) but I like Dan Wells more. I adore Theodore Sturgeon. I like the Heinlein juveniles, most Asimov fiction, early Larry Niven, Arthur C. Clarke, very early Spider Robinson, Carrie Vaughn, Seanan McGuire's work as Mira Grant, Joe R. Lansdale, some Samuel R. Delaney, John D. MacDonald, Donald Westlake (under all his various pseudonyms), James Alan Gardner, Brian Keene (hit or miss)....and the list goes on. I'm not clever in a literary sense; Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell or the Aegypt series are at about my limit. But I want more depth than a Mack Pendleton novel.

And this is too long to be just a bit of backstory...so I'll stop.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi. I believe that I'm the newest addition around here, so I decided to introduce myself.

I am not a native English speaker. I live in France, but I'm not French either. I mention this, because I don't write in my native language, at least not well and I did write decently in English - for my age at the time - but my English got polluted by my French (and I do mean polluted in my case) and my writing couldn't be a priority for two years, so I fell behind. Apparently, changing countries and starting a new life into a culture you don't understand at all and you're not even sure you like (I ended up liking it, but it took me some time), without having any friends whatsoever and with having to study for at least 50-70 hours a week can kill some of your hobbies.

And yet, my writing did not die. That is actually the reason why I'm here now - I find it somewhat curious that out of all my habits - I used to play computer games a lot , I used to go to the gym at least 4 times a week, I used to play tennis at least 3 times a week, I used to write and I played cards a lot. But out of all the stuff I used to do, I only kept writing. Barely - I write now only 1-2 stories per month, they are short and they are worthless, but I still have the drive to write. I still think about stories, ideas pop into my head. Which merits exploring, in my eyes. Despite all that and all the changes in my character, I still write. I remember that the first time I felt good when I moved was after I had finished a short story (which was terrible, but I burned it afterward, forgot what it was about and just remember the good feeling now).

The reason why I'm visiting this forum is to make a conscious effort to revive my writing a bit. I liked writing. I liked myself writing. So I don't see why I can't at least try to have pride of the stuff I write, by writing more, more frequently, less poorly and to review as much as I did back in the day

Concerning my reading habits, I'm afraid I can't really answer the question. Not that I stopped - gladly, I started reading even more and now my only concern is that I'm a poor student, who just can't find the money to maintain a speed of 4 000 - 5 000 pages per month. But I read basically anything. I'm going with the last books I read instead - Orhan Pamuk's Snow, Christopher Hitchen's Arguably, Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark, Orwell's 1984 (in my home country, this is becoming a widespread book just now, so I hadn't read it back at home) and the 5th book of a Song of Ice and Fire. And Warbreaker.

Edit: I also had to cut 1/3 of this post. Imagine the gravity of the situation...

Edited by Piestein
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello everyone, I've just joined this forum and the reading excuses list yesterday, but I felt like I should introduce myself before critiquing or submitting anything. Anyway, my name is James and I'm an Engineering student living in Australia.

My favourite authors are all pretty new I think, people like peter v. brett, brent weeks, and brandon sanderson (obligatory). As a teenager I missed out on a lot of the formative authors, people like Tolkein and Asimov, but I've recently been determined to read pretty much every nebula and hugo award winning book, along with a stack of books which could crush elephants. My pile of to-read is expanding at an untenable rate (see some of the Engineering student coming through) and has been since I decided to give writing a proper go.

My writing is in many ways inspired by listening to the writing excuses podcast, they were the first podcast I ever listened to, and I tend to listen to them right before I start writing for the day. My current project, which is discovery-written as a reaction to all the formatting in an engineer's life, has reached 20,000 words as of 15 minutes ago and is written as a conspiracy theory epic fantasy, although I'm having trouble nailing down exactly who is the real conspirator (yay discovery writing).

It's really nice to meet all of you, and I can't wait to start reading your words.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hey everybody, I'm J.J. I only learned about Writing Excuses a few months ago (yes, I live under a rock), and since I already loved Sanderson's books, I decided a writing group like this can't be passed up!

I don't really talk about myself or my works, but I can say that I write 10 pages a day minimum. I've been writing for about 10 years, off and on, but only recently turned the switch to serious writer. I have a few early draft novels written, but we just won't ever mention them again.

I look forward to discussing with all of you!

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Good Evening all!

I'm TheSadDragon, though don't let the name fool you -- I'm not really sad.

Though for those of you who are wondering why the dragon is sad I'll sum it up in one word: Adventures. It hard for an honest dragon to keep a treasure hoard and maidens around with Adventurers skulking about...

Anywho, so who am I? I work as an IT Consultant, which means a lot of traveling -- too much right now if you ask me.

When I'm not working you will normally find me gaming, world building or designing something. As for writing I only really started writing last year (excluding creative writing essays that I had to write for my Gymnasium courses a ... few years back.

Since I picked up writing again I have only managed to finish one short short story (~2500 words), one short story (~7500 words) and one shorter novelette (~10000 words).

My current project (which is currently in the last stage of planing) is a mix of various influences and genres but I would describe it as a High Fantasy Steampunk Noir and I hope to be able to send you something from it soon™

In the mean time I am looking forward to giving feedback to you all and help in what way I can.

Oh and I should mention I am from Sweden, though as I consume entertainment in all its forms mostly in English I have found it hard to write in my native tongue and have instead opted for writing in English. Sadly while I think I'm pretty good with the language I am not native, which does present its own problems -- problems that i don't mind tackling :)

As for favourite book, books would have to be The Weel of Time. It might be a bit of an safe choice to pick WoT so let me step off the beaten path and also add a series by my favourite storyteller, Berserk by Kentaro Miura. Not really a books per say, which is why i don't list them as my favourite books ^^;

Other works I like include; many of the short stories by H.P Lovecraft; The Dresden Files; and I also have a soft spot for Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D series -- though I'm still not sure what it is that draws me to the series.

I should probably stop here before this turns into a giant wall of text. ^^;

Looking forward to seeing what you all are writing and helping you out in what way i can :)

-The Sad Dragon

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Hello all!

Mandamon here. I just joined Reading Excuses today. I've been listening to Writing Excuses for about two years now, and I've been amazed at how it's shed new light on my writing. Before that, I had written a 200,000 word space opera, submitted it to Amazon’s Breakthrough contest, and not even gotten past the first round. So after finding W.E., I put my writing on hold for about 6 months and took a crash course. I listened to about 3-4 episodes a day, transcribed thoughts and insights, and even put together a WikidPad encyclopedia linking different topics (only updated to season 5, sadly).

Afterwards, I wrote a 60,000 word novella to help my character building, and then a 70,000 word young adult time travel story for NaNoWriMo last year (which got to round 2 in the Amazon Breakthrough contest!). I think my writing has gotten better, but I really need some good critique, especially since submitting the last story to some agents and getting back a consistent “It didn’t draw me in, but maybe someone else will like it.” Especially after the recent W.E. episode on time travel, I know my book needs some help!

Let see…I’m 31, I’m a mechanical engineer, I teach karate, and I write, garden, and game in my spare time (not necessarily in that order).

Writers I like: Many. But my top favorites (books I stop reading other books for) are probably Terry Pratchett, Jim Butcher, Scott Westerfeld, Charles Stross, Robert Jordan, and some guy called Brandon Sanderson.

I’ve already looked over the forum, and it looks like some great books are in process. I’m looking forward to sharpening my critiquing and getting some good critique back from others. See you around!

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Writers I like: Many. But my top favorites (books I stop reading other books for) are probably Terry Pratchett, Jim Butcher, Scott Westerfeld, Charles Stross, Robert Jordan, and some guy called Brandon Sanderson.

I recognize all but the last one. Sounds like a hack.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm back. After several months with no computer, moving to a new city, and two new jobs; I can finally start writing again. I've been having severe trouble getting stories started since I finished my first book. I'm not sure why, but I don't want to start editing yet.

Either way, I can start participating again. Hooray.

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