What I Read in 2021

At the end of each year I do a summary post of what I read throughout the year. I find it interesting to see my reading habits, and to make note of what the best books were each year. I managed 45 books this year, which is much better than last. I use a standard five star rating method with five stars meaning I loved the book so much I intend to re-read it throughout my life, so there are rarely any five star books.

1. Wings of Omen, edited by Robert Asprin *****

2. The Godfather by Mario Puzo *****

3. Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara ***

4. Me by Elton John ****

5. Salvation by Peter F Hamilton *** and a half

6. The Dead of Winter, edited by Robert Asprin ****

7. Grant by Ron Chernow ****

8. Soul of the City, edited by Robert Asprin ****

9. The Civil War by Bruce Catton ****

10. Salvation Lost by Peter F Hamilton *** and a half

11. Head On by John Scalzi ***

12. A Time to Kill by John Grisham ** and a half

13. Unlocked by John Scalzi **

14. The Pelican Brief by John Grisham *** 

15. The Rooster Bar by John Grisham **

16. The Siberian Dilemma by Martin Cruz Smith ****

17. A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo ****

18. Thin Air by Richard K Morgan *****

19. White Wolf by David Gemmell **

20. Near Enemy by Adam Sternbergh ***

21. Blood Ties, edited by Robert Asprin ****

22. Apropos of Nothing by Woody Allen **** and a half

23. The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck ***

24. Sabriel by Garth Nix ***

25. House of Spies by Daniel Silva ***

26. R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury **

27. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith ****

28. Aftermath, edited by Robert Asprin ****

29. The Swords of Night and Day by David Gemmell ***

30. Uneasy Alliances, edited by Robert Asprin **** and a half

31. Red Rising by Pierce Brown *

32. King and Maxwell by David Baldacci **

33. Hue 1968 by Mark Bowden ****

34. Stealers' Sky, edited by Robert Asprin ****

35. Lovedeath by Dan Simmons ***

36. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane *****

37. Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane **

38. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer ***

39. Nightflyers by George R.R. Martin **

40. Master Assassins by Robert Redick ****

41. Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub *** and a half

42. Arrival by Ted Chiang **

43. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner *

44. A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden **** and a half

45. Twilight of the Gods by Scott Oden *****

Top 25 Albums of the 2000's

 As everyone knows, I have the best taste in music in the world. And of course I've listened to every single album that has come out since the year 2000. No sarcasm at all there :)

Okay, so it's completely subjective (though I do have terrific musical taste), but I thought it would be fun to sort my music in iTunes by date and see what I thought were the best albums to come out since the year 2000, at least based on what I have listened to.

1. Lateralus -- Tool 2002

2. Fear Inoculum -- Tool 2019

3. The Incident -- Porcupine Tree 2009

4. 10,000 Days -- Tool 2006

5. Live: Featuring Stone and Echo -- A Perfect Circle 2013

6. Thirteenth Step -- A Perfect Circle 2003

7. American Idiot -- Green Day 2004

8. Army of Anyone -- Army of Anyone 2006

9. Lost Dogs -- Pearl Jam 2000

10. Bullet in a Bible -- Green Day 2005

11. Blade Runner 2049 Soundtrack -- Hans Zimmer 2017

12. Eat the Elephant -- A Perfect Circle 2018

13. Elephant -- The White Stripes 2003

14. Backspacer -- Pearl Jam 2009

15. King Animal -- Soundgarden 2012

16. Fear of a Blank Planet -- Porcupine Tree 2007

17. Weathered -- Creed 2001

18. Lightning Bolt -- Pearl Jam 2013

19. 21st Century Breakdown -- Green Day 2009

20. We Lost the Skyline -- Porcupine Tree 2008

21. One Day Remains -- Alter Bridge 2004

22. Riot Act -- Pearl Jam 2002

23. eMotive -- A Perfect Circle 2004

24. Walk the Sky -- Alter Bridge 2019

25. Dust -- Tremonti 2016

What are your favorites within the 2000's?

Audiobook Out Today!

 The audiobook for my sci-fi technothriller The Immortality game went live today! It's the bestselling of my books, so I hope it will do well. 

I have free promo codes for US or UK Audible stores for anyone willing to do an honest review--it's great to get some reviews up early on within the first few weeks of release.

Might As Well Be

 That phrase, 'might as well be', isn't used all that often, but it always seemed a little odd to me. Sometime during my younger teen years, that phrase struck me funny and I turned it into the name of my Dungeons and Dragons paladin character--Midas Welby.

Many years later, when I decided to write a fantasy novel, I turned that old D&D character into the protagonist of my story The Shard. I mean, he might as well be the main character, right? Rather than a paladin, I made him a minor nobleman, who had been born to a fisherman but gained notice during his service fighting barbarians and became a captain-of-the-guard for a major noble, who later knighted him, married him to his daughter, and granted him a small keep.

I guess I was very subtle about his name in the book, because it was published in 2015 and not one reader has ever noticed that his name was a play on that phrase.

Have Audiobooks Changed the Way You Write?

 I rarely notice any change to my style of writing, but recently I've noticed that I have changed the way I approach dialogue and thoughts due to having listened to my novels that were made into audiobooks. I noticed that whenever I listened to dialogue or thoughts in audiobooks, it sometimes became confusing as to who was speaking. This is because in novels the writer often doesn't need to explicitly state who is speaking or whether what is being said is a thought and not spoken out loud, because it is obvious to the reader. But it isn't so obvious once the reader isn't seeing it on the page. 

So, while I haven't changed my approach to dialogue or thoughts too much, I do find myself adding more attributions to the thoughts or dialogue, just so when the audiobook comes out it won't be so confusing to the listener. 

Anyone else had this same issue?

Writing Two Books at Once

 I published my last novel in 2015.  So it has already been nearly six years since I last released a new story, which puts me in the company of writers like Patrick Rothfuss and George R.R. Martin for the slowness of my productivity.

There are many reasons why it is taking me so long. I naturally procrastinate unless something really urges me on. I've been stressed out by so many things, not leastwise by the election of a certain someone to the highest office in the land in 2016. But primarily the reason is that I started working on two different books at the same time.

I hadn't planned to do it. I started working on one of them (I don't even recall which I started first), got stuck on something early on, and then began working on the other while my mind mulled over how to overcome the complications in the first.

I really don't recommend this method of writing. I've never been a fast writer--each of my first novels took four years to produce--but at least by working on only one at a time I did manage to finish them. Now with the six year mark approaching, I just hit the 51,000 word mark in one novel, and I'm only at 21,000 words in the other. Which means I'm perhaps around the halfway mark in the first, and nowhere close to finished in the second.

The stories don't bore me. I haven't lost interest in them. It's just that one of them is extremely complicated and needs lot of thought to overcome the many obstacles. Yet my mind can never just set about working on one of them, because both stories keep jockeying for attention in my brain. Each time I think I have stopped working on one to focus solely on the other, some new idea pops up that makes me go back to the other manuscript.

I so badly want to finish at least one of them, so I've pushed harder this year than I have in quite some time, but the finish line feels so far away still, which is discouraging. If I could just finish one then the other might be easier to complete as well.

I wonder how many of you have had this same frustrating experience?

What I Read in 2020

 At the end of each year I do a summary post of what I read throughout the year. I find it interesting to see my reading habits, and to make note of what the best books were each year. I managed only 31 books this year, though to be fair some of them were very long ones. I use a standard five star rating method with five stars meaning I loved the book so much I intend to re-read it throughout my life, so there are rarely any five star books. But with how crazy this year was, I purposely re-read a lot of my old favorites, which is why you'll see so many this time.

1. Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough *****

2. Caesar's Women by Colleen McCullough *****

3. Dispel Illusion by Mark Lawrence *** and a half

4. Caesar by Colleen McCullough *****

5. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker ****

6. Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi ***

7. The October Horse by Colleen McCullough *****

8. Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough ****

9. Rosewater by Tade Thompson **

10 Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey *****

11 The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley **

12. The Outsider by Stephen King ****

13 The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb ****

14. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King *** and a half

15. The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley **** and a half

16. The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfey ****

17. Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb ****

18. City of Dragons by Robin Hobb ****

19. Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb *** and a half

20. Delta-v by Daniel Suarez ****

21. The Blackest Heart by Brian Lee Durfey ****

22. Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan ***

23. Thieves' World edited by Robert Asprin *****

24. Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn edited by Robert Asprin *****

25. Shadows of Sanctuary edited by Robert Asprin *****

26. Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Albert Zuckerman **

27. Storm Season edited by Robert Asprin *****

28. The Face of Chaos edited by Robert Asprin *****

29. The Firm by John Grisham *****

30. Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King ***

31. Wings of Omen edited by Robert Asprin *****