Author, Author

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives." — Willa A. Foster

Yesterday, because I had so much extra time on my hands (ROFLOL), I did a little blog-hopping to some new blogs -- because most of the blogs I read regularly haven't been updated.

I stumbled across Jennifer Echols blog where she asks for book recommendations for the following authors:

Jennifer Crusie

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Jennifer Weiner

Nora Roberts/J. D. Robb

Linda Howard

Jane Austen

There were four comments before mine. One had a recommendation for Jennifer Weiner, the others only talked about Jane Austen. They admitted to NOT reading the other authors. One did say she read some other fairly popular authors, so she's sort of excused from inclusion into the rest of this blog… but…

I know I've ranted about this before but, hey, I don't have anything else but NaNo to talk about and you'll get enough of that in November.

You have to admit that the authors listed above are pretty much the queens of their niche. Jenny is absolutely the best rom-com author, followed closely by SEP.

I don't care for Jennifer Weiner's books because she's too depressing and not just plain old romance (she's more that "romantic elements" kinda gal), but she's well appreciated by others.

Nora. Well, what can I say …her books are usually quite good (even though the head-hopping drives me NUTS) and she is, after all, the queen of everything, so she must be doing something right.

Linda Howard writes some awesome romantic suspense.

And Jane Austen? Of course, the ladies admitted to reading her -- guess that's not as embarrassing or something. Geez.

How can you write romance and not read these ladies? Even though I'm not a huge Jennifer Weiner fan, I've read several of her books. And I always take a look at her new ones, just in case they're different than usual.

Even if you write paranormal, you can learn from ladies like Jenny Crusie. Her writing is amazing, clean and no head-hopping. Read Bet Me or Getting Rid of Bradley and prepare to be entertained and educated.

And if you do read those authors, get over to Jennifer Echols blog and give her your opinion on their best books.

NOTE: I've been trying to post all morning, but Blogger has had issues… sorry!