Our Guest Author, Shannon McKenna – her Edge of Midnight comes out 31 Jul – gives us a peek into her TBR pile. 

Wow, my To Be Read pile is vast and complicated, because I’m so desperately disorganized and short of time with the deadlines and the little girl, I never get a chance to read. A bad state of affairs for a writer! You really need to read like you need to eat. I’ve been living off my fat (figuratively speaking) for a while now, but I would really love to read more. Much more.

Let’s see, the stuff I have in my TBR pile include a bunch of Donna Leon mysteries, Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy, Rohinton Mistry’s A FINE BALANCE, Marisha Pessl’s SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS, Stephen King’s LISEY’S STORY, [Audrey Niffenegger’s] THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, Barry Eisler’s “John Rain” thrillers, and a bunch of others that just don’t come to mind right now because they’re buried so deep. I have no order at all for my to be read books, nor is there any point in trying to establish one, since it is one of my daughter’s chief joys to pull books off the shelves and listen to the thud as they fall. So why fight it? Sadly, though, I often spend precious minutes that I could be reading searching desperately for an unread book, or else I completely forget that I have them and discover them by chance months later.

I would say, without hesitating for an instant that the book I am most looking forward to in all the world is the next Diana Gabaldon installment in her magnificent OUTLANDER series. I put that at the very top of my favorites list. What wonderful escapist reading; fab romance, intense emotion, gripping tension, hot sex, wild, rip roaring adventure, and meticulous, fascinating historical research which never intrudes on the story. It’s brought seventeenth century Scotland and the American Revolution alive for me as I’ve never imagined. I hope she writes bunches more Jamie and Claire stories before she closes that series. I’ll buy them in hardcover the second they’re available.

Outside the romance genre, I recently read Yann Martell’s LIFE OF PI, and I was deeply moved by it. Gorgeous, dense, rich, poetic writing that made me just ache inside, even though the story was so lonely and so full of pain and privation. But wow, what a book, what a writer. I’ve had a wonderful time with Alexander McCall’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, graceful and funny and positive and delicious stories.

And beyond that, well, let’s see—I picked up Susan Krinard’s LORD OF THE BEASTS while doing some market research for my pet dream of writing fantasy paranormal someday, and it was a great discovery. Her graceful, intelligent writing and her super sexy and yet understated, controlled, gentlemanly hero really delighted me.

I also have really loved the Lisa Kleypas’ Wallflower Series recently. I’m a fan of the J.R. Ward [Black Dagger Brotherhood] series. Very sexy vamps that you can count on to be righteous dudes. I usually don’t go much for vampires, but these guys work for me. I recently read and enjoyed Lori Foster’s CAUSING HAVOC, very fun, juicy, sexy read. And of course, I’m really, really looking forward to HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, along with six billion other people. I just love Harry. I wish students had to stay longer at Hogwarts, because I am so, so not ready to say goodbye.

What all these writers do for me is to engage my emotions and make me care deeply about the characters. Without that, I just don’t engage in a book, and I end up putting the book down and forgetting it. It’s a mysterious, magic thing, and it crosses all genres, all types of novel—some books are dense and intense and poetic and I savor them in little careful sips like a fine liqueur, others are wild bumpy exciting thrill rides and I gulp them down like ice cold Gatorade on a hot day, but the key is always that magic happening. It’s gotta have it. Make me care.

Well, I’ve certainly rattled on long enough. I’m delighted to have shared some of my chaotic life and creative angst with you all, and I thank you in particular, Sybil, for the opportunity to do so. It’s lovely to reach out a bit—I usually stay huddled in my shell, cyber-space wise, and it takes a big, friendly kick in the patoot to get me out there into somebody’s blog. So thanks for the kick, Sybil! And thank you all for your kind interest. I hope you all enjoy EDGE OF MIDNIGHT, and EXTREME DANGER.

I’ll close with a quote that my cousin gave to me years ago, from Khalil Gibran’s SAND AND FOAM. I may not get it exactly right, since I can no longer find the dog-eared index card that he wrote it on, but the gist of it is this: “If you should care to write—and only the saints know why you should—then you must needs have knowledge, art, and magic. The knowledge of the music of words, the art of being artless, and the magic of loving your readers.”

That about sums it up for me!

Thanks again, and I wish the very best to all of you!

Thank you, Shannon! This view into your TBR and reading list will, I’m sure, open doors to new material for many people, making our TBR piles as tall as yours! 🙂