Happiness is …

… cracking the spine of a debut novel and being awed.

I’ve had Kristin Cashore’s Graceling sitting on the shelf for months now … and the voice in my head (okay, one of the voices in my head) kept saying ‘Read the book … read the damned book’. This morning I gave in, took it with me on the train. I am always a bit suspicious of fantasy novels because, whether you want to hear this or not, often they are verbose, ill-edited rip-offs of Tolkien novels (there, I said it) … the cover blurb reads “Book One of a 437 book trilogy!” (Yes, yes, I know, I exaggerate a little.)

But thus far, Graceling is great – kick-ass start, terrific heroine, good writing, great pace. It made me happy as both reader and writer. I also liked that in her acknowledgements she said ‘A debut novel is a true team effort’ – so nice to see that acknowledged. She blogs here http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/

I also have Fire – I think that will be my Christmas Day reading.