Lisa Shearin

I love going to the bookstore. Since I read so fast, I am always in search of a new favorite author to add to my list. My habit is to walk... actually stroll... more like shift my weight from one foot to the other as I make my way down the aisle with eyes scanning the bookshelves until one grabs my attention. I stop, pull the book off the shelve, and read the back blurb. If it sounds interesting, I hold onto it. If not I put it back. Then continue walking... strolling... shifting from one foot to the other...

It was in this manner that I discovered Lisa Shearin three years ago. I picked up her first book, "Magic Lost, Trouble Found." I loved it. The prose was compelling to read. I couldn't put it down. The main character Raine Benares has an attitude that had me in stitches laughing. At the time, I was participating in a fantasy writers forum and raved about the book there.

Every trip to the bookstore after that included a search to see if she had published anything else. (And yes, I could have searched on Amazon or googled to find her earlier, but I like to browse in the bookstore. It doesn't take as long to go to the bookstore and walk up and down the aisles as it does to browse through the same number of books on Amazon.) At last I was rewarded with "The Trouble with Demons" which I also thoroughly enjoyed reading. I thought this was the second book she had written, but it turned out to be her third. And checking her website for this blog post, I see that she has five books out. I have "Bewitched and Betrayed". It's on my to be read pile. I'll have to order the other two.

And in the category of gee, it's a small world: when I read the acknowledgement page, her agent, Kristin Nelson, sounded familiar to me though I couldn't remember exactly why. It turns out, I've been following Kristin's blog, Pub Rants, for over a year. I didn't realize it earlier, because I've barely had time to keep up with my reading of blog posts, much less go through the links.

So, if you like reading fantasy and you like characters with attitude, then check out Lisa Shearin's "Magic Lost, Trouble Found." You can read the first two or three chapters of all of her books on her website.