Every year, I read a lot of books, with two goals in mind. 1) To find entertaining books (naturally) , and 2) to find a new (to me or otherwise) author. 2016 gave me three new authors to follow.
Gaie Sebold, who wrote the charming Babylon Steel (one of my favorite books of the year) as well as Dangerous Gifts, Shanghai Sparrow, & Sparrow Falling. Her writing is energetic; her characters are awesome and appealing; and her worlds feel flush with life.
![Shanghai Sparrow (An Evvie Duchen Adventure Book 1) by [Sebold, Gaie]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51LJMCxIlWL.jpg)
JL Bryan, whose Jenny Pox claimed my weirdest book of the year title. But I started with JL Bryan for the Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper series, which started off slowly and has become one of my most “oooh, a new one, grab it!” series.
And this year, I made a concerted effort to read more short stories, aided by the sheer number of good, online spec fic magazines. One of the first stories I read this year was Sam J Miller’s “Angel, Monster, Man” published in Nightmare Magazine I wasn’t sold 100% on this story, but I loved so much of it, that it left a big impression. One that only grew more favorable after I read “When Your Child Strays from God” (Clarkesworld), and “Things with Beards” (also Clarkesworld). Sam J Miller’s gone from completely new to me, to a writer that I’m excited to see.
Anyone else have new, or new to them writers they fell in love with this year?
lane robins 