5 Things I Learned...

from reading Shallow Water, by Cathryn Grant

1. Paper books are over. I was able to follow Cathryn on twitter, download her book for only $1.99, and start reading it immediately from my computer. Also, paperback romance sells for 6 or 8 dollars at my local bookstore; I can get Carina Press ebooks for less than half that. In twenty years paper books will be like vinyl records are now.

2. I need to support indie authors. Cathyrn's book is just as readable as anything by Sue Grafton, and Cathryn herself recommended Shallow Water to me. I haven't found many well-known authors who will reach out to their fans this way.

3. Woman detectives are very human. Madison doubts herself, struggles to quit smoking, and worries about whether her current crush likes her back. She is also pushing thirty and still single. I know how that can be in American society from talking to friends. I can't imagine one of James Patterson's leading men expressing such vulnerability.

4. Novellas are good. My kindle is weird, so I don't know exactly how many pages Shallow Water is, but you can easily read it in one sitting. It is still a fully developed story, with realistic characters, suspense, subplots, and conflicts. It must be challenging to write something that way; all writing is a challenge, but brevity creates special problems.

5. I might never go back to men's books. They used to be my comfort zone, but not anymore. Reading women has had an effect on what I want from a book. And there are women writers in every conceivable form of literature (except maybe Westerns). I could never read them all in a lifetime.