Fantasy Book Club discussion

The Fantasy Book Club was founded on the 16th of November 2008. My idea was to promote the fantasy genre and to encourage fantasy readers to meet with others who also had a love for fantasy. On the first day there was only Leslie, Jeanne and myself who shared the vision for the group and to decide on the direction we should take. From those humble beginnings, we have slowly grown in numbers to today when we have almost 1200 members.

I have some exciting news to speak of as part of our First Year Celebrations. Brandon Sanderson shall be visiting us sometime in January during the discussion of his novel Warbreaker. I know Brandon is extremely busy writing the final novels in the Wheel of Time series, so we should give him a big welcome when he does arrive for taking time out of his schedule to visit. A big thanks to our Mod Jeanne, who has arranged this, as it has been something we dreamed of for a long time.

I find it encouraging to hear of young people who are writing fantasy stories, as they are the future for the genre. One member spoke of Riley Carney aged 16, who writes fantasy novels. I found that Riley was involved with eliminating illiteracy and poverty for children around the world and has created a non-profit organization called Breaking the Chain. It is always inspirational to read of this caring for others less fortunate than ourselves, from one so young. Keep up the great work Riley, maybe one day soon, one of your novels will be our monthly reading.

Leslie Ann Moore won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best First Fiction in 2008 with her novel Griffin's Daughter. She did say to me that the only people who originally came to her book signings were family and friends. Things have changed since then and the list of Goodreads members that have read or plan to read her novels has increased dramatically. I know Leslie’s dream is to one day make writing a full time career and I wish her every success. Sadly, Leslie will be leaving us as a Mod to work on her new novel, but we can look forward to reading something new from Leslie in the near future.

One day I happened to notice Janny Wurts join our group, at that time she was just browsing the threads. I did message her asking her if she needed any assistance and soon she began to post in the group. Since then Janny has led the discussion on her novel The Curse of the Mistwraith, which was very popular. Janny has now made many posts to various threads which even includes greeting new members. So thanks Janny for being a member and taking the time to post so often to the group. It has been a wonderful experience for us all.

Currently the group monthly reading is The Hobbit Or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien. December's discussion will be led by author Maria Arena who is also a Lecturer/Co-ordinator of Creative Writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. I know Maria will be lecturing during this time, so thank her for taking the extra time to do this discussion. If you are yet to participate in our monthly readings, now maybe a good time to start. I know I am looking forward to it.

A special thanks to all the authors who have participated in the discussions of their novels in our forums. We are always honoured by your mingling with us readers and telling us more about your stories.

To all our Mods past and present who have done such a great job in organising the forum, a big thanks, which I know would be from all within our group.

Lastly, thanks to all our members whose interesting posts over the last year have made the group such a success.

JJ

Congrats to making this group such a big success. I know I really enjoy coming here. :)

It is always pleasing to hear that Elise.

Great party, JJ - all you mods, thanks for hosting a terrific forum. If I croak before finishing my massive series, you'll take part of the blame - my TBR pile is a looming tower that now threatens to crush me, if one of the cats tips it over, and all those books fall down on my head.

With Thanksgiving last week, I can say that I'm grateful for the forum to communicate with fellow readers and to get some most wonderful book recommendations. I sure know that there are a number of books that I would not have picked up without getting them recommended by fellow Goodreads participants. So thank you for making my TBR list so ginormously long that I will likely never get through them all--ever! :)

Janny you must have added many books to you TBR list if the stack is that high. I always wondered how much time authors give to reading other novels. How you manage to write, read and do all the other things required as an author in such limited time amazes me.

Kathy, I like the word 'ginormously' and found it has only added to dictionaries recently, yet it had been in usage since 1948 as part of military slang. I hide books away that are for my TBR, as looking at them all on a shelf became too overwhelming for me.

The unread books are dispersed on my shelves among the ones I've read, so I wasn't aware there was so many until recently, when I joined Goodreads and added my books. And I added yet more books to read after a short while here.
I think there won't be any shortage of good books to read as long as groups like this one are active.

JJ wrote: "Janny you must have added many books to you TBR list if the stack is that high. I always wondered how much time authors give to reading other novels. How you manage to write, read and do all the ot..."

JJ - I read very quickly and thoroughly - but I haven't nearly as much time to read as I'd like...why the pile up is so overshadowing - grin.

Thanks for making the group JJ. It was the perfect group when I was first looking for one. Now I have made some pretty spectacular friends and solid contacts in a field that I love.

And you know, the discussions are amazing. I have never had anyone to discuss books with until I joined this group. Thanks. :)

What a great group - and what a fantastic history. I've heard about Riley Carney she is a great inspiration to young authors and I'll definitely be reading her book.

Also glad to hear about Brandon Sanderson as he is a favorite author of mine.

Susan

I am so glad to have stumbled across this group! I know I am brand new here, but I would like to extend my congratulations. I am excited to have found a group of like-minded readers who will (I'm quite sure) keep my "to-read" list stocked for quite some time. I've only just begun to explore the group forums.

Cheers, and keep up the good work!