This has been a crazy summer for me, reading-wise. I’ve both read more than I’ve ever read before in my life, and at the same time didn’t get to read nearly as much as I would have liked. See, I work as an editor for a romance novel publisher. So forty-plus hours per week, I’m reading. I read full manuscript submissions and decide whether to pass, offer a contract, or write up a revision letter. I read contracted authors’ manuscripts and work my editorial muscles, helping the authors take their work to the next level. I also proofread, copyedit, write back cover copy, format and style for eBook publication, and wade through countless queries and plot synopses. It’s a LOT of reading. And I love every second of it.
However, because I’m reading all day every day, the last thing I want to do when I get off work at six o’clock is open a book. My poor eyes need a break! Still, I have managed to squeeze in a bit of extracurricular reading this summer. I’ve gotten the chance to read amazing first drafts and equally as amazing revisions from my fellow TWB peeps. I also read The List, by New School alum Siobhan Vivian, which was wonderful (although the third person-present completely threw me off and I felt like the whole book was being narrated by Rod Serling from The Twilight Zone). But by far my guiltiest pleasure so far this summer was Freefall – Season 9, Volume 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, by Joss Whedon, Andrew Chambliss, Georges Jeanty, and Karl Moline. Yep, it’s a graphic novel, and yep, it’s a continuation of the almighty genius that was the Buffy television series. And yep, the whole graphic novel series is abso-freaking-lutely fantastic.
In a couple of days, I will be taking a bit of time off from my lovely editorial job and getting on a plane with Dhonielle to go visit our dear friend Amy in South Africa. It’s a 15-hour nonstop flight, people, and you can bet I’m prepared. My in-flight reading queue consists of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Vicious Deep by (my fellow Sourcebooks Fire author) Zoraida Cordova, and I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella. Who knows, maybe one of those will knock Buffy off her pedestal as the best thing I’ve read this summer… time will tell!
Book cover image courtesy of Dark Horse