You know how it goes. You read a book by an author you never read before, get hooked and then find yourself following their trail forever after. It’s a kind of literary stalking. We’ve all done it. There’s no shame.
The Author Trail has three distinct paths. First there’s the Backlist Path. This is where you discover a book, only to find the author’s written a ton of stuff you never read before. Such trails can result in exhaustion, particularly when the list is long. I first experienced this when I discovered Isaac Asimov at some remote and tender age. Foundation led me to the sequels and then to I, Robot and The Rest of the Robots and Earth is Room Enough and The End of Eternity and … well, you get the picture. The same with Larry Niven. Ringworld begat Protector and thence to World of Ptavvs … these lists can get biblical, can’t they?
The other route is the First Edition Path. You know you’re on this when you fall for an author while reading their debut novel. This happened to me with Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic, Iain M Banks’s Consider Phlebas and a host of others. Walking the First Edition Path is like playing a game of patience, as you wait for the next delivery from your new favourite author.
The third route on the Author Trail is the Continuity Path, which is really just a combination of the other two. This is when you discover someone with a backlist, but who’s also still writing. You devour the oldies and set about waiting for the newies. For me this is probably the biggest list of all. A few years ago I discovered Neal Stephenson through Cryptonomicon, read his earlier works and am now eagerly awaiting the moment I get far enough down my to-read pile to immerse myself in Anathem.
As JRR Tolkien told us, the path goes ever on and on. Stephen King’s new novel Under the Dome is out today and I’m only just catching my breath from finishing Robert Holdstock’s Avilion. Then there’s a whole heap of talented new writers who simply have to be sampled.
Some of you may be wondering where my own Author Trail is headed. As I write this post I’m currently tied up with a bunch of ghost-writing projects that will take me through into next spring. All good work but it means my own output drops accordingly. Like most writers, I have unpublished novels in manuscript form, plus other irons in the fire in the form of proposals for novels I haven’t yet written. Right now I’m doing what I do best: concentrating on the words and letting the deals come when they will. Following my trail, if you like. Like they say, it’s all in the journey.
Graham Edwards 