Fannish Friday: Sure Things

[lirazel]

As we all know, Robin McKinley is one of my favorite writers, though she hasn't published anything in ten years. She lost her beloved husband in 2015 and then was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, so I had kind of trained myself to not expect another book from her. But I still check her blog now and then in hopes of receiving some good news. She mostly posts about her struggles with technology, what her dogs are up to, and other such domestic issues (which is fitting for a writer who has always cared more than is typical about the domestic).

But today, buried in the depths of a typical ramble post (no wonder she's one of my favorite writers--the inside of her head looks very much like the inside of mine!), she revealed that she has sent a draft of her latest book to her agent! Of course, that's a very early step in the process--if this book does get published, it'll probably not be for another year or two. But still, it's decided progress, and I am so excited! And intrigued--it's not a fantasy novel! It's set in 1969! I have no idea what it's actually about!

But as soon as it is available for pre-order, I will pre-order it. In all her years of writing, she's let me down only two times (Pegasus, which was...fine, I guess, and Dragonhaven, which I am determined to actually get into at some point but have never managed to do so).

She's one of very, very few writers who are an automatic buy for me. As I've mentioned before, I don't tend to buy books until after I read them and know that I love them and want to make them part of my collection. But I buy hers sight-unseen.

I will also buy anything Megan Whalen Turner puts out, and even though she's only published three books, Susanna Clarke has become another automatic-buy for me.

I think they're the only three, though there are a lot of writers who are automatic-put-it-on-hold-at-the-library-regardless-of-what-it's-about for me (Frances Hardinge, Barbara Hambly, Tana French, Joanna Bourne, etc.).

I would love to hear about which creators are an automatic-buy for you. Writers, of course, but if there's, say, a musical artist you feel that way about or whatever, please share that too!

Comments

[dolorosa_12]

Ooooh, new McKinley (hopefully)! That's very good news indeed.

When it comes to automatic-buy authors, it's a bit complicated for me. There are some who definitely were insta-buys for me when I was younger (or insta-borrow-repeatedly-from-the-library), but who either no longer publish, or no longer write the kind of stuff I like to read. The big one in this regard was Philip Pullman, whose latest His Dark Materials sequel was a huge, huge letdown. (I liked the prequel he wrote, and the little tie-in novellas, but the sequel is really not good, and I'm awaiting the final book in this prequel/sequel trilogy with some apprehension.)

Oh, and with music, it's Massive Attack. They've been my favourite band/artist since I was a youngish teenager, and I will follow them along whichever musical path they choose to take. I haven't had that many opportunities to see them live, but I did do so in London a few years before the pandemic, and am very pleased that I did. It helps that, along with loving their music, I really admire their politics, social conscience, and just general ethos in terms of how they operate.

Holly Black and I share an id, but I don't tend to buy or read her books immediately, a) because the ebooks are massively expensive and b) because my local libraries tend to get them, but only after a little while (in general it can take them between six months to a year after publication to get even the most hyped and popular YA books, but I have a good sense of what types of books they are likely to acquire and a stubborn tendency to wait it out with the library rather than crack and spend £10 on an ebook I'm only going to read once).

Probably the big ones for me are Kate Elliott, Aliette de Bodard (although a lot of what she publishes is free short stories, so there's no buying involved), and Samantha Shannon. I'll generally pre-order everything they write, in physical format, from my local independent bookshop.

[seekingferret]

I buy the Asufa Haggadah every year automatically. I can't think of any specific writers that I necessarily auto-buy. Closest are Michael Chabon and Zadie Smith, but they are in the category where if there's a waitlist at the library I will insta-buy, but if it's available at the library I won't buy before I read.

[gryfndor_godess]

I don't know if I have any automatic-buy authors anymore. It used to be JKR (when her first adult book, The Casual Vacancy, was published a decade ago, I went to a breakfast party at my local indie to buy it, and I think I took the day off work), but that's certainly not true anymore. I love THG so much that any YA books Suzanne Collins wrote might be an auto-buy, but that's purely hypothetical at this point.

[goodbyebird]

I'm so terrible at reading any writer comprehensively 😬

Whalen Turner is obviously fantastic. Rosemary Kirstein and Becky Chambers are firmly on my list. Martha Wells may well end up on there, depending on how her fantasy lands with me. But yeah, very seldom manage to follow up on writers. Like I adored Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, but have I managed to keep up with the new stuff? Noooo.

[sophia_sol]

I'm glad to hear McKinley's doing well enough these days to have finished another book! I used to follow her blog many years ago in the depths of time, and didn't know that she'd been having struggles.

Hmmmmm I actually don't have any insta-buy authors; I guess that's just not how I approach book ownership. There are some authors (eg Zen Cho, Nghi Vo, T Kingfisher, Ann Leckie) for whom I'll almost inevitably end up owning most their books eventually, but I nearly always want to have a chance to read a book first before knowing if I want to commit bookshelf space to it! Plus sometimes authors will come out with a book that's a different kind of thing than their usual and it just won't be for me - like T Kingfisher's occasional horror-genre novels. Pretty much the only times I preorder books are when they're part of a series I already know I'm super into, with a few other rare exceptions.

When I was a teen I would have had some insta-buy authors though (Tamora Pierce, Terry Pratchett, James Alan Gardner, Robin McKinley), but at that time in my life I didn't have the budget to back up my book-avarice!

[chestnut_pod]

Wonderful news (I hope) about McKinley! I'm very intrigued by what hints we have.

There are a few people for whom I'd auto-buy, and almost all of them are our friends on DW! Friendship :)

Otherwise,I read so much that if I bought every book I read, or even half, I'd beggar myself. Also, my room has space for two bookshelves, and two bookshelves only. McKinley really is probably the only author I'd still auto-buy for, and that only because it's been so long. However, there are many authors who are an automatic place-hold (Susanna Clarke, Zen Cho, Tasha Suri, etc).

I would auto-buy anything Vienna Teng came out with, though.

[elperian]

Catherynne M. Valente *was* an auto-buy from me, until Space Opera (I just got burnt out on her last two books and that one was really hard to get past because it just felt like a long novel of nothing). I'll listen to anything that Brian Fallon puts out musically (being on brand), and I've found that I really enjoy everything that Andy Weir has written, which is great to find in scifi where so much writing is hit-or-miss. I've had the same experience with Peter S. Beagle (and I'll never understand how he was able to write both Molly Grue in The Last Unicorn and teenager Jenny from Tamsin; he has the range). If you haven't read Tamsin I whole-heartedly rec it (and it fits your YA request right now too). I feel like Leigh Bardugo is getting to this point for me, although I still am not interested in the Grisha Trilogy or their tie-in novels.