Over the years I've known quite a few people for whom writing has been an aspiration (I use that term solely because describing them as fully-fledged writers would be, in some cases, disingenuous). I myself could never hope to be an author - if you saw the struggle I had to get that previous sentence to make anything like grammatical sense you would immediately understand why (but I digress). My digressions (often parenthetical) are another reason. I usually try to avoid reading anything my friends have written; or, at the very least, I keep it to myself - after all, I don't want to be the one to have to tell them they're not very good. Or, worse, lie to them. Of course there are bound to be exceptions, I imagine, but I prefer to play it safe and so generally I try to avoid it.
Having said that, today at lunchtime I read the short story "Escape", the first story in the Five Empires series by Joely Black and, I have to tell you, it was just great. It moved along at a good pace, it hung together beautifully and it left me wanting more (in short, all you could ask for in a short story). Luckily, there is more, and I'll be reading the second instalment, "Wasps", soon.
Edit: I read "Wasps" on the way home and, I'm happy to report, I enjoyed it every bit as much as its predecessor. I look forward to the next instalment.
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