On Writing: A Magnificent Seven
2February 28, 2015 by Laird
If you want to improve at writing, you must read and you must take apart what you read. I give you a list of seven remarkably talented contemporary authors. Read them, take their words apart, and you’ll be a better writer.
In no particular order:
1. Livia Llewellyn–revolutionizes erotic horror as Barker did in his heyday. 
2. Kelly Link–possibly the quintessential weird fiction author working. Of a measure with Jeff VanderMeer, Michael Cisco, and Brian Evenson.
3. Victor LaValle-you won’t encounter a more harmonious marriage of lit and horror.
4. John Langan–king of metahorror and living proof that paragraphs are overrated.
5. Glen Duncan–among the top prose stylists alive. 
6. Stephen Graham Jones–is his own genre at this point. Does werewolves better
than Duncan. 
7. Sofia Samatar–reclaiming and revitalizing the fairytale and the legendary. 
lairdbarron.wordpress.com 
Some of my favorite authors and books here, especially Kelly Link and Stephen Graham Jones. Can’t get enough of either one of them. LaValle is kind of hit and miss for me. “The Devil in Silver” was a thing of great beauty but I’ve found other work by him that failed to hold my interest. The rest I haven’t read yet but I expect I will remedy that soon. Your advice is always sound on these matters.
Jones and Link are two of my favorites. TDIS is superior work.