Like all writers, I read...

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got in my life was from Alta Reigert, my first editor. She told me that to be a good writer I had to be a good reader. She then added that if I was serious about being a good writer I should spend at least 30 minutes every day reading something that has absolutely nothing to do with my job.
It was good advice and I took it to heart. Even in Vietnam I usually found time to spend at least 30 minutes at some point during the day to read something. I might have been the only guy in my rifle platoon with a couple of paperbacks in my rucksack when we were slogging through the rice paddies in the Mekong Delta.
It's because I really enjoy reading that I've been able to discover not only the NY Times best-selling authors that everyone knows but also an army of independent storytellers who are publishing their works as ebooks.
Recently, for example, I discovered Bill Ward, an Englishman of a certain age who has crafted a scary book entitled "Encryption." The plot is basically this: Super nerd invents an algorithm that can keep Internet traffic (emails and such) secret from those government agencies that routinely snoop through it. The new algorithm will be worth billions when it's fully developed and released to the marketplace, something that government spy agencies want to prevent. In the process of trying to prevent that some innocent people die, some people who should be enemies turn out to be allies and... well, I won't spoil it for you but if you like sexy, action-packed spy thrillers then you'll probably like "Encryption" as much as I did. If you'd like to take a gander at it, you can find it in Amazon's Kindle book store.