Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a writer of epic fantasy and paranormal romance, and my obsession is writing about the fashion, food, language, and social politics of the worlds I create. World building is vital if you intend to create a lived-in backdrop for your story, but intricate, elaborate world building will only take you so far. You (the author) must have a cast of characters equally well developed. I’ve tried to take lessons away from every book I’ve read and every author I’ve interviewed and worked to balance characters to fall in love with against places that feel absolutely alive. Their joy/terror/love/hate/experience becomes the readers. It’s that combination that makes a book unforgettable.


I wrote

The Sand Prince

By Kim Alexander,

Book cover of The Sand Prince

What is my book about?

Two worlds, bound by magic. Divided by The Door.

A lonely prince in exile longs for connection. A restless heiress…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Imajica

Kim Alexander Why did I love this book?

Barker is known best as a master of body horror, and this book certainly has some grotesque images. But it’s also a gorgeous meditation on memory, identity, love, and the use and misuse of great power.

Along with a vivid travelogue of the five realms that make up Imagica, Barker explores the use of the body itself as a canvas; malleable, changeable, and as fascinating as the view from the window of your train. That said, the view is often stunning, always inventive, and immersive enough that I feel I’ve walked the streets of Yzordderrex myself. 

By Clive Barker,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Imajica as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The story of three people on an epic journey through five Dominions to the border of the greatest mystery of all - the First Dominion. On the other side, if they dare to venture, lies the Holy City of the Unbeheld, where their highest hopes or deepest fears will be realized.


Book cover of The Scar

Kim Alexander Why did I love this book?

Although The Scar is the second book in the Bas Lag series, I prefer it to Perdido Street Station (which is also glorious.) The Scar takes to the seas, a place I always prefer to be, in the form of the floating, roving city of Armada.

We come aboard (as it were) and experience life on Armada—its precincts, villages, towns, secrets, and its people—swordsmen and librarians and vampires and the mysterious pair who run the place—The Lovers (that’s the only name we get) through the eyes of Bellis Coldwine, a prickly, difficult, but fascinating woman who would literally rather be anywhere else.

I get where she’s coming from but I would absolutely book a cruise on Armada!

By China Miéville,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Scar as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A human cargo bound for servitude in exile... A pirate city hauled across the oceans... A hidden miracle about be revealed... This is the story of a prisoner's journey. The search for the island of a forgotten people, for the most astonishing beast in the seas, and ultimately for a fabled place - a massive wound in reality, a source of unthinkable power and danger.From the author of Perdido Street Station, another colossal fantasy of incredible diversity and spellbinding imagination, which was acclaimed in The Times Literary Supplement as: 'An astonishing novel, guaranteed to astound and enthral the most jaded…


Book cover of Dune

Kim Alexander Why did I love this book?

Well, I suppose a few words have been devoted to Dune already, but I’m going to chime in!

I read Dune the first time as a teenager, and found some of it (Paul’s adventures, everything to do with Jessica) exciting and engrossing. On the other hand, some of it I couldn’t puzzle out—mostly politics. Now, that’s my favorite part! Honestly, I got my first and most vital lesson in world building from Dune, and it remains a huge influence on my writing.

What does it smell like, this new world? What happens if you get caught outside in a storm? What do your clothes look like and do they mark you as an outsider? What do you eat and when? And so on, ad infinitum. And I loved the quotes that open the chapters, so much that I created my own book-within-a-book just so I could similarly quote it.

By Frank Herbert,

Why should I read it?

62 authors picked Dune as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Before The Matrix, before Star Wars, before Ender's Game and Neuromancer, there was Dune: winner of the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards, and widely considered one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.

Melange, or 'spice', is the most valuable - and rarest - element in the universe; a drug that does everything from increasing a person's lifespan to making interstellar travel possible. And it can only be found on a single planet: the inhospitable desert world of Arrakis.

Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe.

When the Emperor transfers stewardship of…


Book cover of The Once and Future King

Kim Alexander Why did I love this book?

While Arthur might have been a real 5th-century king, as far as I’m concerned, he and his queen, and his friends and enemies live and breathe in this gorgeous book.

I read it every few years to set down the modern world and slip back into a simpler—if often cruel and brutal—time. Everything I know about falconry, about the lives of geese and ants, about what humans are capable of, all of it came from this wonder of a book.

The funny thing (to me) is that the first, best known book (The Sword in the Stone) is the story of young Arthur and his wise old teacher Merlin; adventures and animals and magic. And then—boom—you’re off into incest, murder, and betrayal. Surprise! It’s so sad! But the kind of sadness that you get from singing along with a sad song—it somehow heals your heart.

Arthur is supposed to return in the hour of our greatest need, so I can only assume he’s on his way.

By T. H. White,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked The Once and Future King as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Voyager Classics - timeless masterworks of science fiction and fantasy.

A beautiful clothbound edition of The Once and Future King, White's masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend.

T.H. White's masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend is an abiding classic. Here all five volumes that make up the story are published together in a single volume, as White himself always wished.

Here is King Arthur and his shining Camelot, beasts who talk and men who fly; knights, wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad; the masterpiece of fantasy by which all others are…


Book cover of An Alien Heat

Kim Alexander Why did I love this book?

Moorcock is better known for his Elric books, and grand, splashy epic fantasy, while my pick is more intimate but (I think) just as grand.

An Alien Heat is the first book in Dancers At the End of Time, and I read as a teen and have loved it ever since (even if some of it was over my head.) It’s the story of Jherek, perhaps the last human to ever be born, and Amelia, a proper Victorian lady thrown out of her own time, in a fantastical city literally at the end of time—it's right there in the title.

The remaining population has the power of gods—can do anything, be anything, and it’s a fascinating look at what to do with hugely overpowered characters.

(Spoiler—give them problems magic powers can’t fix, like getting the woman they love to love them back.) 

Explore my book 😀

The Sand Prince

By Kim Alexander,

Book cover of The Sand Prince

What is my book about?

Two worlds, bound by magic. Divided by The Door.

A lonely prince in exile longs for connection. A restless heiress dreams of adventure. They'll both get so much more than they bargained for. Sometimes love doesn't change the world. Sometimes it changes all of them.

Book cover of Imajica
Book cover of The Scar
Book cover of Dune

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The Good Woman's Guide to Making Better Choices

By Liz Foster,

Book cover of The Good Woman's Guide to Making Better Choices

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Why am I passionate about this?

I have always loved reading and its ability to take you far away to a distant time and place and lift you up. As a kid, I never left the house without a book, and the ones that made me laugh were my go-to's. I believe the ability to make people laugh is a truly special talent, especially while making the text relatable, so the reader’s always asking, wow, what would I do in that situation? My readers often tell me that my writing sounds just like me, which is wonderful because there’s no need to pretend. You will always know what you’ll get with me!

Liz's book list on make you laugh and leave you smiling

What is my book about?

A heart-warming and hilarious novel about the highs and lows of marriage, fraud, and goat’s cheese.

Libby Popovic is a country girl who’s now living a golden life in Bondi with her confident financier husband Ludo, and their two children. When Ludo is jailed for financial fraud, and Libby’s friends and family lose tens of thousands of dollars as a result, she feels agonisingly complicit.

Matters go from atrocious to worse when her possessions and home are repossessed, Libby is sacked, and a priceless family heirloom is wrecked. While camping out at the family goat farm, Libby must re-evaluate her…

The Good Woman's Guide to Making Better Choices

By Liz Foster,


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Interested in knights, spacetime, and Victorian?

Knights 70 books
Spacetime 65 books
Victorian 163 books