AmarisNsane

@Widdershins: Oh! Hey, I had no idea that you were into H.P. Lovecraft.  He's actually among, if not sitting right at the top of my favorite authors list.  What might your favorite (short) story of his be? If you have a favorite.  I've already respected you well enough, but somehow, you manage to bring along newfound respect from me.  And hey, hey! I like R.R. Martin! Though to be fair, I really only have ever read his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.  I do plan on getting around to reading some of his stories.  If I recall, he's starting or had been working on a new book as well? A full novel.  I haven't researched up on anything related to him in quite some time, sadly.  I should.

As for these other authors: Bruce Coville sounds like quite the gem! After doing some research, I'm liking what I'm seeing! The art itself puts a smile on my face, I can only imagine the writing.  E Nesbitt specializes in DRAGON literature then? Oh, of course you would like her, haha! It sounds incredibly interesting.  I don't believe I've ever read someone like that.  

And Pratchett.  Please don't hate me, but I don't believe I've heard of nor read.  It sounded familiar enough, so I've searched up on his work but don't recognize any.  For you to like him so much though, he must have been a great author.  I do trust your judgement! It is saddening that such a big figure for you had passed.  Might I ask when? How? Or I could just do research, whatever works.

Also, any specific suggestions of which book to start with? From the works of Coville, Nesbitt and Pratchett? Very appreciated, thank you so much!  

 *Look of Befuddlement*

 ...You askin' the wrong being for timestamps or Beginnings or Endings!

 Hmm... Well, Coville, and to a lesser degree, Nesbitt, are known for their anthologies. Pretty much anywhere from any book you can find will do; though Nesbitt's stuff is more of her own collected short stories. Seem to recall one about a dragon that was a literal, living scrap heap. One part got pulled out and the dragon fell apart! And a Sealskin Coat dragon! Real classical childrens' stories, I should say! Coville is a mainstay in childrens' literature, so he hopefully oughten't be hard to find; I picked him up in Goodwills to gather my own hoard of his works. I should say though, his series on My Teacher is an Alien/ melted my brain, etc. Sounds silly, of course, but it goes WAY deep! Remember at some point, he unravels  that alien kind & the whole universe has been keeping tabs on Mankind, since we're a rather... emotional & unpredictable species, that we had at one point in our evolution a psychic link that we grew out of, and ever since we've been disjointed & disgruntled for lack of that same emotional link.

... and I'm like: "Ow! Brain too open now!!"

 Coville's good on his monster mash-ups though!

 ...Pratchett though...?...

...

 ...Widdershins?

ON IT!

  HEY @Duality!!! WE TALKIN' PRATCHETT OVAH HERE!! ...There!

...Little calling-in of another bibliophile, If I might. Feet of Clay, I say, is a good starting point. Thing is with Sir Terry Pratchett, is all of his stuff is set in his Discworld, a flat world on the back of four elephants, on the back of a giant, cosmic turtle swimming through the eternal starlights. He doesn't alienate you, wherever you start. If there's any backstories to be had (Like, four or five of that girl that became a witch & helped the fairyfolk or the starting & continuing adventures of the motley crew of the police force in lawless Ankh'morpork) he'll guide you through it without you being aware of it. Each book is self-contained, I'd say. Feet of Clay though... if a writer can make you feel emotionally attached to a literal Golem... like, traditional Jewish Mythology, blank slate of emotions ovah' here!

 Hogfather was good though... fared better in the movie adaptation though. And that's with an assassin that's literally-theoretically killing actual belief. Weird though. All the stuff with Death somehow fares better when they can show you that you literally cannot comprehend the metaphysical shenanigans.

 ...yes. Death itself is a character of Sir Pratchett's. No, not an embodiment-of-the-concept like you see in movies, literally the concept of Death has a personality when Pratchett writes!

 I cannot recommend Pratchett enough! Just pick up whatever of his books you can find! I've had to hunt down each installment by luck alone, and I've still yet to come across a duplicate!

 ...still remember reading that off the blurb of the last part of his last book... that Sir Terry Pratchett went down, only lamenting of the stories he couldn't finish, that he still had plans for... if he only had time. But he was a happy, adventurous soul! Think it was heart complications... do think he was pretty heavy on the pipe...Feels like I was only just starting to get inspired by his cheerful attitude to live life for what you can do with it.

 ... still. I've got no doubt he still died happy! I oughta... go research him some more...

...

 ...Oh! Well, to counter melancholy with vitriol! R.R. Martin!

  To be fair to your fairness! I've only ever gotten a taste for him through his thick...thick, book of his short stories! Couldn't even finish! Hey, I like quirky, fable-like, monster/horror & dark humor stories but... Whuh... there was one about a sorta Devil's Pawnshop deal, where the guy got a literal monkey on his back... that only he could see... that was slowly sucking the very life out of him... and how he was trying to evade it before the naked, swollen ape ate him into a husk... and another story about a fancy Gourmand turning to a life of cannibalism... then eating himself alive, I think...

 Eh... I hesitate to say that ol' R.R. does Nightmare-Written-Into-Story better than Lovecraft...

 Good Ol' Lovecraft and his totally rotten life that led to his own special way of writing! He's the author you go to to feel better about your own Introvertedness! I still adore his own term for the everyday "Normies!" Those who don't dabble in the overdramatic darkness: the "Sundwellers." "Eh! You and you're "doing things while it's still light out!" Bleh!"

 Carrying around a collection of his with me right now! So hard to find Lovecraft! Just got done with Cats of Ulthar which is amazingly restrained for H.P. Into the Mountains of Madness was likely his most well done & beautiful works, closest to being a full on book rather than a short, jotted down story. Never did get why he's known for Cthulu. Whichever one that was was pretty much just thirty pages of "Oh Noes! Spooky stuff! Watch out!" then Cthulu waking up early from his millennial nap early, getting bopped in the head with a boat, shaking a grumpy tentacle at the sailors and going "Aw, to heck with all you humans! I'm goin' back to bed!"

 My favorites probably The Dunwich Horror (if I remember that right) that brought us the closest thing to fangirl/fanboy over in his books. The poor, potentially misunderstood "brother" that only wanted that dang book from the library! Nobeing has quite as much angst as the half-blood Cosmic Horror! ...If... if cosmic horrors HAD blood... or form... uh, wait...

 Though... do fondly remember one short story that basically surmises as such: "Oh no! My ancestors might be albino apes! I can't handle this fact! I'm gonna go wave my arms around in babbling panic into that there marsh! WAUGHBLBL!!!"

 Innsmouth, his second most famous story is a bit over-rated, I'd say. The fish demons don't strike me as quite as repulsive as H.P might've wanted us to feel... the implications... maybe...

... Ooh! The Colour From Space! Where a whole family farm wastes away from having just TOO much color added to it! From Space! Never knew Hopelessness could be so entertaining! Can still picture dumbfounded local farmers watching it all come to a head and going "Welp!... couldn'ta done nothing to make THAT any less traumatic!"

Discworld is an absolutely amazing series and the definitive satire of quasi-Lovecraftian high fantasy. Sir Pratchett got twelve honorary doctorates plus a knighthood just for writing it. I second Widds on recommending it unreservedly.

There are about fifty books to it, not counting companion material, but you can legitimately start anywhere without losing out on anything but a bit of the compounded humorousness of long-term in-jokes (and this is undertaken even without bulky and repetitive exposition across books; I have yet to figure out how Pratchett did it). However, here's a timeline of the series if you're the sort who wants to start at the beginning of things regardless of technical comprehensibility:

The Watch novels I find the most addictively readable out of all the subseries, and Widds knows what he's talking about when he says Feet of Clay is top-tier. First one I ever read and still my running favourite.

I don't know much about any of the other authors mentioned, but that's my name-invoked two cents' worth of bibliophilic corroboration.