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What's Abigail Gibbs reading?

 
Abigail Gibbs, 19, recently published Autumn Rose, the second installment of her paranormal romance series, The Dark Heroine.
Abigail Gibbs, 19, recently published Autumn Rose, the second installment of her paranormal romance series, The Dark Heroine.
Published May 15, 2014

Nightstand

Abigail Gibbs

At the young age of 19, Gibbs recently published Autumn Rose, the second installment of her paranormal romance series, The Dark Heroine. Gibbs caught the attention of editors at William Morrow in 2009 when she posted what would become her first novel, Dinner With a Vampire, chapter by chapter on Wattpad, an amateur fiction publishing website. "When I wrote my first story, because it was online, it was quite long and sprawling. ... So when I got together with William Morrow, the editor and I had to do a lot of editing and cutting. About 50,000 words were cut for the first book,'' said Gibbs, who grew up in Devon, England, and is studying English at the University of Oxford.

What's on your nightstand?

Right now, for my studies, I've got The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

What's your favorite Shakespeare work?

That is tough. I love his sonnets, but maybe my favorite is A Midsummer Night's Dream. I love the setting, the fairies. It's really magical. Also, if you count what I'm reading on Kindle, I've got The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm currently on The Two Towers.

How familiar with Tolkien were you before this?

I read Lord of the Rings when the movie first came out, but I was younger and it was really daunting. Now I'm really appreciating the genius of Tolkien's writing. ... He includes Old English and Middle English, which I've been studying here, so it's been great to be reading this now.

Piper Castillo can be reached at pcastillo@tampabay.com or (727) 445-4163.