Reading outside my comfort zone

My husband thinks I have no taste in music. Whatever our sons decide to play, I always decide to like it. I'll admit some tastes are harder to acquire than others. But I want and I value the connection that music provides. It's well worth the effort.

Sometimes I wonder what my husband would think of my taste in reading. I've been introduced to some beautiful books on the internet recently: Brandilyn Collins' Exposure, Judy Duarte's Mulberry Park, Aaron Lazar's upcoming mystery, Pat Bertram's two new books and more... These are some of the ones I knew I'd love, but there are others I've enjoyed that have taken me out of my comfort zone. I'm still happy to read them because I love words, and books, and meeting people, but my husband would probably tell me I have no taste.

Reading some things takes more effort than others, I'll agree. But I wonder if I might end up writing better characters if I can imagine them with tastes that differ from those expected of me. It's worth a try.

Meanwhile, if you want to read my book reviews, just follow the link on the right hand side of this page.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Connect those Connections

Taken from a talk I gave on Sunday at the Writers' Mill. This is a very low-level approach to getting connected, from one beginner to another... Internet Writing, Marketing and Networking If you’ve got an email address you’re on the internet. If you’ve got a book out or an article in a magazine, you’re into marketing. If you’ve got friends, you’re networking. And if you use Google, you can do almost anything. Google Google is your friend. Google “how to join facebook” “How to join goodreads” “How to join Twitter” etc… Google “facebook badges” “blogger widgets” etc… to spice up your pages. Anything you want to know, a nice simple question to google will almost certainly tell you. But keep safe . Don’t just click on the first link you see. Make sure it looks vaguely genuine. “F*@!book.com/badges” might take you somewhere you don’t want your computer to go. “Facebook.com/badges” tells you all about badges. Why would you want to join all these interne
Read more

Sliding a final achievement under the wire...

The year's almost over and I really can't believe it. Where did the time go? I've been reading my friends' resolution lists posted online, and feeling bad about my lack thereof - of lists I mean; I have plenty more resolutions than I need. Get published. Get published. That seems to be my constant refrain, but not an aim I can claim to have much control over. Last year I tried amending it to "submit," and I think I managed it. At least, I was managing until summer. But then it was Christmas and New Year's Eve. Where did the time go? Still, I am sliding one final achievement under the wire of '09. I took the Poetic Asides November challenge, sometime in those missing months, and wrote a poem a day for 30 days. But then you have to organize a collection of 10-20 poems to complete the task. I finished today. (Luckily dinner was easy to make.) And now I have a collection of 20 poems, entitled Patriot Son. All I have to do is email it and I can claim to ha
Read more

BLOG TOUR: Name that character, with Dawn Colclasure

Image
Author Dawn Colclasure is hosting my Flower Child Blog Tour today with a post on the parallel joys of math and writing http://dawncolclasureblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/mathematical-writer-guest-blog-post-by.html . Meanwhile I'm delighted to host Dawn here in yet another intersecting blog tour. About the author:  Dawn Colclasure is a writer who lives in Oregon. Her articles, essays, poems and short stories have appeared in several newspapers, anthologies, magazines and E-zines. She is the author of seven books, among them BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL: How We Survive as Writing Parents ; 365 TIPS FOR WRITERS: Inspiration, Writing Prompts and Beat The Block Tips to Turbo Charge Your Creativity ; Love is Like a Rainbow: Poems of Love and Devotion and the children’s book The Yellow Rose . She is co-author of the book Totally Scared: The Complete Book on Haunted Houses . Her dark fantasy novel, Shadow of Samhain , is due out in Winter 2011. Her Web site is at http://dmcwriter.tripod.c
Read more