cheating on Nick and Evie

I have not read a book for pleasure in over a year.

Blasphemy. I know. And I was definitely not the greatest role model for my students when my normally voracious reading went on hiatus and I spent SSR time poring over my own novel instead.

But this time away was a deliberate decision because I knew I had to distance myself from all external influences while I worked on my personal opus. Had I not, I was afraid whatever I would have read during that time would have influenced either my plotti...