Friday Reads 1.12.24

It’s Friday, and you know what that means. Let’s talk about what we’re reading!

The copyedits have been completed a full day ahead of schedule, and once I do one teensy little revision on the short story I finished at the end of the year, I find myself suddenly free, in body and spirit, to start writing HLN! Yesterday was a sunny, warmish day here in Nashville, so I sat in the driveway with my notebook and started pouring out scenes. I stopped at 40 — and that’s pretty much just the first act. For once in my life, I have done so much thinking ahead of time on the book that there are at least two acts worth of action already in my head. And I kind of know the ending. Huzzah! I’ll be plowing ahead on Step 4: Research this Sunday for those of you following 22 Steps, and then get into my 40 Scenes method in Step 5.

I find this to be a truth in my creative life: The more I read, the more I write. I’ve been reading a lot lately, and boy, does it feed the creative beast.

I started my slow read of Wolf Hall, and I think this book is going to have a deep impact on both my psyche and writing. I’m only a few chapters in, but Hilary Mantel is a genius, and the book shows it. Very cool.

I finished my buddy Jayne Ann Krentz’s THE NIGHT ISLAND just in time to have a wonderous chat with her and Barbara Peters from Poisoned Pen. From dragons to murderous mushrooms to psychic assassins to the ever-present gothic, we had a blast.

I’m reading the lovely Lauren Thoman’s second outing, YOU SHOULDN’T BE HERE and enjoying it immensely. Y’all, the Nashville writing scene is hopping these days.

I also started a research book, GOOD MORNING, MONSTER, by therapst Catherine Gildener, which was recommended by fellow author Victoria Schwab in her newsletter. All it took was a quick glance at the book’s description to fill in a big plot point for the new book, so I grabbed it straight away. It’s as wonderfully heartbreaking as it is fascinating. (Ed note: as I’ve gotten deeper into the book, I wanted to give a heads up—the stories told are distressing, and may be triggering for some readers.)

Also digging into this profile of Joyce Carol Oates in the New Yorker. I don’t know how I missed it!

That’s it from me this week. How about you? What’s on your reading plate this weekend?