NOT A CONSTANT READER, BUT A GOOD ONE

Some authors can write all day and then cheerfully read all evening. Others can't. And unfortunately, I'm very much afraid that I fall into the latter category. I can't properly concentrate on my own work while reading the work of other people.

Why? Well in my case, I'm afraid it's a matter of a thing called 'voice.' And I'll give you an example. I was working on one of my Raine's Landing supernatural thrillers. They're set in a fictional town of the same name in Massachusetts, and are mostly narrated by the central character, a certain Ross Devries. He's never left his hometown once in his life, because of a curse on the place. You get the general picture?

Anyway, I was working on a scene he was narrating one day. And the previous evening, I had been reading one of Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire novels. And before I knew it, Ross's voice -- the voice of someone who's a lifelong northeast coast, New England man -- was ringing through my head with a very heavy Southern accent, redolent of fried turkey and grits. Hey, how 'bout them Salem witches, y'all. And I couldn't get rid of it all day. That's how much other people's work can sometimes affect me.

Honestly, it drives me nuts, because I love to read. Between projects, I do so as much as I can. I devour books when I'm vacationing, and half enjoy catching the flu, because it stops me working and allows me to get a little more reading in. But the point of all this is that I have now joined Goodreads. As you can tell from the scenario above, my personal reviews of books won't be too frequent, but I'll do it when I can. And I'd love to hear your opinions of both my and other writers' efforts. You can look me up right here.