the importance of reading

I love to read.

As a writer, I find it crucial to read as many words as I write, if not more!

I just finished "Silver Borne" the 5th book in the Mercy Thompson series. I absolutely loved it. Mercy is an awesome heroine. Though the ending wasn't as fight-oriented as usual, the emotions/stakes were much higher this time. I recommend the series to anyone who enjoys vampires, werewolves, witches, fairies, etc. It's by Patricia Briggs. She has tons of other books too.

The only bad part about finishing the book is I have to wait a whole YEAR for the next one to come out. How will I survive? Well, I have other books to read. And books to write! I find that reading good fiction in my genre (which is fantasy) spurs me to write more. Though I didn't write anything more than this blog tonight, I know tomorrow I'll be pumped to get down 3,000 words of my next novel. I did a lot of editing this week. I'm ready to write fresh material.

PS, there's a lot of short story competition deadlines coming up in the next month or so. I have two short stories ready, but I'd like to get some more ready. I wrote a short story a few nights ago about suicide. It was very hard to write because I feel sad when people die, and even more sad when they could have been saved. Anyway, I'm letting it sit before editing.

The weekend is near! I feel like despite having major disappointments thrown at me (grad school rejections, boy rejections, housing issues, headaches during the middle of the day issues) I'm doing alright. If life shoots you with arrows, shoot back with fire. I got plenty of fire.