This is not a book review.
A few weeks ago, I made a reading list, it consisted 15 books of 5 fiction, 5 non-fiction and 5 comics. I then proceeded to kind of ignore the list and read other things. I love reading and/or listening to books, they have helped me through many bad days. While I was in the hospital, I listened to the Glamorist Histories and the Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal, and the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Party and the Great Courses lecture on How to write creative non-fiction and the science of sci-fi. Those were the few that stood out in my brain, there were others and they were all great books. It made the time in the hospital a little easier.
Since coming home I found myself reading less and watching more content on streams. I believe this was negatively affecting my writing. The list was made to encourage my reading and to keep track of what was being read. Another side benefit it would help me see what I was doing with my time. I went through my books digital, audio and physical copies. I had more than enough books. I could limit or stop buying books, audiobooks etc for the next couple of months. As long as I got through that list. The completion of one list would lead to another. There are a number of books that were DNF because I just didn’t go back to them. This was another objective for the list. I didn’t object to these books. I think there are only about 10 books that I refused to finish because the story or character went against everything I was willing to accept.
Now to tell the truth, this past month I was having trouble with the romance I am writing. I decided to listen to more romances and got caught up in works by a contemporary romance author, Piper Rayne. It started with the book 2 of the Green family series and then I moved on to book 8 of the Bailey family series. Listening and reading a book out of series was a different experience. Ms. Rayne’s books are comfort reads for me. They have common romance tropes like one night stands, friends-to-lovers, Second-chance lovers, Boss and employee etc. What I found interesting is that in the nine book series called the Bailey Family, multiple tropes were used. Book one title Lessons From A One-night Stand, featured a one night stand and a boss employee relationship in high school. This continued throughout the series, part of the fun of listening was finding the trope. She even made Alaska seem like a place I might want to visit. It was the reason instead of listening to Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. The Bailey series was completed and since I started with the 2nd book in the Green family series, I listened to 1st book in the series My beautiful Neighbor. Both series are connected, there are character cameos through out all the books which is nice.
I learned something in the writing style of Piper Rayne that I may use in my novel. I will discuss more in the update. Also before I forget all the books so far are written in first person point of view. It is hard for me to connect with reading but great when listening to audio.
Now that I have told on myself. The next step is pick up on Guns, Germs and Steel. I want to say something profound here but can’t think of anything at the moment. So, sigh with relief.
This will be the first time in about three weeks there has been a Wednesday post. Thank you if you reached this point. A goal of this blog is to post 4 times a week, to inspire and entertain.
End.
JC Henry Universe 