Writers are Readers: 13 Suggestions for You

Last year, my WriteOn Joliet co-leader Tom Hernandez suggested the Joliet-based critique group start a monthly blog featuring books members liked as readers and helped them as writers.

Here’s a look back at those books.

If you're a reader, you might discover (or rediscover) some titles for your reading list.

If you're a writer, you might find some writing helps in places you hadn't considered.

Either way - enjoy!

Writers are Readers: "The Book of Cain" 

Writers are Readers: "Middlemarch, a Study of Provincial Life"

Writers are Readers: "Liar’s Poker"

Writers are Readers: "Slaughterhouse-Five"

Writers are Readers: "The Romance Writer's Phrase Book" 

Writers are Readers: "Nancy Drew Mysteries"

Writers are Readers: “Nanka of Old Bohemia” 

Writers are Readers: “Nick Adams Stories”

Writers are Readers: “Justice On Trial”

Writers are Readers: “Candle in her Room” 

Writers are Readers: "Treasure Island"

Writers are Readers: “Twilight”

Writers are Readers: “A Memoir of the Craft”

When Buried Treasure Comes to You

Worse Things Waiting by Manly Wade Wellman.

Hold that thought. Because I'm starting this post with a prologue.

PROLOGUE

I'm a reader, and I read A LOT.

I read print books, eBooks, online articles, and of course, I read for work.

I love to do research (thrill of the hunt, perhaps?) for Herald-News stories, my fiction, and for the fun of learning something new.

 As a child, I read the back of cereal boxes when I ate breakfast.

I write the books I want to read because no one else wrote them. And I'd rather make readers than sales, just so I can discuss the book with you (I envision retirement as one long book club).

One post a day on my BryonySeries Facebook page extols the love of reading.

And one post on my BryonySeries Twitter page always asks the same question: What are you reading tonight?

Although many people associate me with writing, I like reading even more, and, fiction-wise, I especially like books with a supernatural tone.

But that's a pretty wide theme. And I obviously don't like every book with that theme. In fact, I have a hard time finding books in that genre that really grab me.

So when I do, it's like finding buried treasure.

Unfortunately, treasures aren't always easily obtained. And sometimes, the treasure comes to me.

That's the point of this blog post.

MAIN STORY

One night, night a Twitter follower recommended a book for me: Worse Things Waiting by Manly Wade Wellman. I found an except online and loved it. I had to read more.

I decided to purchase the book the "e" format, because I am cheap.

But no "e" format was available. And the print was out of my very narrow budget.

I checked Abe Books and Thrift Books and other secondhand bookstores like them. Nope.

So I checked with libraries. Nope.

I checked with Janet Staley at The Book Market in Crest Hill, because I have found some great rare books there. Nope.

Yesterday, the book came to me.

My WriteOn Joliet co-leader Tom Hernandez emailed me yesterday morning asking if I was still working from home because he had a surprise for me.

Like me, Tom is an avid reader. He started a blog for WriteOn Joliet this year called "Writers Are Readers," and he stresses at nearly every twice monthly meeting of our adult critique group that to be a writer, one must be a reader.

He has a reading list for each season of the year. He has bookcases full of books. And so forth.

Quite honestly, when Tom messaged me, I thought he was bringing me a cup of coffee from Book and Bean Cafe, since he passes it to and from work-related meetings and I live in the general direction, and we aren't stopping at the cafe before WriteOn Joliet meetings because those have been online, thank you, COVID-19.

Of course, you have already guessed where this blog was going.

But I didn't.

I was REALLY surprised when Tom gave me the book. And because I was on deadline, I set the book out of sight, so I wouldn't be tempted to take even a bitty peek.

OK, I did take a peek. I'm off work today, so I'll be taking more than a peek. I. Cannot. Wait.

Now, isn't the first time Tom has surprised me with a book.

I have a character in my BryonySeries that fictionalizes a fictionalized version of himself. He's the world's first Irish vampire, because Ireland doesn't have a vampire mythology.

But then I DID find a book online, a collection of Irish vampire stories called Bloody Irish. I put it on my wish list.

And right around the holidays one year, Tom surprised me with the book. I had a couple days off, and I savored it.

It had some great "mood phrasings," for lack of better words, that I want to revisit and incorporate into my own fiction scribblings.

Another time, he picked me up a copy of Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner forgetting I had bought an autographed version (with a bonus story, which my version from years ago did not have) from the author himself when he visited WriteOn Joliet last fall, back when the world was normal.

A few months ago, Tom surprised me with a copy of The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, which I haven't quite finished yet - only because it's a large volume, and I do most of my reading at bedtime - and I won't read scary stuff right before bed.

EPILOGUE

Yesterday, as Tom and I stood six-feet apart and masked, with me happily clutching my new book, I wondered aloud if maybe I have my wish list all wrong.

Instead of books, maybe I should be wishing for something more practical - like a Mercedes.

But a Mercedes won't take me where I really want to go.

And that's deep inside the imagination of the writer and his written word, where great stories are waiting.

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."

When a Good Book Comes to You

From time to time, authors who are better at book marketing than I am point out I'm not assertive enough or that my marketing efforts are too soft.

That's probably true and also probably stems from two experiences: I myself tend to back off when I sense someone is trying to "sell" me something, and I really like the thrill of discovering a new book.

The first reason needs no explanation. I'll expound on the second in future posts.

But of the second, I will say that the "thrill" is not the thrill of the hunt but of the rainy afternoon, poking around in a dusty attic type of thrill, of finding a wonderful book that's just sitting off to the side, waiting to be found.

The joy of picking up such a book, of flipping through its pages, of becoming acquainted with the story and style, and then finally losing myself in someone else's words and hard work until I forget I'm reading is a joy that's unmatched.

With that in mind, I'd like to share one such book from my childhood. This post would not have happened with my WriteOn Joliet co-leader Tom Hernandez creating a special monthly blog for 2020: Writers are Readers.

In this blog, Tom Hernandez invites WriteOn Joliet to share a book they've enjoyed but also add how that book influenced their writing, too.

My turn is this month, July, which, ironically, is also the month of my birth. So I'm especially honored to share a book that brought me (and my sister and my children) many hours of re-reading happiness.

And it renews my goal to strive very hard to do the same for anyone who's reading, has read, or will read my words, too.

Here is the link: https://www.writeonjoliet.com/post/writers-are-readers-nanka-of-old-bohemia

Have a wonderful Monday!

"Writers Are Readers..."

...or so my WriteOn Joliet co-leader Tom Hernandez likes to say.

Yesterday, I wrote about my lack of formula in my writings and felt my ability to write a good story came from an instinctive sense.

Today I'm going to retract that, just a bit.

I do believe all of us are born with certain talents and abilities and that we must exercise them to develop them to the highest degree.

Reading A LOT is one way to exercise them.

No revelation, right?

Not to me either, until this happened to me.

Over the past year, Rebekah has been rereading some of her favorite childhood novels: The "Little House" series, "Five Little Peppers," etc.

So for her birthday, thanks to internet shopping, I gifted her with some of my favorite novels from my  own preteen years.

A few weeks later, when she had only one or two left, I sort of remembered one I had forgotten, the name eluding me, the plot more clear.

We searched by keywords and found it. A week later, it arrived, a surprise for me from Timothy. Happy at meeting this long-lost friend, I flipped through its pages. Then came the second surprise.

I could have written it.

I'm not saying I'm as skilled as that author (Yes, I've read all about her, thanks, once again, to the internet). But the structure of the sentences, the story flow, the rhythm, beat, and cadence, even word choice: all these together sounded as if I'd written the story.

Writers: I don't know how much outstanding reading is required to become an outstanding writer. I'm a slow learner, so perhaps far less than I require. But perhaps the most surest way to recreate a certain style of writing, while making it your own, is to read, reread, and reread, the books in your genre, the books that delight you, and make you want to share them with others, even decades after you've last read them.

Now I'm inspired to reread more my childhood favorites, if only to see how much good writing I've absorbed, to sift through layers of story lines and character development and track my writing heritage, one born, not of bone, blood, and DNA, but of the skill and imagination of authors who've gone before me, but left their good writing for me and others to enjoy, to imitate.

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."