Every author is an avid reader. If not, they should be. I began writing because I read so fast the library couldn’t stock new books fast enough to keep up with my habit, and I certainly couldn’t afford to buy them in that quantity. I was limited to one new paperback book a payday in those days.
Now I read up to 6 Kindle downloads a week, and I feel very fortunate to be in such a position to be able to read as much as I want, whenever I want.
It is that yearning for a good tale that fires my imagination, and gets me writing a new tale. Today I am thinking about NaNoWriMo in November, and wondering what I will write.
I have read many books this year, books about elves and dragons, books about vampires, books set in the future, in alternate realities–so many books.
Now I have to find the next book that lurks within my mind.
I ask myself, “What do I want to read today?” What story do I want to have told to me, what will take me to that amazing, wonderful place where my heart and mind belong to the book in my hand?
There is a seed growing in my mind…the kernel of an idea. I know it will be a tale of people striving to overcome forces greater than themselves…perhaps the fate of their world hangs in the balance.
Perhaps they are not always the most well-behaved of people, but here is a hero lurking deep within them, waiting for some catastrophe to bring out that heroic side of them. Perhaps the local slacker is about to save the world…
Life in the Realm of Fantasy 