Spring!

Maybe spring is finally here--at least in Central New York. There are buds on the trees, daffodils, grape hyacinths, Greek wind flowers, and violets sprouting around my house. The neighborhood children (the ones not shooting up my garage and porch windows with orange paintballs) are out on their scooters.

I could go to a baseball game, I could walk in the park, or take a ride to the Creek Walk and stroll there. But I probably won't. What I probably will do is clean off the patio table and bask in the sunshine this afternoon.

I have pages to write and more pages to edit. The sunshine just revs up my internal solar batteries.

Reading Lists

Last week, the Romance Writers of America announced the finalists for their annual award, the Rita, which is like Oscars for romance fiction. Not only do I love learning which of my friends are in the running (go Maggie Shayne!), but I now have lists of books to study. These stories have been judged, by authors, to be the best in their sub-genres.

There are several categories that interest me, so the first thing I do (after sending out congrats, of course) is see how many of the titles are carried by my local library. Then I put them on hold. I now have a kitchen table piled with books I want to not only read, but pick apart to learn why other writers believe these are the best stories of the year. I not only learn from the books themselves, but have found new authors whose work  I enjoy.

Now I just need to make the time to do the reading.