Lately I’ve been blessed with good fiction, novels I’ve either hunted down or had recommended or merely stumbled across in the comment thread of one of the many blogs I visit during the week. Good fiction is subjective, of course, but I know it when I read it.
I know it because it does more than entertain me for an hour before bedtime.
It fills my creative well–with beautifully crafted description of setting, or emotion, or physical appearance, using sentences and phrases that strike me as fresh and specific and just so perfectly right, that I stop and read them again and again, without ever breaking the story-dream the writer has woven.
Creativity-refreshing fiction is in the eye of the beholder, but here are some titles and authors that are doing it for me:
Love Amid the Ashes
by Mesu Andrews
Cottonwood Whispers
by Jennifer Erin Valent
Sign-Talker
by James Alexander Thom
Jane and the Man of the Cloth
by Stephanie Barron
And a brand new discovery (I can’t wait to read more of their books)
John & Patricia Beatty
Who Comes to King’s Mountain?
These books have a wonderful rare chemistry with me, and somehow peel back the veil between my plodding everyday mind to the part of my brain where stories swirl like mist, and show themselves in glimpses. They’re the kind I want to lose myself in and savor, and simultaneously jump up and work on my own manuscripts for all the fresh inspiration they stir up.
So what books have filled your well, and made you want to jump into your own creative endeavors?
Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen
Redemption by MaryLu Tyndall
And every time I read a bit of your beautiful prose!
Weee!!!! You're reading the Jane mysteries? Did I know this?! I am so excited!!! Glad you enjoyed #2 enough to make your list! đŸ™‚
@Carla, thank you! I haven't read anything by MaryLu yet. Oh, for more time in the day!
@Ruth, I'm just getting into Jane #2 good. But I enjoyed the first one after a slow start. I stuck with it because I love her Austenesque writing, the dialogue, the word choice. So different from my own style, it sets off little sparks of inspiration.
Wow, those are all new to me. I'll have to check them out. My well is near full to overflowing. Just finished Small-Town Hearts by Ruth Logan Herne. Now I'm looking forward to reading:
To Win Her Heart by Karen Witemeyer
A Heart Divided by Kathleen Morgan
A Killer Among Us by Lynette Eason
My Foolish Heart by Susan May Warren
Indelible by Kristen Heitzmann
@Kav, there's never any lack of good fiction. It's finding the time to fit it all in. I've made a decision about how I spend my time lately, and hopefully it will give me more time for reading. Cutting back on the TV watching, which seems much easier right now that so many shows are done for the summer. I'm going to start reading while riding the exercise bike on my lunch break, instead of watching a program. It will make the work out harder. TV is more of a distraction than reading is. But I can do it.
I enjoy Susan May Warren's writing. I have one of hers just started, Sons of Thunder.