I hope everyone who’s at the RT Convention is having a terrific time. Those of us who are staying home just have to find our own great time – and for me, that means keeping company with an excellent book. That’s a single book. One at a time. Not several that I’m in the middle of reading. At least not if the books are fiction, and that’s pretty much all I ever read.
Okay, maybe I just have poor powers of concentration, and I will freely admit to having a terrible memory. Friends tease me about my lists – but if I didn’t write things down, chances are I’d never remember!
But when it comes to reading, I honestly think it’s more that I like to totally immerse myself in the story world and live it along with the characters. If I jump from one story world to another, it’s too confusing and for me the experience seems diluted.
I’m the same with my writing. I write one book at a time. I can pull out of one book for short, intense periods of time – like to spend three days blitzing copy-edits or page proofs of a different book – but that’s it.
How about you? As a reader or a writer, do you concentrate on one at a time, or enjoy going back and forth?
By the way, I have some “hot off the press” news. I’m delighted to announce that my two 2010 Bravas, His, Unexpectedly and “Tattoos and Mistletoe” in The Naughty List, are both winners of the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, one for Contemporary Romance and one for Romantic Novella. Lots of happy dancing going on at my house!
