Welcome to the first Diana’s Reading & Writing Nook.
I spend a lot of time talking about the books I’m writing, the characters taking up space in my head, and whatever mystery I’m currently trying to untangle.
But long before I was a writer, I was a reader.
And I still am.
So I wanted a place where I could talk about that side of my life too. What I’m reading, the authors I return to again and again, books I’ve just finished, books waiting on my TBR, and probably a few thoughts about writing along the way.
It seemed fitting to start with two authors who have been longtime favorites of mine: Patricia Cornwell and James Patterson.
I Just Finished Postmortem
I recently finished Patricia Cornwell’s Postmortem, the first Kay Scarpetta novel.
There’s something fun about going back to the beginning of a long-running series and meeting a character before decades of stories have accumulated around her.
Cornwell’s books combine two things I naturally gravitate toward as a reader: crime and medicine.
Given my own medical background, that intersection is especially interesting to me. The forensic side of an investigation approaches a mystery from a completely different direction. The body becomes part of the evidence, and science can reveal pieces of a story that witnesses can’t.
But what has always drawn me to crime fiction isn’t simply finding out who committed the crime.
I want to know why.
What happened?
What did investigators miss?
What tiny detail is going to matter later?
And what makes someone capable of doing something terrible in the first place?
Those are the questions that keep me turning pages.
They’re also, unsurprisingly, the questions that tend to follow me when I sit down to write.
Now I’m Reading Hush
My current read is James Patterson’s Hush.
Patterson is another author I’ve read and enjoyed for years, and picking up one of his books feels very different from sitting down to work on one of my own.
When I’m writing, I’m constantly thinking ahead.
Does this clue work?
Have I revealed too much?
Is the pacing right?
Does this character’s reaction make sense?
Did I accidentally create a continuity problem three chapters ago that’s about to come back and haunt me?
When I’m reading, I get to hand all of those problems to somebody else.
For a little while, I just get to be the reader.
Of course, the writer part of my brain never shuts off completely.
I still notice structure. I notice how authors build suspense, end chapters, introduce questions, hide information, and keep me reading when I really should put the book down and go to sleep.
But I don’t want reading to become homework.
First and foremost, I read because I love books.
Reading Makes Me Want to Write
I think that’s one of the reasons reading remains so important to me as a writer.
A great book doesn’t make me want to imitate it.
It makes me want to write.
I’ll finish a particularly good chapter and feel that familiar pull toward my own stories. Suddenly I want to get back to Samantha, Claire, or one of the other characters waiting for me.
There’s something energizing about seeing another author pull you completely into a story.
It reminds me what I’m trying to create for my own readers.
That moment when you tell yourself you’ll read one more chapter.
And then another.
And somehow it’s much later than you intended.
What’s Next in the Nook?
That’s what I want this little corner of Velvet Raven Books to be.
Sometimes I’ll tell you what I’m currently reading.
Sometimes we’ll talk about an old favorite.
I’ll share what’s waiting on my TBR, what I’m writing, and maybe even some of the things I notice differently now that I’m both a reader and an author.
But I don’t want this to become a formal book-review column.
This is my nook.
Pull up a chair. Bring whatever you’re reading.
I’ll bring the books.
And occasionally, we can ignore our responsibilities and read just one more chapter together.