This morning, I got my first official rejection. This led to me buying a kindle and a load of new books to read, as well as increasing my motivation to edit my novels.
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I grew up with books.
In a way, I grew up inside books.
And most of my core beliefs now stem from some of the books I read as a child.
Having beliefs that your parents disagree with, and don’t understand, was always a real problem in my house – but when I look back on those series, I realise the true importance of the written word on who I am today.
The first set of books that taught me about life were by Kenneth Oppel: Silverwing, Sunwing and Firewing. This was the first set of books I’d read where a creature died, and it’s spirit was free to continue flying through the trees (it was a bat), and I began to question the aspects of life and death as experiences.
Next, I discovered the strong female figures – Lyra from His Dark Materials Trilogy, Myrina from Troy and the Warrior Women Series, Magda in the Forestwife Series, Sabriel in the Old Kingdom Trilogy and Renn in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness.
Then, the ideas of family and honour arose as I read The Sight and Fell by David Clement-Davies.
Moving Forward
Today, I bought a second-hand Kindle on eBay. I place all blame on my sister of the written word, and her bad influence. She too, is an avid reader and writer, though our favoured genres are often very different.
This led to me spending a lot of time in the Kindle online store today, and, unfortunately, to buying a lot of paperbacks.
The idea of paying more for a Kindle book than a new paperback, let alone a second hand paperback, doesn’t sit well with my beliefs, nor my wallet.
But I bought some books.
The Importance of Reading
As far as my reading habit goes, this is a brilliant step forward. I’ve not been reading much over the past couple of years, nor even in the past two months, even without a TV in my flat. Finding new authors and series to trial has re-sparked that love of reading and I’m already back on track to reaching this year’s goal of completing 26 books minimum, and ideally aiming for 35-40.
Through university, my reading list considered a lot of books on quantum physics, spiritual exploration and psychology or writer non-fictions…
As a writer now editing my books, I feel that now is the time to keep myself immersed in good writing – now I’m less afraid of accidentally stealing ideas as the plot is already laid out – so I can focus on making sure my tone and style really expresses the places and people I’ve created.
So, as a fan of books, who loves hearing about other books, here are the purchases I’ve made this weekend:
“Fire” – Cashore, Kristin
“Graceling” – Cashore, Kristin
“Geist (Book of the Order)” – Philippa Ballantine
“2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love” – Rachel Aaron [Kindle Edition]
“Runemarks” – Harris, Joanne
“Gardens of the Moon (Book 1 of The Malazan Book of the Fallen)” – Erikson, Steven
“The Spirit Thief (Legend of Eli Monpress)” – Aaron, Rachel;
“The Agency: Volume 2” – Dianne Sylvan [Kindle Edition]
I will of course be rating these on my reading list.
Writing
Also, March is my month of novel-editing, and here is the latest update:
Day: 3
Pages Edited: 17/314 and 0/310
Scenes Edited: 3/71 and 0/80
Don’t forget to find out more about my books from the my writing page.
Wings of Flight 
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