Hmmm...

That's been a commonly muttered sound in my head lately. Hmmm... My poor little abused mind has been Hmmming all over the place.

I've been reading up on craft because having been away from writing, it's so easy to let some of it go. And reading that lead me to go back and explore some of my favorite books. I read a wide variety. I like everything from contemporary comedy, to historical, paranormal, suspense... you name it, I read it.

But for some reason, I was drawn back to reading Judith McNaught. Her historials. While I love the classics as much as any other person and I still swoon at the thought of Mr. Darby, Judith McNaught's stories always manage to grasp me in a way I'm not grasped every day. Hers are not the only ones, but they are just where my mind has been recently.

It's odd for me, because I have never been drawn to writing historicals and I'm not now. But I am drawn to the turmoil and journey her stories put me through. If I could do the same with my stories, I would be a very happy writer. No kidding, you say...

I'm planning to explore some other authors whose writing pulls me in that way as well. There are well known recent authors that are almost always a guaranteed good read for me. I enjoy Susan Elizabeth Phillip's refreshing wit and I always love the way Karen Marie Moning weaves me right into her Faeland fantasies. There are many others, too many to name.

So I'm curious, whose writing have you found a particular pull from and what have you taken from their writing and used to enhance your own?

April