I’m a book scarfer. Except when I’m writing one.

If I’m reading a good book, and these days I’m careful only to read good books, I get entranced by the author’s voice. I start admiring plot points and characterization. My own voice gets wobbly because I’m so caught up in the book I’m reading. So now I’m careful only to read when I’m basically done with my wip so I don’t contaminate it with another author’s work. Unfortunately I always seem to be enmeshed in a wip, so that only leaves me with sliver of free time.

But that happy moment is coming up. I’m heading into the homestretch with my latest, and in a few weeks I’ll be sunning my pasty body on a beach. I needs me some beach reads, and I’m taking suggestions.

I’m getting better about reading while I’m writing, by the way. It used to be that I if I cracked open a book and it had me by the throat, I’d say goodbye to two weeks of writing, easy. It took that long to get “cleansed”. Now I read the books of the authors I interview for WU, and because I’m stronger in my craft and secure in my authorial voice, I have less trouble doing both. But still. I gotta be careful.

I’ve been in a cave for the last nine months and I’m ready to emerge and enjoy reading again. I have a huge TBR pile next to my nightstand, but since I can rip through a good book in two-three days, I can stand to load up my beach totes with a few goodies.

Lemme know what I shouldn’t be missing this summer.

Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She has written two novels under the pseudonym Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter--both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President's teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins.
Kathleen Bolton
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