Your TBR Stack is Breeding…

Mornin', kids.

It's Wednesday. I'm sitting here, dressed vaguely like Jackie Kennedy, with the intention of going into work at one. It's the pearls and the three quarter sleeves.

***

Today's first world problem? The thickening of my to be read stack.

There are four sources of my reading these days.

1. Books and stories by authors I know--both the books that are completed and published, and the books I am reading for critique.

2. Books I would read because I am interested in the topics and stories.

3. Books I read for book group, which expand my overall view of the field.

4. Books I read for research for my own work.

This TBR stack is beginning to look...suspiciously like a working writers stack. I'm not sure how many writers belong to book groups, but I'm pretty sure that most of us hit 3 out of those 4 criteria on a regular basis.

I used to have a pretty rigid rule for the TBR stack--no more than the width of my writing desk. If it got over that size, it was time for me to lay off buying books for a while. That worked for about a year.

Now? Well, people have begun giving me books. I've been winning a lot of great books. I received my first ARC out of the blue because of Writer Tamago: Factotum (book 3 of D. M. Cornish's Monster Tattoo series. YES, I do want that book, but it does make me think.

There will always be books I want to buy. There will always be books I buy on a whim. I will always want to see what my writing peers are doing, and offer feedback. Is this going to continue, the free book rain of the universe? How will it affect my book buying habits?

It seems to be another marker of the writer. Reading breeds reading. Getting books breeds more books. The karma of the universe senses your book needs instantly and sends them your way. And you just keep getting more and more books.

How do you guys keep up? Do you even try? Do you abandon writing, and set up a book review site? Or do your books become articles of furniture?

Eh. I've got to finish up interneting, and move on, so I can become a problem in someone else's to read stack.

Catherine

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.

Reminding Myself…

It seems important to me to reiterate to myself, so I will.

You write what you write. You can only make what you write better. You can't write the way other people write. And you often don't write what other people write.

What you write is probably not going to be as commercially successful as some writing is. It is, however, unique, and therein lies its strength. And the current popularity of zombies is probably luck of the draw, anyway.

Don't compare yourself to other writers. Don't puzzle at the taste of others. You've always been a little off beat about what you've liked, anyway. It follows that you might not get the mainstream in taste, and that you won't try to reproduce it in your own work.

Publish or not, popular or not, you write what you write. Just do that. Obscurity aside, your satisfaction lies in being true to the writer you are, for whatever values of career. Be satisfied that you are doing your best work for the moment, and keep ramping up your mad skillz with hard work.

Whatever the outcome of that is. Integrity is important, writer girl.

That's all I have to say today about that.

Catherine

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.

VP Profile #2: Brandie Tarvin

Continuing the VP XIII series of profiles, Brandie Tarvin has graciously agreed to answer some questions. Brandie writes broadly in the areas of original fiction, media tie-in work, and database administration.

Welcome to the Tamago, Brandie! And thanks for the interview!

Tamago: How did you get started writing?

Brandie: I blame my father. He wrote in his spare time, and told so many wonderful horror stories, that I wanted to be just like him. Once I started writing, I just couldn't stop.

Tamago: What would you consider your "genre," if any?

Brandie: I'm willing to write almost anything. Fantasy comes easiest, though.

Tamago: You are a professional writer who publishes novels in existing media universes. How did you enter that profession?

Brandie: I wrote fan-fiction when I was in high school and college. Due to a friend's prodding, I went searching for a publisher. I couldn't get my fanfic published, but I impressed an editor so much that he invited me to write a short story for a Transformers anthology.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.