Diversions

Well, as you can see from my dearth of blogs, I’ve been like a chicken without a head for the last few weeks! The Evil Day Job is one reason. My sideline of making re-enactment clothing is another. But the biggest problem has been my addiction to reading...

I finished a sub a couple weeks back and sent it off. It usually takes me a few days to move past that and get back to writing, so I decided to indulge in some reading in the meantime. As much as it hurts not to be reading all the time, I rarely pick up a book when I’m writing. Being immersed in someone else’s words/world tends to color my thought patterns and divert me away from my own work.

I didn’t realise just how much I missed the magic of sinking into a good book until I started on my TBR pile. It all began with Steig Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a hardcover copy of which I picked up at my local community centre for the grand price of one Canadian dollar. I’d heard of it a while back and wanted to read it, so I couldn’t resist. After all, it was in brand-new condition!

Reading it was bittersweet, because I found out that Steig Larsson died right after he delivered the edited version, and two of the planned sequels, to his publisher. Sounded rather like a lyric from Alanis Morissette’s ‘Ironic’, until I read he was overweight, driven to working 20 hour days and had a 60 cigarette-a-day habit.

The book was intriguing, once I got into the rhythm of his prose. His style is slightly stilted—a little formal—and it took getting used to. I also found his characters a little cold, but was willing and able to put all that aside and just enjoy the book.

So that whet my appetite, and thank goodness I read quickly or nothing—no work, no cooking, no NOTHING—would have gotten done over the past few weeks. I finished my orgy, my gluttonous read-fest, with Greenmantle by Charles de Lint. Can I tell you...if I ever was going to go Fan-girl over anyone, it would be over him? Greenmantle grabbed me, held me, rocked and shook me, and now, having come out on the other side, I’m ready to go back to work. Reading one of his books is, for me, like a day at the spiritual, emotional spa. He’s washed me clean, and I can go forward into life once more.

Phew!