In considering
the first query, to my knowledge, my reading selectivity doesn’t vary during or
between writing projects. I’m a reader by nature, a reader who reads always. I often have two books at hand,
most often a work of fiction balanced by a nonfiction work, the latter
preferably narrative in structure.
During a
writing project, the only alteration in my reading, by addition, is the
readiness to pursue research at almost any moment. If an awareness of a need to
pursue research crops up I’ll temporarily suspend the writing until I’m
reasonably assured I’ve grasped a subject, especially if it is to be
incorporated into a story, even if it is a single line. I like to know things,
always have – knowledge for knowledge’s sake. But in addition, there is always
a reader with a bent for exactitude somewhere ready to pounce on an avoidable
error.
Example: I’d
never heard of the animal sedative, xylazine,
in the news recently. Apparently opioid / opiate addicts have begun to
incorporate it into their endless search for chemical nirvana along with heroin
and, more dangerously, fentanyl. An hour’s investment in an internet
self-education session followed to heighten my knowledge.
As for the
second query, the interlude between my writing projects, it tends to be brief.
I’ve read of authors taking months or even years between major publications,
for a myriad of reasons, but that just hasn’t turned out to be my way. Thus
far, in my very humble writerly life,
at a moment of publication, I usually have another major project roughly
entered into the computer. (Not a recommendation, again it is just my
tendency.) That said, the long journey of editing, for me a satisfying journey,
always beckons. So, it is rapidly back at it after a quiet celebration of
accomplishment.
And, of
course, the reading, pleasurable and germinative, never stops.
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