I haven't been writing much so far this year; a piece of flash fiction, checking my word count on a few of my longer novels, and adding a paragraph or more to a few of my books as the ideas come to me. But really, not much 'real' writing as I know I should be doing if I ever want to finish many of my novels. But that doesn't mean I'm sitting in front of the TV eating bon-bons (if you never had a bon-bon they are candy-coated balls of coconut - yum! which I unfortunately haven't seen around for years).
What I have been doing is reading. As of the end of March I've read 8 books - my goal was to finish two a month so I'm definitely on track. I'm embarrassed to say that I read only 8 books for the entire year in 2021. In my defense, one of the books was "The Overstory" by Richard Powers, a fabulous book that won the pulitzer in 2019. But it was so sad in so many places that I had a difficult time finishing it even though I knew it was an outstanding novel and if it hadn't won the pulitzer, well, I would definitely wonder if a single English major was on the committee to select a winner since it was such a great work of literature to be praised and savored by all.
Not only do I have bookcases full of books but I also have stacks on the floor, mostly in the living room. But one stack that I have been adding to and that I'm finally reading is my Pulitzer winners (and runners-up) stack. It feels so good to finally be reading some of these books that I've been looking at and vacuuming around for several years. And now the pile is finally going down. But there are plenty more where those came from!
Between all this quality reading and continuing to learn from master authors in Masterclass, I know it will all have a positive effect on my writing. Stay tuned!