My soul’s been longing for literature lately, so I picked up Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. It’s slow going so far. Every night I try to read a little bit, but I keep nodding off! I’m so embarrassed! But the writing (translation) is beautiful and deep and I find myself enjoying language as I read.

Yesterday I read this advice from Ray Bradbury: “Read poetry every day of your life.” The simple sentence shot through me, as I’ve been pining lately for poetry. I thought I had an anthology, but alas, I don’t. If you’re a poet or a poetry lover, would you do me a favor and comment on this post, listing your favorite anthologies? I would really appreciate it. I’m one who believes I write what I absorb (the garbage-in garbage-out analogy seems appropriate here). I want to write stories that sing, whose prose is infused with poetic metaphor. So I need to be filling my mind with surprising word choices.

This quote by novelist John Gardner also resonates with me: “For better or worse, the practice of fiction changes a person.” As I embark on writing a new fiction series, I am looking forward with eyes wide open, wondering what gems God will bring my way. He’s done some amazing healing in my life as I’ve written stories. I can’t really explain it. Maybe it’s that in creating, I’m partaking in something of the divine. (I wrote of that idea here.) In that partnership, God whispers to me.

I’ll end with this pragmatic quote from Stephen King: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”