New Reading List for New Year

Well, it's time for a change! Oh, sure, I'll still be reading my romance novels (already have a stack waiting by the fireplace), but I still have this feeling that I'd like to expand my reading choices, to stretch myself, both as a reader and a writer, sort of replenish the well of inspiration.

So here's my new reading theme for 2018 -- Armchair Travel! Yes, it's easy, not costly and yet I can travel as far and as wide as I'd like, when I like. Doesn't that sound wonderful? And, in the meantime, these books may spark the little gray cells as to new venues for my romance stories -- it's a win, win, as far as I'm concerned. Once again, I am not providing links to purchase; this is purely for your exploratory pleasure!

MEMOIRS:

A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller by Frances Mayes

Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train by Ina Caro

Thistle Soup: a Ladleful of Scottish Life by Peter Kerr

Sea Room: an Island Lifein the Hebrides by Adam Nicholson

Castles in the Air by Judy Corbett

The Dog who ate the Truffle: a Memoir of Stories and Recipes from Umbria by Suzanne Carriero

(I just love this cover!) The Woman who Fell from the Sky: an American Journalist in Yemen by Jennifer Steil

A House in Fez by Suzanne Clarke

That Summer in Sicily by Marlena de Blasi

Thousand Days in Venice by M. deBlasi

FICTION NOVELS:

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach

Heartbreak Hotel by D. Moggach

The Hundred Foot Journey by Richard Morais

Do you have any titles you'd like to share on this subject/genre? Just leave a comment!

"There is no frigate like a book." Emily Dickinson

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Oh, dear! My bad . . .

Just getting back on track with social media and such -- summertime is such a suck-you-away-from-the-computer time, isn't it? What's been happening? Been working on At Long Last , the fourth and final romance in my School for Sophistication series, and it should be released in late July / early August. If you're on my newsletter email list, I just sent out a sneak peek of the cover. Not signed up yet? No sweat. Here's the link . Also, a freebie sale is going on as I type this entry. Another incentive to sign up! A Peek into Straight from the Heart I promised this in my last blog entry, so here we go . . . Ryan Cassidy, deputy sheriff, a muscular hunk of a guy, who's low-key, funny, sexy and falling for Giana Linstrom despite his fears of marriage. He's seen too many marriages go bad, including his own mother's. And now for Giana -- bubbly, enthusiastic, a dreamer whose dreams never seem to come to fruition. She's at a crossroads in her

Top 25 Reads for 2018

2018 was a busy year for reading -- lots of great books, so little time, right? Although I must admit that this year I was immersed in Susan Mallery's Fools Gold series, as well as Jill Shalvis' Lucky Harbor and Heartbreaker Bay series -- and I do mean totally immersed. These two writers can world build like no other! But for the sake of the Top 25, I am putting Mallery and Shalvis in their own kingdom and let you decide. Also, please note that I am not driven by the NYT Bestseller List or any other "lists" -- I tend to like to find my writers in a more organic way, mainly by browsing in real brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries, so some are "newish" and some are older. If I'm starting a new series, I like to start at the beginning, which means I'm reading past bestsellers. So, here's my top 25 titles that I heartily recommend to readers (broken down by genre / subgenre): Regency Romance: Sherry Thomas, His at Night Tessa D

Take a hint from Mr. Bradbury:

Don’t start out writing novels. They take too long. Begin your writing life instead by cranking out “a hell of a lot of short stories,” as many as one per week. Take a year to do it; he claims that it simply isn’t possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row. He waited until the age of 30 to write his first novel, Fahrenheit 451 . Stuff your head. To accumulate the intellectual building blocks of these metaphors, he suggests a course of bedtime reading: one short story, one poem and one essay. These essays should come from a diversity of fields, including archaeology, zoology, biology, philosophy, politics, and literature. “At the end of a thousand nights,” so he sums it up, “you’ll be full of stuff!” I'm going to try some of these tips -- write swift, write short; diverse reading to expand the old gray cells. Works for me! Ray Bradbury, recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 Nati

Claire Hadleigh

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