Reading and writing...

I tend to read a lot of non-fiction. Who picks up a 450 page book on the world history of salt just because they want to know more about it? That'd be me. I read a lot of history, anthropology, psychology and sociology type books. Occasionally I will read a book on writing. I also read biographies, books on music, animals, various strange events (a la Ripleys or Mysteries of the Unexplained). When I read fiction, it's usually a mystery or a literary fiction.

I'm just starting to explore the world of graphic novels, so I have been reading them lately.

I don't read too much fantasy or sci-fi, but I've enjoyed the ones I have read for the most part. Once in a great while I will pick a 'chick lit' (I hate that term) , or paranormal romance, or regular romance novel from someone. Sometimes they can be a fun, quick read - but often they leave me shaking my head and wondering where the plot has gone.

I have read through my life a lot of classics, but I don't read them on as regular a basis as I probably should. I would like to take the time to explore more of the great books someday, and form more than casual second hand opinions about them.

When I write - not just my roleplay and casual writing here, but overall in my life - I have tended toward a lot of non-fiction. I worked as a music journalist, and at the time I was doing that I also wrote press releases, newsletters, and other such things for bands. I have freelanced articles on music, reviews of various products and books, etc. I've done a lot of 'filler' freelancing - providing site content and editing wording for various game sites, web stores, etc. However I've also freelanced some fiction as site content - there's a children's gaming site where I provided site content in the form of stories involving the site's cute little animal characters, for example. I've also published fiction and poetry in literary magazines , zines, and anthologies. So it's a mixed bag, really.

When I write for myself (in the not to get paid or necessarily published), I tend toward literary fiction , or supernatural fiction. I like to tell stories that are ordinary people dealing with the circumstances of their lives, and growing into extraordinary people as a result. My Michael-stories dealt with a musician with social anxiety dealing with having been abandoned by his mother as a teen, and trying to make peace with what happened there. Several of those wound up published, and two mini-comics came out of it - but at the time I just wrote them because the story wanted to be told. A lot of my stories feature various characters who are caught up in the circumstances of something larger than themselves.

Oddly enough, the one novel I finished a rough draft for wound up being sci-fi, though very character driven.


So I guess this has been a really long way of saying that I read and write a little of this, a little of that.