In the Sun and in the Rain |
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The bread and butter for writers is reading and learning from other authors and their books. When I search and before I read a book, I like to pick it up and look at the cover and have developed a routine before selecting it. I usually browse into a few random paragraphs and read the back page to find out if I am attracted to it. After that I decide whether I will dive into it. Language, style and genre matter a lot. So do the ways the author has used narrative techniques, worked on transitions and sequenced scenes to build the arch. I never read the conclusion, choosing to have the dénouement left for last. That happens when I am engaged and read all the pages, but that is not always the case. The question today is what drives one to choose one book over another? Is it influenced by the genre? (For example, I love historical fiction but avoid sci-fi.) Is it because I respond to realism, romantic passages, or poetry? Do I read short stories or long manuscripts, or both? Classic literature has been our teacher. Nobel prize winners are always available and contemporary authors that tend to write at a faster clip are tempting. So many books to choose from! Sometimes I am hungry for the next page, and other times I may set a book aside? Do I pick it up again? Ideally, recognizing the effort and the work that has gone into each book and evaluating it by objective standards would be a fair approach. However, for better or worse, we have our own preferences, sometimes based on the author's name, on the publisher, on the type of genre, the topics, or even the country of origin. Then there are those books that do not fit into the usual categories, that pull us in and charms us. I wonder what you prefer to read? |
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Featured Guest In the democracy of literature, it's all there for us to choose from. Being partial to work that addresses social issues, I am delighted to select and recommend a new book, written in Greek by Maria Psoma-Petridou, an author from Thessaloniki, Greece. I asked the author, and my good friend and featured guest, what inspired her to write this compelling story, entitled Όταν με βρήκε ο λύκος, and published by Tyrfi Press in 2021, a novel that deals with domestic violence. She answered: “The stories of women I’ve met who have been brutally abused by their partners, physically and psychologically. The tremendous fear they live in, which in most cases imprisons them for life.
In the process of writing the novel I’ve tried to dive into their psychological condition in order to give them voice, through my heroine, to express the untold tortures they go though in guilt and disgrace, hoping that my story will help the readers realise their situation and become more sensitive and active about these crimes.”
In the Sun and in the Rain aspires to bring you writing from many corners of the world, and introduce creative friends, who in the dark days of coronavirus, gift us with their work. Consider their work for your gift giving.
Feel free to share this Newsletter with your reading and writing community and friends who can also subscribe. Live long and prosper! Best,
Sophia
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