Short notes this week as I need to pause from writing. Eliza’s story is at 25 pages. At this juncture in the plot I need to turn toward research so that the story and the world I am building for her is authentic and credible. This may take a couple of weeks to prep for these next few scenes, and will need additional sanding and editing down the road as I learn more about this period.

The novelist’s job is to create a world that the reader can experience as real, whether that world is in the future on another planet or in the historical past here on Earth. The verisimilitude of the novel’s world allows the reader to believe in the characters who live there, to care about what they do and what happens to them. In turn, caring about fictional characters allows readers to practice a powerful kind of empathy by marking friends of strangers and inviting them to inhabit our minds and hearts. —  Author, Kim Van Alkemade

In the meantime, I have added a separate page to the blog, found in the top menu, Book Recommendations. Here I have listed books I have recommended to date through various blog posts as a great read. I will continue to update that page as I come across other books that inspire me, for my own personal enjoyment and as research for Eliza’s story.

Happy Spring Reading!