As I again delve into the various genres of fiction with
which my current writing intersects, I discover surprising gaps in my
knowledge—and more books for my reading list.
This is hardly a bad thing. Writers are fed by writing, and
not always their own. Indeed, one would hope that much of it is not their own—we learn our craft first
and best by reading the works of others. That is where we discover what we
like, what we don’t, and in our various reactions develop the biases that
inform our own voices and styles.
