Fiction writers need to read. It\u2019s how we absorb stories best. Drinking coffee fuels the actual writing but things from the \u201creal\u201d world actually fuel the imagination. This week we\u2019re asking each other what we\u2019ve read that comes under the category of non-fiction. Whether it\u2019s a biography or a science book, something about history or journalism, it\u2019s going to be about something real and that\u2019s what will inspire us to write something fantastic.<\/p>\n
Have you tried the dark roast we have? It\u2019s excellent, but then so is the organic coffee. And did you know that we only buy free trade?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
R.L. Naquin<\/a>:<\/p>\n Most of the non-fiction books I read have to do with the craft of writing. With book three in my series looming, my main characters are going to have to sleep with each other soon. I can\u2019t get around it anymore. So, I\u2019m currently reading Be a Sex-Writing Strumpet by Stacia Kane<\/a>. That\u2019s right. There\u2019s a how-to book out there for everything.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jason Arnett<\/a>:<\/p>\n The last non-fiction book I got was about writing (and that may be a theme here today) but the last one I read was a biography of a writer. Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century<\/a>\u00a0was fascinating and manages to collect the bits and pieces of a biography of the Grand Master from other biographies of authors into one place. I\u2019m also spending some time with Brian Greene\u2019s The Hidden Reality<\/a>, though it\u2019s not at the top of my reading list every day as the science there is mind-bending though the writing is sharp and crisp.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Christie Holland<\/a><\/p>\n The last non-fiction book I read was How Good People Make Touch Choices<\/em> by Rushworth M. Kidder.\u00a0 Oh, you probably meant something that I didn’t read for a class.\u00a0 That would be\u00a0The Zombie Survival Guide<\/em> by Max Brooks.\u00a0 It was much more interesting and will be much more helpful when the zombie apocalypse happens.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paul Swearingen<\/a><\/p>\n The Long Walk<\/em> – Slavomir Rawicz<\/p>\n This astounding book reads like a novel – a Polish teenager gets caught up in Russian deportations to Siberia in the early days of World War II, is taken to a prison camp, befriends the wife of the camp director, steals supplies, breaks out with a small group, heads south, adds a 16-year-old girl who is escaping from another camp to their group, walks across Siberia and Mongolia before losing two members in the Gobi desert, heads on through Tibet, loses another group member, see yeti, and end up in India, where he loses his mind for a month but finally recovers.<\/p>\n I am personally fascinated by tales of survival and the triumph of the individual; this one was a one-sitting read.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nancy Cayton Myers<\/a><\/p>\n Story<\/em> by Robert McKee.\u00a0 Seminal screenwriting text, that I’m never not reading.\u00a0 This book, more than any, has helped me with story structure, character, plot, image, and how to make decisions at all phases of the writing process.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s a great how-to on the work and art of storytelling<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sara Lundberg<\/a><\/p>\n I’m right in the middle of reading The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide<\/em><\/a> by John Seymour. I have this fanciful dream of someday acquiring a couple acres of land and try to live as simply and self-sufficiently as possible, but I have no idea where to even start. I figure it’ll be handy to have my own self-sufficient community for when the zombie apocalypse occurs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n