What the Authors are Reading

Featuring: Mary Adkins, Tracie Podger, The Fairytale Mum, M C Taylor, Pearl Tate

Good Authors tend to be well read. And this doesn’t stop once they secure a book deal or become published.

Why? 

For the simple reason, that reading a good book brings us so much more than just entertainment. 

It stimulates the brain mentally, widens our sphere of knowledge, and introduces new vocabulary and slang, new idioms, phrases, and writing styles. It improves our imagination. When we read, we’re transported to locations that we didn’t even know existed or couldn’t have imagined previously. We meet complex characters with a depth of emotion and plot-lines that we’d never have dreamed about. Books help us to access emotions, make us more empathetic and unleash our creativity. Some books even change our lives. Fundamentally though, reading brings all of us pleasure.

Being an avid reader and accessing a wide spectrum of books can help us to improve our writing skills.  Surely to write books, you have to love books! 

Mary Adkins

Author of ‘When You Read This’. She also teaches story-telling for The Moth and is co-host of the podcast ‘I’m still here!’ about making art after kids. maryadkins.net

Mary’s debut novel, ‘When You Read This’ (Harper Collins) is available in eight languages and has been called a Best Book of 2019 by Real Simple, Parade, and Cup of Jo. Look out for her next novel ‘Privilege’ which will be out on March 10, 2020.

She’s a seriously busy lady as her online novel-writing course ‘Tell Don’t Show: Breaking the Rule of Writing’ is also launching on 23 September 2019. Doors open for it on 17 September 2019.  Interested?  Then sign up for notifications at maryadkins.net

Mary tells me that she’s reading ‘Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic’, a non-fiction book by Sam Quinones at present. It’s a departure from her normal go-to which would be fiction novels but having recently moved to a new city, she was keen to join a book club. Consequently, she was introduced to this book and felt that ‘it was a great reason to jump off the fiction wagon for once’.

‘Dreamland’ is about the opioid crisis in America which is a tragic epidemic with complex cultural, commercial and medical roots stretching back centuries. The publisher’s book description states that the book encompasses the crisis from a small town in Mexico to the boardrooms of big pharma to main streets nationwide: an explosive and shocking account in the heartland of America. Mary says that ‘whilst it is disturbing, this book is a fascinating and informative read.’

TRACIE PODGER

Author of the Amazon bestsellers ‘The Facilitator’ and ‘The Facilitator – Part 2’ and the Fallen Angel series amongst others. traciepodger.com

Tracie’s latest book, ‘Limp Dicks & Saggy Tits‘, is available now and has been described as ‘a humorous journey of self-discovery and single life as a fifty year old.’

Being a successful author means that Tracie’s time for reading is limited nowadays. When she’s committed to writing a book, she also tries not to read to stop herself from being subconsciously influenced by anything else. Luckily, Tracie’s just been on a short holiday and wanted a nice fun read on her kindle for those days either sitting on the beach or watching the rain from her ‘eco-lodge’ – such is the great British weather!

Tracie explains that as an author, she’s extremely fortunate to receive pre-release arcs from other authors. So whilst away, she read an arc of Tabloid Princess by Anna Bloom, set for release on 10th October (available for pre-order now). Reading the Amazon and Good-Read write-ups on the book, it’s a real what-if story about a single mum who meets a playboy prince. She’s his secret but could secrets from the past change all that and will he choose her or his country?  Tracie describes it as a ‘great, lose yourself, holiday read’. 

THE FAIRYTALE MUM

Author of the The Fairytale Mum website, parent blogger and children’s author.

Tracy aka The Fairytale Mum made the leap into writing when motherhood beckoned and she left her previous career as a primary school teacher. Her blog openly charts the ups and downs of entering parenthood and the struggles she experienced with the change in her new identity. So she set herself a challenge; to become a published picture book author and reconnect with Tracy…the one who is a mum now. Since then, Tracy’s gone on to create a series of picture books and is now in the process of seeking a publisher.

Tracy’s current read is the psychological thriller, ‘Sometimes I Lie’ by Alice Feeney, which she describes as ‘a cross between ‘Sister’ by Rosamund Lupton and ‘Before I Go to Sleep’ by S. J. Watson.’ The publisher also describes it as perfect for fans of ‘Behind Closed Doors’, ‘The Girl on the Train’ and ‘The Widow’.

There are three things that you need to know about the book’s protagonist, Amber Reynolds. She’s in a coma, her husband doesn’t love her anymore and sometimes she lies. Already a quarter of a way into the book, Tracy’s finding it a compelling read. Always a stickler for trying to guess the ending of a novel, she’s anticipating several twists in this thriller before she has a chance of guessing anything close to it. Tracy feels that Alice Feeney has masterfully penned several characters, and as the title suggests, she’s unsure in which of the characters she should place her trust….

M C TAYLOR

Author of the mum2author blog (mctaylorauthor.com) which charts her personal author journey and provides practical tips, advice and inspiration for aspiring writers and authors. Also the self-published author of Chaperones – Agency Erotica: Grace’s Story (available on Amazon)

I’ve always had a love for books and writing and on the eve of my 39th birthday, I wrote a list of things to do before I’m 40. Top of the list was to write a novel. So I did and self-published it. Having achieved this, it’s given me the confidence to continue my writing and to set up this blog for aspiring authors and writers. I’m hoping to begin my next book soon in between school runs and after school clubs!

I’ve just finished reading ‘The Women in the Window’. At first, I was unsure of what was going on and how it would unfold. Little by little, the main character, Anna’s personality is revealed and the story became more and more compelling. This is a fantastic psychological thriller that slowly builds up, revealing more and more layers over time as the book continues to its gripping climax. Anna is a rather complex character and brilliantly written. I didn’t guess the ending either. From an author’s perspective, this book is also a superb example of how to bring many threads of a story and back-story together.

PEARL TATE

Author of science fiction romance, her books include ‘The Quasar Lineage’ series. The 9th book of this series, Atticus’s Angel was released on Amazon on September 4th 2019. Amazon.com/Pearl Tate

Pearl spends much of her time reading other indie authors as they swap for editing and beta reading purposes. She did, however, see the author, John Desouza, an ex FBI special agent and collector of the real-life ‘X-files’ interviewed on the YouTube channel, ‘Edge of Wonder’ recently, which piqued her curiosity. Since then, she’s been reading his three books which she’s thoroughly enjoyed. Her favorite of the three is ‘The Extra Dimensionals: True Tales & Concepts of Alien Visitors’. The write-up explains that Extra-Dimensionality is the key to understanding everything and that we’ve been deceived to believe that the physical world is the beginning and end of all things. It sounds a really interesting read and one that I’ll be adding to my book list.

Pearl says that given her genre, the fact that she’s been immersed in John’s books shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone!

Your turn now – readers what are you currently reading?  Comment below and you might find yourself in an article soon!