As I scan my shelves in my office and my Kindle library, I confirm my suspicions. I read more female authors than male. I'm not exactly sure of the whys on this (or if it really needs any whys). Perhaps that's a subject for a blog post of my own.

I started to suspect this was the case (about my reading habits) when I saw a recent Chicago Tribune books supplement article listing their picks for "authors to watch" in the coming year. I think four of their top 20 were women. It seemed very stodgy and backward to me. And then two things occurred to me: First, newspapers themselves are becoming a bit stodgy and backward... and are fast disappearing. I'm thinking there's a correlation between that fact and this sort of thinking by those in charge of them. Also, as I scanned the authors, I realized that - although I am a writer, avid reader, and interested in publishing - I recognized only a few of their names. As I read the ensuing bios, I saw why: they were all writers of literary fiction. I very rarely read literary fiction (perhaps another blog post?).

I've long found my own way to my reading choices, and newspapers have played no role in that process. Perhaps that's part of why well over half of my books are by women--most of whom are extremely talented, and many of whom have had a huge influence on me as a writer. Thank goodness for them, and for women readers!

Nice post, Teresa, and nice blogsite, Melinda. I started with the thought of two characters, then spent quite a while on names and world-building. But, like Melinda, I'm on my eighth or so rewrite (feel free to give knowing nods, both of you), and with each one, I find myself stripping away everything that doesn't tightly pertain to the POV characters for each scene. It's a great way to weave in world and backstory slowly (seems obvious, I know, but it wasn't to me at first).

Thanks for starting my day off with good reminders, Ladies!