Reading & Writing

With all this summer weather in September, I decided to ride my bike to the beach and write for a few hours. Instead, I should have brought the book I am reading: Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood by bell hooks. It was just that kind of writing day; the kind where I should be reading instead of writing. Sometimes, when I am stuck in my writing (and I have to admit I am at the moment) it is always best to go back to reading what is in your genre and what speaks to you. Sometimes this reading can cause further despair, more questions of “What was I thinking? I can’t do this!” But for me, it often spurs valuable thinking time and a resettling of what I am trying to achieve.

While I tried to write and very little sputtered out of my pen, I kept looking up at what was hanging on the tree. A child’s hat? No, it was a bikini top. Size Large. I smiled at the story it presented: a late-night skinny dip full of passion and fire that the top was lost once it’s owner was back on the dark shore.