Reading, wRiting, but no 'Rithmetic

I read a lot. Baseball forums, publishing blogs, video game forums, news stories, and humor sites. Oh, and books. Lots and lots of books. I'd say about 99% of the books I read are fiction, but it's hard to define them past that. There are a few genres I don't read: Romance, Westerns, Women's Literature. But just about everything else is fair game. I am most partial to Epic Fantasy, and speculative fiction in general. For those who might not know, speculative fiction is Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. This is the genre I write in the most. But I also enjoy a good legal drama, or mystery (sometimes even cozies), or thriller.

People always ask me how many books I read. I really can't say, because I devour them. Just making a WAG, I usually say 3-5 books a week, and I think that's fairly accurate. I love to read, obviously. This love of reading is what led me to writing. In the past 5 years or so, I kept imaging plotlines for books, wishing somebody would write what I was thinking. In the past year, I decided that nobody was going to magically pull these great ideas out of my mind unless it was me, so I took pen to paper and embarked on a journey that has already proven to be strange.

Writing is much more difficult than reading, but far more rewarding, also. The sense of accomplishment when I finished the first draft of Jack O' Lantern was incredible. Ask just about anybody on the street, and I'd wager that at least 75% would say that would like to write a novel, and believe they can do it. How many actually do? Probably something like 1-2%. I've done it, and it's a great feeling.

Of course, maybe 1-2% of those novels that are written actually get published. That's where the balloon pops and the pride goes rushing out. Will I be one of the 1-2%? I certainly hope so! But only time will tell.