Mood Reading

This is a mood ring. Very popular back in the 70s (or so I've heard; I never had one), the mood ring changed colors dependent upon the mood of the person wearing it.

Well, I'm a mood reader. My mood changes color, so to speak, dependent upon what I read. Give me a happy ending, I'm a happy camper. Give me a book where the heroine dies, the hero then kills himself, and their child grows up to be a bitter, estranged individual from society, and I want to off myself.

I can't function when I've read something miserable, which is why I normally steer clear of literary fiction. It seems like fiction isn't considered quality unless there's a large dose of angst and unhappiness thrown in, capped with a maudlin ending.

I've recently reported to my book club that I'm going to be unable to read anything new until after November, when I hope to have several projects completed. I just can't chance it. I need to write sexy adventure with thrills, chills, and a great big HEA in mind. And if I read material that is far from that mark, it'll affect what I'm writing.

For that same reason I rarely delve into a new book unless I'm done a major project. One, it's a reward to myself for hard work. And two, I don't like being manipulated by the good stuff I read either. If I read about a real alpha hero who's a vampire, my hero might start to develop vampy tendencies. If the heroine in my new reading material is athletic and leggy, even though I've written her as a short bookworm, she'll suddenly start leaping like crazy through my book.

So to be completely safe, I'm going no-book for the next month and a half. It's gonna be hell. There's a new Nalini Singh book coming out in November, so I might actually make that one. But I'll miss Venom, the latest Jennifer Estep Elemental Assassin novel I'm just dying to read. Then there's Sabrina Jeffries' new Hellions of Halstead Hall book, arriving Sept 21st. And I could go on. I'm a book addict going cold for a few weeks. I just hope I can survive while my muse picks up the slack.

What are you looking forward to reading?