SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

Woohoo, it’s book day! Also, it’s book hangover time. ? It’s okay; give me a couple of days, and I’ll be sucked into the next one. I mentioned book hangover to my better half, Jez, the other week, and he had no clue what it meant. I’m starting to wonder if it’s a romance reader thing.

If you don’t know what it is, this meme explains it succinctly.

[FYI: The book links are free from affiliate codes.]

The Work Read

Yip, I’m still working my way through this. I’m a slow reader, but I’m super-slow when it comes to textbooks. I have to stop to take notes, and there’s a lot of re-read to make sure the information goes in. (It would go a whole lot faster if it was in Scots, but alas, there aren’t any craft books written in Scots. Yet.)

Writing for Emotional Impact on Kindle (£4.99 )

The Fun Read

Still Lake by Anne Stuart

I’ve had a book hangover for a couple of days, as I mentioned above. I finished Nightfall by Anne Stuart and couldn’t think of stepping into a new fictional world. Damn, that woman is pure evil. I “just one more chapter”-ed myself way, way past my bedtime. And through breakfast. And then it was over ? Hence the book hangover.

But when I feel like I can go on a new adventure, it’ll be another Anne Stuart book. This week I’m going with another romantic suspense from her back catalogue, Still Lake.

Sophie Davis is on the road to fulfilling her lifelong dream of turning an old Vermont farm into a country inn. The fact there was a murder there twenty years ago doesn’t rattle her. But John Smith, the stranger who’s just moved in along the lake, does. The man is hiding something, and Sophie suspects he could endanger her dreams, maybe even her life.

Still Lake on Kobo (£1.49 on Kobo)

Still Lake on Kindle (£1.49 on Kindle)

The Me-Time Read

I finished reading A Spy’s Guide to Thinking by John Braddock, and I have to say it set off all sorts of lightbulbs for me–storytelling wise, not going rogue spy or anything… The biggest takeaway for me was how similar the basic processes of thinking are to sequels in stories.

Sequels aren’t the same as later movies in a series. In stories, we have what is known as scenes and sequels. This is a very rudimentary explanation, so just nod your head and try not to let your eyes glaze over.

Scene and sequels are like cause and effect. Something happens, an action, and then there’s a reaction. The scene is the action part, the sequel is the reaction. A sequel comprises of the emotional reaction to what happened, the rationalisation of possible actions to deal with it, the decision of what to do–the setting of a new goal. Once that decision is made, a new scene (action section) kicks off the loop again, with the character pursuing the new goal.

Braddock shares a similar process known as D-A-D-A. Let’s have a quick look at what D-A-D-A means. D= data, A= analysis, D= decide, A= action. The data part is similar to the emotional reaction part of sequels, the analysis is similar to the rationalisation part, and the decide and action parts are exactly the same. How cool is that?

Hmm. If this reads like I’m geeking out, it’s ’cause I am. (Story theory and spy stuff at the same time! Eeee!) This was such a great read that I’m going straight into the second in his three-part Spy’s Guide series.

Book two is A Spy’s Guide to Strategy. Here’s a wee bit from the book description:

When you’re a spy, life is complex. There are long games and short games and games that don’t matter. There are enemies, allies and allies who become enemies. There’s ambiguity, lying and betrayal. It’s on you to make sense of it. Just you.

A Spy’s Guide to Strategy on Kindle (£4.63 or free with Kindle Unlimited)

Do you get book hangovers? How do you deal with them? Me, I just mope and wish for pizza. I’d love to hear your reading plans for the next week…

Until next time, take care, and happy reading!