It’s good to stretch yourself, to get outside your comfort zone, think outside the box.

That includes picking up a book that wouldn’t necessarily be in your “wheelhouse” — especially when there’s already a stack of favorites waiting to be read. Such was the case when I checked out a copy of the Young Adult novel “Bright Young Things.”

I never read YA. Never.

But I’m doing research for a story set in the 1920s and because I’ve read Gatsby a number of times, I wanted something different. This book, one in a trilogy by Anna Godbersen, was recommended on Goodreads as offering an accurate depiction of the Flapper era.

From the book:

By the summer of 1929, when the weather was just getting warm enough that girls could exhibit exactly how high hemlines had risen, Prohibition had been in effect for so long it had ceased to bother anyone much. The city had a speakeasy per every fifty souls, or so the preachers liked to exclaim on Sundays, and sweet-faced girls from the hinterlands were no longer blinded by wood alcohol, for the real stuff had become plenty easy to get. The Eighteenth Amendment had converted us all to grateful outlaws.”

One chapter in, and I’m hooked. Two Midwestern girls running away to the “big city.” What’s not to love? I’m fascinated with the 1920s and I think this story will be a great pay-off for getting outside my reading groove.

I’ll let you know!

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Dorothy Parker famously once said “I hate writing, I love having written.”

Some days, I feel just like that. Writing can be a painful process and a lonely occupation. At the same time, sitting down to record thoughts and stories swirling in my head can also be the most exhilarating part of my day.

For me, the reward  for “having written” is getting to share it with others, especially fellow writers. Whenever I have the opportunity to conversate, commiserate and celebrate with “writerly” types, I’m there.

My first Breathe Christian Writers Conference last fall was all this, and more. What a great place for writers of all genres and levels of achievement to connect and network!

I have the honor today to contribute a little piece about writing to the Breathe Blog. When you stop by their website, check out the 2015 Breathe Conference, October 9 and 10 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I’ll meet you there!

In the meantime, join me today at the Breathe blog.

When I opened my laptop and began writing again three years ago, I harbored the fear that at 60-something I was too late in coming to the party. I’ve been pleasantly surprised……