Cleansing the Palate

In another lifetime (translation: before we had kids), my husband and I used to take long weekends up in the Finger Lakes region of New York state each autumn. We’d hike the gorge in Watkins Glen and do day-long wine-tasting tours, making complete loops around the lakes. In between sips, we were given crackers or popcorn so that we could truly appreciate the next sample.

I apply the same kind of logic to reading and writing as well. I can’t read book after book in the same genre/sub-genre, nor can I write that way. My senses become dulled to all of the subtle nuances that define each story, and that’s not fair to the author who put his/her heart and soul into writing it, or to the reader who wants to wring every last drop of pleasure from the book.

Maybe I’m weird. No, scratch that – I know I’m weird (even without my kids reminding me daily). But hopefully, by switching things up, I’m crafting a better story in the end.

<3 Abbie