Do Writers Ever Take a Break From Writing?

I think the answer is different for everyone. For me, though, the answer is "sometimes". Sometimes I do just stop writing, but I don't stop playing with language. When I'm not writing, I do crossword puzzles, I play word games, I dream up little passages in my head that will fade into the mists of memory before they're ever committed to paper. But most of all, I read. A lot.

I've just picked up the latest offerings from two of my very favourite authors - Stephen King and Michael Crichton. Both are interesting releases, for different reasons.

King's Under The Dome is his first full-length thriller release in a while. It's been marketed as his biggest novel since The Stand which is for many people his best and most admired work. Much as I adore King's short fiction, and as much as it inspires and encourages me to write my own, his full-length thrillers are what made me fall in love with his writing from the first. He touches a dark, and frightened little place in the human psyche that no other other author manages to be able to achieve. His writing is the only writing that has ever kept me awake at night. I can't wait to get stuck into Under the Dome to find out if it lives up to its marketing.

Crichton's Pirate Latitudes has an even more interesting story. When the author died late in 2008, amongst the papers in his desk they found a complete manuscript, which has now been published post-humously. That in itself makes it exciting, since I had reconciled myself to never reading a new Crichton again. That said, though, it has received some less-than-fabulous reviews, and it seems that the jury is still out on whether or not it should have published at all. I'm looking forward to reading it, all the same.

Anyway, I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and New Year, hopefully you will get a chance to get some holiday reading in too. See you all next year!