The Woes of a Writer...

I had an idea.

I thought it was a pretty cool idea. I don't normally get a lot of ideas that are cool enough to write a book about.

Then I realized that there are no new ideas under the sun, and found this at Barnes and Noble today. 

"In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one… until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow — between perfection and passion."

I need not tell you my idea, because this book is, in essence, the exact same thing. (Minus the cheesy love triangle...)

Oh, yeah. It's also a New York Times bestseller.

It ruined my day. There in my hands was the idea I got so excited over, already invested time in, had so many ideas for... and I wasn't the one who wrote it.

I wanted to look on the bright side and find differences between the author's ideas and mine, so I bought it. As we drove home, I scanned through the first few pages and concluded that my ideas were different, but not different enough to not look like I totally stole this lady's idea. I didn't have the heart to continue reading it, so I returned my buried hopes and dreams an hour later.

Now I'm writing this because I know that at least some of you have felt this terrible, sinking feeling of a stale idea. I've decided it's the writer's equivalent of dating some guy and finding out that he's married: After discovering that he belongs to someone else, continuing to think about him just feels wrong. :P

I was able to shake it off a little with some retail therapy, but every time I think of it I get that annoying sinking feeling of all my characters and their world dying off because they already live in some alternate universe... really, it sort of sounds like a Dr. Who episode or something.

I'm hoping that maybe someday I'll be able to write a book. If I do, God probably has a better idea out there for me somewhere deep in the creases of my imagination. It could take some heavy machinery to dig it out... :P

Dreaming with open eyes...

I have an addiction. It's one that makes my mind drift somewhere else, and shuts the door of reality behind me. It's an escape, taking me worlds away from the world I live in, and everywhere in between.

(It's also totally legal. ;)

I forgot how much I love to READ! 

 I have many a fond memory cradling books in my hands, letting the summer light from the window pool onto its pages. I loved going to the library. I went through several books a month. I was a certifiable bookworm.

Then came high school. And along with high school came homework. Lots of it. And the reading assignments... so many post-traumatic flashbacks...

In the four years of high school I've hardly read anything for fun. It was mostly all school books and reading assignments. By the time I was finished with those, I was burnt out, and the computer or TV always sounded better. :P

This month, though, something wonderful and terrible happened: We need a new sensor bar for our Wii. Which means no Netflix. Which means no TV. Which means I've been picking up more books lately and remembering, "Oh my GOSH... this is awesome!" I can slowly feel my bookworminess worming its way back to the surface, and I've been going through pages like Pauly D goes through hair gel. :P

It's sort of proved itself as a new distraction, though. I'm still not finished with all the homework I need to burn through before I graduate. I have a lot of reading to do, and I'm spending it all in one place. Let me tell you, though, even though it's a bit of a distraction, at least it's an interactive one. Yes, it's fiction, but in a way I still feel like I'm learning. As a writer, I forgot how inspiring it is to not only write a lot, but to read a lot. It's opened my eyes to how many interesting and creative stories there are out there. I feel... EMPOWERED.

So... yes. With that said, what are you reading right now? What are some of your favorite books?