Labor Day is fast approaching and unofficially marks the end of summer. Seasonal items and skimpy outfits will be packed up and stored away ... until the next hint of warm weather. Now is a great time to dust off the old bookshelf and redo your to-read list.
Did you miss out on a good book? If so, add one, two or three to your list and whatever you do, don't say goodbye to summer's most exciting authors!
They are unique, gutsy and super talented; but it's the writers' ability to pen novel after novel after novel that is most impressive.
Anne Rivers Siddons is the author of 16 best sellers. Her elegant storytelling is rich with family life and more than a hint of southern tradition.
Siddons reveals her secret storytelling weapon - telling stories to herself:
Mass: How has your writing changed since the debut of your first novel, "Heartbreak Hotel?"
Siddons: I think my writing goes deeper now than in "Heartbreak Hotel" though the essence of my books is, a woman at the point of change-usually painful, often life-altering, and always in the end, peacefully self-illuminating.
Mass: What one thing motivates you to write novel after novel?
Siddons: I really think that it is a powerful affinity for storytelling. A southern thing I suppose, I just can't stop telling myself stories.
Mass: What one thing affects your writing most?
Siddons: I had a wonderful, small-town childhood and loving parents. But every writer or would-be writer knows instinctively that the largest criteria for drama is family, the actual sharing of blood.
Mass: "The House Next Door" has a different, Gothic tone. What inspired you to stray, as a writer, from your familiar path?
Siddons: It started with a what if conversation with my husband. And I've always had a leaning toward myth and magic-often dark magic. I think fiction is one of the few places this trait can be validly employed.
Mass: Are you specifically writing for women readers?
Siddons: I am not specifically writing for women, though I suppose the majority of my readers are women. But I get a lot of letters from men, too. I think that during the actual act of writing I am writing for myself.
Mass: Which of your novels are you most fond of?
Siddons: I think I'm fondest of the novel that usually inadvertently reveals the most of me to myself. "Peachtree Road" is one; so is "Downtown." And my new novel "Off Season," gave me a side of myself I scarcely knew existed.
TEN AUTHORS FOR YOUR TO-READ LIST
Off Season
Author: Anne Rivers Siddons
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: August 2008
The Tease: Coastal melodrama erupts in Maine where Lilly remembers her first love. Sweet memories are revisited. What truth does her journey reveal?
Three Favorite Titles: Heartbreak Hotel, House Next Door, Peachtree Road
Listen to an excerpt from Off SeasonTrading Dreams at Midnight
Author: Diane McKinney Whetstone
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: June 2008
The Tease: Neena longs to find her mentally ill mother, Freeda. Neena blackmails her married lovers to finance her quest and then she finally meets her match.
Three Favorite Titles: Blues Dancing, Leaving Cecil Street, Tumbling
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