writing at home, writing on the road

Things have been exceedingly busy at our house over Christmas and I'm afraid that like many bloggers I have been unable to write anything on the blog for too long.

I'm working steadily on three stories right now - three completely different books - and the range is most enjoyable. Readers and young writers have asked: is it hard to write more than one book at a time? An excellent question. The more I think about it the more I realize that my writing life somewhat resembles my reading life: I am frequently reading three books or more at a time and usually for different purposes. Depending on my mood or the time of night or day I will shift from Sherlock Holmes to Kenneth Opel's Airborne series to Meghan Whalen Turner's new books to another wonderful piece of literature! I find the shift fairly easy and enjoyable. It also seems to help my writing. Reading excellent writing supports the structures of my own writing. So, read on and write on!