Carrie Anne Noble, Author

Greetings from my reading nook/writing lair! I’ve been reading lots during the cold weather, haven’t you? Such a pleasant way to pass the time. I'm grateful for the warmth of spring (not that it will stop me from reading!).   Confession : I’m a big Kindle reader. I know, it’s no replacement for the feeling of a book in your hands and the scent of ink and paper, but the thing lights up so I can read in bed, and it holds a LOT of books. Now that I’ve confessed, I’ll tell you that I recently read 13 books in a series. Michelle Vernal’s Guesthouse on the Green series is about a quirky Irish family who run an inn. I can’t remember ever laughing out loud so much while reading! I got the series from Kindle Unlimited—which is part of the reason I put up with punctuation and spelling errors that infested the first several books. The newer ones are better in that regard. BUT I totally recommend the series if you like family ...

My grandmother was a capital-r Reader. If there were prizes for book consumption, she could have contended for top honors. She was happiest, she always said, with a stack of books beside her chair. Sometimes she even read two at a time (shocking!). She was a homebody in her later years, and I was her main book supplier. Usually, I read the books I chose for her: Catherine Cookson, Maeve Binchy, and anything with a bit of nineteenth-century hardship and a splash of romance. None of the modern stuff appealed to her, but a tale in which a family had to share a single potato beside a fire about to flicker out in midwinter--now that floated her boat. She'd often say, "What's wrong with me that I like people starving and suffering in my stories?" And we'd laugh--because it was true. Sometimes she'd write little notes and tape them to the books before returning them: Very Good. Good. A little steamy! Loved, loved, loved! I still have some of these little scra...

Any avid reader knows there are books and then there are books. There are books you read and then forget, and there are certain books that stick with you for the rest of your life.   When I was about 14, I read Mervyn Peake's novel Titus Groan for the first time. Reading has always been my favorite sport, and I began making up stories at an early age...but this encounter with Peake changed me. His rich, somber fantasy was a world unto itself. His characters and settings were odd and fascinating and wonderful--and presented with such skill that although I've not read the Gormenghast trilogy for years, I can still remember Peake's people and places with clarity.     Reading Peake made me write in a new way. His novels and poetry unlocked a deep love of language in me, a love for the shapes and sounds of words. This love flowed out of my pen and filled my notebooks with brooding teenage poetry (stuff you will never ...