Focus, Daniel-san

Yes, I wrote Tuesday night. No, I didn't get much accomplished.

I'm having trouble staying focused.

Reading is my passion. There is a short list of things that give me greater happiness than reading, but it is a _very_ short list. I refuse to give up reading just because I'm writing. So far, I don't feel like it's compromised my voice or my ideas. I think I've been able to maintain those as my own, despite the fact that I read every day and read almost exclusively the genre I'm writing in. As I've said before, if Charlaine Harris can do it, so can I. Dammit.

Lately, however, I've been very distracted by my books. I want to read instead of write. I'm sure part of it is that I'm at a point in the book where I have to introduce three new characters in back to back scenes, which makes me apprehensive. I don't have the feel of their voice yet, what they would say and do, etc. so the writing is slow and filled with self-doubt.

But as I sat down in front of my bookshelf to clean up a bit today, I realized there may be another factor: my To Be Read (TBR) pile. It's ridiculous.

I'm a book junkie. Books are my crack and Barnes and Noble is my dealer. It's just that simple. I can't help myself. Usually, I've got 5-6 books in the TBR pile at any given time. Enough that I have a choice, but not so many that it's overwhelming. I had a pretty hefty TBR pile prior to Romantic Times and then I came back with a whole box of books. But that's ok -- it just meant that I wasn't going to buy more anytime soon. I'd just slowly work my way through the shelf and when my stack was dwindling, I'd refresh. Sounded like a good plan, anyway.

Then a new book came out from one of the authors that are on my immediate, jump-to-the-top-of-the-TBR-pile list. That brought me to Barnes and Noble (or Crack-haven as I think of it). Oops. Home with a bag of books.

Rinse and repeat.

So now I have this gigantic pile of books, at least half of which I'm _dying_ to read. Veeeeeeeery distracting.

To illustrate my point, I'm going to list them all here. Because I'm crazy and because I should really be writing. Ha!

In no particular order, here is my TBR shelf:

The Haunting by Lynne Connolly
No Regrets by Shannon K. Butcher
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks
I'm the Vampire, That's Why by Michelle Bardsley
Penelope & Prince Charming by Jennifer Ashley
Virgin River by Robyn Carr
The Nymph King by Gena Showalter
The New Well-Tempered Sentence by Karen Elizabeth Gordon
Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
There and Back Again by Sean Astin (I'm a Lord of the Rings freak)
Dark Need by Lynn Viehl
Dark Lover by J. R. Ward
Lover Awakened by J. R. Ward
One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory
Death of a Darklord by Laurell K. Hamilton
Wild Thing (Anthology, purchased for the Marjorie M. Liu story)
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey
Ivy Cole and the Moon by Gina Farago
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Second Chances by Joan Banks
Eats Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
Morrigan's Cross by Nora Roberts
Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (I'll pause while you shriek in horror at the notion that I've never actually read The Hobbit...)
Paths Not Taken by Simon R. Green
Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth by Simon R. Green
Kiss of Darkness by Heather Graham
Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead
Mona Lisa Awakening by Sunny
The Truth About Dogs by Stephen Budlansky
The Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier
The Vampire Chronicles Collection by Anne Rice (I've read Interview but it was long ago)
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy
Stone Maiden by Tina Gerow
Doing It Right by MaryJanice Davidson
Hell's Belles by Jackie Kessler
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
Perfect Husbands by Regina Barreca
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (I read it a long time ago but want to re-read)
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (Again, I'll pause for the horror. Even I find it hard to believe I have a Bachelors degree in English without having ever read it.)
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (*sigh* Shriek away...)


Wow. I've even freaked myself out. That's 46 books. And this list doesn't even take into account the dozen or so immediate must haves that are either out now (new Betsy!) or will come out in the next few months.

Anyone have a twelve step program they can recommend?