Sheila

• Writing the Novel from Plot to Print, Lawrence Block. Block says, if you wanna write a novel, write a novel – don’t play with short stories first unless you wanna write short stories – they’re extremely different genres.
• Writing the Mystery, G. Miki Hayden. Good comprehensive guide, and new book that was nominated for Agatha last year; interviews with many known published authors about how they did things.
• How to Write a Mystery, Larry Beinhart. Good intro book, covers plotting and characters, etc.
• Deadly Doses: A Writer’s Guide to Poisons, Writer’s Digest. Excellent resource about what kills quickly and in what doses, includes garden plants.
• And anything by Natalie Goldberg: Writing Down the Bones, Thunder and Lightning, etc. Good motivational stuff to keep going.

Dee Ann

• The Stand, Stephen King. The Stand is a journey I like to relive about every two years. I bought the hardcover new in 1987. King has a way of showing you things a movie can’t. This is an epic tale of a biological weapon, an ever mutating ‘super flu’ the world soon calls ‘Captain Trips’ that winds up in a showdown between good and evil with the few survivors left in America. My favorite quality about anything King writes is that he faithfully keeps you in the story. This is his genius, IMO.
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis. Another journey, this one a delightful classic. I read this book for the first time in fifth grade, and most recently about 6 months ago. Of all Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the most fascinating. The closet that leads to another world, the ‘bad’ faun who lulls Lucy to sleep with his strange little straw flute, the magic Turkish Delight of which Edmund can’t stop eating… This book showcases, IMO, the best of Mr. Lewis’s imagination put to work.
• Writer’s Market (Released annually) from Writer’s Digest Books. I’ve seen many writer’s websites that scoff at anything from Writer’s Digest, but within the pages of this thesaurus-size book are highly organized lists of publishers, agents, magazines, contest and award information, and what each wants from a writer. There are articles on query-writing, e-queries, synopsis-writing, and a writer’s rights. I pick this book up often enough to justify the price tag every year.
• Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass. I bought this book last year because I admired Mr. Maass, and I wanted to hear what he had to say. I’m pleased to report this book is insightful in many respects, it is well-written and entertaining (not didactic at all), and leaves messages imbedded in the brain that continue to help my writing in many ways. His best advice, IMO? Build high human worth to raise the stakes in your novel, or the reader won’t care what happens to your characters.
• Dance Upon the Air, Nora Roberts (1st in the Three Sisters Island trilogy). Nora is a fantastic writer, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed her stories. I have an exceptional eye for other writers’ mistakes (though not my own, of course) and Nora doesn’t make too many, if any at all, IMO. She doesn’t confuse, she doesn’t meander, she sticks to the story and makes you care as she leads you into the lives of her realistic characters. She’s been described as a word artist, and I think that’s apropos for her, especially in this book. In some ways, Dance Upon the Air made me think of Sleeping With the Enemy, which was also a good book.
• Sleeping With the Enemy, Joseph Ruben. This came out when I was in college, and though I didn’t have the time to spare for anything fiction (unless it was assigned by a professor), I made the time for this book. It’s a gripping thriller. The movie was good too, but different. The characters in the book were more realistic than the movie’s la-la-la, beautiful Julia Roberts show philosophy, IMO, of course.

Ana

• I’m very fond of Robertson Davies, perhaps with special notice given to Cunning Man and the Deptford Trilogy (Hmmm… Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders). I astonished myself once by saying that if Davies could write as fast as I could read, I’d never read anything else. Alas, he’s gone now.
• Also Umberto Eco’s Name of the Rose, with special attention to the afterword, in which he discusses how he put the novel together.

Boots

• The Rose of the Prophet, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. There are three books in this series. Fantasy. Two warring tribes are forced together through matrimony to save the life of their god.
• Bird by Bird, Anne Lamont. Non-fiction. “Some instructions on writing and life.” A great way to look at the writing life and then to start living it. Full of humor and spice and some simple, yet profound, writing advice.
• Fall of Atlantis, Marion Zimmer Bradley. Fantasy. (Compliation of two books.) Follows two sisters as they grow to womanhood, struggling to remain together while they strive along very different paths.
• Circle of Three, Patricia Gaffney. Fiction. A novel about three generations of women, each trying to hang to the other and build relationships after a death.
• Belinda, Anne Rice. Fiction. About a girl who is older than she looks, and a man who is younger than he seems.
• Effortless Prosperity, Bijan. Self-help/Inspiration. 30 simple lessons to change your life in a month. Easy to understand and follow guide to create peace in your life and reach for your dreams.
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Fiction. A good standard that shows the value of research mixed with imagination.

Bonnets

• Favorite authors whose writing has so captured me that I’ve felt transported to another time and space: Isabel Allende, Barbara Kingsolver, Henry David Thoreau, William Butler Yeats, Anatole France, W. Somerset Maugham, Albert Camus, James Thurber, Molly Ivins, Sappho, Emily Dickinson, J.D. Salinger.

Billiard

• A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle. A classic, one that’s stuck with me through many years and that I want to share with my own children one day.
• On Writing, Stephen King. Thoughtful and inspiring, a great read for anyone who’s a writer.
• Harry Potter series, JK Rowling. Great children’s books are more than just “children’s books”. These are.

Beaver

• Meet the Austins / The Moon by Night / A Ring of Endless Light, Madeleine L’Engle. Undoubtedly the biggest influence on me, my writing, my choices during my teen years.
• Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. The copy we had when I was growing up will always be The Dictionary to me. I loved this book. How much? I’ve asked that it be bequeathed to me…
• The Language of the Goldfish, Zibby Oneal. Still my standard for young adult fiction.
• Jalna (series), Mazo de la Roche. A great big family saga.
• A Circle of Quiet, Madeleine L’Engle. Part memoir, part writing advice. One of the best books I’ve read “on writing”. Deals with giving up, the compulsion to write, and success after much rejection.
• Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, Simone de Beauvoir. Part memoir, part philosophy. Read at a schism in my life, I identified with de Beauvoir’s reaction to her childhood and her existentialist philososphy.
• Georgia O’Keeffe, Georgia O’Keeffe. Memoir mixed with the artist’s work. Fabulous insight into the creative process.
• Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg. The book that got me to stop thinking about writing, and start doing it.
• The Weight of Oranges/Miner’s Pond, Anne Michaels. Absolutely delicious way with words. This poetry has had a strong influence on my style. Great book to read if you’re looking to put music into your writing.
• Regeneration (series), Pat Barker. These blow me away on so many levels. The writing is fabulous. The research is meticulous. The blending of fact & fiction is seamless. And oh yeah, Billy Prior is the best. character. ever.

Banker

• Wizard’s First Rule, Terry Goodkind. My current read; I don’t know why I waited so long to start it because I can hardly put it down.
• The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks. The next greatest fantasy epic after–
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien. What can I say that hasn’t been said already? I first read this in my early teens and it woke me up to the fact that fantasy wasn’t just fairy tales.
• A Wrinkle In Time (the trilogy), Madeleine L’Engle. Actually the third book in this trilogy was the best, but I loved the characters and the sense of magic in all the books.
• The Hound and the Falcon (trilogy), Judith Tarr. Historical fantasy: who knew it could be done, and so well?
• The Colour of Magic (and everything succeeding), Terry Pratchett. The man’s a comic genius. Enough said.
• The Once and Future King, T.H. White. The definitive version of the definitive heroic tale.
• The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis. Smaller in scope than Middle-Earth, yet no less wonderful for that.
• The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson. I picked up the first book on a whim, never having heard of it before, and I was hooked before the end of the first chapter. Six books in all, each more intense than the last, dark but satisfying.
• Sanctuary (edited), Robert Asprin and Lynne Abbey. It was after reading about Thieves’ World that my own fantasy world began to take shape, so I suppose I owe the most debt to this series of books.

Baker

• These are the books I own with broken spines, torn covers and dogearred pages. Some I have more than one copy and in those cases, I recommend the hardback. And if I could recommend one more, it would be Treasure Island ;).
• A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway.
• Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll.
• Back Roads, Tawni O’Dell.
• The Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger.
• The Color Purple, Alice Walker.
• The Discworld Novels, Terry Pratchett.
• The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• The Green Mile, Stephen King.
• The Moon Is Always Female, Marge Piercy.
• The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway.