Reading phase.

I needed to take another break from writing for a while. It does take a lot out of me at times, just focusing on the story and the details, and working everything out. I finally got around to reading JK Rowling's last book of the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows. Quite a piece, if you ask me. A great story. Also very sad. Not just for the deaths of the heroes, but for an anti-hero, that I couldn't help but like, even if he was portrayed as unlikeable. JKR made him a very sympathetic character. She certainly has a great ability to develop her characters so well. Very realistic people. Multi-dimensional, capable of of cowardice, mistakes, and even doing wrong, but always being driven by something larger than themselves, and ultimately making the choice to do what is right, no matter what the cost to themselves.
She also has a great sense of humor. Plus she can make the characters and the situation really stir the reader's emotions.
I'm also finishing up HG Wells's collection of short stories. An archaic style, naturally, since it was written over a hundred years ago, but the unique way he told his tales, his interest in the discoveries of space and physics that were happening at the time and his incredibly complex imagination earned him his fame. My fave story of his so far is The First Men in the Moon. Good stuff.
A friend gave me, bless her, a gift card to Borders, and I used it to get some books I've had my eye on for a while, on writing and editing. I'm awaiting their arrival by mail, soon. So if I don't get back on my manuscript by then, I know that reading the books will get me going on it with renewed energy.