Quote de jour
"This nice and subtle happiness of reading, this joy not chilled by age, this polite and unpunished vice, this selfish, serene, life-long intoxication."
                                                                                                                                            ~Logan Pearsall Smith

I believe writers need to read. A lot. It's a good thing I read fast. Every week, I bring home a hernia-inducing load of books and magazines from the library. I read a schizo-blend of fiction, non-fiction, all genres and a zeitgeisty stew of periodicals. This batch does not include the ones I subscribe to such as The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Utne, The Nation, Variety and The Icelandic Review, to name a few. Re: books, I'm especially loving HOW FICTION WORKS by James Wood, a staff writer at the New Yorker.

Writers are often asked where they get their ideas. You have my answer. Inspiration is everywhere. 
An ad for travel to an exotic city, a fashion editorial, a photo of a steaming bowl of soup, a celebrity snafu, an antique strewn interior, the texture of fabric, the color of sky...Since we can't re-invent the wheel, I fill my brain until it explodes and spits out something new.