Welcome back, my fellow creatives! Winter is the perfect time to curl up in a blanket with a pile of books, and I can think of no better place to find those books than at the local library.
It’s all too easy to just meander over to my favorite sections, though, and 2022 is the year to try new things! So, for this series on Story Cuppings, I am only going to pick books from my library’s New Release shelf by the entrance. Those books could be of any genre, fiction or nonfiction. If it’s on that shelf, it’s game for a podcast!
Today I plucked from the New Release shelf:
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
What does a reader experience in those opening pages, and what lessons can a writer take away in studying but a few paragraphs? Let’s find out!
If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.
I actually got to read the entire first chapter for this episode! We’ve both a powerful narrator and protagonist, and the humanity of the protagonist is a stark contrast to the bleak world of his Communist home. Perhaps you have many memories of the Cold War; I’ve a fair few myself. But never this close, never this intimate. And I think…I think I am ready to learn.
And say, what’s on the New Release shelf at your own local library? I’d love to know!
Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!
