I'm thrilled to share this awesome guest post from Nadine Rose Larter wrote for us today. Tomorow I will be sharing and interview with Nadine and on Friday my review of her book Coffee at Little Angels.

Reading is like being in love
by Nadine Rose Larter

You know, until someone asks you to write a guest blog post on Contemporary Fiction you kind of view it as one of those things that you instinctively understand but can’t explain. Sort of like The X Factor – it’s a you-know-it-when-you-see-it kind of thing. Of course, according to Einstein, this means that you do not understand it at all…

And you know what? Google searching doesn’t help much…

My theory is this: When you write a book and you can’t quite figure out which genre it fits into, you tick the Contemporary Fiction box. It is definitely the one that sounds the coolest, isn’t it? It’s like a box with no sides, so absolutely anything can fit inside of it.

To me, good contemporary fiction takes all those scrambled thoughts in your head and shows them to you in a comforting and digestible manner. It helps you to pull yourself towards yourself. Good contemporary fiction makes you understand yourself better and it makes you understand others better. It makes you feel enlightened, and happy, even if the topic isn’t always happy. And I think that is what I strive towards in my own writing. When I look at my favourite contemporary writers I notice that there is one element that is never missing: whenever I read their work I am always nodding. My mind is always going yes yes yes that is exactly how it is! Suddenly I understand people that I have nothing in common with on an intensely deep level. I understand their fears and their motivations. Books like Man and Boy by Toni Parsons and How to be Good by Nick Hornby have actually become a big part of my person. That sounds insane perhaps but those books did so much for my life. And they had nothing to do with mushy love stories. They were just about regular people living regular lives, but somehow Hornby and Parsons are especially good at showing you the exquisite beauty of the ordinary life and I will always be grateful to them for that. From them I also learnt the importance of “honest writing”. There is absolutely nothing better than reading something and feeling as if you are being told the truth. And by “truth” I don’t mean things that are possible – in my opinion every line in every Harry Potter book comes off as truthful too – but things that feel real to your soul.  Reading a good book should be like lying in the arms of someone that you trust. It should feel safe, even when it is scary, even when it is sad. And when you are done, your heart should break just a little bit at the idea that it is all over, because if you only feel relieved when you get to the end of a story, then something is surely very wrong… Come to think of it…reading is a lot like being in love…which is kind of why it is so addictive…

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