Enjoying books as a writer and as a reader

I’m writing from the afterglow of a few recent Arkansas literary events.

First stop, Mountain Home. It’d been a while since I’d made the drive up Highway 7, headed toward Yellville where I fished the cool, clear waters of Crooked Creek with my father as a boy. Making that trip, I was reminded of how much that landscape inspired the setting for my second novel, “Ozark Dogs.”

I was on my way to Arkansas State University-Mountain Home to talk about that very book, thanks, in large part, to a woman named Terre (pronounced Terry) Ware.

I didn’t know much about Terre, but as soon as I pulled onto campus and heard a woman shout, “Be still, my heart!” I knew Terre was my kind of people.

Turns out, Terre was a Delta girl too. Just like my momma, and all my extended family. Right from the start, that’s what Terre felt like — family — and she treated me as such, along with all the fine folks at ASU-MH. We dined on the beautiful campus lawn, we had a rollicking chat in front of a capacity crowd, and then I took off back down the windy highway that had brought me there.

A week later, I was the one in the audience, and Kevin Brockmeier was onstage.

For those unfamiliar with Kevin’s work, I’ll skip the laundry list of awards, fellowships and international translations, and just say this: Kevin is one of Arkansas’ best writers, ever.

“Best” is subjective, of course, just like art, but for my money, it’s hard to beat Kevin’s body of work.

Kevin came to Arkansas Tech University to read from “The Ghost Variations,” his collection of (extremely short) short stories. The library hummed silent as he read. Outside, the sky stood October dark, the air chilled — the perfect setup for a reading of “ghost” stories.

I employed quotation marks above because Kevin’s stories aren’t really ghost stories. There are elements of the supernatural — undead parakeets, haunted mirrors and a young man who hears numbers in his head — but there’s more than

that, too. So much more.

What sets Kevin’s work apart is heart. Here is a writer who knows a thing or two about the human condition, and that knowledge was on full display over the course of our evening together.

Before he took center stage, Kevin was kind enough to meet me at a nearby Mexican restaurant. Over the course of our meal, I was treated to a master class on living the writer’s life. Kevin even went so far as to give me a copy of his favorite crime novel, “Black Wings Has My Angel” by Elliot Chaze.

As I was flipping through the slim book, Kevin asked me about my reading routine. I admitted it hadn’t been so great lately. I told him I’d been juggling being on the road while also trying to pen my next manuscript. I told him the only real reading I’d done felt more like “homework.”

Kevin bit into a tortilla chip and nodded before explaining how he balances his writing and reading. In short, Kevin said one should read to fill their soul, and then let that same soul spill out onto the blank page.

I didn’t think much of his advice, not until his event was over and it was time for us to part ways. When I slipped out of the library, my mind was already jumping ahead to the rest of the week’s activities … that is, until I felt the weight of the slim crime novel cradled in my left hand.

The air was still crisp, the night sky dark. Tree limbs shimmered like ghosts above me. Sitting in my truck, with the windows rolled down, I cracked that book and started to read, just for the fun of it. Something I hadn’t done in far too long.

Eli Cranor is the nationally bestselling, Edgar-Award-winning author of “Don’t Know Tough” and “Ozark Dogs.”He can be reached using the“Contact”page at elicranor.com and found on X (formerly Twitter) @elicranor.