Shannon A. Thompson writes:
As an author and full-time editor, I’m coming across more and more writers who don’t read their own genre, or — even worse — don’t read at all. There are generally two types of these writers.
1. Writers who claim to read but obviously don’t (and I’ll get to how it is obvious later).
2. Writers who haven’t read anything since they left high school twenty years ago.
Spoiler Alert: Neither of these options is okay.
Writers, please, oh please, you must read—and you must read often, especially in your own genre. As the infamous Stephen King once said, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” I adamantly agree with him.
Read the rest here.
And on 
Darrick Dean 