Top Five

I go to a critique group every Sunday that meets in a Barnes and Noble. After we meet, I go browsing through the store. Bookstores are one of my most favorite places to be and am often tempted to buy reference writing books. As you probably can guess, I have quite the collection of reference books. I decided to share my top five!

1. My most favorite reference book is Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus. I use this book while I write every single book!

2. How do you name your characters? I use The Writer's Digest Character Naming Book by Sherrilyn Kenyon. The book is divided by nationalities and even gives name meanings, tips on naming characters, and offers some surnames as well!

3. I write romantic suspense so I have to have the HOWDUNIT Forensics book. It's a guide for writers and includes a wide variety of information from gun shot wounds to poisons.

4. Have you ever wished you had a quick list of the topic you were writing about? A wonderful reference for writers is the Descriptionary by Marc McCutcheon. I have two editions of this book! Let's say your character is into archery. This book lists terms under that topic. Easy to use and lots of info!!

5. My last one is great. It's called Careers for your Characters by Raymond Obstfeld and Franz Neumann. It's divided by different career fields. The book tells what the day is like in the career, who to contact for more information, buzz words, job descriptions, tools of the trade, and so much more. It even includes books and movies that contains the career. Interesting book to read and it's one I actually use! It doesn't just sit on my bookshelf!

So what's your favorite reference book?