If you want to improve word play read Terry Pratchett books. Read all of them, and then reread them.
Here you can get a good example. This short is not by Pratchett but the characters in it are his and they play true to his form. One could say this film is Terry Pratchett's super fan Eulogy. A work of love by those who loved him.
Catching up on some Anne Rice ATM. I understand her characters. I can connect to their violent traumas and her message of being forced out of polite society because you were surviving and had circumstances you couldn't share to develop human connections.