In Case of Emergency

[rj_anderson]

After giving myself a month off after finishing the revisions of Knife (well, not counting the crash-and-burn I did at the end of February when I was trying to work on Touching Indigo and my brain was having none of it), I resolved to start in on Wayfarer again, and try to reestablish the habit of writing 2-3 hours a day, every day.

The first session today went... not so well. In fact, it was positively depressing. After a while I gave up and tried to read one of the books my editor sent me, but I just wasn't feeling the love. So I turned to one of my favorite comfort reads, Patricia McKillip's The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, and it felt like relaxing into a warm mental bath. Even my tortured inner line-editor shut up after the first few pages.

What are your favorite comfort reads?

Comments

[sarahsan]

Shadow Castle, by Marian Cockrell--An oldie, but a goodie that reminds me of being a kid, when my mom would read it to me.

A Candle In Her Room, by Ruth M. Arthur--Chick-lit before chick-lit was a genre, involving an evil doll passed down through generations of girls.

Charlotte's Web, which I haven't read in years but which used to be my default when I ran out of things to read (well, that and Little House On Rocky Ridge).

Hmm, apparently my brain defaults to my childhood literature for comfort...Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card, is a quick, ridiculously fun read, and a good book of short stories is always a comfort because it requires so much less commitment. ^_^;;

[camillofan.livejournal.com]

Good heavens, someone else knows A Candle in Her Room! I've never forgotten that book, and it's at least 35 years since I first read it.

[sarahsan]

My mother read Ruth Arthur books when she was much younger, and so has spent the last ten years or so collecting all of them (or nearly all :P). Of the ones I have read, I think Candle is still my favorite, though I liked Whistling Boy a lot, too. <3 Both so haunting...love 'em.