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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?

Current Mood: okay

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

kerravonsen

I really must re-read "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld" again.

My comfort reads?

"Scout's Progress" by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller has become one of my comfort reads in recent years. I think it pushes many of my favourite buttons:
- the ugly-duckling heroine (shy, low self-esteem, but actually very talented in certain areas)
- the dark-and-brooding hero
- that it is friendshippy before it gets 'shippy
- In Space (as

astrogirl2 says, everything is better when it's In Space)
- it's a trading empire, not a war situation
- a touch of psi

"Paladin of Souls" by Lois McMaster Bujold is one I keep coming back to, partly because I love the idea of a non-young heroine having adventures (and of course, it's Chalion, which has much deep thoughts).

"The Beacon At Alexandria" by Gillian Bradshaw because it has everything: the past as an alien planet, a heroine, a secret identity, doctoring, politics, unrequited love, and a happy ending. Is the best.

I also keep on re-reading her "Island of Ghosts" because I really like the hero in it; a warrior, a leader, who is honourable and true, and intelligent enough to work his way through to honour and truth in a new culture, despite all the dangers and traps around him.