Day 7 of Thea and Viv’s Big Adventure. Hope you’re having as much fun as we are. Thank you to The Book Pushers for having us over.
Viv here first—for today’s adventure we’ve hit a patch of smooth, calm ocean. I was thinking about what calms me down, what things make me happy, and it’s amazing how often those things involve water. Paddling for hours down rivers and over lakes. The sound of a creek or a river. Ocean waves against a shore. Long hot baths on a cold night.
It’s also interesting how often calm is just a temporary thing, or more likely, a calm of my own making. Like this bay we visited in Newfoundland, Canada, the harbour is mirror-like and smooth, while the ocean continues to roar just outside the safety of the boundary-line.
I think that’s one of the reasons I love reading and writing. We all have situations in our lives that continue to roar, no matter what we do. Reading is an awesome way to escape for a while—to create our own quiet harbour where we can relax and recharge.
Thea? What’s your calm ocean story?
Hi folks! Thea here. 😀
I, too, find the ocean (or large bodies of water) gorgeous and soothing. Writing and reading can also give me this kind of feeling.
What I most often like to do is to sit and stare into space in the mornings while I have my first cup of coffee. It’s important for me to have all the lights off, and to simply exist in shadowed silence. This is quite meditative and restorative for me—I find that if I can’t get this kind of quiet time in, for whatever reason, I feel slightly off and disgruntled for the rest of the day.
This is also the time when a lot of things come together for me, such as patterns in whatever book I’m currently writing, or maybe solutions to a problem. I take this time to sort of “program” myself for good things. Sometimes I tell myself affirmations. Those can be as simple as this day is going to be a good day. Sometimes this is the only time I can actually pay attention to what my intuition might be trying to say to me.
I’m sharing with you one of my all-time favorite photos of one of my favorite trips to the beach. This is a candid of me and my daughter in 2003. The picture was taken by one of my daughter’s friends who had come with us. We were so happy that day.
Tomorrow we switch gears and head into a storm! Stop by Feeling Fictional to continue the tour.
Thea & Viv
THEA AND VIV’S BIG ADVENTURE is brought to you by Thea Harrison and Vivian Arend, New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors with a love for both travel and writing. They have joined together for the nefarious purpose of celebrating their next Samhain Publishing ebooks.
Thea’s DEVIL’S GATE released June 5. The novella returns readers to the world of The Elder Races. Available at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Samhain Publishing
WOLF LINE, #5 in Viv’s bestselling Granite Lake Wolves, is available June 12. Available at: Amazon | Barne’s & Noble | Samhain Publishing
Comment for your chance to win! Giveaway is open internationally and ends June 14th.
Information re: Grand Prize can be found at Thea or Viv’s
DAILY PRIZE: One commenter here at this blog will win their choice of one of Thea or Viv’s backlist Samhain ebooks from either the Elder Races or Granite Lake Wolves series. If you’ve got them all, you can gift this to a friend!
Winners from comments at all the tour stops will be announced at Viv’s and Thea’s blogs on JUNE 13.
Question for today: Do you have a ‘comfort’ read? Something you really enjoy when you want to escape?
Thanks for the stories ladies, and congrats on your new releases! I am so going enjoy them.
It’s always nice to hit a calm patch of water….for however long it lasts!
Congrats on the new releases ladies. Both books sounds amazing. Can’t wait to read them. My comfort reads are Bet Me and Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie, and Wedding In White by Diana Palmer.
Comfort read? I read to escape–I want to be taken away from the now. So I love love books that have little basis in reality. Paranormal, fantasy, sci fi, pirates, highland lairds, 🙂 dragons, you get the idea. I rarely reread–I remember most of what I read. I don’t like books that I know are going to purposefully manipulate my emotions , like Nickolas Sparks or Jodi Piccoult. Enough with the dying already! I want an HEA.
I love the ocean also. I’m a diver so I can’t help but imagine what’s beneath the waves and I love being out there, surrounded by water.
My current comfort reads are the entire Alpha/Omega series by Patricia Briggs, and Dragon Bound. I’m happy to reread Pia and Dragos anytime. I can’t wait for Lord’s Fall. Should be very interesting to revisit those two.
I LOVE the sound of water in the background ~ there is nothing more soothing to me. I’d love to have a lake house, with a ginormous porch where I could just site and relax and read when the whim hit me. When I grow up, I’m so getting one!
Thea ~ WOW, started Devil’s Gate in the AM this morning ~ I couldn’t QUIT! I’m already 54% ~ had to MAKE myself turn the kindle off at 5 am, so I could get SOME sleep. I love Duncan & Seramela ~ and how awesome you’ve given her snake their own little personality’s ~ and that Duncan is so amused by them! WIN!!!
I read to escape from my daily worries so I love stories with happy endings and good witty conversation. I love historical romances and urban fantasies with all paranormals.
usignolc(at)yahooDOTcom
My comfort read(s) is the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I love getting lost in that world and wishing that I could be strong and fierce as a Dark Hunter or be mated to one of the MANY sexy werehunters. A great comfort.
My favorit comfort books, thats a hard one because i have so many. I would have to say that Dagonbound and the Alpha and Omega series by patricia Briggs would be my favorit comfort books. Because they just pull me in to the stories and wont let me out for days on end.
I like that, so calm and outside so not calm. Have not seen anything like it before.
As for comfort I will read Magician, nothing like good fantasy
I agree, the ocean is great to relax. My comfort reads are the older Julie Garwood’s. I love the ones which take place in Scotland. They are so much fun!
Thanks for all the fun and lovely pics, Viv and Thea. My comfort reads are usually books that help me escape-one I read again and again is Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.
A comfort read? PNR/UF/Fantasy/SciFi (a Georgette Heyer, even)…anything that helps me escape, without wanting to throttle the characters for being stupid. A story that lets me drift off to another world for a while and just not think about the here and now.
Definitely couldn’t do without my comfort reads! Although I really should stop comforting myself with them and tackle that ginormous TBR pile…
I totally agree with what Viv said “We all have situations in our lives that continue to roar, no matter what we do. Reading is an awesome way to escape for a while—to create our own quiet harbour where we can relax and recharge.” I nearly always read because I want to go somewhere else for a while.
I don’t really have a specific comfort reads but I will reread books by my favourite authors where I know there is a happy(ish) ending, last time I was on a comfort reading binge, I actually reread the Elder Race series, which was good because Oracle’s Moon was about to come out, before that I reread the Kate Daniel’s series by Ilona Andrews
Thanks for the chance of a peek into your thought processes.
Meg
I grew up on Lake Ontario so I love the sound of waves crashing in and high winds too. I find them to be a lullaby. I sleep well when most people are afraid – I’m strange.
I don’t have a comfort read. Just reading is a comfort for me. Thanks for sharing such a nice post with us.
My favorite comfort reads are the Eve Dallas series. Love disappearing into that world.
I consider Julie Garwood’s historicals as my comfort reads especially Saving Grace and The Wedding.
I live near the water, so I love to sit and enjoy the sun, surf and sand. I love watching the sun set and it just calms me. As far as a “comfort read”, I don’t have one particular book. I will just go to the book shelf and grab what appeals to me at the time, which is mostly PNR or UF.
Great post. When I read it’s like an escape. My favorite genre to read is paranormal romance.
mythic021@gmail.com
I hear running water every night..we have a small river out front with the rushing water and the falls.Its so soothing.
I don’t re read books so I have no comfort reads.
My true comfort read book is Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott, if I’ve just read another book that is distressing. Has been since about 6th gradwe, I think.
I like to read Pride and Prejudice as a comfort read.
My calmness is watching the flame of a candle or watching the wood burn in the fireplace. To me, it is relaxing method where I could get rid of all the bad vibes of the day.
My comfort reads tend to be from these–SEP’s Ain’t She Sweet, Jennifer Crusie’s Welcome to Temptation or Cinderella Deal, Julia Quinn’s Bridgertons (especially The Duke and I and To Sir Phillip, With Love), Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels, Lisa Kleypas’s Devil in Winter, or any of a number of other favorites on the keeper shelf 🙂 While I also love reading new stories, sometimes it’s a dear pleasure to reread 😀
I reread a few of my books but not many since I don’t have time to reread but I love Judy Mays alien series. and a few others like Kresley Cole and Sherrilyn Kenyon.
Pamk
I love reading paranormal books, its a good way to escape reality!
I don’t have a comfort read per say except for romance in general. I read for comfort though. My calm sea/reflective times are when I am alone (occasionally) in the hot tub at my workout pool after deep water aerobics class. I adore sitting in the tub outside in whatever kind of weather meditating on whatever is floating through my brain trying to find resolution. The exercise tires my spinning mind abd the hot water sooths and relaxes me to be able to think.
Thanks for the Blog Adventure! It’s been a blast 🙂
@Taina Pfenninger: @Taina Pfenninger:
sorry i ment dragonbound and the rest of the elder races series by thea harrison.
Used to have comfort reads but now I just pick up and new book and start in. Mainly read PNR and Regencies.
My favorite ‘comfort’ reads are the paranormal books. I love their world. It is the best way to escape from reality, from problems. I think it is necessary for a little while during the day.
Chick-lits for me.
My comfort reads tend to be Mercedes Lackey’s Oath books or her Last Herald Mage. Simply adore the world and cast of characterss.
Raonaid at gmail dot com
My comfort reads are Nora Roberts books, especially the older ones.
My comfort reads are fantasies.
Thanks,
Tracey D
booklover0226 at gmail dot com