When all else fails, read.

Truly.  Nothing cure’s a bumpy life like a great book.  Couple life with traveling, or a segment of potentially boring or unpleasant time (waiting in an airport, waiting in a doctor’s office, waiting for a root canal) a book is a virtual lifesaver.

Friday morning at the Seattle airport just moments before I boarded my Horizon flight to Fresno, I grabbed a Mary Balogh historical romance from the bookstore.  I’ve never read her before although fellow authors who know me and my taste have said, Read Her.  The Hudson News had nearly a dozen of her titles and I wasn’t sure where to start, so I picked the Slightly Married book.  I liked the premise, loved the red cover, and adored the title as it set up the book’s premise perfectly.

The time to Fresno passed too quickly as I was devouring Slightly Married.  I couldn’t wait to return to reading on the flight home again.  And then I stayed up late Friday night to finish it, despite being beyond exhausted.

I loved the book.  I felt so safe reading.  I felt so happy reading.  I didn’t want it to end, and when it did, I just wanted more. 

Today Megan Crane called and we talked about writing and life and books.  I told her how I finally read my first Mary Balogh romance and she said she loved Balogh.  I said I wanted to read all of Balogh’s and it’s true.  If I didn’t need to be doing a lot of writing right now, I’d just dive head first into a stack of her novels.  Once I like an author, I must read it all–the new and the old,–and it becomes an addiction, only a happy one.

In life, there are bumps and snags and twisty paths and what a comfort it is to know that sometimes all we need is a couple hours alone and a great romance novel.