These are the times for comfort.

We reach for comfort food (my latest favorite is Nairn’s gluten-free biscuit, especially the stem ginger and chocolate varieties) and find a cozy spot to snack and assume the position.

Nairn's Comfy Biscuit
Nairn’s Comfy Biscuit

What’s your comfort book? Odd contortioning aside, the aforementioned comfy position is ready-made for comfort books.

Do you reach for a good cozy like Ellery Adams’ The Secret, Book & Scone Society series, young adult fantasy such as Sara Holland’s Havenfall, or a newly discovered favorite genre? Perhaps you revisit fascinating worlds (Anne McCaffrey, Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. Le Guin), travel through time (Deborah Harkness, Jacqueline Winspear, Walt Witman, Harriet Tubman), or fall in paranormal love (Carmen Fox).

Yesterday I dusted off Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy, the junior deluxe edition. It is the same copy I read as a kid. How I still have it is a mystery. I shall now assume the comfy position. Ready, begin!

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Happy comfy reading to you with yours!


Fiction writer and author, Tanya D. Dawson, has written a story for the young adult in all of us. Her pending novel, Andersen Light: A Mystic Creek Novel [working title], is an atypical tale set in our everyday reality alongside an unknown world of extraordinary others. This becoming-who-you-are adventure breathes fresh air and light into the world of YA fiction, without giving up the angst or the weird. While Andersen Light is primarily set the fictional town of Mystic Creek, Oregon, Tanya lives and works in the American Southwest.


Early endorsements of Andersen Light: A Mystic Creek Novel:

“You really are evidently an extraordinary writer. Show the world you are an extraordinary storyteller, too. You have a beautiful style and a great eye for detail. Your story is lovely. I can see it being commercial. Yay!” – Carmen Fox, author of Show Don’t Tell: Immersive Writing from the Roots Up, as well as urban fantasy, paranormal romance, young adult novels, puzzles and games.

“A great read, intriguing from the beginning to the end. Suspenseful, but at the same time a great adventure. It encouraged me to open my mind to possibilities. I am amazed and in awe. What a glorious and sacred space you’ve created in Andersen Light: A Mystic Creek Novel.” – Adolfo Quezada, author of over twenty spiritual books, retired counselor and psychotherapist.

“I enjoyed very much reading your book… interesting that it delved into areas that I know very little about. I want to read it again. It was action packed and kept me intrigued with what would happen next. I hope you can continue to write about more of Georgie’s adventures.” – Susan F. Mitchell, Defense and intelligence contractor executive, retired; former executive board member, National Classification Management Society; spoiler of grandchildren.

“In her debut novel, Andersen Light: A Mystic Creek Novel, Tanya D. Dawson weaves an empowering tale of adventure, intrigue, and mystery. A mystical coming-of-age story involving a race of “meta-normals” living among humans in the modern-day world, the novel inspires courage to be the very best version of one’s true self. A bold new addition to young adult fiction!” – R. D. Petti, author of the Nettie’s Tea House series including: A Tale of the Afterlife, Beyond the Veil, In the In-Between, and Yuletide Homecoming. She is a Letters member of the National League of American Pen Women. “Reflections on a Passing” was awarded a first place poetry prize and published in Illuminations of the Soul. “Ghosts of Lakeside Inn” was selected for publication in The Best of Spiritual Writers Network 2016. R. D. Petti is an award-winning finalist in the Fiction: Visionary and Fiction: New Age categories of the 2018 International Book Awards.

Andersen Light: A Mystic Creek Novel is a clever story with a fresh perspective that normalizes people possessing metaphysical spiritual gifts. Becoming fully one’s self, strengthening powerful attributes, contributing to the exposure and defeat of negative forces is all part of growing up for teenager Georgie Jones and others like her. Their adventures provide insight about paranormal phenomena, as they take the reader into a world filled with pain, crime, love, compassion, friendship, and evolving humanity. If you want to expand your understanding of what it means to be a spiritual being having a human experience, this book is for you.”– Dalene Fuller Rogers, M.Div. BCETS, is an ordained minister and author of Pastoral Care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Healing the Shattered Soul, contributing writer in Forgotten Followers, and creative director and founder of Insight Multifatih Spiritual Direction.