Nicola Griffith vaulted to the top of my favorite author list many years ago when I discovered Slow River.

It was the first time I'd come across a book that made me FEEL as if the main character was real. That she acted realistically. She had to get herself out of abusive relationships. She had to decide who she wanted to be. In short, it was a version of what we all have to do throughout our lives. And it includes a near-future concept of what a biological water cleaning plant might look like that blew me away. (why isn't that facility reality? Can someone please show that book to like every major garbage company in the world please?)

And then my friend Chavala moved to Seattle and got to know Nicola and her partner, Kelley, and I got to go to her wedding and MEET Kelley (although I was so fan girlish I could barely speak to her).

So I instantly put Nicola on my "instantly buy" author list and she has yet to disappoint me, despite her writing growing and changing genre. I highly recommend her Aud series (not speculative at all, highly intense emotional thrillers).

So, go out and read her if you haven't yet. But, back to the topic of this post.

In the face of our country's financial meltdown, I found it refreshing to read her post about things to do everyday.

I think I hit about five things on her list most every day (by her criteria, that means every day is a bad day, yikes)

I got the chocolate, doing nothing for five minutes, fruit, vegetable, read a novel, and drink water. Some of the others I'm working on.

There's nothing like a "back to the basics" post to remind yourself that despite economic upheavel, really the most important things have more to do with how lucky you are to be born in a country with access to water and food, and that the way to live life is to enjoy these things an be grateful for them.