That's beautiful cover art, isn't it? I love lightning. Well, not so much when it strikes within ten miles of the house, because it knocks out the electricity, the land phone lines, the cable, and anything else that isn't powered by Duracell. But aside from the way it messes with our gadgets, lightning is a beautiful part of Nature.
Back in April I did a giveaway for Raintree: Inferno by Linda Howard, the first novel in a new Nocturne trilogy. Last week when I saw the second novel, Raintree: Haunted by Linda Winstead Jones, was out I grabbed all the copies left at BAM (four.) And some of you, my Wednesday readers, are going to get your hands on them.
In comments to this post, tell us what element of Nature you admire most, and why, by midnight EST on Friday, June 22, 2007. I'll draw four names at random from everyone who participates and send the winners an unsigned copy of Linda Winstead Jones' Raintree: Haunted (also, if the winner hasn't yet read it, I'll throw in an unsigned copy of the first book in the trilogy, Raintree: Inferno by Linda Howard.) Giveaway open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something at PBW in the past.
FIRE would be the element I admire most. To me it represents change, light and warmth.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this qualifies as an "element," but I love volcanoes. They're so powerful, so primeval. They take you back to when the Earth was not such a nice place...and it could be that way again, if the supervolcano in Yellowstone goes off.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I didn't mean to be quite so depressing... :(
I think the element I admire most is water. It's a part of almost everything on this earth. And without it anything living on this planet would die.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment: the sea. With the three near-cyclonic storms we've had in the past two weeks, the surf is up... way up, stripping the beaches, pounding the rocks, spuming off cliff-faces in spectacular fountains. The sheer power is incredible.
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether Mother Nature is sorry for the eight or so years of drought and is going overboard with the rain, or she's supremely pissed about something!
I really love the ocean - I could sit on the beach all day and watch the waves roll in.
ReplyDeleteI love water in all its forms. From the silence of a foggy day in Winter, to the atmospheric violence of a lightning storm; water has a cleansing effect on my soul (no pun intended... honestly).
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of air- we breathe it, after all.
ReplyDeleteWind/Air.
ReplyDeleteIt's getting really hot and muggy where I am, and a bit of breezy makes all the difference in the world. ;)
Mine is rain. It's like a catharsis for nature. I try to slow down and think about what I could clean up in my own life every time it rains.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to say an element... It would be water... But that's only because of one type of water - snow.
ReplyDeleteSomehow a light sprinkling of snow can make anyone smile, whether it's a little kid raring to make snowballs, or an old woman anticipating snowflakes melting on her cheeks....
Is it obvious that I love snow? :)
But I admire it because snow can be so very beautiful!
I'm leaning towards Ocean (having just come back from a trip along the Great Ocan Road - Victoria Australia) and also watching news casts of the coal ship beached off of Newcastle - the Ocean is wonderful, inspiring and to be treated with respect.
ReplyDeletenot really an element of Nature but at the moment i am really touched by compassion. A friend of mine saw an article of people in need - an underfunded Hospice in Thailand. rather than just say how sad that people were suffering she has set about raising money for food and medicine.
The element I admire most is water because I like the rain when it splashes against the window, and I like watching the waves crash on the beach and that is what we need to survive!
ReplyDeleteTerri W.
Warm rain on a summer day as you walk under a canopy of broadleafed trees. Scent is awakened for is sun-baked catharsis to burst over the senses.
ReplyDeleteI think before I would have said water, specifically ocean waves. They are primal and powerful and joyful and frightening. But. I since have been sort of fixated on mud. It started when I heard about the amazing mud volcano in Indonesia (here's an article: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14490) It has been pouring 50 olympic-sized swimming pools per day for a year. No end in sight. I think what I find so compelling about it is what I find compelling about waves. They are. They speak the voice of the earth and they are relentless and endless.
ReplyDeleteDi
Sun.
ReplyDeleteI crave sunlight. I can remember living in an apartment that got very little light, but when tiny rays would find their way inside, I'd curl up on the floor like a cat and let it beat down on me.
If there was never a cloudy day, I'd be a happy camper.
Clouds.
ReplyDeleteThey are the shape of dreams.
The ocean, especially the sound of waves crashing upon the shore.
ReplyDeleteWe had a violent electrical storm last night, and a bolt hit yards from our house, but it seems the work done to make our power supply secure held :). Only a bit of flickering. I love watching thunderstorms...from a safe place.
ReplyDeleteBut I think what I love most is the sea. We are fortunate to live near the coast, and almost every weekend we drive out to the beach. Then again, I love a bluebell wood when the bluebells are in flower.
Oh, I know--what I love most is ducks! lol
That is a very nice Nocturne cover.
ReplyDeleteI like the Aurora (Borealis or Australis), it puts up nice a show on "the big screen".
I love storms. When I was young, my dad and I used to sit out in the garage in lawn chairs with the garage door up and watch the wind and rain. One of my best memories of childhood.
ReplyDeleteI love the moon. There's nothing more beautiful to me about nature than the moon. Its changeability, its mystery, its cool silence, the way its light changes the landscape into something mystical and wonderous.
ReplyDeleteI love waking up sometimes and wondering what is that strange light coming through my window and realizing it's not something man-made but moonlight.
And, well, it may sound silly but I also love the fact that when I look up at the full moon I'm looking at the same moon that Shakespeare and Aristole and Jane Austen and Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson and all the other great writers and thinkers of our time looked up at. The moon gives me a connection, in some way, to all who've come before, those I share the planet with now and those who will come after.
We'll all be looking at the same moon.
Definitely water.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the first thing scientists look for on a planet? WATER! Two hydrogens and an oxygen. Without it, there would be no life.
Wind. Unless your a scientist, it's pretty much a mystery. It's invisible, except for the effects of it. I'm a Christian, so it reminds me of God. I just think it's amazing.
ReplyDeleteBall lightening. How can you not? It's a glowing ball of electricity that creeps along the ground and explodes when it hits something. How sci-fi is that?
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love rain. The way it smells. The way it seems to make the whole world new. A good steady rain (when I'm all cozy inside) is one of my favorite kind of days. It just makes me feel good. I even love being out in, provided I'm not on my way to work in a dry-clean only suit.
ReplyDeleteThunder and lightning. We have a mountain house left to my husband and his siblings by their grandmother. There is nothing I like better than to lie in my bed at night in this hundred year-old house and listen to thunder rolling over the mountains. Then the complete darkness lights up. And I make a mad dash downstairs to turn off the water pump before it takes a hit.
ReplyDeleteKaren, the lurker
Can I say "all of it?" No? I'd pick the untameable fire, then.
ReplyDeleteWater. I live on a really big island, so it probably isn't that surprising, but I've always loved it. It cleans, and washes, and always changes, bringing stuff in and taking stuff out.
ReplyDeleteI also have a fear of fire, naked flames especially. Nowhere near a phobia, but I constantly watch lit candles and I really don't like having to pull things out of the oven.
I'm tossing my name in the hat for Haunted; but I already have Inferno, because, just like all Viehl novels, I buy Howard on the first day of release.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that admire is the right word for what I feel but I have always been fascinated with tornadoes. They scare the hell out of me, but I don't think if I ever saw one in person, I'd be able to turn away from watching all that raw power. When I was a teenager living in MI, a bad storm went through and I stood on the back porch watching the clouds swirl in circles over my head. It never dropped a spout in my county, but I think it hit the county to the east.
ReplyDeleteI make fire for a living, but I grew up on a farm and will still stick anything in a pot if it looks like it'll sprout, so I have to say earth.
ReplyDeleteI like rain because the earth smells nice afterwards and the air feels freshly scrubbed.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say Fire or lightning. They're both so powerful and so beautiful and so terrifying. I love to watch them!
ReplyDeleteHow do you read so much?! You read more in a week than I do in a month, and writing at the same time!
I grew up in South Dakota and miss the lightning storms. The lack of hills and trees meant that even if the storm was 10 or 12 miles away, I could see it from my back yard. Actually, those were the best storms because you typically could see the whole storm too.
ReplyDeleteIce. I love an ice storm. I live in MS, so this happens rarely. I know they make a mess, pulling down power lines and snapping pine trees. But, to see everything covered in ice, and to hear the squeaking of the ice as the tree limbs sag toward the ground-it's great. Everything else is so quiet.
ReplyDeleteThe sunlight shining through all the ice-I love it.
Maybe it's not really an element, per se, but I love that smell right when it begins to rain or thunderstorm on a hot day.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite would be water because it helps the plants to grow and helps to sustain life.
ReplyDeleteI admire so many beautiful elements --but snow always leave me with the innocent excitement of childhood (mostly the hope of no school the next day!)
ReplyDeleteTornadoes. Fascinated by them. I grew up in the Midwest, so that tingle of fear and anticipation still gets me when the sky goes green-gray and the wind kicks up.
ReplyDeleteAfternoon thunderstorms. Seeing them roll in, and the possibility of seeing a rainbow afterwards...
ReplyDeletePeri
water because it can help life, take life, or just allow you to enjoy life by playing in it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that "admire" is the right word here. "Respect may be more appropriate.
ReplyDeleteI love a nice clear day, blue sky, light breeze, and with a temp of 80 F degrees, not too hot. I can move around nicely in that kind of weather.
Hurricanes and tornadoes. If you have never been close to a real tornado, all the clips from Television and movies will do justice. And being in the middle of a hurricane is no picnic either. (Ask both Sheila and Holly!). I've experienced both, and although impressive, you don't want to be there when they are.
Snow. It's beautiful. And sunshine. For the same reason. And chocolate raisin oatmeal cookies. Not an element, but what a cool world it would be if they were. Seas of cookies ...
ReplyDeleteI'll go with water, especially the ocean, so beautiful and always interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt has to be water for me too...
ReplyDeleteIt can be anything from a peaceful, still lake in the country, to the raging torrent of a flash flood.
The sea. Gleaming in the morning sun or whipped by a storm, brewing fogs or gently splashing around your ankles when you check the beach for amber the last nights storm might have washed up, standing on the outer deck of a ferry at night and watch the lights of oil platforms in the distance like an extension of the starlit sky ...
ReplyDeleteI've always been a fan of the night sky. I grew up on a farm in southwestern Ontario, so I had a lot of opportunities to see it in it's full splendor.
ReplyDeleteMy dad is an astronomy buff, so the whole family slept on the back patio to watch a lunar eclipse when I was around 12. He pointed out the constellations and planets. We'd wrap up in blankets on the front lawn to watch the Leonids and Persids meteor showers. We didn't have a telescope (hmm, gift idea!), but in the country it is amazing how much you can see with the naked eye.
When I started to drive and therefore stayed out late, I'd always sit in the car for a few minutes, admiring the stars before I went into the house.
We aren't far enough north that the Aurora is a regular occurance, so when it is visible (I've seen it twice in 30 years), it's definitely a special occasion.
No matter the weather, the night sky has something to offer. There's nothing so spectacular as lines of clouds suddenly revealed by a quick flash of lightning, nothing so comforting as a swirling blizzard outside your bedroom window.
Wow -- 48 comments already -- I must be late today. Water, anything water. Oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds, puddles, and rain and mist. Converesly, I also love fire and can be mesmerized by it for hours.
ReplyDeleteJulieB
It's unfortunate for me, as I live in Louisiana now, but I *love* snow. It's like it makes the world new every time it falls and covers everything. (And if ever there was a place that needed to be covered once in a while, it's Louisiana!)
ReplyDeleteRight now I'm leaning towards water. It can be powerful or gentle. It can be blue or green or any number of colors. It makes snow, ice, rain, streams, rivers, oceans...and I'm writing a story in which water plays a great part...
ReplyDeleteI love the ocean; the sound of the waves, the smell of salt... pretty much everything about it. I miss living close to the sea.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful soft slow rain is my answer. I love going for a car ride in the rain with the water rivulets running down the windshield and the street lights shining on the wet glass all make for a calmness.
ReplyDeleteI admire all elements however, I like fire, because of the duel nature of being a source of warmth and a source of destruction. I think it reflects people as well, we help and hurt each other all the time. Fire has a cleansing purification function as well.
ReplyDeleteThere is a state park we visit which has waterfalls in it that are just spectacular.
ReplyDeleteFire! There is nothing like gathering your thoughts on paper, then tossing the whole thing into an inferno. Very cleansing.
ReplyDeleteI love the ocean. It is restful, calm and the most wonderful palce to be during the summer.
ReplyDeleteWater is soothing, whether it is rain or a lake. I love a lakeside cottage for the summer. Perfect.
ReplyDeleteLava. I don't want to be anywhere near it, but watching it on videos is mesmerizing, especially those underwater shots where it hardens and then cracks open and then hardens and cracks open... I love seeing that web of glowing molten orange appear beneath the new obsidian.
ReplyDeleteI love all the elements, but my favorite has to be air. There's nothing quite like standing on top of a hill and feeling the wind blowing my hair back--as though all I have to do is spread my arms to fly.
ReplyDeleteI love sunshine, blue skies and clear, clean air.
ReplyDeleteThe water, the ocean and the beach all summer, or a great lake which is just like the ocean.
ReplyDeleteFire, because it commands respect and responsibility by virtue of being itself.
ReplyDeleteRelaxing by the water. The ocean mainly since I am not close to it. Love the sound and the sand.
ReplyDeleteI lived on an island for many years--three blocks from the coast. The topography went like this: rocky coast/shoreline-->four lane avenue-->houses and apartment buildings.
ReplyDeleteEvery year around March and April storms would cause the sea to flood the area. One floor houses, garages, and basements would be inundated, and state of emergency would be declared.
From the sidewalk in front of my building I would watch the waves break over the seawall, and if a stray ray of sunshine happened to hit the spume, it was an even more beautiful sight.
So my answer would be that the ocean in one of its moods is the most awesome force of nature.
MaiaM.
Fire. In the hands of good, it destroys what is bad and makes room for something new. In the hands of something bad, it destroys what is good. Essentially fire births new life. Like the Phoenix.
ReplyDeleteI have 3 favorites...wind, rain and fire.
ReplyDeleteWind...The power is awesome. From light gusts on a breezy day in the park to all out tree-bending horror.
Rain...it's nature's rejuvenation.
Fire...the ultimate destruction. It's hard for me to believe that one little match can set hundreds and thousands of land ablaze.
I love the wind best. It can be so many moods. Gentle and soft on an autumn morning, tossing the leaves about. Icy and aloof in spring, scudding the clouds about and cutting right through you. Wild and crazy-laughing in the summer storms, shattering the gum trees and sending the grass seeds frothing through the air.
ReplyDeleteI like wind. There's something about standing in the wind that makes one feel so alive, so full of possibility.
ReplyDeleteI have to say wind. Last December Stanley Park in Vancouver, BC was devasted by a windstorm. After two short hours of gale-force winds, some reaching 119 km/hr, the storm subsided leaving a level of devastation that had not been seen since Hurricane Frieda in 1962. The park lost over 10,000 trees. One fallen hemlock tree was over 200 years old.
ReplyDeleteWhat nature takes centuries to create, nature can destroy in mere hours. I learned not to take the park for granted anymore. I haven't been to the park in years because I didn't want to pay to park my car there (it use to be free) and now I regret being stingy. Because the park of my childhood memory is no more.
Sunshine, which we have plenty of here in south Florida. :-)
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love Thunder Storms. The flash of lightening the rumble of the thunder.
ReplyDeleteBut I would have to pick wind as the element I admire/fear most. Wind has so many faces, from the slightest breeze that tickels your cheek to the 60mph gust that blew at my house last night. Leaving leaves and tree limbs scattered about. And since I live in Oklahoma, I know first hand that the fury and destruction of a tornado, will inspire respect and awe.
The sea. Because I could just sit there all day, watching and listening to the waves, feeling the sea breezes blow whatever worries in your mind away.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the sea.
Thanks for the chance, PBW!
Trees. Definitely trees. To me, a house isn't a home without one in the yard, I'd rather go camping in a forest than by the ocean, and when I notice a tree has been cut down, I feel like the world is just a little grayer around the edges.
ReplyDeleteI love trees.
Rain on the roof at night, we have a corrugated iron roof and I love lying there at night with a book and listening to the sound of it hitting the roof. Rain full stop! We live up quite high in a valley and can see the great sheets of it coming toward the house. The weather is so changeable here in NZ, it can be fine one minute and pouring the next. Never a dull moment!
ReplyDeleteMakes me think of my Dad to, he always loved the sound of rain at night and without fail would give us a kiss good night at bedtime, when we were little, and say, "Isn't it nice to be so warm and toasty in bed?"
Wind
ReplyDeleteThere's something about something as ineffable as air being able to toss all that solid stuff around. Most of the time we wander around, dependant on air for every breath, yet we never notice it until we either can't get it, or it knocks us on our butt. I love going out on really windy days and leaning into the wind, feeling it buoy me. I always come back feeling enlivened.
It is a gorgeous cover. I was looking at this series the other day because a friend of mine has been telling me to read more Nocturnes. It looks good.
ReplyDeleteI like the sun. I love it from morning to night; I miss it when it's gone. I like the heat of the day, and the feel of sunshine on my skin. I like that the sun can be brutal or kind - I wouldn't respect it if it were nice all the time. I like the way certain sunsets turn this big, smoggy city rosy pink - if only for a few brief minutes.
ReplyDeleteI love the rain. Or actually I love the anticipation of a nice thunderstorm, when the sky gets all dark and ominous and there's a sense that something big is about to happen.
ReplyDeleteI desperately crave the sun...but have a fierce need for water.
ReplyDeleteThus I love the rain, especially spring showers with fresh air and rainbows after.
I try to tell myself that snow is just froze rain..but after the first snowfal it just doesn't seem to work!
Thanks for the book recommends..I found some new authors!
Rebecca
Definitely rain. It leaves things clean and fresh, plus it smells good. I'm a melancholy person, at my best, so the grey days and patter of raindrops suit me well.
ReplyDeleteI like snow. After a great big snowfall everything feels so crisp and fresh. Its like the land has been renewed.
ReplyDeleteElaine
Water--in any form. It flows, it heals, it's life. :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite element would have to be water also. I love everything about it, swimming in it to drinking it. Water would have to be the most refreshing beverage to quench your thirst. I also love when it rains and I'm laying in bed and hear it hitting the rooftop. A rather tranquil sound to sleep to.
ReplyDeleteI'm with the majority it seems... my favorite is also water, in all its incarnations. I love the power of the ocean, the cleansing of the rain, the stillness of a pond... you name it, I like it.
ReplyDeleteThrowing nime into hat with thunderstorms.
ReplyDeleteSari
Hmm, favorite element of nature. That's a tough one for me. I guess it is really the sun in specific and fire in general. I just got back from hiking in Yellowstone and the effects of fire are very dramatic there with green forests broken up by great stretches of black and gray posts that once were lodgepole pines. And the heat in the open with the sun pouring down is enough to warm to to my very bones (an extremely difficult task :)). I suppose I admire the sheer energy of flame, the way it bulls ahead and changes everything in its path either dramatically as in a fire, or quietly as the sun's fire nurtures plants and animals into thriving life.
ReplyDeleteI've read others of the Nocturne line and found them well done (and not at all old hat in their approaches). I haven't read the Raintree series though and it sounds like a grand one :).
Thanks for this chance.
Cheers,
Margaret
Hope I still got time..
ReplyDeleteI like Lightning, one of the most powerful elements of nature. It can be destructive but I think it's one of the most elegant aspects of nature. Something almost magical about it.