Drums of Autumn-Diana Gabaldon[return][return]Gabaldon states in an interview that she was tired of romances that stopped at the altar. So she wanted to tell a married love story. Marriage is hard. It� s hard to be half a couple� it's hard to support the relationship without forfeiting yourself.[return][return]� & ye canna be my conscious.� [return][return]In spite of everything, I felt a lightening of spirit, as though some indefinable burden had dropped away.[return]& [return]� You� re the best man I� ve ever met,� I said. � I only meant& it� s such a strain, to try to live for two people. To try to make them fit your ideas of what� s right& you do it for a child, of course, you have to, but even then, it� s dreadfully hard work. I couldn� t do it for you� it would be wrong to try.� [return][return]A coping strategy I have is to memorize every detail about a nice moment. Then I recall that memory when things aren� t going well. My recollections are usually at the beach. But they can be anything:[return][return]It was one of those strange moments that came to him rarely, but never left. A moment that stamped itself on heart and brain, instantly recallable in every detail, for all of his life.[return][return]There was no telling what made these moments different from any other, though he knew then when they came. & the still moments, as he called them to himself� they came with no warning, to print a random image of the most common things inside his brain, indelible.[return][return]On loneliness;[return][return]At first he had thought the loneliness would kill him, but once he had learned it would not, he came to value the solitude& [return][return]While I do realize that not everybody gets their energy from being alone-like I do, I am still mystified that more people don� t seek out solitude just for the reflection and peace-what� s so scary about that?