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A Room of My Own (and No Bed)

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For years, I wrote out of a small corner in a bedroom--be it my parent's hand-me-down kitchen table that stood next to my bed in my studio apartment, or the Target desk made out of particle board next to my bed in my one-bedroom apartment, or the same Target desk next to the that same bed in the spare room in my first house.

When we moved to New England, we were lucky enough to find a house that could accommodate an office. I share that space with a treadmill, my daughter's easel, and, yes, a couch that pulls out into a bed. But it's a room that is my own. My very, very own.

Here are five things I love about my office:

1) The bay window that overlooks our front yard. Today, the snow is deep and makes everything look a bit like a wintery wonderland. However, I don't enjoy much time looking out this window. Usually, I work at night, and all I truly see is the walkway lamppost that's situated outside my window. Fine by me. My ADD (if I believed in such things) wouldn't be able to work through the squirrels running up the trees and the neighbors walking their dogs and their children.

2) The lovely country-esque desk I got from Office Max. A total step up from the Target particle board contraption. My mother-in-law assembled it for me when I was eight-months' pregnant, who I'll be forever grateful to. On the corner of the desk in the white binder? The first 250 pages of my WIP. I definitely love that thing.

3) The ability to have my Netbook running on one part of the desk at the same time my Mac is up. Sometimes, my Mac just can't handle iTunes, Firefox, and the five Word documents I have open simultaneously. So the Netbook is where I actually do a lot of my writing. Plus, the Mac is where I do a lot of work for my online classes (I teach technical and research writing for an online university). It's nice to go to another computer where it doesn't feel like I'm doing yet more work.

4) Having enough room to have the books that are inspiring me at the moment right in front of me. I have Twilight and Hunger Games and Graceling and Soulless on the right, as well as books on topics such as baby names, spells, and Elizabeth George's Write Away on the left. Of course, I have a four-foot bookshelf right behind me with another 100 books, but rolling over those few feet to get to it is just so much more work.

5) Having all my inspirations around me, and not having to clean them up when guests come. I have an image of man going through evolution (from ape to modern homo sapien) to remind me to take the same care and patience to create story and character. I have numbers from two races close by, to remind me that staying up until 4 a.m. to meet word count is nothing compared to the pain of running 13 miles with torn cartilage. I have a heart paper weight, a metal fairy, and a ceramic Chinese cat from writing partners who helped me get my writing to where it is today. And then of course there's the framed adage I live by: The harder I work, the luckier I get.

I love my office that's finally mine, all mine.


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