Where do you write?

Wouldn't it be lovely?

Where do you like to write? Do you have a favorite place in your home or outdoors? How important is this space to you?

As a writer and painter, I tend to be very protective of my space. It's not an ideal spot but it is mostly my space in the lower level of the house I share with my husband and son.

It's a very female space, too. They can have their man caves, but my space is colorful and filled with objects I love -- yarns, paints, beads, sewing machines, journals, fabrics and, of course, my computer. This space works well in the winter (it's the warmest spot in the house) and in the dead of summer (it's the coolest spot in the house).

But it's also part of the laundry area. Ugh. And the windows are small and let in very little natural light. Double Ugh.

Now this can sometimes be a good thing as no one truly wants to go down there except to throw in a load of laundry; thus, I have the space pretty much to myself, which is good for creativity.

But as I look through the images I loaded onto my new Pinterest board -- "Writing Spaces" -- I yearn for a small space with lots of windows and natural light. A space where I can lock the door and keep everyone out, at least for a few hours.

We're getting a new outdoor shed delivered in a few weeks and I'm hoping to take over half of the space. There are two windows, of which one will be mine. And I dream of putting a small writing desk under that window, along with a creaky old chair and some comfy cushions. Perhaps a small set of shelves to hold my journals and other books.

And so this summer will be the test to see if this "accommodation" works. At least I'll be outside with natural light, warm breezes and my garden. I'll just ignore the lawn mower and tools sitting on the other side of the shed.

Perhaps a large Japanese folding screen? Oh, yeah -- works for me!

“A woman must have money and a room of her own

if she is to write fiction.”

― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

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Oh, dear! My bad . . .

Just getting back on track with social media and such -- summertime is such a suck-you-away-from-the-computer time, isn't it? What's been happening? Been working on At Long Last , the fourth and final romance in my School for Sophistication series, and it should be released in late July / early August. If you're on my newsletter email list, I just sent out a sneak peek of the cover. Not signed up yet? No sweat. Here's the link . Also, a freebie sale is going on as I type this entry. Another incentive to sign up! A Peek into Straight from the Heart I promised this in my last blog entry, so here we go . . . Ryan Cassidy, deputy sheriff, a muscular hunk of a guy, who's low-key, funny, sexy and falling for Giana Linstrom despite his fears of marriage. He's seen too many marriages go bad, including his own mother's. And now for Giana -- bubbly, enthusiastic, a dreamer whose dreams never seem to come to fruition. She's at a crossroads in her

Take a hint from Mr. Bradbury:

Don’t start out writing novels. They take too long. Begin your writing life instead by cranking out “a hell of a lot of short stories,” as many as one per week. Take a year to do it; he claims that it simply isn’t possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row. He waited until the age of 30 to write his first novel, Fahrenheit 451 . Stuff your head. To accumulate the intellectual building blocks of these metaphors, he suggests a course of bedtime reading: one short story, one poem and one essay. These essays should come from a diversity of fields, including archaeology, zoology, biology, philosophy, politics, and literature. “At the end of a thousand nights,” so he sums it up, “you’ll be full of stuff!” I'm going to try some of these tips -- write swift, write short; diverse reading to expand the old gray cells. Works for me! Ray Bradbury, recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 Nati

Claire Hadleigh

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