My new room

I got my own room today. One of the upstairs bedrooms is now my study / den / retreat / whatever I want to call it but it's where I'll WRITE relatively undisturbed.

Once I wrote in the bedroom and pretty much cluttered up half of it, but after we had all our floors redone (courtesy hurricane Ike) the bedroom looked so nice without my junk...

So I moved into the dining room because we never use it anyway. Well, twice a year. BUT - it's right between the kitchen / living room and my husband's study (where he leaves the door open and cranks up the music) and with all the carpet gone everything is much louder than before. Plus it's hard to be in the middle of an intense scene but have someone stop by to see if you know where the [insert item] is or when the TV is drowning out all rational thought.

So - I'm moving out - er up - to where I'll have a door and the opportunity for peace and quiet - I've promised my family I'll show up every now and again.

I finally framed all those contest finalist certificates so I can hang them up over my desk and use them for inspiration. But I'm wondering what else I need to put in there - books, knick-knacks, computers, printer, paper, toner, promo items, iPod, trash can, new lamp, comfy chair. The latter because I like to proof read a hard copy every now and again, it's amazing what the eyes will spot on paper and especially if you change the font.

Hmmm what else - any suggestions?

What's in a blog?

I'm cheating a little today. First I'm going to tell you all about the request for a full I received recently, that would be the full I made a significant plot change to.

I've been editing like crazy all week!

Secondly, I'm going to tell you about my other blog which really describes how I've felt for the last week. Except I forgot to mention I had dental work done that tore up my mouth and put me on antibiotics!

Check out:
http://rosesofhouston.blogspot.com/2009/08/escaping-doldrums.html

and everyone have a great weekend, I have a story to read and another one to finish!

The Joys of Renovation - or - the hurricane continues

Sometime in a previous life (or perhaps last year), I had the joy of surviving Hurricane Ike. Which, I suppose, is a lot better than the alternative!

FINALLY we're on stage two of the repairs (stage one being a new roof), which means my torn and otherwise disgusting carpet is being replaced with tile. Yay!

And aaarrgghh!!

Right now all my downstairs possessions are in the garage, master bedroom, or small corner of the living room. Supposed to take three or four days - let's add a week to that. At least we've only spent one night in a motel (the rest have been spent sleeping on recliners) and my two "youngest" kids cleaned their upstairs bathrooms so hubby and I could use them without shuddering. Replacing the master shower is stage three. It's all torn out but I guess a new one will be put in eventually.

Problem is - when it's all done I'm not going to want to move the junk back in! And boy, do we have a lot of junk. At least we can unpack at a slower pace and throw a lot of it away.

We now have a new stage four - removing the baseboards pretty much trashed the paint and wallpaper. Time to redecorate!

My writing time has been very meager this week and the dust and mold that the workers uncovered have given me a nice cough. All good fodder for my hurricane WIP though!

I'm still waiting for the signed contract to arrive from WRP, I have a feeling that will perk me right up and get me motivated!

Plus - I found three contests I can enter - happiness!!