A Monday Five

I've started a few posts in the past week but finished none, which I take a sign of continued posting burnout (actually they all just felt too navel-gazey), so I'm going to make things easy on myself and toss out some bullet points of (possible) interest:

• Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! My father-in-law was here visiting from Istanbul, so we've had an action-packed week touring around L.A., going out to eat a lot (so stuffed), and hitting up a Lakers game (yes Jack Nicholson was there looking like a BAMF). Back to the normal routine today, tgim!
• The end of NaNo is nigh! Are you on track to end big? I didn't take part, but a few of my good writer buddies did and I have been jaw-on-the-floor impressed with their productivity. From what I can tell, a little thing called Writeordie.com had a major part in their success, but I am yet unfamiliar with its magical qualities. 
• I haven't had a ton of time for reading, what with the houseguest and all, but lately I've read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Cat Valente, which was lovely and clever and I highly recommend. (I did find myself wondering if the people who worked on this book had some sort of shorthand title for it--The Girl Who? Fairyland Ship? TGWCFSHOM?) I also finally read Cinder, which has been on my radar for a long time. I highly recommend this one as well--great, inventive world-building and Cinder herself is an awesome character. The sequel comes out in February! And now I'm reading Code Name Verity, and I'm loving the voice, but a little afraid of what's going to happen. I'm anticipating tears. Will there be tears? 
• We went to the theater yesterday and saw Lincoln, and overall I give it a big thumbs up. There was a little of the Spielberg slickness, but between Tommy Lee Jones and Daniel Day-Lewis (swoon), it's well worth the price of admission. 
• Okay, that's only four, but my cat has pinned me down and there's a lovely book here waiting to be picked up again, so I'm calling it. I hope to have a SipSwap post for you later in the week...

A Room Of One's Own

Hello, writer friends! Sorry again for the infrequent posting--the past month has been on the far side of busy, and in these times, blogging is always the first casualty. Things are slowing down a bit now, and last weekend I got to hang out with some of my very favorite writer friends on a little road trip that I will tell you more about another time. This week doesn't look too crazy yet, so I might finally manage to post a saved-up book recommendation, or force another Classical Thursday upon you all.

Last week my husband, who NEVER gets sick, caught a bad enough stomach bug that he had to stay home Monday-Thursday. I myself was fighting a sinus infection for a couple of those days, so we sat indoors and enjoyed each other's company in a soggy, hazy sort of way. By Thursday we were well enough to take a long walk, and somehow we ended up in an Apple store, where my sneaky husband set about fulfilling his dream of setting me up with my own home office. One of our rooms is already a dedicated office, but he wanted me to have my own space to spread out and make my crazy messes. Actually, the major motivating factor here was that he hates seeing me write on the couch, with my feet up and my legs wrapped in blankets and cats, when all the world knows that People Work At Desks, and when my husband gets an idea lodged in his head, woe to those who would try to reason with him.

So, here I am today, with my own monitor at my own desk (aka our former Ikea dining table) in our guest room, the guest bed covered in blankets and knitting patterns and double-pointed needles, the bay window stacked full of books, my sketchpad and colored pencils resting on the dresser. He even gifted me with an office plant, a massive box of orchids that I think qualifies as a piece of furniture. Unfortunately the orchids are too much fun for small cats to resist, so my kitten is yowling out in the hallway where I had to shut him out. A solution will have to be found. I was perfectly fine writing in the office or on the couch, and I'll have to pack up and move out whenever we have guests, but I have to admit that it's nice to build my own Rachel Space, free of scattered bits of electronics and photos of Falcon rockets plastering the walls.

Do you have a space in your home that's all your own? What does your dream writer space look like?

The orchid jungle