WRITING COTTAGES: Sundays With Sharon

I’ve yearned for a writing cottage since the first publication of one of my novels in 2011. Just a place to dream, to play my favorite music, a place to take myself away to the fantasy of my stories. I can do that well with an empty house and a good set of headphones with some of my 50 days of music stored on my computer. I once read a writer’s blog about how she set up her writing desk separate from all the rest of her “office activities” as a writer.

“Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, simply wait, just learn to become
quiet, and still, and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.
It has no choice;
it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
Franz Kafka

A very necessary part of our routine in life is paying bills. I know some feel it’s a spiritual experience, but for me, the opposite happens. For years I took care of paying all the bills and for the past year, my husband has taken that over, and I’m grateful. Still, there are things I have to take care of, certain bills, reservations, emails and “stuff” of writing that isn’t fun. I don’t include in that sending off SWAG, because I truly enjoy it, and often make it the first or second thing I do in the day. So having a dedicated place for just writing has become more important to me. I blogged about the idea earlier this year. There are places you an rent a cabin for a week or two or a month.

Whitby Island Writer’s Refuge

I’ve toyed with using a shed from one of those improvement stores, and we put a deposit down on one. Like most projects around here, it grew to huge proportions as we calculated what it would cost to lay a slab, or build a perimeter foundation, or lay down rock and drainage. The cost of the shed turned out to be the small expense and we abandoned the idea.

An Airstream trailer was my next dream, and I began looking all over the country for some used ones we could refurbish. We thought perhaps getting one that could be towed by my Murano so I could take it to Bodega and Marin beaches for a day of writing would be ideal. New ones were prohibitive, but beautiful. Much more fun getting an older one and fixing it up like the gypsy inside me. But then we stumbled upon the rock wall project in our rear yard, which seemed a better idea for the overall value of our property, and in the design there was no way to put a ramp to

Heaven on wheels

the backyard. The alternative of writing in my driveway was not sexy enough. And then the cost of the beautiful walls and concrete patio shot up in price, and the budget fell short. I again pushed the idea aside.

My desire to have a traveling cottage isn’t dead, just on hold until next year. I vow it will be done, even if I have to be helped up into it in a walker or by cane! Some day I’ll have one. Trust me, eventually I get my way. And I’m not complaining. Life is a series of choices and then adaptation to those choices and circumstances beyond our control. That’s where the fun is. I still have the dream, and that’s even more important than having the cottage at this point.

So, for now, I purchased another computer and Thunderbolt Screen, and when I write, I sit at my adjustable desk. I can stand, or sit on the stool. I light my candles, and inspiration does come. I usually have two sleeping Dobermans at my feet, vying for attention, so I have a jar of cookies nearby to reward their loyalty. I don’t pay bills or even do anything email-wise or business-wise on that computer. I don’t even write these blogs there. It was expensive to do this, but ever since, I have found it to be liberating. I’ve written poetry here. Sometimes I do a little research for my stories, but everything I do is related to a current book I’m working on.

And like all of you, I’m still waiting for my Happily Ever After. But this is my Happily Ever After, for now. Doesn’t it make the goal, once achieved, that much more delicious?