The title is sort of an answer to my being a bit freaked out recently. You know how no matter how much you love a writer and go out of his way to read all of his/her work, something always escapes you, like the last chocolate hiding in the corner of the box under the wrappers.
Well, I realized last year I’d never read Time For The Stars, partly because I thought it was the title of an essay on traveling space. I knew there was a book about twins but it never connected with the title.
So, because I find it easier LISTENING to the juveniles than reading them (it’s the language. For listening, I require less polish.) I’ve been listening to the novel.
I have no idea when it was written. It had to be after WWII, right? Maybe it was just before. At any rate every time I hear “Project lebensraum” I CRINGE. I’m sure it didn’t then have the Nazi associations it evokes now, but all the same, it’s an irritant in the story.
That explains the title and I can now introduce you to Project Schreibensraum.
I must start by confessing I’m baffled. As most of you know I have an office in the home. It’s a nice office. Do the boys interrupt? The boys ALWAYS interrupted and the interruptions are NOW much fewer. Yeah, cats climb on keyboard, but that can’t be helped.
I’ve always had an office in the house, and normally it doesn’t hinder me laying down words at a keyboard. As I said, I used to do 3 to four books a year, with two kids under eight in the house.
So… we moved here… And the first thing I noticed was that doing anything, even proposals, was like lifting a heavy weight. I’ve changed my office all over the house. (Weirdly, what worked best was down in the living room, and if I get desperate enough, I’ll try that again.) It just gets worse. I can’t seem to concentrate and finish anything in the house. The last three books I finished I either went to a hotel or to Texas for the final push.
This would be weird enough if it only involved me – hormones, maybe? – but my sons and husband complained of the same thing, particularly in the last year, when it’s become worse.
I have no explanation. Every house has an atmosphere, of course, but it should not be resistant to moving furniture around, etc. It SHOULD change. But the “wet blanket over the mind” feel only gets worse, ever. And it’s not just for writing. I need to sort out things for a garage sale, and that’s not happening either. And it took me three years to paint my bathroom which desperately needed it. I need to fix the fence from the windstorm two months ago, and that hasn’t happened either. So…
No explanation, but I can’t go on like this, so I decided to look for an office. And realized I’m a very odd – but by no means alone – client for that sort of thing. I want something very small. Just me, writing. I don’t need a secretary or phone answering. Net would be nice. And I want it cheap. REALLY cheap. I also want it within two miles of me, because if I have to get in a car and drive at morning rush hour it won’t happen.
So, yesterday I had appointments to see three offices. The first one is in one of those “corporate towers” and is A LITTLE pricey. For that money I could rent a small apartment nearby and heck, I might prefer that. I could go there a week a month and not be gone every day, which I hate. Anyway, it’s moot. The cheaper offices which were a windowless one for 300 and the window one for 500 – which I refer to as a little pricey – are not available till the last quarter of the year.
Then I went to look at an office closer to me. Very nice. Very quiet building. The walk there is actually pleasant. The room is clean, updated electrical, etc. $300 including utilities and all. Ideal, but… NO window. It might be perfectly fine, mind you. I don’t know. But I normally require daylight. And I’d have to take it for a minimum of 6 months, and what if it doesn’t work at all?
So, third office – in a Victorian. Nice floor, high ceilings. Window. Appointment for 4:45, but they also have a sign on the door. I get there on the dot. Another woman is there. She walked up the stairs after seeing sign. I access room. Outdated electrical, $220 total each month but I’ll take a risk. “Okay I take it.” No, I couldn’t have it. The other woman got there a minute earlier, and she wanted it. Did they tell me it was First Come First Serve? In which case I’d have been there at four? No, no they didn’t.
So, now I’m divided. There’s this office for rent for months now, $350, 500 sq feet, two office suites. Part of me wants to know why it hasn’t rented yet. And part of me is going “It’s a little too high and MUCH too large. I don’t NEED that much room. Perhaps I can sublet it?” And part of me is resistant to working out of the house at all. I like being here. I like having the cats around. I like when my husband telecommutes and we can have lunch together. BUT I seem unable to get much of anything done IN the house.
Just absolutely not sure what to do.
According To Hoyt 
There is an old saying, “Fade back and punt.” Maybe what you are learning is just that your office hasn’t presented itself yet — give it time.
Ron
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Sarah: There was One(1), that was _perfect_! There is another that is – sort-of….
Chances are very, very, high that there are two more that are in-between the “Perfect” Office, and the sort-of one.
Give it a couple weeks, and take your time. Read some Fung Sooey(TM), eh? Never, never, Give Up! Hanging on is Good For the Claws, anyway. Grin.
Now, the Question(s) Arises: Just which way did your olden, favorite-as-remembered, Home Offices _face_, with regard to the Sun? And how air-tight is the house? Really, really, good windows and doors and draft-proofing? _You_ and your furnace and your Clotes Dryer each _need_ a Fresh Air Duct, if the house is very draft-tight. Really.
Neil Frandsen
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I agree with Neil on this one. You also might look at cleansing the house, if someone lived there before with bad vibes, they can slowly leach into you. Like moving into one of those small towns that are slowly dieing because all the young people have moved away, its an almost ghost town, just hanging on by the claws, unless there is a MAJOR change, it is just going to keep spiraling down. I don’t know your religious preferences, but there are many different kinds of cleansings that fit each one.
A humidifier can help too, especially with scented oils.
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Should have expected cleansing and fung shui to be suggested. Might help; it’s been too long since I left the New Age store for me to have any ideas there.
Is Old Colorado City too far away? Often lots of little offices available there.
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Are you certain your house isn’t built on a graveyard full of unpublished authors? They used to be denied sanctified burials, you know ;)
On a less-silly note, a complete remodel of a chosen room would be cheaper than renting.
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Unpublished authors were buried upside down with the pen in their mouth. Well, I’ve done that on my office, but not in a way that materially changes the space, you know, like… wall paint. I think that’s the next step.
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Ron, Yeah, by necessity, I think.
Neil — nothing we can detect wrong atmospherically and we only WISH the house was tight. It’s more like living in a windswept plain and we know it in winter.
Dakorillon — have considered that, though my rational part hates it, because the people who lived here before us were particularly unfortunate, or just “a particularly unfortunate kind of people”: kids gone seriously wrong, divorce and SIDS are a few of the things I know about. Also, from what we’ve found and had to do in the house, I’d add “never enough money.” I’m of two minds on this — as my friend Charles mentions below, he worked in a New Age Store, which has made me a permanent skeptic on that stuff. But more than that, it seems like the kind of influence that you could just ignore. OTOH from reading Heinlein’s bio, I got the strong feeling weird things happen to spaces where writers work, and we have three and a beginner in this house, so… One thing that seems to combat the feeling is “making hte house ours” which includes painting and such. I’m thinking once I push this space opera out, I could simply go on a painting/fixing/decorating spree. It should have happened eight years ago, though, and keeps getting put off. But it can be forced, as the bathroom painting was, by my deciding it will happen and that’s it. But first I MUST finish the overdue novel. Painting/curtains and such take a good two weeks minimum.
Charles — a) much too far. b) weirdly? More expensive than the ones around here. And in the price range I’m looking — bottom — probably in worse shape.
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That tiny garret I used to live in would make a better office than apartment. Was $325. Again, too far. Lots of those student places have a garret that would make a good office, though if they rent as apartments they would probably want a year lease. Actually I was thinking of those few, odd little store-office things that replaced the 19th century horse paths; I can’t imagine they go for much. A gentleman leased one for a candy store, and he doesn’t have room for a counter, he sits on a stool beside his cash register. And too far.
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Charles,
Those are worthwhile ideas… if I could rent stuff ten years ago. The tiniest studio appartment is $450 and those little stores are gone.
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Is there an empty room in your house? If so I would have a professional come in and remodel it. I know a good contractor. IE he did my kitchen and other things.
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there ISN’t an empty room in the house and professional remodel wouldn’t help. I just need time with paint, etc. Remodeling has never been an issue. IF I ever have enough money and enclose front porch and balcony as a unit, then I’ll call you for contractor’s name.
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Have you visited every available public library inside of whatever you consider reasonable distance? My fav had floor to ceiling glass windows on the south, and private study rooms (Sound Proof) by reservation. Wifi and plug ins.
A ummm moral cheat but legal. Take a single class of one hour gets you the use of the college facilites, Less than a hundred bucks a semester gets you gym access 6AM-11PM, Computer lab 8AM-11PM, covered parking if you choose to arrive before 8AM, food at any hour (for a given value of food). Nice landscaping available if it’s not raining if that’s your thing, campus wide wifi Really good scanners and color printers free to use as long as you don’t panic the Lab Rats. T1 lines in the labs. You’ll never have to worry about your machine breaking the lab seats about 1000. I suggest, only suggest best quality noise cancelling head phones. Bose as far as I know is the best. I could be wrong. A backpack, laptop, and portable hard drive, and your golden. Just a thought. And the whole second floor of the library is a quiet zone, and they mean it. the Magazine section is over a hundred feet long.
WB
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Um… I actually WANT to take Latin and ancient Greek again. Um… Wonder if nearest college — minutes, on foot — offers it at a reasonable price.
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