Where I write often affects how I write. I used to have the reporter’s knack of blocking out all the newsroom noise and constant distraction and just write, write, write. Now, it’s more difficult to find the zone where it’s just me and the words, and the outside world dissolves, like when I’m reading a really good book.
Sometimes I can scribble in a notebook alone in the crowd at my favorite Starbucks, or propped on the couch with some good music playing in the background.
But mostly I write at my desk in a room with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and stacks of more books crowding the corners. My dog is usually looking out the second-floor window, and one or both cats are curled on the white wicker chair or lying on a patterned throw rug dappled with sunlight. What wall space you can see is a peaceful sage green. I have of a lot of pictures and art.
These are two of the paintings in the room. The first is a new work by Mary Maupin, “A Good Day.” And yes, that is Doc the dog and Cooper the cat in the painting. The cat in the other canvas could well be my giant Peach. This work, “date night,” is an original by Claudine Hellmuth. The typed caption at bottom right reads: “the more she went on dates, the more she preferred being with her cat.”
Looking at these paintings makes me smile and forget the clutter of bills and paperwork intruding on my desk and life. I can write.
If choice of paintings links kindred spirits, you and I are linked. Both your painting speak to me. How perfect in your writing room.
Is another Caroline Cousins book in the works?
Nancy…great stuff, both on your walls and in your blog so far. I’m enjoying it very much! Keep up the great work.
I love that saying! I often prefer my cats to people! I’m not a writer per se, unless you count the blog, but I am amazed at how my mood and surroundings (and number of glasses of wine I’ve had!) can affect my flow of words. I don’t have a great room for writing though. I have a den, but it needs revamped. I can’t see out my window and it is cramping my style! Often I just sit at the kitchen table with my Netbook, and that is not what I would call a breeding ground for creative thought necessarily!
Love your paintings! Your taste–in pets and in art–is superb.