Our domicile is an old pioneer place, and the thing that most endears it to me is that I'm younger than my house. Unfortunately, I'm older than the furniture (though not by much). The house has shadowy, mysterious hallways--I've tripped over a dark-coated dog many a time. I like to tell friends I live in a tri-level, but it's actually just an illusion caused by warped floors. My favorite room in the house is my office, a haven of light with a bank of windows, four skylights, and floor to ceiling bookshelves. Despite several covert attempts by family members to highjack the room for their own use, I've managed to retain my squatter's rights by judicious application of heavy dictionaries upon prying fingers, which is a writerly way of saying if they don't knock it off I'll make them eat my cooking.

My husband Rein and I like to get away often, taking off for a few days at the ocean or the lake, and I usually bring my laptop with me on these excursions. I also have two friends with whom I do mini writing retreats, and while we spend a lot of time giggling and eating junk food, we also brainstorm like crazy and make significant progress in our writing projects. There's nothing like a change of scenery to get the creative juices flowing!

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