With daily headlines of outrageous fortune raining down on authors who have seized the reins of their careers and become their own publishers, it is no small wonder that unknown writers are crawling out of the woodwork by the thousands for a shot at driving the new, souped-up bandwagon.

But indie publishing isn’t just for authors who haven’t been able to publish through traditional means.  Well-known traditionally-published authors are hanging out at the indie playground too…and they come bearing cupcakes.

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Last Monday, science-fiction writer Tobias S. Buckell released Aerophilia, the first of 18 “one-shot” short stories, via Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.  Each Monday, he plans to release a new short story, each of them priced at $.99.  (This week’s offering is “The Fish Merchant,” available on Kindle and Nook.)

Buckell writes, “One of the ideas I’ve wanted to play with, but haven’t had the time to, was to see what happened if I ‘unbundled’ the short stories I had in my eBook Tides From The New Worlds and sold them directly via Amazon.com. I had 18 stories I could do that with. Will the iTunes music effect happen (people prefer buying singles), or is literature different (well, you don’t buy individual chapters of books, but maybe collections and anthologies online work more like music albums do?).”

I think this is an incredibly smart move on Buckell’s part.  I also think that in today’s publishing climate — hell, in today’s digitally-accessible world — he’d be missing an opportunity not to try it.  He’s got these short stories that have been previously published, and now the rights have reverted back to him.  The (old) typical thing to do would be to submit them to other markets as reprints, a process that usually takes months before the writer would receive any kind of income from them.  Even if Buckell were to able to place all the stories a second time, then his rights would be tied up again for however long the contract states.

Of course, taking this route now makes no business sense.  Buckell is a traditionally-published author with major award nominations under his belt, and he makes a full-time living writing.  He’s well known and respected in the industry, and he has a loyal fan base, both from readers of his books and his blog.

By publishing his stories on his own, he can make them available to virtually anyone in the world, he can make them available for as long as he wants, and I expect that he’ll enjoy income from these stories for as long as he wants.

Buckell readily admits he doesn’t expect to make a fortune off of these things, but regular Starbucks money is better than having perfectly good stories sitting around the house.  Why should short stories only get a limited few shots at being offered to the public and then retired, their little story fingers crossed in the hopes of a “Best Of” collection when said author becomes über-famous?

Making them available in downloadable ebooks not only earns Buckell some change on short stories that might not otherwise continue to make income, but it also garners him more exposure as a writer.  It gives readers an opportunity to try him out as an author without a big investment of money or time.  And unlike stories published in fiction magazines and anthologies made of paper, there is no recycling bin waiting for them in the back alley of some bookstore once their turn is up on the newsstands or shelves.

And since there’s no expiration date on their time in the digital sun, these short stories can remain available indefinitely.  The longer they’re available online, the more reviews they can hopefully collect, and more readers will have a chance to discover them.  Faced with the seemingly endless bookshelf of choices, many readers will go with a story that’s been reviewed favorably by other readers.

It might be that Buckell won’t make a fortune off of these short stories, but I certainly hope he finds success with it.  Only time will tell.  I, for one, think it’s cool that he’s willing to put the work into this “experiment,” as he calls it, and share his results with his blog readers.  And that’s why I bought, read, and enjoyed “Aerophilia.”

It’s good to have a loyal fan base. 🙂

I have finally converted myself from a miserable-hanging-onto-consciousness-until-it-hurts lifelong night owl into an early-to-bedder/wee-early riser, so I am astonished to still be awake.  But when the Toddler hits the hay this early (8:11 p.m. — woot!), I gotta jump on it.  Still, even at the bottom of a Starbucks Doubleshot Energy+Coffee, I feel the wire fingers of sleep threading through my brain-meats and flipping off the lights, all the pretty lights.  I better hurry before curfew is called.

Not to exaggerate in any way — I’m pretty precise on these numbers — but I am currently working on about a million projects in between about a million interruptions, which means there are lots of good things to come.  About a million of ’em.  Got a few writerly articles coming your way, as well as a new Dinosaur Party, which should be renamed the Dinosaur Epic Production of Silliness.  (They are all turning into divas, I swear to Murgatroyd.)

I have finally finished putting together the whole email subscription template thingie, so I should be able to let the MailChimp out of the bag in about a week.  Just wanna test the little bugger.  But this is good news for those who like to receive their My Blue Screen Epic-ness in their emailboxes.  Unfortunately, for my old WordPress.com subscribers (I’m sorry, Ré!), according to The Sacred Path, “WordPress has not provided any way to export/import subscribers, or move them, from one blog to another.” Blarg.

WordPress also does not make it very easy to discover this information, but discovered it is.  So I apologize for that.  I didn’t realize that when I moved the blog.  Easiest thing to do if you’re feening for epical goodness from yours truly — ahem — is to subscribe to my RSS feed using a feed reader.  (I just started using Google Reader and the Feeddler RSS Reader Pro app on my iPhone and I love it!)  Or you can sign up for an email subscription.  If you don’t care to get a daily emailed post, then there is a once-a-week option.  So there’s that.

In other more random news, I got marauded on the arm by some alien life form — or a mosquito on steroids — which resulted in a frightening-looking rash that looked almost like a bull’s eye rash.  Lyme-y!  Doc took one glance, declared it cellulitis, probably from the frantic scratching I inflicted upon it, and gave me drugs to vanquish it.  Already the itching has ceased.  I feel better.

What else?  Discovered new music today.  I love YouTube, and I love, love, love me some Karmin.  Nothing makes me happier than coming across new talent.  These two are not only uber-talented and adorable and charisma mixed with swagger on a plate, but they’re friggin’ goofy.  And that makes me heart them even more.

MOO!

That would be the cows coming home.  I better go before they catch me out of bed.  They’re so strict.

It’s been a long week, ladies and jellybeans.  Let’s recap, shall we?

Besides playing roustabout to a bunch of wishy-washy dinosaurs (“The dry ice won’t last forever, reptiles!”); applying baking soda poultices to a spider bite that just won’t go away (Where the hell are my Spidey senses?); setting up a neat lightbox situation with Pringle-can light reflectors; gambling hard and winning hard ($100 on a gift scratcher — whoo-hoo!); and spending said booty on a long, long, long overdue haircut (a year and five months — a new record), I have been waging an epic battle in the wee hours of the morning.

Mostly, I have been playing at Ahab, stalking back and forth across the planks of my office, the plastic doohickeys on the bottoms of my sweatpants clicking ominously with every uneven step, reddened eyes affixed to the lined diagrams laid out across the whiteboards, hopeful for a glimpse of that elusive, rare event in this writer’s life where I would finally lay down the words like a gravestone:  “The End.”

Alas, I have been unmanned by a startling beast, a cunning Wolf de Resistance in wooly couture and a seductive smile.  This creature keeps bringing me gifts of short story ideas — delicious, cheesy, savory bits of delight — shoving them under my quivering nostrils, always cutting in line in front of my Big Scary Project.

“You have time,” he always tells me.  “Just write this one real quick, before it gets away.”  And even though I know his motivations are unfriendly, aimed at keeping me forever cutting bait for lesser creatures, I fall for it…every single time.

But just outside my window, beyond the rolling deck and the salt-rimed railing, is a marvelous creature awaiting my harpoon that it might finally fulfill its destiny, its flesh laid out in fine-cut filets, fit for public consumption and enjoyment.

Which is how I find myself working simultaneously on four new short stories while taking tiny little nips at the Big Scary Project.

So I says to myself, “I need a better plan.”  That’s what I said to myself.

Hmm.  So how do you vanquish the Big White Whale?  Easy.  You get her good and drunk.

This Friday night, I was joined by not just one dear friend, but three.  And like all dear friends, they came bearing gifts.

The first friend was Ninja Jim, and he came bearing gifts of Indian food, among other things.  I heart chicken tikka masala!  This simple act of culinary generosity has activated the escalator provision in our friendship contract…meaning he gets to pick the restaurant next time.

The second friend was my dear, dear friend Kellie, who arrived with a Spanish Moscato in one hand and a German Riesling in the other.  She also brought pajama pants, which turned out to be a shrewd move since Saturday morning found her tucked happily into the couch.  They’re so cute when they sleep.

The third friend was, of course, Miss Marian, my partner in vino, who showed up at the end of a trying day with a smile — always with a smile! — and an Argentinian Torrontes.

My offering was a Meritage wine, Lost Sonnet, selected because it has a picture of old Willy Shakespeare on the label.  My thought-process is deep and mysterious.

Ninja Jim scrammed early due to ninja duties, so it was just us girls.  So it’s not surprising that the evening started out Twisted, thanks to a Moscato from Spain.  Damn good.  A sweet wine, to be sure, but tasty.

Then we moved on to frolic in the Ziergarten, with a Riesling from Germany.  I have always been fond of the Riesling varietal, which is also a sweet wine.  I am partial to Blue Nun, which always reminds me of my 20s…which was like, you know, yesterday…but the Ziergarten is good, good, good!  Plus, it comes in a pretty blue bottle.

By the time we got to the bottom of the Ziergarten, Marian had moved to the couch to “rest her eyes.”  Yeah, I know.  She’s young.

Kellie and I, being older and wiser, tougher and stringier, forged on without her, but not too far.  We didn’t want to embarrass anyone.  So we broke into the Crios, an Argentinian Torrontes, more for show than anything else.  A much more dry and stronger wine, but I liked.

The Lost Sonnet remains undiscovered at this point, but not for long, I am certain.

~    ~    ~

Revelations and highlights from the evening:

People do not talk about poop less as we age, but more…and with much more specific detail, including texture, form, and density.

Girl talk is a necessary, critical activity that fills a friendship with camaraderie and laughter and reminds us that we are not alone.

When Marian says she’s going to move to the couch and rest her eyes a little, what that really means is she’s going to pass out for several  hours oblivious to shouts of “Fire!” and the oh-so careful placement of salami slices over her eyes.  (I’ll can’t wait to show her the pictures. 😉 )

There is lots of mojo that needs to be found, and peeps should know that they can always count on their friends to tramp through the wilds helping them look for it.

Winner of Friday Night Vino’s Spoonerism Gooberism…me.  “I think you need to use the spour pout.”  Yup.  Future Pulitzer Prize wiener right here, folks.

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Emboldened and recharged with the treasures of Dionysus, I have doubled my efforts against my white whale.  Refreshed and renewed by the company of my friends, I embark on these efforts grateful and happy.

So how the hell was your Friday?

This Friday past, Marian brought over a 2009 Green Fin California Cabernet Sauvignon.  I think we both agreed that it was a bit dry for our taste, but it did the trick.  Plus, it has a very cool label.

Usually when we get together, we nerd out behind our respective laptop screens while we chat.  Don’t laugh.  Anyway, this time we just sat back and made good old girl talk.  The Toddler kept us company.  That kid can hang.

This week we covered everything from existential problems to what exactly histamines do in our bodies; we solved romance problems for people who weren’t even there and didn’t ask for our help; and we decided to support each other in our efforts to lose weight…which led to how many Weight Watchers points a Burger King Whopper is (I am led to believe it is 9)…which led to discussion over how tasty the new California Whopper might be…which reminded me that I have a buy-one-get-one-free coupon…which led to a pact to redeem that puppy in the very near future.

All in all, I’d say a pretty productive Friday night.  🙂

…we are now way past our March/April goal of 100,000 words! A thousand thank-yous to skyraftwanderer, long-time reader and poetic force of nature, for your 11,728 words; my outrageously funny friend Midori, who donated 347 words; and to Courtney, our new friend on Twitter who responded to our tweet for words with 16,500 words!  You guys are my heroes.  The final tally stands at a grand total of 108,812 words! Yow!

That means we can stop counting up our text messages from last month and start writing like crazy for May.  Remember how I asked whether we should go for 100,000 again, or back down?  Well, we’re going for 125,000. Am I crazy?  Yes, but that’s what makes me fun.  Seriously.  Besides, the collie wants it.

Anyhoo, in light of such buoyant news, I’ve given the dinosaurs the green light, and they’ve already brought in the roustabouts to set up.  Looks like the big event will happen sometime this weekend.  I’ve been informed I’m on a need-to-know basis.  (I need to know what the hell they want with a fire thrower.  Veto!)

So depending on their mysterious and secretive schedule, I’m thinking I’ll be able to post photographs and the like — they want lithographs — jeez! — Monday or Tuesday.  So stay tuned and keep writing!

I gotta go.  They’re baking Play-Doh in the oven again.  Dang.

Last call…last call for alcohol!  I mean, word counts.  (Dang, that used to be my favorite thing to hear at the end of the night…erm, because I was working, not because I needed help to stop drinking. 😉 )

So here’s where we stand.  Derek from apparentbook — who rocks, incidentally — has recently contributed a total of 4,343 words.  Thank you, Derek!  I’m also putting in 4,009 of my own words.

That brings us to 90,737 words for March and April.  So close!  I think we’ve got it…we just don’t know it yet. 😉

So…if y’all could pretty-please! count up your words from March and April — we need to scrape up 9,263 words in the next couple of days — that would be swell. Then we can show you just how cool a dinosaur party can be!  (The dinosaurs tell me they’re just getting warmed up.)

Despite the fact that everything moves at the speed of Hawaii around here, and regardless of the outcome for March and April, I’m thinking we’ve only got 25 days left for the month of May.  Should we try again for 100,000 words, or should we go with a less noble number until we’ve hit our stride?  Whaddayall think?  To help start things off, I’ve got 11,973 words for the month of May.  I know.  Too bad they’re non-transferable. 🙂

________________________

*For those of you who are new to the game, the rules are simple.  Just leave your word counts in the comments section or via email, and I’ll add them to the group word count.  Every contribution gets a shout-out on the blog.  Word counts can be anything:  fiction, non-fiction, journaling, poetry, emails, et cetera.  It doesn’t matter.  What matters is you’re writing, composing new words in new and different arrangements.  When the goal is reached, then the dinosaurs throw a party, and I bring it to you — well, not live, but soon after the fact. 😉  Simple, see?  I don’t even need your credit card…unless you want me to hold it for you.

I first met Howard Andrew Jones in a small writer’s critique group back on CompuServe some 15 years ago.  Although we haven’t kept in close touch the past few years, I have always counted him a good friend.  When Howard contacted me recently, I was not only delighted for the chance to catch up with him, but thrilled to learn that he had recently celebrated the release of his first novel, “The Desert of Souls,” featuring his popular characters Dabir and Asim.  I remember reading these guys’ adventures in draft form.  Getting to read them now, in their own novel-length story — in hardcover, no less! — with my friend’s name across the front is just validation of what I’ve already known from the beginning:  Howard is a remarkable storyteller.

Besides knowing how to steal you away across exotic deserts and make you forget that you’ve got an episode of “Dancing with the Stars” in your Hulu queue, Howard has built an admirable and multidisciplined career as a writer, editor, and teacher…among many other things.  Not only is he is the managing editor of Black Gate magazine, he is also the driving force behind the The Curved Saber, a website dedicated to the late great historical adventure pulp writer Harold Lamb.  Howard is responsible for assembling and editing eight collections of Lamb’s work for the University of Nebraska Press.  And as if that wasn’t enough, one month after the release of his first novel, he also released his first gaming novel, “Pathfinder Tales: Plague of Shadows,” set in the role-playing game of Pathfinder.

A few days ago, Howard and I met at the Russian Tea Room in New York City between premieres (read:  we exchanged some emails), and I got a chance to ask him a few questions:

MBS: Howard!  Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to let me interview you.  I couldn’t have wished for a better first author interview.

So I have here in my grubby little paws my very own copy of your debut novel, “The Desert of Souls.” This is particularly exciting to me not only because we’ve known each other since the days of CompuServe, but because the characters in this book are old friends to me.

Can you tell my readers a little bit about the evolution of your characters Asim and Dabir?  How did you discover them?  I know you started out writing short stories about these characters.  Did you always mean for them to make their way into hardcover?

HAJ: I read a lot of historical fiction, especially that of Harold Lamb and Robert E. Howard, and one day Asim was just “there” ready to start narrating stories about the adventures he had with his friend Dabir. I found their names easily, and sat down to start drafting short stories about them. Hardcover – a man can dream, right? I wanted to write a novel about them for years, but kept putting it off. I didn’t honestly dream about hardback; dreaming about a book deal seemed incredible enough.

MBS: I’ve heard you describe “The Desert of Souls” as an “Arabian Nights swashbuckler.”  Tell us about the story of “The Desert of Souls.” What is it about the story that drove you to write it?

HAJ: I honestly think Beth Shope’s done a better job with a plot synopsis than I’ve ever managed. I’ll crib from her. But as for what drove me to write it, the book is an adventure about how Dabir and Asim come to forge their friendship.

MBS: I know you strive for historical accuracy.  Can you tell us about this time period in which “The Desert of Souls” takes place and how that’s played into your voice or tone of the story?

HAJ: I think most of us are familiar with the impact of the Renaissance in Europe. 8^th century Baghdad was undergoing something similar, though not a rebirth so much as a flowering. It was a true golden age of science and literature. Islam was but a few centuries old, and the ruler of the caliphate could trace his lineage back to a relative of the prophet himself. Religion was a constant concern. This era also was a time of strife and conflict. Two of the world’s great superpowers of the time were right next door to one another – the Abbasid caliphate and what we now call the Byzantine Empire – and border disputes and wars occurred with savage frequency. Many areas of the world just around the corner from these centers of civilization were terra incognita. Anything must have seemed possible. As reflective of a man serving the aristocracy, my narrator has a formal, dignified writing style, but he is a warrior of renown and a relatively simple man, willing to believe any number of strange stories, though he is seasoned enough not to be completely credulous.

MBS: Who do you consider to be the “star” of the series; Asim or Dabir?  Do you have a favorite of the two?

HAJ: I don’t have a favorite. They’re a team, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. They have equal billing, and bring out the best in each other. Without each other to play off of I don’t think they’d be interesting for me to write about, or for others to read about.

MBS: How many novels had you written previous to “The Desert of the Souls”?  What do you think you did differently, if anything, with “The Desert of the Souls,” to make it be the one that caught the attention and enthusiasm of an editor?

HAJ: I suppose it must be somewhere around 6 or 8; as for what I did differently, compared to the first few I just had to better learn how to write. Compared to more recent works, I still needed practice! I wish I could say that I had to find characters I was passionate about and a story I was dying to tell, but it’s not that simple, because I’d been trying to do that for ages. Maybe all the practice finally paid off, or perhaps I finally found my voice.

MBS: You’ve written some excellent essays regarding your journey to publication, “How to Get a Book Deal,” “Signing the Contract,” and “After the Book Deal.” In “Signing the Contract,” you talk about this cup-of-tea moment you have when you received an email from editor Pete Wolverton at Thomas Dunne Books, who had your manuscript under submission, asking you to give him a call.  I especially loved that you shared this as this is the moment I think we all, as writers, work so hard for.  What was going through your mind while you enjoyed that cup of tea?  Did you know that this was it?

HAJ: I suspected it was the moment, but I didn’t know for certain. I can’t recall what was going through my mind other than slowly enjoying the tea. I was excited, certainly, and a little nervous. Doing something ordinary helped clear my head.

MBS: Right on the heels of the release of your first novel, your second novel — a gaming novel — “Plague of Shadows” was released.  How did you come to write a novel for the Pathfinder universe?

That came about through my Black Gate work. I’d known the editors at Paizo for several years because of the reviews I’d been doing of Paizo game products and because we had a similar love of old sword-and-sorcery and sword-and-planet adventure stories. Paizo editor James Sutter was readying to launch the Pathfinder line at about the same time word broke that I’d signed a book deal, and he asked if I’d be interested in writing a novel set in the Paizo game world. I was already a fan of Paizo material and somewhat familiar with the setting, so I was happy to submit some story ideas.

MBS: I would be remiss not to bring up Harold Lamb.  In fact, it seems your name is always to be found in reference to Harold Lamb, and with good reason.  For those of you who don’t know, Harold Lamb was a historical adventure writer who published short stories and novels between 1917 and the early 1960s.  He was best known for his stories that appeared in Adventure Magazine through 1936.  But if it weren’t for you, Harold Lamb surely would have faded away into obscurity.

You’ve put together eight collections of Harold Lamb’s fiction through University of Nebraska Press.  How did you go from being an appreciative fan to compiling these collections of almost-lost adventure literature, an amazing labor of love?

HAJ: Purely by accident. Lamb’s stories were pretty far ahead of their time as to pacing, cinematic description, plot twists, compelling characters – they were grand adventure stories, and when I discovered dozens and dozens of them had never been reprinted, I tracked them down and learned most were just as good or better than the ones that I’d already read. It was criminal that such fine stories were in danger of being completely forgotten, and I really hoped something could be done about it. I just didn’t know I’d be involved! I’d never planned to become an editor, but I fell into the job when I couldn’t get a position in the radio-tv-film industry. After a few years I realized that I knew the “language of publishing” so that it was much simpler for me to approach publishing houses about reprinting the work – rare work that I was in possession of. I wasn’t alone, though – other Lamb fans had preserved the work from the rare old magazines, and when I had interested the University of Nebraska Press in collecting Lamb’s work, those fans stepped forward to help supply me with the texts.

MBS: You mentioned the other day that you just finished the sequel to “The Desert of Souls,” and I hear there’s going to be a flying carpet in the sequel.  Are there any other tidbits you can give us regarding the sequel?  What else can we look forward to from you in the future?  And — this is me being fan girl — d0 you intend to publish any Kyrkenall stories?

HAJ: There will be forgotten lore, sinister wizardry, bone-chilling monsters and giant beasts, and romance is in the air for Asim. Kyrkenall – hah! I’m amazed you remember him from our writing group days. Of all the novels before “The Desert of Souls,” there’s one that I’ll probably revise heavily, and another that I’ll keep the characters and background from and start over, and that’s the one narrated by the impulsive, charming, and deadly Kyrkenall. I’d still love to launch a series featuring him.

MBS: I’d love to read a series featuring him. 🙂

Thanks so much for taking time for this interview, Howard.  I’m really glad people are sitting up and taking notice of you and your work.  The blurbs and reviews have been glowing…and deservedly so.  I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you.

HAJ: Thank you for the questions and support, Ang. It’s been a real pleasure.

Picking up where we last left off, I have two short stories to share with you this week, both from “Stories:  All-New Tales” Edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio.  I have to say, I am really enjoying this particular anthology, and I’m glad I’ve still got another 200 pages to go.

57.  “Land of the Lost” by Stewart O’Nan (“Stories:  All-New Tales” Edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio)

By the end of the first paragraph, I was hooked.  This is a big deal for this reader, as I’m afraid it’s harder to impress me as I get older and more persnickety.  The basic premise is, a middle-aged woman, living alone, suffering from empty nest syndrome, becomes obsessed with finding the body of a missing local child.  Mr. O’Nan does a wonderful job of creating the same obsession in the reader to find out what happened to this missing child.  I got so caught up in it, that on first reading, I felt the ending was a bit of a letdown. But then I read it again.  And paid attention.  Wow.  It’s quite brilliant really.  Very nice.  Thumbs up.

58.  “Leif in the Wind” by Gene Wolfe (“Stories:  All-New Tales” Edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio)

This is a story about three surviving members of a space exploration team, one of whom has been outside the ship orbiting a planet they are studying.  He claims that birds are nesting inside of him, that humans are the trees the birds have been waiting for.  There is no evidence of birds, and his fellow team members believe he suffers from hallucinations and pull him in.  But then birds start showing up inside the ship, and it seems that perhaps they weren’t hallucinations after all.

This was another story I had to read twice to appreciate.  It is an intriguing story, and I do recommend it; however, I wish the ending had a little more punch.  It’s still a definite recommend.  Mr. Wolfe’s imagery is beautiful.  My favorite part is when the infected character says, “They’re nesting in me, all the beautiful birds.  Perching on nerve fibers, sipping from tiny veins, Ena.  Fluttering and singing.  This is how a tree feels in summer.”  It’s this kind of language that makes me swoon like a fan girl, I tell ya. 😉

It has taken many weeks and some celestial intervention (a fortune cookie told me organization would set me free), but my own workspace is now ready to ride in the Workspace Wednesday Parade.

My husband and I bought our house 10 years ago.  It’s a sweet little house, over 100 years old, with lots of quirks and character, including crazy tall ceilings and windows (which I love).  To call it a fixer-upper is probably an understatement.  It’s been more of a perpetual-fixer for us.  But Fat Cat rocks woodworking and home repairs, and so the house has really come a long way.  You have no idea.

This is my favorite room in the house:

The window looks out into the backyard.  I can unhook the window screen and shoot spit wads at the cats…not that I do…very often.  Fat Cat built all of the bookshelves, which are awesome and, as you can see, packed.  I think eventually we’ll have to move to a bigger house for all the books.  Maybe one with a big yard, so they have a lot of space to roam around.

Wedged between two bookshelves behind my chair is this old card catalog Fat Cat and I bought years ago at a local thrift store.  It came from a local library and is at least 50 years old.  There used to be a couple of old cards in them with the library’s name and dates, but I’m not sure what happened to them.  I’m thinking the Toddler had something to do with it.  She loves to play with this thing.  I always find surprises in those little drawers.  I just checked and three of them have old Japanese postcards that the Toddler found and jammed in there. 🙂  Being an old library card catalog though, it only seems appropriate that it serve as a book bench.

This is the view from the doorway:

Fat Cat has a bunch of old black-and-white framed photos along the right side of the door, mostly of our local area.  There’s one of a wagon train crossing Death Valley.  The hippy tunic with the wild design came from my friend’s mom who passed away recently.  She was such a neat lady, and I can’t think of any reason why it should be put away.

On the side of the bookcase on the left is where I hang all of my cords.  Here’s a closer look:

Another good friend of mine gave me this in a Christmas stocking.  Yep…he gave me the finger, but I’m not mad.  Look!  All my cords, wires, and headphones.  Now who rocks home improvement?  I installed this bad boy all by myself.

This is where the dinosaurs hang out.  They’re sitting on an old dresser that I use to store office supplies and the like.  The calendar white boards are from Target.  The Christmas lights I put up for the dinosaur party, and I liked them so much I left them.  They’re kind of nice at night.

The upside-down guitar is there because I’m never going to learn how to play it if I keep putting it back in its cover and storing it in the closet.  Fat Cat originally installed the wood display support for an antique wood sled that took up most of that wall, but it holds a guitar even better.

The pictures of the dogs playing poker on top of the shelves are Fat Cat’s.  I just wanted to be clear about that.

Here’s the view standing by the hippy muumuu:

I may have to put this one in the photo album because I don’t know if I’ll ever see it this clean again.  I am elbow-deep in cut-and-paste story notes as I type this.  And I just have to note, if you have wall space for white boards, get them.  I love, love, love my whiteboards.  It’s like having a desktop space on your wall. 🙂

The desk is my favorite piece of the whole office.  It was restored by Frank, this old guy who used to have an antique office furniture place just down the street.  When I bought it, I didn’t have a truck, and it seemed like such a hassle to go borrow one when I literally lived a stone’s throw away.  So my sister-in-law, who’s all kinds of awesome, helped me push this thing up the street on a couple of furniture dollies and wrestle it into the house and into the office.  Not an easy feat, but she is freakishly strong for such a small person.  I can’t remember now where Fat Cat was during all of this, but he was appropriately impressed by our efforts.

Now, the next shot is only for context for the last shot.  This is behind my desk.

I mean, that was behind my desk.  This is what it looks like now.  And believe me, this was not an easy task…so oohs and ahs are encouraged.

Not only is it safer and cleaner, but I now have easy access to my whiteboards.  Yay!  Makes it so much easier to outline my plan to take over the world.

Anyway, this is my spot.  I hope you enjoyed the tour.

And as always, anyone who would like to have their workspace featured, drop me a line in the comments.  I’m trying to do this every Wednesday, and I’m looking for workspaces of all creative types, not just writers.  So…clean up your room and take some pics!