Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

building

A post about the constancy of life and New Years

by

Blossoms to hold onto.

It is that time of year again when everybody is writing
either their New Year resolutions or their accomplishments for the past year.
My thought is more along the lines of what is still present, still ongoing. So
here is my New Year list post.

  • My Labrador companion Cagney it turns out is not
    turning ten years old in a few months but in fact is going to be nine for
    another year. She and I are quite pleased about this turn of events now that
    she is over me aging her faster than she needs to. 
  • Cagney is still an excellent backwards tap dancer
    and gives a show every night when I measure out her evening meal. 
  •  I am still working on Book 4 of the Students of
    Jump series, which appears each day, (though I keep writing more scenes) to still
    have another 6K of words to get to the end. My book apparently has some Dr.
    Who Tardis qualities: the inside is larger than one would expect. 
  •  I am still disappointed with the movie version
    of The Hobbit. Where in heck did this
    white orc come from and since when was a dwarf the main character of a book
    titled The Hobbit? 
  •  Don’t get me started on Ender’s Game. But I still feel the same. Good news: no white orc.
  •  When building a house, everything takes longer
    than expected, still. Yet the roof is on, windows are in, garage doors are
    going in as I write and siding is going up. I remind myself daily that I could
    still be smoothing the concrete in the garage, and suddenly I feel as if we
    have been moving along quite swimmingly. 
  •  I am still getting older and expect to continue
    aging in the future 
  •  Teaching has been, is and will continue to be
    very hard work. Fortunately, students still have the capacity to learn despite
    their nearly all out effort to avoid this. I get updates a year or two after
    graduation that show that these kernels of learning take root and remain
    exponentially active for many years. As of this year, I began teaching my first
    grand-student. He is a much better student than his mother. Appears kernels
    imbed themselves in the genes. Who knew? 
  • Creativity still begets creativity. I am testing
    a theory: One can never run out of creativity. I’ll let you know the results,
    but you have to hang around. I won’t make the post until shortly before the
    end, and I plan to live a very long time. 
  •  There are in fact motor homes that one can be
    comfortable in. You just might not want to bring along two Labradors and two
    family members to test the comfort level. 
  •  You should still floss the teeth you want to
    keep. 
  •  Teenage girls notice teenage boys faster than
    the speed of light. Boys might be a little bit faster noting girls. Research is
    still coming in. 
  •  Having to pay bills teaches responsibility.
    Politeness, consideration, appreciation, timeliness, good work habits and
    sympathy are also benefits of this experience. Earning grades through one’s own
    personal effort teaches the same lessons. 
  •  A kind word still makes a difference worth
    noting and is therefore worth giving. 
  •  Still keeping company with the best of writer
    friends, Marcy Peska and L. A. Hilden. 
  •  Another year with the best man in my life and he
    assures me he is looking forward to another. 
  • The finest of daughters continues to grow into a
    woman who will one day also be my best friend. Though I don’t look forward to
    letting go of her girlhood, I am already reaching for her adult hand. 
  •  My daughter’s Labrador is still terrified of
    white floors of any material. She treats them like ice and skates on her curled
    black nails in a comic lack of control that promises to end with all four legs
    spread out like Bambi but never happens. It seems an appropriate phobia
    considering the time of year. 
  •  I expect to continue blogging for another year,
    and probably longer. 
  •  Based on my current writing projects, I see
    several years of writing ahead. Theory on creativity appears well supported.

#NewYears
#Creativity

Even standing in the crawl space of what will be my office is enough to inspire me

by

foundations for a writing office

I’ve been tweeting about the lovely little getaway house my husband and I have been building for the last three months. I am pleased it’s coming along, but what I really care about and am excited about is my office.  Sure the house is going to have bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, two baths, but I am going to have my own office, and that is what’s important.  The room is about 10×9 at the back of the house off the kitchen and dining room, but it’s an open floor plan, so I can look into the living room if I want or close the door.

I wouldn’t care if it was 6×6.  It is my space and will contain my things and has a door.  It is the only room in the house I will not have to consult or agree with my husband about if I don’t want to.  I have a few ideas.

  • A desk ~ probably my current old oak desk, though my husband talks of replacing it.  I don’t mind it.  The desk doesn’t write, I do.
  • My desk will be right in front of the window with the amazing view of the lake through the trees.
  • One whole wall will be blank, though in the plans it shows a window.  My room ~ no window needed on that wall.  We’re talking 10×9 here.  What do I need with three windows?  Two are fine.  That wall is my story organizer whether I use sticky notes or a white board or printed sheets of paper taped together.  It will make it possible for me to see and alter the arc of each of my stories.
  • Behind me is a storage cabinet running wall to wall, hopefully built in with a counter for the printer, shelving above and cabinet doors below.  
  • To the right is the wall with the door as tight to the cabinet wall as I can make it.  So there will be a small wall immediately to my right when I am at the desk.  Pictures, plagues and such will go there.  I can start with all those diplomas I have so it does not begin blank.  I’ll shift them out as I go.  Somewhere in this lot will sit a file cabinet.  We actually own three cabinets but only one is dedicated to my writing.  The other two can go begging for space elsewhere.  Files not writing related will not be welcome.

So we have been building.  My husband is a do-it-yourselfer, and this includes my having very little to do with the placement of building materials in the form of a house.  I hold a nail in place, and he carefully avoids hitting my fingers with the hammer.  I locate the hammer when he misplaces it.  And a lot of the time I sit in a chair with my Kindle reading.  But I sit in my office, okay, for precision here, I sit beneath my office in the crawl space as the decking for the floor is not in yet.  Still, I cannot explain the absolute peace and satisfaction I feel sitting in the space, my space, my office-to-be.

When I am not sitting and reading or holding a nail, I stare off at that view, my elbows balanced on the ledgerboard mounted on the stem wall.  I am usually standing rather precariously on some concrete overflow from the stem wall pour as I am not quite tall enough to look out without the added inches it gives me.  But as I stand there, the book I am writing comes to me in splashes of scenes and dialogue.  I keep running them through my mind adding imagery, direction, character details. 

My office is already useful, already generating ideas.  Just standing in it is enough to make me want to write.  What will a floor bring?  Walls, a door, my chair at my desk?  So much to imagine and look forward to.

If you can design your office, what would it be like.  Is it just a little space of your own or a full blown library?  Does that desk need to be something special or is any flat space your computer or writing pad can lay enough? Will a window add or detract from your island muse?
#writing
#imagination
#inspiration
#officespace