Back to Basics

Getting Back to that Little Gray Shack

Some call it a cottage, some call it my little

gray shack. My son Tim calls it 'the cabin.' I call it my home away from home, but I haven't been out there too much lately. I've been out in the world shopping, baking and making myself crazy.

I've had my nose into politics and sports...work and the comings and goings of my kids.

I've read a multitude of resolutions lately and that is just not my thing. But I will make myself one promise and that is...that I'll use it, so I don't lose it. Recently, a friend told me I should rent that space out...pay my taxes. Imagine that.

When I was a very little girl, my friend Nancy Steck had a barn in her back yard. As barns go, this one was pretty nice with a loft and none of the animal smells that other barns in our neighborhood had. It was the place of many a clubhouse meeting, and the place I went to escape from the world. The Stecks didn't care...it was an open door to my imagination. I spent hours there, setting up teddy bears and talking to myself while I waited for the other kids to join me.

We had weddings and communions...we even baptized my dog, Lucky (how original!). I loved it there.

Now, I've got my own writing cottage...and inside that cottage is a desk and a fireplace, a bed, a couch and a small bathroom. I can escape for hours at a time if I choose, such is the circumstance of my life at this point. Last year, a family of sharp-shinned hawks built a nest in a pine tree above the roof of my cottage. I was entertained all spring while the babies learned to fly...flopping sometimes from branch to branch rather than springing forth into the open air. This year my two babies Thin Skinned and Walking on Eggshells are going to take flight too. 

I'm going to put them out there into the world of middle grade and young adult fiction and let them flop around on their own. Who knows what might happen.

In the meantime, I write. Sometimes in my pajamas, sometimes in my jeans, but always, I write. When I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. My right-wired brain juggles a million thoughts at once, sometimes driving my kids (and me) crazy! 

Right now, I'm writing a teaching memoir and another young adult book too...first chapter...no title, but I know, if I build it, it will come. The main character is African American and I'm lily white...go figure. Who knows where it came from. I never know...I let it be. Time and space are all that I need. And both...to my absolute good fortune, are covered!

2008: Everything changed...a new spring is coming, and life feels good all over again! The sharp shins will be back, the nesting turtles will too...and America has a second chance to get it right too. All is well.  And in my little gray shack, anything is possible, that's for sure!