I have a beautiful study whose walls are lined with books. A Room of My Own, just as Ms. Woolf suggested. Do I do any actual writing in it? No. Ever since I did my “work from home” year, wherein my study was a satellite office for ADC, I have been stymied. Luckily, I have been writing quite a lot lately, almost every day in fact. But not here, not with my feather-touch keyboard or my 19″ flat-screen monitor, or my Relax the Back lifesavingly comfy chair. No, not in my study. I take my tiny 10″ laptop to the bookstore and write in their hardback chairs with people milling all around me.

I have asked my daughter and partner to do a cleansing ritual, wherein they dance around and do funny chants. This ritual worked quite well in Charlotte’s room, to rid her closet of monsters. They performed this ritual a few days ago. It did not work so well in my study. Laurel asks, why stop a good thing? She tells me not to beat myself up for having to write at the bookstore, where I tell myself the Internet doesn’t work and I believe my own lie. My novel is flowing. I should go with the flow… Instead, I’m thinking of burning sage.