Cleaning out the Clutter. . .

I need to write, but instead I found myself deep inside my youngest son’s closet crawling amongst the broken Power Rangers, bits of crayon and some unidentified slime. Four trash bags later, it is pristine and ready for Santa to fill it up again.

His bedroom is on the second floor right beside my office so I decided to clean it too, but I only had one trash bag. I couldn’t believe the paper I kept – countless rejection letters, pages of Publishers Lunch, and a request from Bob Mecoy for a synopsis of my second novel (which was by no means ready to query). I’ve tossed it all and I am ready for a fresh start in 2005.

There were at least a foot of books that were thrown at random from the bookshelf by the “Mad Book Fairy” (because my children would never treat a book so poorly). I put all the Magic Treehouse Books in numerical order, put the Lemony Snicket books back beside the Harry Potter books and put all Scholastic and Dr. Seuss books in the same section.

I moved one of my plants to the top of the bookcase and let the leaves hang over the side. It looks good but I’ll have to watch it to make sure it gets enough sunlight. I went out to purchase a lamp for my office because I really don’t like the overhead light. Even though the store was crowded with holiday shoppers I found the one I wanted – and it was only $21.00 with the shade. Heck I spent more on my shampoo and conditioner at Great Clips (which is the cheapest place I found to buy the salon brand I use and I haven’t purchased it from my hair stylist in years).

The lamp is the perfect touch to my office. I love the loveseat in the corner with the big fluffy pillows, my stereo playing Enya and some Celtic music, the smell of my aunt’s mystery book collection on the bookshelves and a few of the children’s pictures on the shelves. I’ll light some candles after supper and write, write, write.

I know I’ve written about my Aunt Ruth’s (we called her mamaw) mystery book collection. When I was younger, we’d visit and I’d sneak into my uncle’s office and just look at all the books stack on sturdy oak shelves. It seemed so vast to me then.

When my aunt died, my cousin didn’t want them so my mother took them. She donated a bunch to the library and the rest stayed in her shed until I rescued them a few years ago. There are prized Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Rex Stout, Maurice Procter, Dell Shannon, Ian Fleming and many others. I only have about ¼ of my aunt’s collection but I treasure each one.

I received a rejection for my poem, Sanctuary, from a publication. I didn’t think it was the right fit. I haven’t heard anything else.

Tonight I plan to write two issues of Blood. If I get an issue out to the editor on Monday, Tuesday (issue 38 goes out but I’ll be 6 issues ahead), Wednesday (7 issues ahead), and Thursday (8 issues ahead). Issue 39 goes out on Friday (back to 7 issues ahead) and Saturday is Christmas so there won’t be much writing going on again until Monday (back to 6 issues ahead, darn). Oh well, all I can do is my best.

Well, I hear the laundry calling. . . .

BK