Award Winners...and Us Mere Mortals

It's been Award Season in the children's literature world, and we were beyond pleased to hear that perennial FW favorite Neil Gaiman won this year's Newbery Award. Since hearing the news yesterday, I've been on a bit of a Neil tear, and have enjoyed his interviews on Talk of the Nation and with Andrea and Mark at Just One More Book. It's always enlightening to hear one of my favorite authors talk, especially when he's so down-to-earth and personable. It's also inspiring, and when you're bogged down mid-revision like I am, you need all the inspiration you can get.

Fortunately, I've had a few little things change in my immediate working environment that have made the revision process a little easier. One critical change was that we finally finished up (mostly) the new office space last month, so I finally have a workspace that fits many of my specifications, instead of having to cram everything willy-nilly into a spare bedroom. The picture at left shows the computer desk side of the room; the door at the back leads into the laundry room and art studio, and on the left side where you can't see it is the sliding glass door to the backyard.

This picture shows the other side of the room, complete with brand-new IKEA bookshelf (there's another smaller shelf you can't see in either photo) and rolltop desk, AKA The Heaviest Desk in the Known Universe. It's been a great place to sit and spread out all my manuscript surgical instruments like notebooks and pens and massively-scribbled-on chapter printouts. The only thing missing is some sort of futon or small couch for reading on, which will go under the window.

However, the best part of my new office by far is this custom-built sculpture (do click on it to see a larger version--it's so cool), which I haven't put on the wall just yet. You might remember an earlier post about a commissioned project--well, part of my payment for that project was in trade, and Jim Rosenau, the clever craftsman behind This Into That Studios, offered to build a custom shelf for me. So, earlier this month, I paid a visit to his studio to pick out some likely books; and over a period of a couple of weeks, he worked his magic and this lovely piece of art arrived in the mail. I can hardly wait to put it up. I feel so spoiled! Not bad for a merely mortal, not-yet-published writer. Good thing I've been putting my new space to good use.