Writing in Snow

Here's what's so great about living in Michigan in the winter.  This is fantastic writing weather.  With record amounts of snow the past few weeks, I can't deny there is something very cozy and inviting about my little writing corner these days.  While I don't have an office, I'm seriously thinking about getting one of those decorative room dividers (thanks Ann for checking the terminology!) to partition off an official bit of space.  With or without the screen, though, it doesn't take much to make me happy when it comes to writing.  A hot, sweet cup of coffee.  A playlist tailored for the current project, varying day to day and even hour to hour.  Warm cozy slippers.  Quiet--oh that ever elusive Quiet--which is sometimes only found within the music streaming through my ear-buds.  I confess I have a string of LED snowflakes draped around the curtain rod behind me, and I swear I write infinitely better when they're lit.  And of course my writing cat Rico.  Rico is almost always somewhere in the vicinity, and occasionally chirps at me--if a 22 pound orange Tabby can chirp.  He likes to have the last word, and I usually let him.  And lately, the snow.  Three foot drifts piled up outside the door on the deck.  An enormous snow hill in the middle of the cul de sac, as the plow has nowhere else to put the stuff.  Beautiful blowing snow racing past every window.  I love it.  I can already hear the uproar as you read these words, especially if you live anywhere near me.  But I really do.  I don't love driving in it, and I'm not crazy about these insanely low wind chills, but the snow is a wonderful muse.  So, tomorrow when I trudge outside to scrape yet another four to six inches off my car to go to work, I'm going to smile under my scarf and think of my words, my characters, and the story that waits for me.  I can't wait to dive back in, surrounded by snow. 

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