My Writing Den

And I do mean den, because I crawl in there like a bear going off to hibernation and, like a bear being woke prematurely, it's dangerous when people drag me out of there. I actually have a Shrek-style "Beware of Ogre" sign hanging on the door.

Anywhoo . . .

I'm very fortunate to have my own private writing space. It used to be my daughter's bedroom and I took it over once she moved out on her own. And little by little, I've been making it mine.

At first, the decorating scheme of the room was no big deal. I moved my cherry-wood writing desk, my bookcases, and my computer desk in and set to work.

No problem.

Then, when hubby and I had our first bucks mounted, we weren't sure where to hang them (one is just antlers, the other is called a euro-mount: a complete skull with antlers). I thought, why not my writing room?

No problem. And the writing room was christened, "The Hemingway Room," lol.

Then, while shopping for fabric for who-knows-what-craft project, I fell in love with a fabric pattern called "A Rustle in the Dark," thin brown trees against a rich orange and gold sunset-sky.
"Those will make perfect curtains for the Hemingway room," I told hubby.

Problem!

Once I made and hung the curtains (which are lovely, by the way), every splot, blotch, and hole in the wallpaper stood out. Not that it would matter anyway, because the WALLPAPER stood out (muted smears of gray, mauve, and ice blue) . . . with brown, yellow and orange sunset-curtains against them. I decided I had to repaint.

Problem!

Do you know how hard it is to match brown, orange, and yellow? You have your choice of: institutional beige, institutional grey, institutional slate, institutional green . . .

And yellow or orange, heaven forbid! I'm a horror writer. I can't write inside a giant smiley-face! How am I supposed to write about the zombie apocalypse while living in a banana?

After taping about nine thousand different color sample chips to the wall (and consulting everyone from my kids to the UPS driver), the popular choice is a rich-but-not-overpowering apricot. And everyone's response to my whiny, "but is it a color conducive to writing horror?"

"Yeah. It's sunset. It's the calm that takes the protagonist off-guard just before the zombies bust out of the ground and start eating everyone."

Sigh. Okay.

I just hope it goes with the carpet.