5 Ways to Inexpensively Create a Standing Computer Station—and Add Years to Your Life

Long before I heard “sitting is the new smoking,” I knew I was killing myself. As a fiction writer, I’d sit for hours, immersed in a story with no sense of time. When I did take breaks (to make a cup of tea or hit the bathroom), I’d stretch and do breath work, but I still had to go to a massage therapist to work out the kinks. But as time went on and the computer became even more of a shackle with the internet, webinars, and research, I found my muscles not as easy to use in dance class and my ability to stretch shortening.

When I started having trouble rising from a sitting position, I knew I had to change my habits, so I looked online where I found a number of great tables that converted to standing, but were too expensive.

The solution came when I started writing in a Barnes & Noble cafe and moved from the short tables to the tall. I found I could stand, on and off, for the five hours I was there. That gave me ideas, and now I stand and work more than I sit. Standing also reminds me to stretch and breath and move. An added benefit is I don't hunch over.

Here are five ways you, too, can create standing stations or find places to write with standing capability.

CAFES
I often write in cafes as it takes me away from phones, laundry, dog, husband, etc. The first photo is of me standing at one of the B&N tables. The second photo is at Cafe Vero, an old Victorian house, where Sonny the owner put in a shelf along a hallway and included a strip of plugins. The chairs are high, the counter just right for standing.

At B&N

Cafe Vero

Tip: start out standing for a short, comfortable time period and increase as you get used to it.

REGULAR TABLES
Everyone has a regular table at home. 
I often attend writers retreats at Oregon Writers Colony’s Colonyhouse. Because I was desperate to stand while working, I first stacked oversized books from their library on the dining table for a pedestal effect, but the books were cumbersome and not sturdy.

Then I remembered my mom’s lap desk we’d stored at the house. This is the easiest conversion as it’s portable, folds up, and goes with me to Colonyhouse. Bed Bath & Beyond carry them for around $12-15. An additional feature of this lap desk is that the top adjusts for a slanted surface, perfect for writing with pen and paper, say for example, when you’re editing hard copy or writing in a journal. Also works when reading a magazine or book.

Tip: to make standing easier on your feet and back, buy a gel pad for the floor. You can find these in the kitchen section of many stores as they are usually used on tile floors in front of a sink or food prep area. Mine is a GelPro.

EXISTING SHELVES OR COUNTERS
I fortunately have a shelf in my writing room that’s perfect for standing and gives me a beautiful view out the window of our front yard. I use this when I’m working on my laptop and don’t need two monitors. Almost any shelf can be used like this if one is available. 

A shelf under a window can easily be constructed out of shelf brackets and a board. At your neighborhood home improvement store, they may even have something already available. Look for, say for example, a shelf that normally holds potted plants. Or ask for help on something that could easily be anchored to the wall.

REGULAR COMPUTER TABLE
If you’re working at a regular computer table, one that has a back shelf for an external monitor and a pull out extension for a keyboard, you’re in luck. This type of computer table is usually  inexpensive to buy or can be found at second hand stores like St. Vincent dePaul. I often need to use both my laptop and an external monitor when creating a blog, doing research on my novel, or watching a webinar while taking notes.
 

When I'm sitting

When I'm standing

I was at a loss, at first, as to how to convert this area for standing. But then I thought that, if I had a way to raise my laptop on the pullout shelf, I could stand. Unfortunately, the lap desk was too big for the keyboard-size pullout, and piling books would be too heavy, BUT if I had a smaller version of the lap desk that would fit the pullout shelf, I could make it work.

With my husband’s help, I drew up dimensions for what looks like a little footstool, and my husband made it in his shop. It’s even a bit fancier than what I’d asked for, but if you have a handyman or woman around who can cut out plain shapes and screw them together, you can do this, too.

As you can see in the photo, I use my laptop on the pullout with the mini-table, and I change the external monitor’s slant so it slants upward. Now I can see both monitors while standing, although I have to use my laptop keyboard instead of the ergonomic.

Tip: To make up for not being able to use my ergonomic keyboard, I found a great accessory that helps with my hand position and keeps my laptop from overheating. Made by Road Tools, the Podium CoolPad goes with me everywhere. It adjusts in height and swivels, letting you use it slanted up or down. At the B&N tables, which are high, I use it slanted down so I don’t crimp my hands.

OTHER POSSIBILITIES
Search websites for "standing computer stations." I’m not familiar with this site, BizChair, but they offer this inexpensive laptop table that’s portable and moves. My only concern would be the rollers causing it to move, something that I wouldn’t want, but might be OK if the rollers locked or the table was on carpet.

If you like your standing station solid and made of wood, podiums, like the type used in classes or for presentations or even churches, are often the right height for a laptop. They also usually have a nook for storing small things, something I need when working as I usually need pen and paper and my cellphone. (I use my cellphone for a timer as it keeps me aware of how long I’ve been writing and standing.) If you frequent second hand shops, ask the owner to keep an eye out for a podium or computer desk and to call you if one comes in.

Drafting tables or graphic design tables, although large, can be adjusted to a standing height. I don't think they’re as popular as they used to be because most drafting and design are done on computers, so it’s possible there are a number of them out there no longer in use. Maybe a school or college would be worth checking out?

Don’t forget your friends and family. Let them know what you're looking for, either via Facebook or email. Check sites like Craigslist. If you have a friend who works in wood, maybe a swap is in order.

A panorama of my writing room

Tip:  I bought my Mac ergonomic split keyboard from the folks at The Human Solution and their service is beyond compare. They sell amazing desks and chairs, too. Even for my simple questions about a keyboard, they responded quickly and checked on me after they responded. Someday, when my ship comes in, I’ll buy a set-up from them.

ONE LAST SUGGESTION
Keep moving! I love to dance and my body loves me for it. I keep a few YouTube videos for taking a break. Since I’m already standing, it’s easy to play one and move for ten minutes. My feet always say thank you!

I Love Zumba: One of my Favorite YouTube Channels

WHY SITTING WILL TAKE YEARS OFF YOUR LIFE
If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about sitting, this article explains the research behind the perils of sitting for long stretches of time.

7 Ways a Sedentary Lifestyle is Killing You

Sitting will kill you isn't exactly a happy message. But just as with the days when we used to smoke, ignorance is not bliss. So I leave you with this.

Keep dancing, keep writing!
Hugs,
Valerie

What’s next on Gobsmacked? A peek at my writing life and a giveaway, with an emphasis on Paris.

The Muse is Back and Dishes Inspiration

Hello, everyone!

Sparrow here, Captain Val’s muse. Thank you for all the support you’ve given her lately and, new pirates, welcome aboard the Gobsmacked.

I’m once again filling in for Captain Val as she is a tad bit overwhelmed (taxes, polishing her novel, family, a short trip to Ashland, and, well, life). For those who remember my last post (read it here), she did apologize for calling me flighty. I’m not upset anymore. She needs me. And what’s a muse for?

            Of course, now I have to think of something muse-like to write about. As my role is to inspire and sprinkle some kind of writerly fairy dust, I decided that perhaps the lot of you could stand a little sparkle also. It’s January, it’s winter, the holidays are over, and don’t you feel a little … well, just a smidgen in need? of encouragement? of love? of inspiration?

            Good. Now that’s settled, let’s start with a bit of humor, sent by Kathryn Lang and found at Jason Love’s website.

            Isn’t it refreshing to see that writers can make fun of themselves—well most of them. I do understand your angst. We all have it. But if writing is like dealing with cancerous tumors, as one writer told Captain Val, stop writing and become a pilot or a nurse, anything that gives you joy. Life is short!

            Now, onward to inspiration.

I am not a writer, just a muse. So I turn to others, your kin, with their words of wisdom. Think of what I offer as your very own goody grab bag.

            Let’s start at the beginning. 2012. How did you approach the new year? Resolutions? A to-do list of all the things you want to fix or make or change? Now that we're in the year of the dragon, let's do something auspicious. Ellen Goodman has a the right idea.

"We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives ... not looking for flaws, but for potential."

Potential. I like that! Thank you Becky Green Aaronson for posting this.

Barbara Sullivan, Captain Val’s go to advisor on all things literary, uses this idea of potential when guiding her through a rewrite. I paraphrase here:

Don’t look at what isn’t working. Read through your novel. Look for and highlight all the passages, scenes, descriptions that knock you out. The ones that cheer you as in “I can’t believe I wrote that!” That’s the good stuff you want to tap. That gives you the potential, the scaffolding, for everything else.

            Captain Val’s crewmate, Chris Scofield, sent this quote from Josephine Demott Robinson, a circus performer in the first half of the 20th century. Her advice not to let failure deter you is sound and is the idea that you need to encourage your efforts. Like the inferred note of self-assessment too, not so bad, a little more practice and you'll get there, an applicable bit of inspiration for everyone. For writers, this can be what you need during each rewrite.

"Never mind if you fall far short of the thing you want to do, encourage your effort. If no one else will say it to you, say it to yourself. ‘Not so bad.’ It will make the next effort easier and better."

            Do you encourage your efforts? Do you give yourself credit for every growth jump you take? Captain Val doesn’t wait to publish before she rewards herself. She rewards the levels of efforts it takes to get there. If she finishes an application to a residency, she celebrates. If she finishes a first draft, she celebrates. Every rewrite, every move to the next professional level is cause for celebration according to her. (Yes, she does like to celebrate!)

           Another bit for those who love the crazy free-spirited Jack Kerouac. In 1958, he wrote a letter to Don Allen and included a 30-point list of “essentials” that he titled “Belief and Technique for Modern Prose.” You can read the entire list on Lists of Note, but here are numbers 14-17:

·  Like Proust be an old teahead of time

·  Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog

·  The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye

·  Write in recollection and amazement for yourself

 The ultimate inspiration for February and the Year of the Dragon? Kristen Lamb’s treasure chest blog Warrior Writers offers “Three Steps to Freedom: Grab Hold of your Brilliant Future.” What a title! And this is not just for writers. Everyone! Read this. Please! Here’s a taste:

This blog is dedicated to helping writers holistically. We are more than robots sitting at a desk pounding out word count. We have hopes, dreams, fears, bad habits and baggage. …

Three Lessons of Confession

Confess the Real Emotion—Name It and Claim It

One of the first things that offered me a new sense of empowerment was when I learned to confess the real emotion I was feeling.

Click here to read this blog: Kristen Lamb’s WarriorWriters

            Ah, there’s my call to duty. Seems as if the Captain needs me for a few hours while she polishes her novel.

My inner child at the moment

             BUT before I go, I want a word with the guy who wrote “Housebreaking Your Muse.” I beg your pardon! Muses are not DOGS! How demeaning! Muses everywhere demand an apology. I know you were trying to be cute, but muses are energy, light, intuition, not a bad pup that needs its nose rubbed in its pee. It’s the writer who needs training, focus, meditation … whatever! Muses are always there for our captains. So, please! No more!

            Sigh.

            Again, gentle readers, thank you for letting me be here. Captain Val will be back next week.

            In the meantime, what inspires you? Can you see the potential instead of what doesn't work? In fact, tell us how you're going to change your outlook, how you'll approach your project from now on. Will you now approach your writing with a fresh new attitude? What will you do? What will be your reward for the first step you take?
            Oh, what fun! Captain Val would love to hear from you, and you don’t need to be a writer to do this. I think February should be The Potential Month, See the Possibilities Month. Now I’m excited!

            For now, until next time, much love,

            Sparrow
 p.s. And don't forget to call on your Muse for help! (But please, don't use a dog whistle.)

Coming Soon!

Captain Val Throws a Creative Soiree with her Crew
Waiting for Wild and Why I'll Read Everything Cheryl Strayed Writes

How a Research Trip to Paris went Aground and What Saved It

2012 Resolutions? Best Served with Humor!

Ahoy, Lads and Lassies,

            Why humor, you ask? Simple. After being down with one of those venomous viruses goin’ round, I had to find a way to soothe my snarky pirate side that kept saying, “Unfair! Can’t celebrate on New Year’s Eve? Can’t party with Jess Maxwell and Red Moons on Sunday? Arrrggghhh!”

            After a little sniveling, I decided to give myself a good shake and say, “Turn this to your advantage, Captain! You’re being forced to stay in your cabin and leave first mate in charge. How best to use this time?”

Tour a Captain's Table

            Ah, lads and lassies, I needed humor to set me straight. When yer lookin’ a fright and your coughin’ could sail an armada, you need to do somethin’! I made a list of those naggin tasks that needed to be done and knocked ‘em down one by one.  I won’t go through the list. God knows, I don’t need to show you how far I'd gone adrift.

            So here’s what I've had waitin' for ya for the new year.

New Year’s Bloody Resolutions

            Throw 2011’s list into the brink. I’ve used and reused this list for years, created years ago by an online, fill-in-the-gap resolution generator. Sorry I can’t find the link.

            Lose 1 pound

            Be more magnificent

            Be less inexhaustible

            Stop gathering

            Start creating

            Write every day

            Keep my damn sense of humor

For Those Who Woke Up Jan. 1 and Wanted to Write a Novel

            If you woke up on January 1^st and thought, “I’d like to write a novel!” (ok, maybe a “friend”  said that), before you take one step in that direction, consider what Dorothy Parker had to say about becoming a writer:

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”  -- via Stacy Clark on SheWrites

            If that doesn’t work, here’s a humane way to discourage yourself your friend from taking up the writer’s life. Watch all the way through. It's irritating at first, but gets funnier!

            That’s all for now, until Friday, when I’ll be back in semi-serious form with my must-read interview with Diane Prokop, book reviewer extraordinaire

Hold On!

            You didn’t think you’d get off that easy, did ya? Nay. Your Captain has an assignment for you.

            To keep your humor afloat when you’re weak and can’t tell the arse end of galleon from a rowboat, find a funny quote or cartoon that makes you smile. But before you tape it to your computer monitor or fridge or car dash, send me a copy at ValinParis [at] earthlink [dot] net! At the end of January, I’ll post them all on my blog.

Galleon!

Rowboat!

            If you can’t do this for yourself, do it for your sisters and brothers! There’s good karma in keepin’ your shipmates in fine fettle. If the Mayans were right and this is the year we go “phewt,” let’s at least be laughin’. One thing I learned from Girl Scouts—other than how to make a S-Mores—is  “Always Be Prepared.”

Signing off for now!

Here’s to smooth sailin’ in 2012!

Your Captain Val

Coming Up!

Interview with book reviewer Diane Prokop

Humor! Helping Each Other Thrive; Bring Your Writing Alive

Confirmed Gossip and News from the Writing World

My Research Trip to Paris: How to Let Go and Follow your Instincts

Time for The Muse: What Fashionable Pirates Will Wear This Season

Hello, Welcome.

            I am Captain Val’s muse, and she’s asked me to fill in for her this week. I’m a little put out as I thought she needed me while she writes her novel’s last chapters. But, no. I guess she’s sailing solo on this, and I wish her all the best.

            Hurrumph.

            As she’s given me carte blanche to do as I please, I will, thank you very much. I do believe she has a bit of burnout at this juncture and needs a little fun. As Steve Jobs (yes, that one) once said, “It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.”

            And as I’m quite good as her muse (not unreliable as she sometimes says, and not MIA when desperately needed; I mean, honestly, I do try, and it’s not as if I don’t have a life too), I’ve chosen fashion as my topic this week.

            You see, I’m quite taken by fashion as art, how we find ways to adorn ourselves without looking like everyone else, which of course is difficult, I know. But I’ve a fondness for pirates, as you can tell by my choosing Captain Val (FYI: muses choose their subjects, not the other way around), and pirates love their dress. Yes, yes, they love their ship, their treasure, the cute little way they speak. But really, look at what they wear!

            Now, here’s an inside bit you may not know about our Captain Val: she was inspired by one of her very early crushes:  Errol Flynn in “Captain Blood.” Was it his handsome bad-boy looks and behavior? Or is it true that the clothes (or in this case costumes) make the man? Well, have a look and judge for yourself. (The song accompanying the video? Perfect!)

            Pirates have been an inspiration for—well, forever! (or as long as I can remember and I’m not that old of a muse) Pirate garb has even shown up on the New York runways.

            As for pirate costumes, Halloween will soon wrap us in our alter egos, and I’ll give a little free advert to this site as they have pirate costumes galore and this might  be my fave …

            … although! I do wish this site, Gypsy Moon, still offered their “World’s End” collection. Ahhh.

            For the serious pirates out there, you will drool over this site from Europe: Pirates Cave. They offer custom-made pirate wear. Oh, my, I’m so … so … gobsmacked! To have a chest of gold to buy any of these!

            Ah, but thanks ToBeaPirate.com. More fitting for my purse. I’m rather fond of the frilly red Mary Read (ai, a pirate herself) set, but, oh, my Captain wouldn’t be.

            She’d dress like the captain she is, although, I happen to know she loves the romantic look when she’s ashore, and this happens to be her favorite for being at court.

            Oh, good heavens and North Star! I must fly. I’m late. I’m never late, well, not often, but right now, I must be off and let my captain once again take over her log. She’s promised to give you some juicy stuff in the next two weeks, including the interview with Jan Eliot, another pirate of the comic sort.

            To you who love the swashbuckling life, I say adieu, and confess that if I had my way, I’d choose this swashbuckler for an amusing time.

            I hope you’ve enjoyed this fun little escape and as my captain often says, if we don’t have fun once in awhile, we can’t possibly be good at our jobs, now, can we. Until I'm called to rescue her again,

             Creative Cravings and Amusing Musings to You!

From the Captain

            Thank you, muse. As always, you either cheer me up or I can’t locate you (yes, honey, you do go MIA, but not often; I understand, really I do). But today, I’m back in fine fettle and have a few questions for my shipmates.

            Have you had fun lately? Have you played with your muse?

And what would you name my muse? She seems quite lovely here, doesn’t she? I won’t, however, in the future let her take over the ship when she’s … cough … not so sweet and, let’s say, obliging.

            But what, pray, is a muse without a name? I do have a name for her, but I’d like to see if you can guess it or top mine. If you do, there’s a surprise in me treasure chest for you.

            A clue about her name: she’s named after a pirate who hasn’t been mentioned in this log. If you can’t guess it now, I’m gobsmacked.

COMING UP!

More News and Confirmed Gossip from the Writing World

What it Takes to be a Writer

And … an unusual interview with cartoonist Jan Eliot of “Stone Soup”

Runnin’ for Me Life: Tsunami! Part 1

Me alter-ego, Writer Val, tells this true tale:

           The June day was what the Brits call brilliant. Blue sky with powder puff clouds, sparkling ripples of ocean waves, an almost-deserted long stretch of beach. My face had that just-right sun-kissed pink from sitting against a driftwood log for a half hour, reading John Daniel’s Rogue River Journal, after finishing a day of writing. Once again, I was luxuriating in a writers’ week at Colonyhouse, the Oregon Writers Colony house at Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

            After the beach, I ate a simple dinner and then decided to call home. Fellow writer Grace Castle was fixing a salad as I walked outside to call my husband. At eight o’clock, the June evening was still sunny and warm, and I faced a tranquil ocean. Dan and I were talking about our son’s job when a siren sounded, one that made my arm hairs stand up.

            “Can you hear that?”

            Dan said, “Yeah. Maybe there’s a tsunami coming.” He was half joking.

            When the siren shut off, I said, “Whew. That must have been a test.”

            We picked up the conversation where we left off, but half a minute later, the siren sounded again and this time stayed on.

            “I need to hang up. This is serious.”

            Inside, Grace was about to eat her salad.

            “The siren. What do you think?” I asked.

            Outside, nothing had changed. No cars. No people fleeing. Grace said, “If it’s an emergency, we’ll find out soon enough.”

            The sharp wail continued and sent me scurrying to the coffee table and the new tsunami brochures. Nowhere did the brochure say, “When you hear an ear-splitting alarm, run for the hills.” My reptilian brain said “Flee!” but my rational side said, “Don’t be wimp. It’s just a drill.”

            I called three numbers listed on the pamphlet and reached, “If you know your party’s extension. …”

            Grace calmly ate her salad. “If it’s not a drill, someone will come by and tell us over a loud speaker.”

            At that exact moment, an emergency vehicle drove by, lights flashing, speaker system on. “Evacuate your homes! Tsunami warning! This is not a drill!”

            Evacuate? Tsunami? Television images of the Asian tsunami flipped across my brain.

            Grace and I grabbed laptops, tennis shoes, purses, blankets, and jackets. “We’ll take my car,” I said as we ran down to the road where the cars were parked. I had water in my trunk.

            As I pulled away, I tried to remember where I saw evacuation signs. Which road would take us up the mountain? Before we turned onto Rt. 101, the emergency vehicle made another sweep of the area, and I flagged it down. “What road do we take?”

            “Turn left onto Sixth.”

            We did. Cars were leaving Sixth. It was a dead end. From a car passing us going in the opposite direction, someone yelled, “Third Street.” We turned around.

            The siren continued to shriek. When we reached Third Street, the town seemed to be funneling up the road.

            Up ahead, people left their vehicles in a church parking lot to walk up the hill. No one was giving directions on what to do. I wanted to go higher, but we came to a crawl as people walked in front of us. I decided to park along the road between the church and the fire station as no one seemed to be driving to the top of the hill. Grace and I put on our sneakers, grabbed coats, blankets and shoes. We decided to leave our laptops in the car. But what about the water? The family in the car in front of us was making similar decisions on what to take while one of their girls sobbed uncontrollably in her father’s arms.

            Grace and I couldn’t lug the water, so we locked up, and joined the fleeing townspeople. One man had a cat wrapped inside his jacket. An elderly couple, both frail and white of hair, trudged silently beside us, the woman following the man. Neither carried anything. Someone had a radio handset so I asked what he was hearing. “We can’t hear anything. The frequencies are jammed, overloaded.” A man behind us said a Northern California earthquake was expected to cause a tsunami forty to forty-five feet high. I noticed a uniformed woman speaking on a radio and walked over. “How high are we right here?”

            “About forty feet.”

            I looked back at the ocean. Not high enough. I began tallying up everything we needed and didn’t have: water, flashlights, protein bars, warm enough clothes, waterproof matches, water purification tablets, first aid kit, candles, everything I keep at home.

            My cell phone rang. “Where are you?” It was Dan. “I can’t believe I … … … Kristy just called from Portland … … … was being evacuated.” I told him what was happening and tried to reassure him we’d be okay, but the reception died. Grace tried to call out on her cell, but no signal. I thought of loved ones speaking to people in the Twin Towers before they were cut off forever. Grace and I put our phones away and kept walking.

            We continued our climb and learned from others that the whole coast from California to Vancouver, B.C. was being evacuated. “Where was the quake?” I asked. Northern California, someone said, Eureka, no Yreka, no Brookings. On the border of California and Oregon. The tsunami was supposed to hit our coast around 9:26 p.m. I checked my watch. Only 8:23.

            “This is what you could call an adventure,” Grace said.

            “If we survive, it’s an adventure,” I said. “If we die, it’s a disaster.”

* * * * *

            Ai, me beauties, it’s not over. The tale continues next week. And even then, it's not the end. There's another story that raises the arm hairs.

          Until then, me maties, stay strong and bless the sea,

          Captain Val

COMING UP!

Runnin’ for Me Life:  Tsunami! Part II

More News & Confirmed Gossip from the Writing World

A Fast Getaway in the Middle of the Night

And … an unusual interview with cartoonist Jan Eliot of “Stone Soup”

Adventures at a Writer’s Residency: Captain Val Goes to Vermont Studio Center

Ahoy, ye shipmates!
     Today I take you on a past adventure, one from 2007. Writers often need to flee ship and crew, go far away to capture treasure on paper. The place they go? A residency. This, me scallywags, is a place for contemplation, immersion, communing with the story. Residencies are applied for and often denied as the need is high, writers many, and possibilities limited. Aye, I've been lucky and nailed many a residency, and one of my favorite was a month in winter at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, a wee hamlet that echoes me own home town in spirit, where you'll still find stenciled on the sidewalks "Kill Your TV."
      Me choice is to show ye the place, the pirates I was on board with, and the flavor of a what a month with the muse is like. Here ye be. Enjoy!

I arrive in Burlington, Vermont, and spend a few days with me best pal from high school, Christie, and hang out with her hubby and grandchildren. Christie takes me to Johnson for me first day and for most of the month I'm there, the bloody place looks like Antarctica.

 

 

The photo to the left is of the writer's building, fairly new, and accommodating up to fourteen writers. The Gihon River runs through Johnson and was frozen over in most places. Aye, we had some sun, and for those liverbelly landlubbers who find themselves chilled to the bone from just settin' eyes on these pics, well, toss yer eyes on the ones below from the Vermont Studio Center website:

The Red Mill building, dining hall, rec room, offices, gallery

VSC

The Writers Building on a better day

Aerial view of VSC

    

     "Founded by artists in 1984, the Vermont Studio Center is the largest international artists' and writers' Residency Program in the United States, hosting 50 visual artists and writers each month from across the country and around the world. The Studio Center provides 4-12 week studio residencies on an historic 30-building campus along the Gihon River in Johnson, Vermont, a village in the heart of the northern Green Mountains. "

     Aye, maties, that's the gist o' it. The month I was there, I and the writers worked with Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever and Servants of the Map, a hearty wise and wonderful woman who upon our first workshop with her, pulled out a beautious silk Chinese bag full of found objects and covered with dragonflies. Seein' me totem is the dragonfly, I blurted out, "My totem!" and then explained, whereupon, she emptied the bag and handed it to me. "It's yours." I almost threw meself down on the floor from worship of this magnificent wench. She then spoke of found objects, how they spawn the novels she writes. In the past, at other VSC residencies, I've had me the privilege of working with Rick Moody, who played guitar while we sat around a rousing bonfire and sang along, and Joanna Scott, a  masterful author with many novels to her name and a hell o' of a ping pong game.

      Residency days are spent either in your bedroom writing or in your writing studio. Me favorite way to start the day is to make me a cuppa tea and climb back inta bed with the laptop. I'll be gobsmacked if this doesn't tap into the writin' faster 'n gettin' dressed, havin' breakfast at the dining hall, talkin' to the artists, and headin' o'er to the studios. By then I've done left the magical world of half dream, half reality that so primes me writin'. Here's what me bedroom looked like:

     I had me no trouble lovin' this room. It felt like I was back in college. That of course was exactly what made us act in such ... well, juvenile manner at times. We had our parties, oh, yes, indeed, and they were of fine spirit. As an instigator o' fine partying, believin' we need to reward ourselves for the hard work we put in day after day (and it not be easy, I can tell ye; there be a fair bit of groanin' goin' on o'er missin' muses, troublesome verse, and lackluster prose), I felt we needed succor. So me specialty being the bright pink cosmo, I sailed down to the liquor store and bought me  the ingredients. The night of the party, I set up the bar and began mixin'. Now, I best be tellin' ya, I not be the only pirate of the sort. Me cosmos disappeared down the gullet of all me fine messmates, dancin' ensued, people grabbed the basement poles and did a turn or two. The basement rec room filled with laughter and merriment. When me vodka ran out, someone whispered to check the fridge. 'Tis a crazy cache of liquor and beer, and plenty of vodka. Aye, we partied to the wee hours.

Me and the fine Andrea Barrett

No comment on these merrymakers!

     Throughout the month, the artists at VSC hold studio tours, a fine way of seein' works in progress. As writers, we share our work by reading at the community center on designated nights along with our visiting authors. During one of the readings we posed for a group portrait. A few of my pirate pals I offer here.

Your Captain at the helm

Great mate Lesley Howard gracing us with her story

Justin Quarry, gobsmacked us with his reading

Writers, one and all

     But the beginnin' o' each day was always 'bout the work, putting our fingers to the keyboard, pen or pencil. Here's me writing desk at the studio, along wi' an obsession of mine:  takin' photos of shoes  and also the books I happen ta be readin'.

My favorite? The Last of Her Kind

Pre MacBook

What we wore to the writers' studio

Debby, Kent, me, Chris and Jeff

Me, Chris and Debby

Falling out the door?

Before the end of the month,  me brothers and their wives came up  for a day from New Hampshire, and we pirated around Stowe and I'm happy to report I kicked derriere in pool. Yo, ho, ho!!

So that be it for me log this week, hearties. Come back next week for the two-part adventure "Runnin' for Me Life: Tsunami!" a story rife with tension and worthy of a read.

      Until then, I remain always yours,

      Captain Val

COMING UP!

Runnin’ for Me Life:  Tsunami!

More News & Confirmed Gossip from the Writing World

And … an unusual interview with cartoonist Jan Eliot of “Stone Soup