"A Room of One's Own"

Hello. My name is Sofie, and I am a writer.

There’s a twelve step program for this, but I can come up with countless excuses to avoid doing anything about it. I am a writer. There. I admit it. That’s the first step.

The second step, is living like a writer.

I’ve got this desk here – that doesn’t really hold my computer set-up. It’s in the middle of the living room that everyone and their marching band tends to walk through in the course of a morning, disturbing the Mind Palace. Really, what I need are walls… and a roof… and a door that can be closed.

And that brings me to my new project. This project.

The She-She-Shed

This is what I’ve been referring to as my “She-She-Shed”. It was a tool shed until my sweet mother-in-law moved to a condo and gave us her tool shed, so now, all the tools can be consolidated in one place and I get to use the other for my very own, get-out-tha-house, office! Really? I could do that?

Well, this Christmas, I received the family’s blessing by way of the gift of sunlight. Rather, my husband and children gifted me a solar panel with accompanying hardware to run electricity out to my brand new office!!!! I LOVE these people!!!! See it? Up there on the right side of the roof? It looked a lot bigger under the tree. And now, the orange drop cord can go away - the one that's currently draped across the yard.

So over the next months, I’m going to share the progress of my she-she-shed/office. You’ll see it in all of its hideousness – as it sits right now.

The She-She-Shed in all its hideousness!

You’ll see me freezing my tushy off, because that little tiny solar panel might keep my laptop charged and a light bulb burning, but it sure won’t run a space heater. You’ll see me run out of it in the summer time by our formidable Virginia summers.

But hopefully, the she-she-shed will inspire someone else to carve out a corner in their home, to follow a dream. Virginia Woolf wrote an essay/lecture series called “A Room of One’s Own” which lauds the importance of a space in which to pursue one’s interests, but it is also about creative license and poetic freedom, financial independence and security, and the tendency of women to deny themselves. Check it out.

I would love if you would send me some of your own inspirational pictures of niches you’ve carved out for yourselves! I’d love to see and share them, if I may. You can send them to me at sofie@sofiecouch.com . And follow my progress here and on my Pinterest Board: https://www.pinterest.com/sofie321/cottage/ There, I’ve pinned some inspirational pictures and I’ll keep a record of the progress on the she-she-shed, as well as my writing progress.

This past month, I was able to eek out a short anthology of Christmas stories, In the St. Nick of Time. 

It's past its prime now - January - but I'm off on the next venture. I'm working on a series of sweet romances set in the fictional small town of Poropotank, Virginia. (That's pronounced poh-rope-oh-tank. It's a native term, meaning, "muddy creek", and the river really does exist.) Can't wait to work on my four book series out to the She-She-Shed! Wish me luck. I've got some work ahead of me!