Ah...Spud, thank you, guess my head is a bit thick, today! LOL!

Peter, I was hoping you had some time for this thread. thank you, I think you've put your finger on it.

1) I cannot do separate space at teh mo' unless I go out of the house, hence the thought of a laptop and library carrel. I've done that longhand before and liked the ritual of getting out, i.e. going to *work*, but it gets a little costly when you have to provide and pay for extra O2, plus my energy needs to be concentrated on the actual writing, not the getting there, which can eat up a lot of energy.

2 & 3) I think you may have solved one of my biggest problems! I have lots of clutter in cubbyholes on my desktop and it IS distracting! I've been thinking about emptuing them out for days. Now, I shall and make room for the books you mentioned, which are across the room in the bookshelf. I think a lot of what is going on is I am missing everything that is storage, esp. my books. we've only one bookshelf at the moment.

4) I've been using MSWorks, which is what came with the computer. It is okay, but cumbersome to open and get into the right file. I may try Amergin's idea of writing online, as i find it is more inspiring to be *here* a kind of in the moment thing and doing it. I will also look for WP, I think I have a version of it on here, too.

5) all of three, the lamp to swing over and focus right on teh pages, the window at my left shoulder and the one across the room at my right shoulder

6) Good point. I have some bound in a book I made up for my mom, but all of the actual tearsheets and book of published works are, you guessed it, in a drawer!

7) I'd love to...let me check my calendar and let you know when I will be in town!**BG**

Seriously, thank you very much. I will work on some of this tomorrow morning.

As space is a real concern in this house, until we move, I don't think I will be getting another computer, although I would like to have one that is not online. The only solution I cna see to that is a laptop. I am not entirely sure I'd be comfortable with that, though.

Thanks for hearing me out everyone...helps to have people listen and give feedback, helps a bunch!

kat