Fan Friday « Robin Writes

A few weeks ago, I listed some of my favorite authors; while their books are tucked here and there on my shelves, I thought you might want to know what else is lurking around the office—and living room.

Looking straight out across my desk, I have two bookcases. They’re practically antiques: cheap, put-it-together-yourself from a discount store. Unbelievably, they’ve lasted for 25 years and countless moves; there are two more against the wall behind me.

Facing me are the non-fiction titles: several by Zig Ziglar, whom I met years ago, a Yahoo style guide from my days of article writing, horse books, psychology books, criminal justice, Black’s Law Dictionary, sociology, personality stuff, career guides, and a lot more. They’re mostly categorized by subject. I also have two shelves of antique books.

Behind me, again in the cheapo cases, are more of the same.

To my right, in three bookcases that my husband built, are my hardcover fiction and books written by authors I know—and of course, an entire collection of RHP books. These are all mostly categorized by author. Mostly.

That means that all the King books are together, all the Koontz, etc. Not that the Ks are all together or anything, or even that the Ks follow the Js. I’m not that OCD.

Oh, and in the middle case, I have a collection of antique law books that I picked up at auction in Texas—way cool, even if the covers are crumbling. Shelved with and below those are my collection of vintage Black Stallion books, plus my great-grandfather’s collection of Zane Grey novels.

Now, in the living room, two husband-built bookcases hold all my paperbacks, stacked to fit. Mostly by author, but really—fit is important!

If you know me at all, even a teensy bit, you’ll know that I’m not fan of the romance genre. Yes, I used to read them, back in the day, but even then not constantly.

But I do seem to have quite a collection of Danielle Steel . . . and Rosemary Rogers. Remember her? Of course you do! And Steve and Ginny? Ah, yes—I do still remember those books! But mostly I’ve got mystery and horror. Odd combinations, yes?

You know how I write about all that survival stuff and everything? Well, in case you didn’t know, I kinda do all of that too . . .

Okay, okay, more than “kinda.” I’m trying to get us to eat better, which means I grow and can and bake everything I can; I have weapons training—and weapons. I can tie knots, find my way around, find water, build a shelter, etc. etc.

Only now, it’s for real! Or, well, it will be, in just a little over a year.

As some of you know already, we’ve been looking for property out in BFE, Podunk, whatever you want to call it, for six months. Six long months. We’ve made offers on two different parcels already, and this past Monday we went for a third—and got it!

We, um, haven’t actually seen it yet. There’s this winter phenomenon called snow; a lot of you are familiar with that, right?

So, as soon as things melt—and not return—we’ll be heading out there to see just what we’ve agreed to buy!

Thirty-five acres; pond; mostly woods; a barn; and two houses.

Now, the original idea was to find empty land, with water, like a pond or creek, and then build everything in the compound: cabin, storage, pump house, etc.

So, anyway, our plans changed a bit. Like the cabin, for instance—we were planning on 640 square feet and no dishwasher, but we got 900 with a dishwasher. [shrug] I can deal with that. I’m a little disappointed that I won’t be designing it from the ground up, but this place has plenty of things that can still be done, and will be, eventually.

Of course, the first thing will be to plan out and construct the campsite out in the woods. Ahem, that’s so all my friends can come camping . . . we won’t mention the work days we have planned!

Wait, scratch that—the first thing is moving the light over the kitchen sink. I can tell, even from pictures, that it’s off-center and that’s going to drive me nuts. And my husband says the second thing is calling the conservation department and getting fish in that pond!