Occasionally, I still write at coffee houses within reasonable driving distance from my house; however, given the current economy, $4 coffee and $2 pastries become prohibitive, not to mention the price of gas.

So I'm happy to finally report that, after long pursuit, I have a legitimate writing-specific workspace in my house. Doing so required time to learn how I work best.

I had tried all sorts of portable writing surfaces. Each of the lap desks and laptop stands I auditioned felt temporary and flimsy. I identified my need to write upon a solid table. Finding this out about myself was a large part of the puzzle.

Next, I needed to find where in the house was best suited for working. I must have produced writing in half a dozen places in the house. Writing n bed failed because a] I had to write with my legs straight out, the eqivalent of standing with my knees locked and b] escape to sleep, already the enemy of the work-from-home professional, became yet more irresistable. Putting myself in a tiny corner of the bedroom felt like punishment and the bed remained too accessible. I tried writing in the living room, but it was too heavily trafficked and distractioins abounded.

When I placed my desk adjacent to my web design office space, I knew I was close. A metal bookshelf separated me from my day job computer. The problem with that location was two-fold: traffic, though less than with the living room, and a terrible chair. I dragged my work chair back and forth, but even this small task took me out of my groove. What I needed was a set-up where I could get an idea, sit down and write.

Finally, I placed a simple narrow wood table—the kind intended for hall use I think—next to where I do web design. All I would need to do is swivel the chair to face the second desk. Why this hadn't occurred to me before, I can't imagine. I'm already used to sitting down and getting right to work there.

Here's my set-up. I use a Dell Inspiron with a 17" monitor. Right now I'm using Woks, but as a friend told me, only Satan and I use that program. Whereas I used to rely solely on the laptop touchpad, I've recently started using a half-sized USB laser mouse with a cool extension feature. You've seen them, I'll wager. If the temperature climbs, I'll pull out my dual-fan cooling station. For backup, I use an external USB Passport drive.

The most important piece of equipment is the sound-supressing headphones. I would be lost, distracted into unproductivity without them. As I've mentioned before, I play The "So" Chord, a non-musical, tonal white noise that effectively drowns out even the loudest room noise and doesn't offer patterns or words to knock my out of my writing groove.

Finally, just today, I replaced my 2-level LED USB light with a 10-watt halogen light mounted to the wall a yard overhead.

For the first time I have a writing home...at home.