Friday, June 06, 2008

What if

What of my favourite games is to fantasize what I would do if I sold a book for ten million dollars.. or more like won the lottery.

This is a fantasy, so I get to spend the money any way I want, although even in my head, I have to give a chunk to charity.

But then, I’d get a new house, nothing stupid, but more space. I wouldn’t even get a new car, my current one is great. But that’s where the reasonable thought ends.

I’d get a nanny, I’m typing this now with a big grin on my face. Then I’d hire a personal trainer, to kick my butt into shape for the fantastic new wardrobe I’d buy. Lots of cashmere sweaters, because, hey, I won’t care about the drycleaning costs, and maybe even a cashmere bathrobe. And I know it makes no sense, but this is a fantasy.

And then to be totally ridiculous, I’d buy a Birkin, the $9000 handbag that I do secretly covet. I know it’s a purse, but it’s a really nice one… remember, this is all fantasy..

I’d travel a lot more. First class all the way.

Then I’d come home and build a room onto my house. A study/library. A quiet room, with floor to ceiling bookshelves, a chandelier, a gas fireplace(no sense in messing around with wood to keep it going), a chaise lounge in white, because white is a stupidly impractical couch colour when you have kids and to top it all off, a state of the art Mac, just to annoy my husband who is PC all the way, and a comfy chair to write in.

Then I’d have a secret door built in leading to my perfect bathroom, with a soaker tub, and white marble and a stack of new books by the tub.

I would have hours every day to write, and in my head, I’d be writing perfection.

Then I remember Stephen King’s amazing book On Writing, where he talked about getting this giant slab of a desk in this quiet office and getting nothing done. After writing in a small basement, he’d finally created his perfect place to write and got nothing out of it. It was too removed from his life, and his family and in the end, he found a smaller desk, closer to the ones who gave him inspiration.

So in truth, I probably will never find a quiet place to write, no matter how much money I have but I also know that writing at my kitchen table is, right now, the perfect place for me, dreams of fireplaces and floor to ceiling bookshelves notwithstanding.

Does anyone else play this game? Anyone else want a birkin?

5 comments:

Heidi the Hick said...

Well I do that all the time!

Only in my fantasies, it's not a Birkin bag, it's a really nice horse trailer!

I have to tell you that I have one of my dreams already. My bookcase. It's about 15 feet long and solid oak. My father-in-law was a high school shop teacher, so all we had to do was lay out the money for the wood!!!

I really get your dream of a quiet room. It sounds heavenly. I want a cabin. (I'll blog about this some day...) Believe it or not, no electricity. I hate the humming. Big windows, a desk, a huge armchair. I'd go there after chores (Oh yeah, this wealth fantasy also includes a barn on about 50 acres) and I'd type til my MAC (!) runs out of battery!

It's so nice to work from home, but I love the idea of a little building that I can escape to. Maybe I'd stay in the house anyways. Maybe I'd just go to the cabin for a nap, haha!

In real life, I have promised myself that I'll buy my own Mac. I'm using my husband's. I think I deserve my own again.

Maureen McGowan said...

I can live without the Birkin... but having an unlimited shoe budget would be awesome.

My fantasies these days involve either home repairs or moving to another place I like as much, but with lower maintenance needs. Right now a gardener is high on my list, because my back was messed up all though May and the weeds have staged a coup in my yard. Front and back. Soon they'll invade the house.

Anonymous said...

Heidi, that bookcase sounds amazing. Especially as half my books are in boxes, because I have no more room for them in my existing bookcases and no more room for bookcases in my tiny house.
An unlimited shoe budget, yum..

M. said...

the Stephen King bit reminded me of the part of Chris Baty's book (founder of NaNoWriMo) where he described how he saved and planned to be able to take a year off work to do nothing but write - and ended up getting nothing done because he had no self-discipline without externally imposed deadlines

which is very bad news for me since I have trouble getting writing done even WITH externally imposed deadlines!

Molly O'Keefe said...

Unlimited fancy face cream budget. Day creams, night creams, wrinkle creams -- I could go on.

yes - trainer. yes - nanny while trainer is kicking my butt. yes - a chef once in a while, because figuring out what to do with the chicken is wearing me down.

Oddly, I don't want anything to add to my writing schedule. It's all working right now, and I'm scared of that King effect -- any little change at this point could blow it all.

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