I followed a link about the Americans in Paris exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art today and when I saw the gorgeous photograph of the museum's foyer (maybe) I immediately thought of the NYT's piece on Naomi Novik over the weekend.

Novik is the author of the very popular Temeraire series about Napoleon-era navies and a dragon and sort of Master and Commander with a fantasy twist. (Which is a huge oversimplification but you get the idea.) Peter Jackson has just bought the film rights to her first three books which means in the next few years we are all going to know about Temeraire. The Times gave Novik a very nice write-up that covered how she started writing and why and a bit on her writing process.

This is where I kind of lost it and what I flashed back to when I saw the Met photo:

Most days she can be found with her laptop in a cafe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the few places where she can concentrate enough to churn out the 6,000 words that she considers adds up to a productive day.

Everyday she sits with her laptop in a gorgeous and insanely creative setting and pounds out 6,000 words on her next book. This is where Naomi Novik creates; where she creates her magic. No wonder her books are so well written and appealing, and no wonder there are already three of them. She's writing at the Met for God's sake!

Basically, in comparison, I have no reason to even keep trying to get this new book done. (Latest title: Lost on Sacred Ground.) I write at our dining room table, right next to the kitchen. This is not because I don't have a great booklined office, but because this house (which is only 2 years old) was so stupidly built that there is only one thermostat (upstairs) and it gets too cold downstairs for this Florida girl. Even with the little buddy heater, I freeze. So I'm upstairs, and I'm pretty much stuck with no time alone to write until late at night because the boy child is work: serious in-your-face-give-me-your-attention-how-dare-you-look-away kind of work. And on those occasions where he is preoccupied with something else (like filling his sandbox up with the hose along with the little girl next door) then the puppy is most certainly trying to kill himself. (In the past week he has eaten through two laptop chords and the vacuum cleaner chord - we have started calling him "satan".) And there is all the other stuff - a trip to Costco yesterday along with Target to spend the gift card, must stop at Safeway for something Costco didn't have, need the Arizona diet green tea which is only at Haggen's around here and then oh yeah - Best Buy for something else and suddenly the whole freaking day is gone. And the laundry is piling up and we really looked at the fish tank this morning and realized you know - it is way too damn green in there. (And the fish have been kinda moving slow.....hmmmm.) So cleaning of the 20 gallon immediately commenced.

Oh, and I have to walk the dogs separately now as the puppy spends too much time trying to run and jump on the big dog (who is 12 and a half) and the other day actually knocked him down. I was tanding on the trail in the woods wondering if I was going to have to try and carry an 85 pound dog while dragging a 55 pound puppy behind me but thank God the big guy got up and limped home. No more of that for him though; he's much happier walking alone.) And I have mentioned that here in the lovely Pacific NW we don't get yards anymore when we buy a house so the dogs must be walked twice a day everyday - so four walks for me.

What was I writing about? Oh yeah - writing at the Met.

Oops - wait - the laptop just died. While I was writing the puppy was lying beside me and apparently got some teeth through chord #3. I was able to fix it but who knows how long this will last. I bet they don't have puppies at the Met, do they?

I know where my current book is going, I even know how it ends. I know all of the characters and I know who they are - they have distinct personalities. I know where pretty much all of the action is going to take place and what needs to happen between the middle (where I am) and the end. I also decided last week to go back to the beginning and fix the backstory as some historical family drama has heavy significance on the present and I needed to fix it in a few places. So in other words, this book is not a mystery, not at all like my flying book was. I'm actually pretty happy with how it lays out.

I just need time (and a bit of peace) to write the damn thing.

I'm really trying not to hate Naomi Novik right now. I know it would be counter productive and we all make choices and don't I just love my son and the dogs and the husband (and even the stupid fish). Hating would be wrong and small minded and a waste of time.

Really, I know this.

But annoyance and envy are okay, right? Just a little bit?????

I mean come on - the fucking Met?! How unfair is that !!