tory ideas pop into my head like those little bubbles on VH-1's Pop-Up Video, usually in the form of an opening sentence. Eventually, these sentences become characters, who in turn become stories. Some of the stories are actually good.

I have a husband I'm still training. He's been with me for 10 years, now. (We got married outdoors on one of those breezy-blue June days, and by the end of July our son was born. Our son is not why we got married, he's why we got married when we did.) I'm pretty sure we've done something right because after all this time we still like each other. Loving is the easy part-liking is hard. If, after thousands of nights bathed in the heat of the same slumbering body, you've never shuddered with disgust at the sound of that person breathing in and out, you're probably okay. Another surefire sign of "okay-ness" is if you've never daydreamed about how you'd decorate your house or apartment after your significant bother moved out.

My husband and I have two kids now, and we've given them Scottish and Irish names, despite the fact that neither of us is Scottish, and the only reason my husband is the least bit Irish is because his biological grandfather, who never actually married his grandmother, was allegedly a drunken Irishman. It's a heritage we're proud to honor.

Virginia Woolf was on to something when she suggested the need for "a room of one's own." I have a room of my own, but it's not hallowed ground yet - life still intrudes. I sit at the cockpit of a wrap-around desk and run three websites, a writer's community called Coffeehouse for Writers, an ezine called Fiction Fix, and a new website for adults with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) called MyADDitude.com. I'm also fiction editor for a new webzine of literary erotica called Sighs & Whispers. Despite this hectic electronic lifestyle, I don't have the urge to go wading into a river with rocks in my pockets. My muse, or whatever that small voice is, still sends me intriguing first-sentences in the quietest moments. And I keep taking dictation.

Karen can be reached at karen@coffeehouseforwriters.com.

Karen Hertzberg's writing on Conversely

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