Summertime Assessment: Where are you writing? Where are mentally?

I haven't updated in a while, so I thought I would post a quick blog. See that there doggy up there? Yep, that has been me, for months. My dedicated writing days and hours have given way to lengthy sleep-ins and naps. My doctor says there is nothing wrong with me, so I am left to speculate on the cause of my seemingly permanent exhaustion. So far, I am looking at a number of possible reasons, but no clear answer.

• I have spent many years doing too much and keeping odd hours, and my body is taking a few years to recover and make up for lack of sleep from 1998 - 2010. 
• I am still grieving over the loss of David Bowie. Yes, I am. I am still having sad dreams about his passing, like this one*. 
• I fell really hard a month ago and wrecked my lower right leg - I may have fractured the tibia bone, even. Serious bruising and pain...and my body may need sleep to help heal.
• I am of an age that causes weird hormonal surges and stuff...exhaustion could be related to that.
• I have a fairly open schedule these days (no extra jobs or classes or hobbies beyond my normal ones) and have more time to sleep...so I do. Like, "a body in motions tends to stay in motion" but inertia breeds inertia...
• I am possibly doing some heavy duty work on the astral planes and spiritual levels that makes my sleep less rejuvenating and more exhausting...
• I'm just a lazy MF and layabout.

So... that said, I am still writing a bit here and there, but haven't made much progress on my long-term projects. I have written a few scenes, a few short pieces, but nothing I'm really excited about. 

I've been reading and editing manuscripts for others, which also eats some of my writing time. I really should be carving out more dedicated times for each activity and mixing them so.

In two weeks, I am going to Los Angeles for the weekend. I will be attending a literary event at a well known bookstore, and hopefully meeting a few authors. I will also be meeting with another writer to discuss a mutual project. I'm looking forward to it. I am also hoping to have time to take the Hollywood Ghost Tour! I love that stuff. 

I am looking at a lot of changes that I want to make this year:

• Create a working space at home with a better chair and writing desk
• Adding more instructive events to my writers group
• Creating a more specific calendar for timelines, deadlines, and publishing (which I have slacked on)
• Clearing clutter at home and updating my goals and environment to be more productive

I suppose, being halfway through the year, it is a sort of assessment and adjustment period. 

I'd love to hear from some of you, as well:

• What kind of things are you working on? 
• What areas of your life would you like to improve?

And our work space can be so helpful or hindering. Tell me about your own writing work space?

1. Where do you write?
2. When do you write? (Times, days?)
3. What conditions have to be met for you to feel focused or productive in your writing?
4. Do you listen to music or anything while writing? What?
5. What inspires you?
6. Do you write regularly? If so, how do you do it without "feeling inspired"?

I'll give my answers in the comments. 

I will address #6, though: It is the distinction between a WRITER and a WANNABE WRITER. You must show up, for the inspiration to come. If you only sit down to write when you feel inspired, the muse won't come as often. The more you sit down to write - even ten minutes a day, in a journal, or at your computer, or on the backs of envelopes, whatever - the more you will find you have to write about. 

* I dreamt that 70s (Man Who Sold the World) era Bowie had auditions to be his suicide assistant, because he was terminally ill. And when my turn came, I just held him and cried and kept trying to thing of other non-lethal solutions...so I failed the audition.