"Location, Location, Location"

I'm curious. Where do you find your muse?

With school out and summer vacations, reunions and outdoor activities filling our calendars, I find myself struggling to find not only the time to write, but the place.

Most of the time I'm in my office, where I can close the door for small periods of quality time and where my Muse seems to find me quite nicely . . . most of the time.

However, there are other times, like when I have to work at our restaurant, when I take my laptop and sit in the office with the walkin compressor hammering in my ear and the camera surveillance system howling with the chatter of customers and the sound of pots and pans being knocked about. Not the ideal place, but I still find I can write there.

Then there are the times when we go camping and I'm torn between stepping out into the beauty of nature for my inspiration and staying inside our trailer where I can focus and not be drawn into the lives of other campers and people passing by. Not to mention being attacked by mosquitoes.
Once and a while I take my laptop out on our deck while watching the sunset or listening to the falls from the nearby canyon. And other times I sit in the living room, while my son watches a movie or listens to music.

But I think the best place I've ever written was when I went back to basics, trading my laptop for a spiral notebook and my favorite gel pen and lost myself at the end of a long relaxing drive. I'd park by a stream, roll down the windows in my car and just listen. Listen to nature. Listen to my Muse and listen to the spirit. Those are the times when I write from my heart and do my best writing. My mind is calm and my spirit is open for inspiration.

So, today I want to know where you find your Muse. What's your favorite place to write? Where's the most unusual place you've ever written? Where's the one place you'd like to visit with your laptop?

As for me . . . I'm still searching. Maybe some of your ideas will inspire me.