House of Floating Peace. I was thinking about writing and inspiration. Back in 1999 I owned a house in Smithfield and set up half of the 2 car garage as a writing room. It had an airconditioner, a window, a narrow bed, a desk, some shelving racks, and there I wrote, over 18 months a small book and had it published by the first publisher I offered it to. I was very fortunate to have that time to write a book, full time, and only due to a small inheritance that someone wiser would have invested...and I was very fortunate to land the manuscript at a publisher who took it up. These were both one-off events in my life. The original inspiration for the book came simply from a cable-car ride on top of the rainforests where, looking down, I imagined creatures moving about under the cover of the great trees. Thus the characters of the Casskins evolved. The continuing inspiration came from looking out the writing room window at a concrete wall, about one metre away, facing North. The changing shades of daylight gave me some sense of time passing; but not the regulation that a clock would bring. Here in 2016 we are living in a nice apartment close to town and a portion of the lounge room is occupied by the writing desk, with a view of a thick curtain, facing North. Water sounds from a fountain next to the desk. There are ferns outside on the balcony, and our bicycles. In between 2008 and 2014 I lived away in Thailand, some time in China, and we managed to collect some very old plain wood furniture and screens and all these remarkable little items which are all on display around the place. It is not a house where one can feel lonely, even when alone...there is so much stuff...much like a Thai-Chinese furniture emporium in a way, all crowded in. I like what the Thais do in their small houses...they crowd them out with things. This is a habit we both picked up there. Even the Christmas lights are still up and on at night because they are pretty things.Very Thai indeed. We have a picture of the King of Thailand, abatik of the buddha, and a very large and heavy statue of a Christian Angel on the balcony...just next to the small Thai 'Spirit House' that keeps the troublesome green spirits at bay. On the walls of the balcony are 2 small feng-shuai mirrors which redirect all evil intent back at the neighbours. I used to love Japanese minimalism and unclutteredness ...and we could do that in a house that took up about 5 acres inside...and I still 'imagine' my 'imaginary' writing room this way...spare, functional, cool, bright...but now I feel it would also be very lonely...I re-created my 'imaginary writing room' in the story the Green Gate Ghost Story which I'm still working on. When daughter arrived from China we had to move and remove and store lots of the usual knick-knacks just so that she could fit in...and we did so. At the moment I'm looking for a few items which disappeared in that time. I know they are here somewhere, but I have no idea where. Perhaps I should visit the 'imaginary writing room' to see if any of them turned up there. As it is, our apartment meets all of the criteria for what I could call a House of Floating Peace, or a Snake's Nest...as both my wife and I are snakes in Chinese astrology. Daughter is a horse, so obviously needs more space. She will be studying in Townsville at Uni rather than here in Cairns so, when that happens, perhaps some of the lost treasures, relics and icons of the past times will resurface. No hope in hell of finding them now.