If you write, people want to visit your office. It doesnt matter if youre immortal or middling; the immortal may get lines of tourists, and the middling curious friends and straggling fumigators, but the impulse is the same -- people want to see where the mystery happens, if only to make the mystery less mysterious. They want to see the talismans rubbed smooth and the voodoo dolls stuck with pins; they want to admire the view that somehow produces the point of view; most of all, they want not only to spy where the magician stashes his hat, but also to make sure he feeds the rabbits. The work may revel in disarray; but the office should be nothing less than a vision of order, evidence that a story well-written should lead to a life well-lived.In this, my office is no different from the haunt of any other scribbler: It attracts visitors. Its only distinction is that also repels them. Time and again, Ive lead the hopeful up the stairs to the little bedroom that serves as my atelier, only to see the reality snuff the hope -- and the fantasy that my office might be charming enough to warrant description en fran?ais -- from their eyes. It is a sobering experience, for them and for me; for I have seen kindly family members literally recoil from the sight of my workshop, and well-meaning acquaintances let out an involuntary Oh under their breath, before turning on their heels and getting the hell out, as if they have seen something they werent meant to see. I have had many people come to visit; I have never had anyone stay very long, including my wife, my daughter and my dog.?I do not know why this is, exactly. My office is on the second floor of my house, with a pleasing view of a wooded backyard; its loaded with knick-knacks and personal mementoes; it is bursting -- barnacled -- with books. Though small and cramped, it is, in short, as well-appointed as many another writers domicile, and I am nothing if not friendly. Come and visit, and I will not only show you around; I will make sure the unsteady stack of literary magazines tottering in the corner doesnt fall on you. Come and visit, and I will explain why taped to my window frame is not only a succession of wallet photos of my daughter Nia, but also postcards of Hans Hobleins portraits of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell, angrily squaring off. Come and visit, and I will show you not only the first book I ever bought -- The Portable Faulkner, kept within easy reach -- but also, like, the four-thousandth.?And yet nobody visits; or, put another way, everybody by now knows better than to come up the stairs. Hell, I know better. When I come home from traveling, my office is often the first place I stop and visit; it also the first place I flee, even when I have to write. This is not a bad thing; more and more, I have stripped myself of rituals, and have made offices of wherever I happen to sit myself down. I write on the couch; I write in bed; I write, like everybody else, at Starbucks; I write, as I am writing now, in a cubicle at the local public library. My office is often where I start; some impersonal place, barren of everything but necessity, is generally where I, and whatever it is I am writing, end up.?My wife would offer a simple explanation for the failure of my office to be an office: its a mess. I disagree. Not that its messy, or that the accumulated water glasses and coffee cups tend to overwhelm the meaning of the carefully curated personal arcana; it is, and they do. But even on those occasions when Ive tidied up, there is something about my office that keeps visitors at bay, something that goes to the heart of the whole idea that the best place to find a writer is where he or she happens to work. A scribblers haunt is always haunted by the unscribbled, and so it is with mine. It hardly matters that I keep, within arms length of the plastic core-building accordion that now serves as my chair, a chronological collection of every magazine in which Ive published a story. It matters even less that, since Ive been at this a while, the collection can be measured by the yard, for on the shelves above are the yards of uniform slipcased masterpieces published by the Library of America, to which Ive dutifully and nerdily subscribed for 35 years. The discrepancy is intentional; so is the comment cast upon my output by the complete works of H.L Mencken and Mark Twain. My office, then, is where my motivation melds with my masochism, and where as a result I can neither stay nor stay away from very long.?Of course, unless youre Philip Roth -- unless youre in the Library of America -- I cant imagine that many writers feel differently about their offices than I do. I cant imagine that they find their offices places of refuge, as anything indeed but places of trial, which is why Ive come to believe that admiring a writers work enough to seek out the place where it was written is akin to liking a steak enough to seek out where it was slaughtered. Its interesting, if you can ignore the blood on the walls. Ive never been able to, especially when it comes to my own little abattoir, though thats not to say that Im not still beguiled by the promise of writing in the comfort of my own home, surrounded by books, magazines, and photographs of those I love. I even have a few good luck charms that seem to work, and a few photographs that serve to inspire me when all seems lost, such as those of me finally starting a football game at the end of my senior year in high school, after what seemed a lifetime of ignominiously riding the bench. It was not only the first success of my life; it was a success of endurance over talent, and so pertinent to my eventual life as a writer. The only problem is that when I look at those photos, what they have to teach seems small, compared to what I often see through the window right next to them. There, the red-tailed hawk that haunts my backyard has chosen as his perch a branch not more than 10 feet away, and directly in my line of sight; and so the greatest inspiration of my office is watching him go dutifully to his, where he tends to his wriggling prey, and then flies off, leaving nothing but bones behind. Nike NFL Jerseys Autographed .Y. - Detroit goaltender Jonas Gustavsson has earned NHL first star of the week honours after winning in his first three appearances of the season. Signed Nike NFL Jerseys . 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Turns out Benji Marshall wasnt the only one to be called out in Wollongong last week, with Tariq Sims also copping a serve from St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor.However, both players responded positively to their dressing down with leading performances in the Dragons 32-18 boilover of Cronulla on Saturday night to earn some praise from their coach.While Marshall and McGregor made plenty of headlines for what the Dragons No.7 described as a healthy debate during a video review last week, Sims revealed he too had been ordered to lift his game.And the former Newcastle forward responded with a heroic two-try effort, while also setting up a third.Mary, (McGregor) hes great at challenging individuals and he challenged me through the week. Id like to think that I responded the way that he wanted me to, Sims said.McGregor said it was exactly the reply he was looking for from his bench forward.As soon as he came on, he made immediate impact. Thats what you want from a player of his capabilities coming off the interchange, McGregor said.Sims best performance in the Red V was soured by an ankle injury that will require scans.Unfortunately got a strain in the ankle there late in the game. Not too sure how bad that is but well get it checked and hopefully it wont keep him out for many games, McGregor said.McGregor also lauded the bounce-back from Marshall, who put a disapppointing outing against Brisbane behind him by setting up two tries in an improved display against the Sharks.ddddddddddddThats how you want your playmakers to be. You want them to build pressure and then when the opportunity presents itself, create tries, McGregor said.To come off a game like he did last week, and the pressure hes been under from all sorts of different areas, to come out and play like that, is really good. Itll give him confidence going into next week.The win temporarily leaves the 11th-placed Dragons just two points shy of eighth-placed Penrith ahead of the Panthers match against Newcastle on Sunday.McGregor admitted his team would need to win their final three games of the regular season but, with Leeson Ah Mau to return from suspension next week, refused to give up hope of a late finals push.Their remaining three games are against the lowly Sydney Roosters, Parramatta and Newcastle.We had three back tonight that we missed last week in (Tyson) Frizell, (Joel) Thompson and (Josh) Dugan, they all got through well, he said.Were getting some troops back and were playing all sides below us in the competition so its certainly in our hands. Weve got to keep getting a bit better each week like we did tonight. 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