Before it folded, I used to subscribe to the great magazine Nest, the strangest, most confusing decorating magazine ever. It didn't usually show houses. Instead it had lush layouts of decaying schoolrooms in Kazakhstan, Bedouin tents, underground bunkers, abandoned apartments, things like that. I spent a long time trying to find a weird, Soviet-schoolroom-green paint color for my office, and I did find it. It was a Disney color called Christopher Robin's Swing from Home Depot.

Then I subscribed to Elle Decor for a year but it annoyed me. Mostly I like to look at vintage decorating books from the fifties and sixties, if I look at all. Many people don't realize that the urge to paint, repaint, redecorate, decorate, move, and buy assorted throw pillows is actually a side effect of SSRI drugs, particularly Lexapro. Really. I swear. Ask your friends. Since I haven't taken it for years, I now have trouble concentrating on paint chips.

I will say, "I'm very sorry but I simply can't imagine taking my book oral on such a beautiful day." And then I will leave.

Hi! Could be worse, but only slightly. How's it hanging for you?

Hi Stac, I'm glad you're reading Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2. I haven't read that one but I hear it's good. My books are short stories about people and animals, but mostly they are about people. I don't have any other books right now. I don't really think you will like my books yet, as they are mostly about boring grown-up things like fights and relationships and money and home decoration.

I've never been to Australia but I'd love to go someday. It's nice to know there's another Stacey Richter out there I agree. I don't have MSN but you can email if you'd like. It's: stacey@staceyrichter.com

Yeah. Because part of the desire to write comes from the desire to have a significant communion with another human being, and the more lonely and desperate and boyfriendless one feels, the sharper this desire becomes. But you've gotta get over it. You deserve love and all that. Plus also, if you isolate yourself enough for long enough, you may not write more, just drink more.

I suggest you be a man about it. Men are mostly so fucked up about themselves that it doesn't matter whether they have a girlfriend or not, their ability to be a writer is not reduced; they continue to feel lonely and small and like they don't have enough of whatever it is that everyone else seems to have. Remember, just because you have a nice boyfriend doesn't mean that you are in any way worthy. You must continue to prove yourself, missy. Also: death. It awaits us all. Death. Think about it. Now go write a masterpiece before someone else beats you to it.

I have a story in the new Versus Anthology, a collection in which writers pit historical figures, fictional characters, and other entities against one another in various types of battle. Pandemonium ensues. My story is called "Barbie vs. Stalin."

Hi Stacey Richter, I'm so glad to hear from another Stacey Richter! You're the first one to write me. I have found some other Stacey Richters on the intertnet too, but most of them are Stacy Richters, which as everyone knows is the wrong spelling. My books are a little too grown up for an eleven year-old, I'm sorry to say. Maybe take a look when you're getting closer to fifteen.

Demons. Could you please email me and let me know where you see them and what browser you're using to aid in the exorcism? stacey@staceyrichter.com. Or just put it in the question form if you don't want to email me.

Hi Kristen. Your thesis sounds fine to me. Really, whatever you see is there if you see it; it's not a question of whether I somehow put it in or not. Interpretation is its own creative act, an act of seeing, and you should trust yourself on this. In fact, learning to trust yourself on this is part of what school is for. There is no right answer! And thanks so much for slathering me with praise. You're obviously very intelligent and articulate and I'm sure you'll do a great job on your paper.

Three more hours.