My office is a mess. As a freelance writer and editor, I work from home. The spillover seems to happen no matter what I do to stem the tide. Just as my office is a mess, my home is often a mess as well.

I do better at tidying up the home part, but much less so with the office part. This irks my husband to no end. “How can you get anything done?” he asks me. “How can you work like this?” “I get lots done,” I tell him, usually while shuffling papers and Post-Its around and moving notebooks out of the way. Maybe I don’t actually get lots done each and every day, but there’s order in my chaos.

I check things off on my handwritten to-do list each day. I keep my Excel spreadsheet payment log balanced. I edit. I email. Things get done. There are style guides sprawled out on my desk, Post-Its reminding me of to-do’s on the computer monitor, US Weekly peeking out from under one of those style guides—well, you’ve got to take a break every now and then.

“Two minutes of work and a two-hour break,” my husband says. He’s wrong, of course (though not far off every once in a while). My system may not be the most efficient in terms of organization or utilization of space, but it works for me most of the time.What does your office look like? Have you mastered the delicate mix of design and functionality in your workspace? Or, like me, are you still looking for that Martha Stewart recipe you jotted down on a Holiday Inn Express notepad and then placed near the credit card bills in the filer? Really, I should consider putting that in a better place when I find it. Maybe it’s under the US Weekly…

Catherine L. Hensley is a professional freelance editor and writer. From fiction and nonfiction manuscripts to academic pieces, she provides an extensive range of copyediting, proofreading, content editing, and writing services to a wide variety of clients located around the United States and abroad.

A native of south Louisiana, Catherine received her master of arts degree in creative writing and media studies from New York University and her bachelor of arts degree in English from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, with minors in history and mass communication. Her writing has appeared in The Advocate (Louisiana’s largest newspaper), OT Practice magazine, Quiet Mountain: New Feminist Essays, and Mused, the BellaOnline Literary Review.

You can reach Catherine via: Website | Facebook | Twitter

About the Book

It’s Fashion Week in New York, and Denton Hodges just got her first big assignment for Glitter magazine.

Denton’s assignment: Get in the show at the posh Regency Viscount Hotel, and find a story. But a chance encounter with hard-partying starlet Amber Donovan forever changes the course of the night—and Denton’s life. After a night of being chased by the paparazzi, swimming in swag bags, and falling heart over heels for Hollywood hunk Chris West, Denton’s not just on the story. She is the story.

Suddenly, Denton’s no longer merely a low-level assistant. Amber’s latching on like a BFF from hell, Chris is flirting and cooking her dinner, and as Denton falls for the real people behind the tabloid screen, neither knows about her ties to Glitter. Only Denton holds the secret—or so she thinks. Is Anna Creel, Glitter’s icy beauty editor, on to her? Will Denton be able to write a story exposing her new friends? And is Chris more than just a friend, or did Glitter get the headline right—“Chris and Amber: Hot Nights!”?

Step into the spotlight, and peek beyond the red carpet in New York Dolls.