Be a Homebody With Deb Eleanor

Eleanor BrownSo our theme this week is travel.

Yeah.

I just spent nearly five months traveling to promote The Weird Sisters, and while every event was a blessing, the parts in between – the constant flying (not a fan), the endless hotel rooms, trying to find a vegetable so I wasn’t eating fried food all the time – was not so fun.

If it hadn’t been for all the wonderful readers, librarians, and booksellers I got to meet, and all the people who perked me up by telling me how much they loved The Weird Sisters, or recommending new books I should read, or making me laugh by telling me stories of their own siblings, I’d have gone completely crazy. Or crazier than I already am.

Because I know I’ve got a tour for the paperback edition of The Weird Sisters coming next February, I’m all about staying home right now, or at least relatively near home – I’ve made a few exceptions to visit new places in Colorado. I feel guilty, because I know there are wonderful places to visit and explore, but I’m kind of loving sleeping in my own bed, seeing my sweetie and my cat more than once every two or three weeks, and eating all the vegetables I want – no deep-frying allowed!

So help me out – let’s make a list of the best reasons to stay at home. What are yours?

27 Replies to “Be a Homebody With Deb Eleanor”

  1. Not having to fly in an airplane is one great reason, but you already named that one.

    For me, it’s that I’ve made my house just the way I like it, and no other place comes close. I love every room, and I have a lot of good places to plunk down with my laptop and write. Plus I have a pool in the back, and it isn’t filled with a bunch of screaming kids on vacation, just my own kids. Makes a difference.

    1. I’m the same way – we spent a lot of time during our last move to set up our house exactly as we like it. Clearly I made it TOO comfortable. Maybe I’ll sell my couch before the paperback tour and then I won’t want to stay home as much.

      And color me envious of your pool. We live in Colorado now and love it, but I do miss the ubiquitous (and warm!) pools of Florida.

  2. My own bed. My own SHOWER. My own TV shows on the DVR. And having all the right toiletries. Every time I travel–because I am crazy about carrying on, which means only travel size products allowed–I end up having to sacrifice my favorite hair products or moisturizer. I do love to travel, but this list could go on forever…

    1. I pretty much gave up on my hair on this last tour – just using whatever they had in the hotel and letting the weather do what it would. I try not to look at any pictures of myself, especially in humid cities.

      I did pretty much master the moisturizer stuff, though. I even know how to sidle up to the folks in Bath & Body Works and ask for the sample size of the lotion I like that they only keep in the back.

  3. I’m with you on the flying thing — don’t like it a bit. If a book tour is suggested when IN A FIX comes out, I’m thinking I’ll just send IT out on tour, and hire stand-ins for me wherever it winds up.

    So, if you’re tall and “extremely blonde” (how my hair stylest kindly refers to my ever-lightening hair *grin*), and willing to lie about who you are, buzz me. We’ll talk. 😉

    1. I am tall, and could easily go extremely blonde! Too bad your book isn’t coming out in February, I could just talk about my book, mysteriously disappear for a moment and change outfits, and come back out and talk about yours!

      Oddly, I was always fine with flying until I had to do it literally every day. Not fun. But you’ll do it if it’s worth it!

      1. Dang. Too bad my release isn’t closer to your Feb. tour dates — that would have been perfect!

        Re flying: I’m fine once the plane has taken off. It’s the anticipation that kills me. Kind of like that long climb up before the first drop of a roller coaster. Ugh.

  4. My dog, Riley. He comes when we travel to a few places, but mostly we leave him with his girlfriend Isis (also a dog). Long vacations without him are just sad.

    1. Yeah, we feel the same way about Chester! Sometimes when we’re away we talk about what he’s doing while we’re gone. It’s kinda pitiful.

    1. Frankly, I never get out of my gym clothes around the house. I’m surprised anyone still lets me be a functioning member of society.

  5. 1. Staying home is free!
    2. You know where to find almost everything.
    3. Your bed is at home.
    4. Your entire wardrobe is there, so you don’t have to worry about having not packed something essential.
    5. The food is cheaper.

  6. Oh, there are many!

    At the top of my list, is that our fourteen year old doggie doesn’t do well in kennels and is happiest on her favorite stretch of carpet. THAT is reason enough for me.

    Living out of a suitcase gets OLD. As does the double-checking of the hotel room ten times (or, if you’re a spaz like I am, more like a twenty) to make sure you haven’t left anything behind.

    There are more, of course, but those are biggies.

    1. See, I really should learn to double-check my hotel room. Oh, and the pockets of airline seats. Adios, brand-new iPod Touch.

    1. I conflated that sentence so it was, “I miss my office supplies.” I kinda like that. “I think I’ll miss you most of all, stapler!”

      I am definitely not as productive on the road. I’m always out of sorts and nothing is where I left it.

    1. Yes…we have been known to sing songs in our cat’s honor after a particularly long absence (or a brief one). But a month backpacking around a foreign locale sounds pretty fabulous!

  7. I like my morning routines. I like waking up and stumbling to the kitchen and putting on the tea kettle and grabbing the paper off the front walk and reading it on the soft, lumpy couch. If this makes me sound like George Costanza’s father, then so be it.

    1. Routine is underrated! But you really should train your children to fetch the paper for you. Isn’t that why you had them?

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