WHERE I WRITE

by Linda Robertson
I’m sooooo glad it’s ‘let’s show where we write’ week. *sarcasm pouring between gritted teeth*
No. Really. I am. I wanted to clean the dust off my monitor and de-clutter my desk. I mean, the alternatives were public humiliation at what my desk has come to look like over summer vacation, or posting sans pictures which would really defeat the point. So. I have a clean desk again. Thank you.
Well, c’mon. I’ll give ya the nickle tour.



This is where I write…generally.
Yes, that is a Captain Morgan box at my feet and the Rock in his shirtless Scorpion King glory on my desktop.
To the left of the monitor and beside the lamp you’ll see a can of Romulan Ale. I snuck that sucker on a plane after Dragon Con and brought it home in tact. Yay me! It is yet unopened, as I have not had to smooth over a dinner with Klingon’s by offering them illegal beverages.
To the left of the lamp is a black laquer foo-dog, a gift from a dear friend who, knowing about Johnny’s tattoos couldn’t resist. He protects my stuff.
To the right is a large piece of tiger iron and my mortar and pestle. The tiger iron is for luck (there are stones all around my desk…too many to list) and the mortar and pestle remind me how sometimes you have to really work at grinding the ingredients of a story together.

On the opposite side of the room, is the fun stuff. My cure for writer’s block.
 

Left, my Ibanez with the quilted maple top which doesn’t show in this picture. Right, my BCRich ST which I’ve had for 22 years.
My practice amp is a LINE6. I like my neighbors and want to like me, so I rarely get it above ‘1’ on the volume master dial.
On the table that sits over it is a gargoyle given me by a friend, a large chunk of fluorite, and my sword…a Scorpion King knock off.
I didn’t set out the candy apple red Peavy Razor—my very first guitar, or the 7-string faux finished Strictly 7 Baby Boa, my newest guitar.
I also didn’t drag in the massive keyboard. It has a new home in the living room where the Arteest likes to mess around with it on a very regular basis. Better to leave it where it is, but sometimes I mess around on it to alleviate writer’s block or stress.


While that is the environment I normally write in, since I’ve recently moved into my house (and yes, yes, I’m going to paint soon I hope) I’ve taken to writing on the covered patio.


Yep. Right there, at the glass topped table, with my feeties propped up on the adjacent chair and sippin on a ‘rita, is where—and how—I’ve been doing most of my writing the last month and a half. And if I may say so myself, book 6 is coming along nicely. I also worked on my copy edits for WICKED CIRCLE out there.
For any of you who’ve ever been to my personal blog, WOLFSBANEandABSINTHE, (which I admit is poorly un-attended anymore) you might have seen pictures of a nifty wooden castle at my previous residence. Well, in the move, it was torn down and my best buds helped me put it on my moving truck.(Thanks!!!!) Then they helped me unload it. (Thanks again!!!!) Then they hauled it way back into the woods. (Thanks a third time!!!!) It’s maybe fifteen yards behind the bigger red building. So the kids can tromp all over the woodland and play as noisily as they want out there and not disturb my writing process. WIN!  Of course, there’s a fire pit out towards the woods that you can’t see, and the writing process can be interrupted by the promise of s’mores.

So there’s my writing hotspots. I’ll certainly be missing the latter one when the snow is flying.

Thanks for taking this little tour with me. Hope you’re all having a dandy summer!

--Linda