office

A Writer and Her Desks: A Love Story

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From time to time, Facebook asks me if I would like to remember certain images. This past week, they suggested this one:

Sleepy Hollow (tv)

This one hit me hard. Not only because I am still, and ever will be, salty over what the powers that be did to the couple pictured above. I will put my fingers in my ears and loudly “la-la-la” until whoever is discussing the season three finale or anything after that. Nope, nope, didn’t happen. Abbie and Crane are happily ever after-ing and I will take no questions.

The other reason is the desk. This desk and I have a history. Literally. It’s older than I am. I have drooled over it since I was two. Before that, I drooled on it. This is a secretary desk, with a writing surface that doubles as a door I can close on the day’s work. while the screen is in the way of most of them, there are cubbyholes. Oh so many cubbyholes. Places for papers and stickers and sticky notes and all sorts of stationery related objects. There are drawers beneath the surface and a cabinet below that. At first, I used the top shelf as a bookshelf, and later moved the monitor up there so I could get at the cubbyholes.

This desk is now in our storage unit, where we put it during that first move. I still miss it. I will bust it out one day. At the same time, I love the desk I put together with my own two hands and a little help from my friends (cue Beatles.) I am grateful I have it now. Ideally, I would have both, in an office big enough for the two of them. The current desk would be for my desktop and the secretary would be for planning and journalling and all things longhand.

Some of the things on it, I have, and some that I also have in storage. The journal on the desktop is by Paperblanks, That particular book is in — you guessed it— storage, but I have other journals in that brand, and my EDC planner, in pocket size. I am not sure which mugs survived the moves, but I have different pen storage options now. My gargoyle pencil cup is once again in service, accompanied by new friends like a Plague Doctor plushie and an ever-growing calico plushie army. I also learned what Delfonics pouches are, and, I would hope, a lot more about writing.

The purpose of my desk is the same; to write books, to blog, and also make pixel art (okay, that’s new) but it feels different. It’s been a while since I felt like Writer Anna, or like Writer Anna had a proper place to do her/my thing. I do, though. It’s weird. I should know a better word for that, but I don’t. At least not right now, which is fine.

Back in the before-before-before times, when we still lived in the Old Country, I remember sitting in a Panera, trying not to cry in public because I had finished A Heart Most Errant, then called Ravenwood. I’d spent all that time with John and Aline, and there they were, happy. Home. Not quite “finished,’ as they will be happily-ever-after-in on page in the rest of the Ravenwood (series) books, my first planned historical series. Now, I am getting them ready to be my first independently published novella. Will I cry when Richard and Cecilia reach their HEA? Probably. Will I also be exited to pivot to Guy and Katherine’s story? Very much so, and the same when it is time for Juliana’s (Cecilia’s daughter) story, with a hero who will most likely be named Maximilian. How did I come up with that name? He told me, and it’s historically plausible. That’s how it works.

It’s also how my relationship with my desks works. We’ve grown together. There will likely be a desk tour in the near future. I have shelves and drawers and fairy lights. I also have a 3-D printed rose gold skull that was originally a yarn bowl (I don’t knit, but Housemate does; it was a gift from her) but is now home to a calico plushie.

What’s on your desk?

as always, Anna

Big Desk Energy

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Today is the first full day with the new desk. I am talking real, adult, this is a working writer’s desk, with drawers and everything.

Needs art, but I like it.

Putting the desk together was an all-day thing yesterday, and the rest of the office/primary bedroom looks like we should expect our disaster relief check any minute, but as anyone who has ever un-f*cked a depression dungeon knows, progress is progress. Huge reminder how many times I had to drop something and tend to an emergency. Things are quieter now, so that’s no longer the case.

Storm will have her say about how the whole desk day went for her, and how today has been Partial Reading Nook Day. I have done enough for one day (actually two.) By this time tomorrow, reading nook should be good to go, especially since the pink velvety weighted blanket cover is due to arrive then. Having a place where I do One Thing is glorious. Having those places be for writing and for reading is even better.

new desk is Storm approved

No, a desk is not a magic ticket to Real Writerhood, any more than a reading nook is one to Real Readerhood, but I like having a place to do a thing, This past week has been a lot of getting things in place. New stuff is coming on MelvaAndAnna, and the journey to indie publishing progresses. Very interesting learning curve. I think I actually like it. Planning and organization are always fun and they do get my brain into the right place to do the things.

The new desk is big enough for not only my laptop and its stand, but my wrist rest mousepad, beverage of the moment, and a lovely black wicker tray holding my at-home Delfonics pouch for journal essentials. Storm has a flannel tent next to my laptop so she can be close and comfy. She loves it. Right now, I am next to a window, my feet at the heated baseboard, nice and toasty, with ample light. I also have my English Ruler ruler, which I need to update, as the one I have doesn’t include Charles III.

The most interesting thing I found in all of this moving around and repurposing and reimagining is that the person (me) putting things in order is not the same person (also me) who dumped and tossed and shoved things into chaos during times of ugh. Some stuff is going to find new homes. I’d rather have a few things I love than a lot of things that are…. there. It’s a process.

Anyway, that’s today. I’m sitting comfortably in an office chair that is the right height for a desk that is big enough to do what I want to do (and it’s not foldable.) I do miss having vertical storage, but it’s also fewer distractions. I am planning video tours of desk and nook when nests are fully feathered, so to speak. What are your writing or reading spaces like these days?

as always, Anna

Typing With Stuffed Paws: Desk Tour Edition

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Greetings, foolish mortals. Sebastian Thunderpaws Hart-Bowling, coming at you with all the stuff that’s fit to share (and probably some that isn’t, because that’s how I roll) We are at the end of November, staring December in the face. This is when the holiday crunch gets real. It is also when Writer Chick is more likely to break out the holiday romance collections. We will see how that goes for this year. This week, we have a tour of Writer Chick’s new desk setup for you, but before we get to that, and the important stuff (aka my stuff) let’s get the compulsories out of the way. 

This week, as usual, Writer Chick was at Buried Under Romance on Saturday. This week, she blabbered about finding stuff she didn’t expect in romance novels. This is not always a bad thing. You can real all about that here, and this is the picture that goes with it: 

Now, it’s time to drop in on Writer Chick’s reading progress, specifically her Goodreads challenge for this year. Too early to call it, of course, but Writer Chick is now at 94% of the way home, having read 85 out of 90 books.

For this week, her favorite read was Pulp, by Robin Talley, which is a YA contemporary/historical hybrid, with romantic elements. She is currently reading a historical romance, Trapped at the Altar, by Jane Feather. There is a picture of it, but the new WordPress editor is not as stuffed paw friendly as I would like, so click on the link to see. Writer Chick is cross because the whole bare legs thing with modern shoes is not historically accurate. Where is Cover Chick’s historical underwear? This is important. Maybe that is covered in the book. 

Writer Chick’s current read and beverage (it’s tea)

Now, on to the meat of this post, which is that Writer Chick is actually happy with her current desk setup. She gets to have the computer monitor at a comfortable eye level. Her hands are at a comfortable, natural lap level, with optional lap desk, in case she needs to break out some handwriting (or planning, there is always planning) and she can keep all of her needed pens right at hand. She is kind of surprised that she likes this setup as much as she does, because: 

A) this desk is actually a bookcase
B) it is light wood
C) it is plain/modern in design
D) Ii is actually next to the TV, in the living room

When Writer Chick is in an actual office type private room, she wants to have a computer desk, probably this one, and then a writing desk, probably the old one that she had in the last office, and one wheeled office chair that can switch between the two, at will. There is also the fact that she does not have a ton of stuff on her desktop, right now, but that may be something to save for the writing desk, in the next place. 

Top Level with monitor
Middle keyboard level, with lap destk and Cat Regent

Bottom level with pen/ mini legal pad storage

There is a high chance that Writer Chick will see, later this weekend, if the printer will fit on the lower shelf. If it doesn’t, that may be where the planners (yes, planners, plural) go, but that all remains to be seen. 

Colored pencils, for filling in daily trackers

Writer Chick may also take advantage of her and Other Chick’s shopping excursion this evening, to invest in some fairy lights and command hooks, because it would add both to the holiday mood, and garner her hipster points. There will probably be a Christmas tree added to the apartment sometime in the next seven days. Since they gave the previous tree and ornaments to another family, when they moved out of the old apartment, that means that they will have to get new ones for this year. Those might not be their forever Christmas stuff, so Christmas Tree Regent? I will investigate and keep you updated, once it arrives. 

There is also a poster that Writer Chick grabbed out of storage, of a book cover illustration, done and signed by her favorite romance cover illustrator, Elaine Duillo. Writer Chick would put this over her desk, if she had an actual office room, but it is not exactly Dude’s thing, so that may have to wait. She also wants to put a decent mat down on the poster, and probably choose a different frame. All of this means that she will, in the near future, be able to grab one of their art prints out of storage, and put that there. I suggest a portrait of a handsome stuffed ginger boy. That would inspire anybody. 

Speaking of which, some of you may have noticed that I am wearing pirate pants this week. That is because I have been paying attention to when Writer Chick visits personal style websites. Apparently, it is a thing to dress to reflect the inner self. I personally, am a real badbutt. There is another word that means the same thing as butt, but has fewer letters. I am not allowed to say it, so badbutt it is. Skull and crossbones pants say badbutt, right? Writer Chick says true class doesn’t advertise, but she’s also researching promo, soooooo….just going to leave that there, ‘kay?


Peace Out,