A Writer's Space

This is the view from my new study window. I love it because I can see a healthy green tree, stucco, and Spanish roof tiles against a bright blue sky, so it's as if I'm both in Andalusia and in the limitless wonder of the natural world. I look at the blue sky and hope my creativity responds expansively.

The first piece of furniture we got in the new place was this desk, which we scoured the antique stores to find. We had money set aside from selling some furniture in Massachusetts, and as soon as we arrived, two urges—to wait for the best possible desk and to get a stinkin' desk right now!—battled it out. I fell in passionate love with some pieces, antique and new, that were just too big to get into the apartment. I considered for a few days getting one of those inexpensive desks you have to assemble yourself. It was quite the emotional journey. Then my husband and I were walking around a... fragrant... antique mall I had little hope for, going in circles, it seemed. I was busy dismissing another trumped-up table as a possibility when my husband said, "Here's a desk."

It's in better condition than the one I sold in Massachusetts to my unexpectedly sore regret. It has all the storage I was looking for and plenty of space without being so large we couldn't expect the delivery men to bring it up the stairs. It's eclectic. I think it's unique. I've never seen another desk with world maps and steamer trunk stamps on the drawer faces! There are also inspiring words on the top left and right drawers. A Francophile must have designed it, with the Eiffel Towers and the fleurs-de-lis, but I can forgive that, as an enlightened Hispanophile. I walked away from that antique mall with a deep knowing that I'd (my husband had) found what I was looking for.

When I shared the photo of the desk on Facebook, the responses confirmed that it will be impossible to do poor work at this desk.

As you can see in the second photo, I've got the magic desk right at the magic window, so they combine into a creative vortex I hope will also be useful for my editorial work (which is less about creativity than about rules, let's face it).

I've never had such a nice place to work. I've had larger and smaller, intimidating and nonexistent. I wrote the first chapters of Seven Noble Knights on a laptop that teetered atop a borrowed piece of furniture in a room intended for television-viewing. The last chapters were written in an enormous bedroom on a card table. For unknown reasons, in this space and at this time, I'm being honored with a place to work that I could never have dreamed would be so wonderful. I feel immense gratitude.

I've currently got editorial deadlines and need to finish revising Seven Noble Knights as well as strategize its launch, which includes making a real website. For all this, I may need more hours in a day, but at least I don't have excuses about where I'll be doing all this.