I thought I'd share a picture of my office where I do 90-95% of my writing. Another 5% comes from my local Starbucks and miscellaneous places like airplanes and hotels. On a bulletin board in front of me are a few inspirational quotes, a tally of my books reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, a couple of calendars, and the list of the various ISBN numbers for my books. An ISBN is like a barcode for a book.
I also have two dry erase pages to the left. These contain reminders like 'make box sets', or notes of something I need to do regarding publishing. I'm also watching the US dollar to the Canadian dollar trying to decide when to book my Toronto hotel for Bouchercon in October. A Canadian economic report said that in the second quarter of this year, the exchange rate will bottom out against the American dollar. On one of the pages is '25/5' as a reminder that I'll get more writing done if I concentrate on writing for twenty-five minutes, then take a break to check on social media or email for no more than five minutes.
Above the two dry erase pages is my beloved stock certificate for the Green Bay Packers. I own one share. I am an NFL team owner. Of course there are like 380,000 of us, but how many authors can say they are a NFL team owner?
On top of my desk I have odd notes and note pads as well as story ideas for Castle Killing, my current work in progress. I'm a pantser and so I need fresh story arcs to keep the manuscript moving forward and that's what those notes do.
On my monitor is a gift from a friend of St John the apostle and evangelist. He's holding a carved stone tablet with the words 'In principio erat verbum' which translates to 'In the beginning was the word'. The first line of the prayer reads 'God our Father, you have revealed the mysteries of your word through John the apostle'. I'm hoping by giving him the coveted spot on my monitor, that his ceramic presence will increase my writing productivity. So far, I haven't felt his impact yet.
On the shelves above my head are binders each containing a printed copy of each book's manuscript. With shortly eight books published, and a ninth on its way, I'm out of space. I also keep a telephone book nearby so I can pick names for characters in my books.
On the floor behind me is a dog bed for Daniel, my 75 pound Doberman/Boxer/Newfoundland rescue mix. He also rests on the Ottoman so he can be on squirrel patrol. On occasion I have to wake him up as his doggy dreams are loud. My cat occasionally visits the Ottoman as well, but she's a blabbermouth cat that disrupts my concentration.
That's my writing space, and today I ordered a memory foam cushion as my seat is getting tired of sitting on the leather of an office chair. I tried a low speed treadmill, but again my productivity was poor so I gave that up.
Update on a previous blogs
I've given up on whisky and reverted back to wine. No matter how much I try, I'm just not enjoying my whisky tasting. I've tried three well-rated single malt scotches. Certainly diluting the spirit with water made it more tolerable, but life is too short to drink distilled spirits when you're not enjoying the taste.
Since I wrote about Russian visitors to my website, it's has stopped. Weird. I don't know why they were visiting my website, and I don't know why they disappeared.