The brilliant Beth Kempton is running a 15 day #meethewriter challenge to give a creative insight into our lives as a writer. As well as posting these on my social media, I am also sharing here.
DESK – Day 1/15
I am joining in meet the writer with Beth Kempton for the coming days, and today’s prompt is ‘desk’ – and more specifically, what is on mine.
Invariably, a cat! @mistermishkins loves to wander across my desk, balancing on the space bar of my keyboard while he meanders around the space. Not that there often is much space – I always have a project on the go, so there are piles of books, notebooks, and papers for research spread around. My small shelves on the desk are home to current projects – although I do fear that they get shoved into a dark hole, never to be seen again for months until I have a clear out. Is that just me, or does anyone else do that, too? My vision board sits atop the shelves, a daily reminder to achieve my goals and reach for those stars. It doesn’t matter how high or low those stars are, always reach for them.
I have two plants on my desk – one either side, adding colour and health to my working space. I also have what was a beautiful Himalayan salt lamp, but the bulb has blown and I don’t know how to replace it. Can anyone help? The glow it gave on later winter afternoons was like nothing else, and I do miss it.
That lamp is in my sacred space. Joining it is a tall statue of a fat black cat, and a paperweight with some of the swirled ashes of my Merlin Cat inside, adding that magical touch.
Then there is the usual detritus – pens, pencils, notepads, although I can never find them when I need them. I have a lottery ticket which I won £3.80 on but still have not yet cashed in. I have airplane ticket stubs, and ink cartridges for when I write with my fountain pen. A marble coaster with a silver cat on it for my morning mug of peppermint tea, and my daily water, And two telephones – my private line and my office number.
I sit facing a wall, with my calendar on, so I can look out of both windows; to the left, I see people coming down the drive, and to the right, I see the birds and foliage of the garden.
It is soothing space, it is organised chaos, and it is my writing zone.
