AT MY DESK: Sandra Antonelli

 

At My Desk
Sandra Antonelli

I don’t know how many writers mention how many desks they use when penning novels, but I have 2—or 3 if you count my local Starbucks, where I go to edit, because editing needs coffee—lots and lots of coffee.

Desk No.1: The Desk With a View/Where 60 % of My Writing Happens.

 

Huge chunks of A Basic Renovation and For Your Eyes Only were written at this administrative-looking piece of office furniture, which I suppose is fitting since the desk is located in an actual office. Yes, kids, I write at my Day Job. I’m allowed to because I’m a boss. I sit in my comfy office chair, write, and gaze out the window at the greenery and the deck across the street. Sometimes the owner of the deck wanders out to check if his laundry is dry, occasionally forgetting that the louvers are open and he’s not wearing pants and then it’s willy ahoy…but back to my desk. On the right, you may observe my giant IN box pile of PhD research articles, books, and paper copies of ebooks, as well as WIPs. While the PhD is done, the giant pile o’ research articles remain in the paper tower I constructed because I can’t get rid of anything until the graduation ceremony, which isn’t for another few months. In front of the research tower o’ papers sit my thesaurus and dictionaries, essential writing tools. There’s the usual penholder, stapler and tape dispenser, very important speakers for listening to tunage, as well as a blue bowl of Mentos for clients. I never, ever eat Mentos because Mentos are not coffee. Beside my beloved MacBook Air is my beloved coffee cup. Now empty.

Note to self: Make more coffee.

Desk No. 2: The Home Study/Music Collection Where 30% of my Writing Happens (unless I’m editing at Starbucks, which makes up the last 10%)

This silky oak desk is smack in the middle of my home study, which is the sunniest room in the house. This desk is responsible for a scene I worked into Driving in Neutral. It came about because one day I had a stack of CDs sitting on the desk, there was a funky disco song* playing from one of the CDs, and…

Emerson said, “Pete knew what he was doing when he offered you the job. He’s good like that. That why he does all the hiring and I stand there and look good.”

“Are you fishing for compliments?”

“Do I look like I need to be reassured?” He cast an eye about the things she had on her desk. Most people had transferred their music collection to iPods and other digital music players. Olivia preferred CDs. Emerson pulled one from a tall stack she had on the desktop. He turned the jewel case over. “You like these guys?”

“Would they be sitting on my desk if I didn’t?”

He shook his head and looked through the pile. “Vampire Weekend, Daft Punk, The Dead Kennedys, and …” he picked up another CD, “… Disco Super Hits?” He read the song list out loud, “Hot Stuff, Le Freak, Ring My Bell and YMCA. The Village People? You don’t strike me as The Village People type. At all.”

“What is it with you and this need to type me?”

Coffee happens at this desk too. There’s a coffee coaster in front of the right speaker. Coffee, you know, rings my bell. Drop by to visit one of my desks and I’ll make you a cup.

 

Find Sandra online:
Website
Twitter
Facebook or Facebook Author Page
Amazon
iTunes
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Google Play

 

*Yes, kids. I own all the music mentioned in that snippet.

 

You’ve all been talking about the fact that Sandra’s desk was, well… IMMACULATELY CLEAN, and in fact Creative Conversations had it’s biggest day of blog traffic as a result of this phenomenon! 

That’s right, despite evidence to the contrary, writers *can* have clean desks…

However, the slightly shell-shocked Ms Antonelli has just emailed a larger and more detailed photo of her desk, and guess what… it’s a teeny-tiny bit messy (well, not really), so without any further ado, here is Sandra Antonelli’s ‘messy desk’: