Last week, I turned in my second novel, Widow of Gettysburg, to the publisher. Whew!!!!!! Before I clean up my desk and get ready for the next book, I thought I would give you a glimpse into my office--which I also refer to as the labor and delivery room for my book baby. If you've ever wondered what a novelist's desk looks like, I offer you exhibit A. Take a good look, and then I'll explain.
I know this looks more like a page out of an "I Spy" book, but if you look closely you will see some key items, such as:
- Two computer monitors. I let my husband talk me into this arrangement a few years ago and I'll never go back, if I can help it. Usually, I have my research up on one screen, and the Word document of my novel in progress on the other. Or I'll have the novel up one one screen, and separate Word doc on the other to make notes such as "Make sure Major never climbs the stairs until the attack scene" or "Insert a scene at the cemetery somewhere"
- Index cards, everywhere. The cards in the black container are my research. The cards scattered on my desk were once in a specific order as my book outline, but I rearranged them and threw some away as I went along.
- Lots of research materials. A notebook full of notes, an open book about the Gettysburg aftermath, a binder full of photocopied first-person accounts from Gettysburg civilians.
- The glimpse of red on the lower left corner of the picture is a little stop sign with the word "QUIET" written on it, glued to a popsicle stick. I use this with my kids.
- The other corner of the desk has the Tangled DVD on it. I often let the kids come in and watch a movie in my office if it's a weekend day.
- The clipboard holds a waterstained poem my husband wrote me before we were married. I dug it out of a filing cabinet at some point and keep it around now for inspiration. :)
- Beneath the clipboard is my Bible, but it's NIV, and writing books set in the Civil War, I can only use the King James version, because that's all they had.
- VERY important: under my desk is a mini fridge. It's a new addition to the office as of this summer, and very helpful. Stocked with beverages and healthy snacks like string cheese, apples, and carrot sticks. It's really hard to write hungry, and if I go downstairs to the kitchen, I might be tempted to wash dishes or clothes, which makes it really hard to write, too.
- A coffee warmer in front of my keyboard. A must have.
- I'm sure you can't see this, but I do: my first grade daughter's spelling test. How did it get there? I don't even know. I also see half of a plastic Easter egg. Hmmm. It's October, right? Really not sure.
Even though I delivered a book baby last week to my publisher, it's now going to be fixed up in the editorial phase before it releases in April 2013. (I guess that's like the baby being in the NICU before being released from the hospital?) So as I said, it's time to clean, but I thought you might like to see the craziness first. Widow is the second in my Heroines Behind the Lines Civil War series. The first book was Wedded to War, which released in July.
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