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7.
AOTW: Where do you write? What do you envision as your "perfect"
writing room?
Thisbe
Nissen: I'm not picky about where I write. Give me a writing
implement and something upon which to use it, and I'm pretty good
to go. Most of The Good People of New York was written on
yellow legal pads beside a pool in Costa Rica, in my bed at the
farmhouse outside Iowa City where I lived for two years, in a coffee
shop I was addicted to for a while, and in the Rose Main Reading
Room of the New York Public Library, if that explains anything about
my writing habits...
Sallie
Bissell: I write in a bedroom on the lower floor of my house,
by a window that overlooks the woods and two bird feeders. I need
a window, and prefer a sunny room. Color is very important to me.
I once wrote in a room that had steel-blue walls. It was beautiful,
but so cold that I had to write with gloves on. One weekend I bought
a gallon of Chinese red paint and got rid of those blue walls. Though
the room remained cold, I felt warmer sitting in a bright red environment.
I think my prose got a lot more vital, too.
Michael
Leahey: I have a book-filled study in my home, where I write
now. In the past, I've used a laptop and written on the beach, in
airplanes, on trains and in hotels. Give me a portable word processor
and I could write anywhere. A more difficult problem is finding
unencumbered time.
John
Searles: I moved into a new apartment a little over a year ago
and I have been too busy and too picky to buy a new desk. So right
now I write on the living room floor with my laptop or sometimes
at the table. I am also blessed because my editor gave me her guesthouse
on the water and I go there to write. It is my "perfect" place to
write. The water is literally six steps from the sliding glass door
and there are long reeds that blow in the wind, and swans on the
bay. I can stay there for weeks and get so much done. One other
place I love to write is at Vermont Studio Center in Mason House,
which is an old Vermont house. I got so much work done there. Plus,
they have a big clawfoot tub. And I am a "bathaholic" so when I
want to read what I'm working on, I print it up and take it in the
tub with me.
Cat
Bauer: I write in my office, overlooking the Grand Canal in
Venice. It sounds romantic, but, as I've said, I'm lucky if I make
it out on the balcony some days. But I rewrote the new ending of
Harley crammed into a tiny apartment in the middle of July
with no air conditioning. My upstairs neighbors were a 70-year-old
Venetian man who lived with his 90-year-old mother. They screamed
and cursed at each other every day, so I had to keep my windows
shut and write in my underwear. My perfect writing room would have
hardwood floors, a crackling fire, bookshelves lining the walls,
a dog and a couple of cats, violent thunderstorms during the morning
hours, clearing to warm sunshine in the afternoon. Outside the door
is a garden that needs tending.
Stephanie
Gertler: I write in a room that's next to the master bedroom.
It used to be the nursery. It's quiet and away from rest of the
house (great for writers and sleeping babies). I think if I could
have a genie appear and ask for the perfect writing room, it would
be a room in a beach house. The room would probably look a lot like
Emily Hudson's attic art studio with sweeping floor to ceiling windows
and have bookshelves lining the walls. But the windows would face
the sea. Ah me.
NM
Kelby: I have an attic office on the top of our Victorian house,
just a few blocks away from where F. Scott Fitzgerald spent many
of his early years writing.There are skylights, a fireplace and
an old stained glass window rescued from a church. The window depicts
Jonah nearly drowning in the sea after he was spit from the whale.
I think it pretty much sums up the writing process, don't you?
Suzanne
Chazin: Much of the writing for my first book was done in a
windowless basement room in a house we were renting at the time.
Now, I write in a very pretty bedroom with sunset views. Personally,
I don't think it makes a difference. When the work is going well,
I'm not mentally in that room anyway. And when it's not going well,
a good view is simply another distraction.
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