Book Chick City: Where Stories Are Made: Keri Arthur

Where Stories Are Made: Keri Arthur

Thursday, May 27, 2010 | Posted by Book Chick City |

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Where Stories Are Made is a regular feature here at Book Chick City. It's where the author takes us on a tour of their writing place, be it an office, coffee shop or park and tells us about their writing day and rituals. My guest today is fantastic urban fantasy writer, Keri Arthur...

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When Book Chick City first asked me to take some pics and do a short piece on where my stories are made, my first thought was, ‘oh God, I’d better clean up’. Because if we’re being brutally honest here, my office is a mess. I’ve never been the tidiest person in the world (a fact my mom will attest to), but I basically let all my untidiness hang out in my workspace. In fact, the one time I did clean up, I couldn’t find anything for weeks.

All my writing time is spent at my desk. It’s rare that I write elsewhere--my writing is my job, and my office my place of work. Outside of this room, it’s me time (although that doesn’t stop the brain from working. In fact, it has a bad habit of waking me at 3 in the morning with shiny new ideas.) I have a huge desk, and I need it because it has to hold two computers and a whole lot of mess… er, writing stuff.

My main writing computer is a desktop, which is lined with reminder notes that I generally ignore. My keyboard (which is depressingly tea stained) is one of those sweeping ergonomic ones, which I couldn’t do without simply because standard keyboards make my tendonitis flare up if I use them for too long. On top of my desktop is a selection of mainly vampire stuffed toys, although snoopy is there with his typewriter and there’s also the tail end of my piggy bank. It’s technically supposed to save small change for book buying sprees at conferences, but the poor thing never gets fed. The one thing you don’t see in this pic is my tea cup. It’s usually a fixture in any picture simply because I exist on tea when I write, but at the time of taking these pics, it was in the kitchen beside the kettle, waiting for a refill.

To the left of the keyboard are the latest lot of line edits I’ve been working on. These ones are Mercy Burns, which comes out Dec 28th. Behind that is my credit card--handily positioned for online purchases--and then there’s the speakers. I always listened to music when I write--I hate, hate, hate, silence. The louder it is, the better it is (much to the chagrin of my daughter, whose room is near my office. A mother’s revenge on the former teenager!)

The second pic features the end of my desk and my laptop, which is a recent purchase. The amount of viruses and malware I was getting through emails forced me to shift emails off my writing computer and onto something separate. I simply couldn’t afford to have my main computer infected again (last time it happened, I lost a heap of writing). Behind the end of the desk is a bookcase. I use this to store my all my author copies and text books, and more vampires, werewolves, wizards and dragons are a feature here.

In the last pic, there’s a wall bookcase which holds all my music (as well as another dragon and a Riley bear) and then there’s the dog. I have two, but this is Finn’s favorite spot in the house (as you can see by the wall behind him--it’s covered in his dirt.) Ella, my black lab, usually follows me around from room to room, but she was outside sunning herself when these were taken. We won’t mention the cupboard full of junk you get a glimpse of on the left side of the picture (nor will we note that it’s probably the tidiest bit of that cupboard!)

But that, basically, is it! Hope you enjoyed this rather messy glimpse into my writing space.

Cheers

keri

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Moon Sworn (Piatkus) - Out Now
Penumbra (Piatkus) - Out Now
Circle of Desire (Piatkus) - Out Now

You can find out more about this feature HERE

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**Next week on 'Where Stories Are Made': Jamie Rush**

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Labels: Keri Arthur, Where Stories Are Made

16 comments:

Sarah said...: Great post - Keri is one of my favorite authors so I enjoyed getting to see where she does all her writing :o); 27 May 2010 06:16
Ines said...: I was really looking forward to this when I heard that Keri Arthur is going to show us her workplace. And it made me feel so much better because my desk is almost never de-cluttered, I work in a mess where everything is close to me (except my credit card - I keep it away as not to use it too often). :); 27 May 2010 08:18
Scott Romanski said...: very nice space. Wish i had a separate space in my house like that.; 27 May 2010 10:50
Sparklybearsy said...: Oh this was a great post! Keri Arthur is a fave author of mine! It was nice to see where the awesome books are produced.

I really like this feature you have BCC =); 27 May 2010 11:12
SusiSunshine said...: I so love these posts! I love the pink post its.

Just wanted to let you know I loved Moon Sworn.

Hope you 2 have a great day!; 27 May 2010 11:16
Laura Summers said...: This is fast becoming one of my favourite features, maybe I'm too nosy. I also love how different pets keep popping in too.

Although cannot believe that your computer viruses got so bad from emails that you had to get a separate laptop for them! That's terrible.; 27 May 2010 13:14
Clarissa Draper said...: Wow, what a cool feature. I'll be on the lookout for it. Love her dog. It's interesting to know where the author's work.

CD; 27 May 2010 13:37
E.J. Stevens said...: I always love how each author's pet(s) sneak into these features. ;)

Lovely post!

xx,
E.J.; 27 May 2010 14:51
Missie said...: Keri Arthur!!! Best 'Where Stories' ever! Thank you Keri for sharing a bit of your personal space with us.; 27 May 2010 15:23
Felicia the Geeky Blogger said...: I love this series! It is comforting to know their workspace is every bit as down to earth as "regular" people :); 27 May 2010 15:52
Dren said...: Great Post! I love Keri Arthur! It's a great peek into her writing life!; 27 May 2010 16:21
KCP said...: Thank you SO much for this glimpse into Keri's life! What a perfect companion to Moon Sworn, which I'm 80% done with on my Kindle. :)

I often wonder what kind of computers authors use to write on and what their "writing" spaces look like.

This was awesome!; 27 May 2010 16:36
Book Chick City said...: HI EVERYONE, THANKS FOR STOPPING BY. GLAD YOU'RE STILL ENJOYING THE FEATURE!

THANKS FOR YOUR POST KERI - I LOVED READING ABOUT, AND SEEING A GLIMPSE INTO, YOUR WRITING DAY! :); 27 May 2010 18:27
Melissa said...: Don't clean up! I love seeing messy places where authors work. That way I don't feel so guilty with my messy space! :)

Great post!; 27 May 2010 20:27
Bella said...: I love that the very cute & fluffy stinky puppy has a spot all his own :); 27 May 2010 22:37
Julie P said...: I loved the work space you have, Keri. Remember--tidiness is the sign of a sick mind! LOL; 28 May 2010 03:01